Life Under Occupation

To Stay or To Go?

June 1940: In Whitehall, the decision had been made: Jersey would not be defended.

What were Islanders to do? Abandon their homes? Or stay and face the invaders?
They had less than 24 hours to make up their minds.

People thronged the piers and crowded the airport. Everywhere they asked each other, 'What are you going to do? What are you going to do?'

First Contact

June 30 1940: An official message stating Jersey was undefended was passed to the Germans. As the British feared, they marched straight in.

July 1 1940: Three copies of a paper ultimatum were dropped over Jersey. To signal their willingness to comply, white flags were to be flown from all buildings.

Sheets, pillowcases and some old vests were hurriedly hung up. A white cross was painted in the middle of the Royal Square.

As Bailiff Coutanche went to haul down the Union Jack at Fort Regent he received a telephone call: Germans were arriving at the airport.

The Paper War

Jetzgeht de Papierkrieg los!' - Now the paper war begins.

August 1940: Bureaucrats of Feldkommandant 515 took over control of civil affairs in Jersey.

To the Islanders it seemed a new law was passed every day, some ridiculous, all inhibiting.

Daily Life

Shortages during the Occupation meant food became the main topic of conversation.

The islanders became increasingly resourceful, developing ' Ersatz' foods:
Tea made from pea pods, bramble leaves or carrots.

Islanders bartered their belonging furiously, as everything had a value, and the black market offered goods smuggled in from France to those who could afford them.

Resistance

Islanders defied the Germans in their own way, some putting themselves at considerable risk.

The V-for-Victory campaign began in the summer of 1941. Encouraged by the BBC, islanders painted V-for-British-Victory signs on doors, gateposts and walls.

There were more than 140 attempts by desperate Islanders to escape by boat during the Occupation. It was extremely dangerous.

Nine people drowned, twenty-four people were captured and put in prison; and 21-year-old Douglas Le Marchand was shot on the beach by the Germans.

Fortress Island

The capture of the Channel Islands represented both a strategic and an emotional triumph for Hitler.

He was proud to have captured a part of British soil and feared that the British might try to retake it.

He called for them to be defended whatever the cost.

Foreign workers were brought to Jersey to dig trenches, widen roads, lay railway tracks, build anti-tank walls, bunkers, gun emplacements and excavate tunnels.

The Channel Islands were to become an impregnable fortress in the English Channel.

Under Siege

June 6 1944: D-Day, the Allied invasion of Western Europe began with successful landings on the beaches of northern France.

Jersey Islanders watched the smoke on the French coast with excitement, believing that their own liberation was closer than ever.

But as June turned into July then August, the Islanders realised with sinking hearts that the invasion had passed them by.

Jersey found itself in a state of siege, cut-off from all new supplies. The bailiff warned that ‘stocks of most essential goods will be exhausted by the middle of November 1944.'

The Island faced starvation.

Liberation

7 May 1945: The unconditional surrender of the German High Command came but still the Islanders of Jersey had to wait.

8 May: With the Germans still in the Island, thousands gathered in the Royal Square to hear Winston Churchill make his Liberation speech.

HMS Bulldog and HMS Beagle arrived in Channel Island waters to accept the surrender.
Vice Admiral Huffmeier threatened to fire on them unless they withdrew.

9 May: Huffmeier was forced to send German Chief of Staff General Heine to sign a declaration of 'unconditional surrender.'