The Channel Islands At War

by Peter King

  Although they visited some damaged houses before Morrison went on to Guernsey, it is clear his impressions were superficial. The only result was that home office officials were seconded to the Islands to help reorganize administration. Morrison reported to the cabinet, and in August his successor, Chuter Ede, reported to the Commons using material that Morrison had gathered in less than 48 hours.

  24 May was Empire Day, and another excuse for patriotic display. On 7 June came King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, an unusual royal visit in which the King was cheered by Russian prisoners and met French North Africans.

  Behind the scenes of merrymaking, however, Island life was resuming its old ways. Black market operations were clearly illegal under existing law, but no prosecutions were brought, because of the ramifications concerning the recipients of black market goods that any trial would have revealed. Excess profits taxes were introduced in the Islands of 60 per cent in Jersey and 80 per cent in Guernsey on profits above standard profits. Businessmen were soon buying up property for building and the holiday trade when the Islands opened for business again in 1947.

  The army did its best to dispose of German armaments. Ammunition was dumped offshore in the Hurd Deep while unstable material was exploded on the west coast of Jersey behind the escarpment. Some guns were left: others were thrown over the cliffs at Les Landcs where the occupation claimed its last victim in 1977 when a weapons enthusiast disappeared over the cliffs. Other material was sealed into the tunnels although it was impossible to remove it all. As for the military supplies and confiscated civilian goods, some attempt was made to restore the latter to the rightful owners, and public auctions disposed of a good deal.

  Some fortifications were blown up or earthed over. Roads, public amenities - particularly beaches - and agricultural land were cleared of anti-landing devices. But the big guns contained much valuable metal and before long businessmen from England arrived. One of the most famous was George Dawson who paid £25,000 for the iron on Guernsey, and he was followed by others down to 1953. On Jersey, the attitude of the government was that such relics of war needed to be cleared, and there was no thought of preservation. On Guernsey, Lieutcnant-General Neame continued to urge the war office to preserve some items, but nothing was done. Jersey kept its collection of German weapons secret for 22 years, and it was not until the tunnels had claimed lives among their explorers that they were opened up, and their artefacts used to form museums. Molly Finigan and her sister Joyce ran guest-houses among the hundreds that sprouted up, many with their occupation stories, or features like Mrs Winifrid Green's piece of crochet work done in Caen prison. The first museum actually opened in 1946, but it was in the 1960s that the boom started with museums and guided tours of fortifications and underground works.

  There are few places in Western Europe where it is easier to see what German occupation was like. Yet for all this physical evidence, the truth about what happened to ordinary people in the Channel Islands remains something of a mystery. Missing documents and the passage of time make it unlikely that the full extent of cither Island bravery or treachery will ever be revealed. I have tried to build round the details of German and Island administration, and the operations of the Wehrmacht and Organization Todt, a picture of what these prosaic regulations and orders entailed day by day for Islanders, troops, and prisoners.

  German documents can be supplemented by evidence like von Aufsess' diary, and Island documents by personal recollections. Both official documents and personal recollections need to be treated with caution, but they form part of a common picture. Evidence, almost without exception, shows they were a terrible five years. Similarly, evidence of camp inmates, supplemented by records like List's 1943 trial, strongly supports the view that the camps, particularly Norderney and Sylt, were atrocious places of starvation, violence, disease and death. There was less violence and suffering than in some places, but this was brought about by a greater degree of co-operation than prevailed elsewhere. This led to a moderate occupation for the rulers, and the richer black marketeers, for the women who slept with Germans, and informers.

  But for the majority of Islanders, German occupation from early in 1941 was purgatory, as anti-Jewish laws, and the proposal for mass deportation showed. The rattle of gunfire shooting Todt workers, cscapers, and Germans was heard on the Islands, death sentences were passed, and thousands fined or imprisoned. The German legal system condemned nearly a hundred to life in the camps of Fortress Europe. Claims about a 'moderate occupation' of the Islands were the product of the Island rulers' views who had received privileged treatment themselves, and of a joint determination by the rulers and the British government to hide collaboration in high places, shaming indeed in 1945 in the only British territory to fall under Nazi rule.

  This tale of a moderate occupation denied the opponents of the Island governments the opportunity to protest, or change the form of government, and conferred on the Island rulers (and of course Whitehall) the mantle of having pursued the wisest and most subtle of policies which in Morrison's words obtained, 'the best possible treatment from the Germans commensurate with the avoidance of any semblance of collaboration.'

  Honours were showered on the Island rulers including Carey, Sherwill, Coutanche, and Leale, with CBEs for Leale and Edgar Dorey, and OBEs for Touzel Bree, R.H. Johns, and H.E. Marquand. Guillemette got an MBE. Some of these were richly earned; others were ill deserved. Sherwill's broadcast on Radio Bremen, and his remarks about cscapcrs and resisters should have disqualified him, while Carey had set his hand to orders like the anti-Semitic regulations, and the offer of cash to informers. Such men would not have been decorated in neighbouring France. Apart from a few exceptions like McKinstry, and Bertram, none of the names in this book were mentioned in the honours list in December 1945. Nor did any receive compensation. Nor did any of them even have their names carved upon a memorial. Those who helped Allied servicemen, aided escapers, upheld morale by making wirelesses, or producing news-sheets, gave assistance to Todt workers, showed defiance and stood up to the bullying and greedy occupiers, languished in gaol, died shot on the beaches trying to escape or drowning off the coast, and died in faraway camps often alone for trivial offences, were one and all quickly part of an army of Unknown Warriors.

  In May 1946 the Victory Parade took place in London in which representatives from all over the Empire marched in pouring rain to celebrate victory. Molly's sister Joyce was overjoyed that she was to be one of the school children to go to London, and to receive a Liberation Day medal. Among those also invited was Frank Stroobant whose experiences of occupation had taken him to prison, and to a deportation camp. He realized as they marched through London, that the Channel Islanders were the only group unidentified by either flag or placard. They marched anonymously on Victory Parade Day as so many of them had suffered anonymously in the years of German occupation.

  Appendix

  An Estimate of the Totals of Dead in the Channel Islands War Theatre

  This table of figures is incomplete in two ways. Some of the figures given are approximate. Some figures still cannot be given. However, an estimate helps to illustrate the numerous ways in which death came to the occupying forces, their prisoners, and the Islanders both in the Islands and elsewhere, and is further evidence that this was a tough occupation that took its toll in life.

  Deaths in the German Occupation Forces

  The overall total of German graves was 568.

  455 were removed in 1961 and 113 remain at Fort George.

  Kriegsmarine 102

  Wehrmacht 457

  Luftwaffe 3

  The number of Luftwaffe dead was higher than this: several crashed in

  the sea. CIOR lists 24 dead.

  Merchant seamen 4

  Feldpolizei unknown

  SS and camp guards unknown

  Examples of causes of death Executions by courts martial

  Alderney 2 April 1945

  Jersey 5

  It was said tha
t the only convicted military rapist was executed, and death sentences were passed on looters and thieves.

  Suicides

  Alderney 7 1 in 1942, 5 in 1943, 1 in 1944

  These included Doctor Kohler and Lieutenant Frank.

  Jersey 8

  It was said that some troops either killed themselves or died from self-inflicted wounds to avoid Russian service or at the surrender.

  Killed in action Sark

  Alderney 2

  Granville raid 1

  Accidents

  Palace Hotel explosion 9

  Hemlock Poisoning 11

  Stepping on mines, Sark

  Hinkel and two soldiers 3

  By mines after liberation 7

  Fights between troops 2

  Drowned

  Major-General Christiani and 7 others November 1942

  Captain Parsenow mid 1943

  Murder

  Doctor August Goebel was said to have been murdered by his batman in April 1942 on Sark. The batman committed suicide, and it was later revealed a soldier had killed the doctor for refusing him a medical certificate.

  Deaths in Allied forces or of Allied nationals

  Islanders serving in United Kingdom forces

  Guernsey 221

  Alderney 18

  Sark 1

  Jersey unknown

  Military casualties

  Raid on Sark (Bellamy, Dignac) 2

  Raid on Jersey (Ayton) 1

  Naval casualties unknown

  Included loss of HMS Charybis, and HMS Limbourne on the night of

  23/24 October 1943 504

  41 were buried on the Islands.

  There were between five and seven naval engagements in the waters near the Islands.

  Air casualties

  unknown

  Included: British air crew American air crew Canadian aircrew Belgian air crew

  10 2

  Some aircraft were lost at sea with no survivors.

  Crew of Lancaster bomber who were not rescued off Alderney in June 1944

  on German orders. 6

  Deaths in Allied POW camps on Islands unknown

  Americans Graves removed 11

  French Escaper Francois Scornet Executed 17.3.41

  Other French cscapers captured on the Island were returned to France and some subsequently died.

  Deaths of civilians

  The number of deaths as a result of bad medical conditions, prolonged malnutrition, and mental breakdown cannot be calculated. Death rates rose during the Occupation for such groups as diabetics and the elderly.

  Air raid casualties

  Raid 28.6.40 44

  Other raids are said to have killed 93 people, but it is not clear how many of these were Islanders, Todt workers or Germans.

  Air raid casualties among evacuees unknown

  Deaths of deportees 45

  It is impossible to distinguish natural causes from deaths directly resulting from deportation conditions.

  Suicides

  At the start of the occupation 3

  Louis Symes, Cherche Midi, December 1940 1

  Major John Skelton, September 1942 1

  Suicides at Beaumont and Grouville in September 1942 and February 1943 in Jersey 3

  There were said to be suicides also in Guernsey as a result of deportation.

  It is impossible to calculate how many other suicides were brought about by occupation like that of Clifford Holloway who killed himself soon after liberation having lost his son and his wife.

  Accidents of war unknown

  Nanette Carre, aged 4, killed by mine in October 1944.

  Boy killed by collapsed shelter looking for fuel, February 1945.

  Two fishermen killed by mines, June 1943 4

  Murders unknown

  Man killed by drunken German, New Year's Day 1942, aged 42.

  Mr Jehan killed by looting soldiers, 25.8.44.

  A number of people were said to have been killed for their Red Cross food parcels. 2

  Shot by Germans unknown

  Woman on beach, October 1944 (only mentioned by von Aufsess).

  Douglas Le Marchand, 11.10.44. 2

  Drowned trying to escape unknown

  Known cases in Jersey: Dennis Audrain, 2.5.42.

  Ronald and Madelaine Bisson, Andrd Gorval, Roy Lucienncs, 12.11.44.

  Bernard and John Larbarlastier, 28.11.44. 7

  Deaths in European camps and prisons, or before returning to the islands

  The final figure is not known, but stands at 20. Apart from Symes suicide, and the death of Jack Soyer fighting with the Resistance (29.7.44) after escaping the present list is:

  Maurice Gould, Louisa Gould, Peter Painter and his son Peter, John Nicolle, Ogier, Gillingham, Machon, Miller, Tierney, Cohu, Houillebecq, Ingrouille, Marsh, Paisnel, Ashcroft, Queree, Le Villio.

  Deaths of Todt workers, Sylt Camp inmates, and prisoners of the Germans

  The total of identified graves was 509. Of these 387 were on Alderney. 433 contained named persons. It is clear this is an under-estimate: Other burials Buried where they were working, e.g. St Ouen's Bay Buried at sea, e.g. thrown from Fort Clonque on Alderney Buried at site of accidents, e.g. 9 behind a rock-fall at St Lawrence, Jersey

  Within the official burial grounds there are circumstances to suggest there were more bodies than graves identified:

  Named Todt workers known to be buried there cannot be identified Some were buried unofficially, e.g. at Westmount Strangers

  Cemetery in 1941

  Shot by Germans unknown

  Franzeph Losch, Fort George, 16.6.43

  Wilhelm or Willy Ebert, summer 1943, St Anne

  2 men hiding in cave on Alderney (Pantcheff, p. 16)

  Execution was by shooting, hanging, strangling with wire, and beating to death. Pantcheff, pp.14, 69, 71, and Stcckoll, pp.31, 34, 78,80 and 94 give examples of deaths.

  Killed in Allied air raids on harbours and air fields unknown

  Drowned unknown

  Bodies were recovered from the sea, e.g. 14.10.42 on Jersey said to be an escaper.

  Minotaure, sunk 7.7.44 c.200

  Four Frenchmen drowned, and buried at Westmount, 11.2.42

  Accidents unknown

  4 French Algerians died eating hemlock, and 2 as a result of a gas explosion on Jersey.

  17 killed by an explosion, and 5 by rock falls in building tunnels-buried in cemeteries.

  Illness unknown

  There were said to be 39 deaths in the typhus outbreak on Guernsey.

  List said most of the 50 prisoners who died in the first few months of 1943 at Sylt were tubercular or ill in some other way.

  It is impossible to know how many deaths were due to exposure, hard work, and starvation, the main causes of Todt deaths.

  Leaving the Islands unknown

  Transport conditions were deliberately made bad:

  About 8-10 died on Xaver Dorsch transport, January 1943 from Braye to Cherbourg. 8 died on trains in a transport of June 1943 to Neuengamme. 2 killed at Sollstedt in transit, summer 1944.

  Killed trying to escape unknown

  Escape was only possible in transports leaving the Islands to cross

  Europe to other camps.

  Kortemark at least 35

  Near Toul 17

  The known graves clearly only provide a basis for any final count of Todt dead. There are too many unknowns, e.g. Xaver Dorsch went aground with loss of life outside Braye Harbour. There are no details of executions in punishment lagers on the two main islands. It is unclear if bodies disposed of in the sea were dead already, or actual killings, and it is clear dead workers were sometimes left where they fell. The random figures given above add about a hundred to probable deaths plus two hundred on the Minotaure making c.300. Added to the 509 graves this brings the total appreciably closer to the rough total of a thousand mentioned in May 1945.

  r