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Authors: Peter King

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BOOK: The Channel Islands At War
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T
he invasion plan, Operation Grune
Pfeile was conceived as mainly a naval affair with strong Luftwaffe support from Luftflotte 3. The plan involved the landing of six battalions from 216 Division accompanied by naval assault troops and two companies of engineers. They would carry only light weapons, and take with them a small amount of captured French artillery. The Kriegsmarine was almost absurdly cautious interrogating French fishermen about currents and tides, and stressing the need to be prepared for minefields. Landing craft of the right size were in short supply, and therefore the occupation would take two days. Alderney and Guernsey being taken on the first, and Jersey on the second day. The Luftwaffe was required to provide air cover from dawn on invasion days, Stuka dive bombers to accompany the small unarmed ships, heavy fighter protection at Cherbourg where the forces assembled, and softening up attacks on the preceding days. The day after the reconnaissance in force on 28 June Schuster attended a staff meeting in Berlin, and next day an operational conference in Paris. In spite of the welcome news from the raid, and of demilitarization the Germans hesitated. Orders were given for a further raid on 1 July, and an operational conference was summoned to meet at Deauvillc at six o'clock that day to consider if attack should start.

Six He
inkels came in from the east over Sark on 28 June where roofs were sprayed with bullets, and began to drop about 180 bombs on Jersey and Guernsey accompanied by considerable cannon fire and machine-gunning. In St Helier the main casualties occurred in the La Roque area
, and ten planes passed over Greve d'Aze
tte and Fort Regent machine-gunning and bombing the port before sweeping towards Beaumont and St Aubin and then turning again across the open sea. In Guernsey the evening sun was setting over St Peter Port, and many people who had
been listening to a talk by She
rwill went to watch the busy harbour scene from White Rock. The mail boat and the boat from Alderney loaded with cattle and horses were in together with boats being loaded with baskets of tomatoes from a line of lorries and horse-drawn vans on the quayside. Sherwill was just ringing up the Home Office at 6.45 p.m. as the planes attacked, and he held the instrument so that Markbreiter at the other end could hear the noise. Between two and three hundred people were in the harbour area, most of whom were saved by sheltering on a concrete platform under the jetty or in sheds where they covered themselves with sacks of flour. Others were less fortunate. The lorry drivers were a sitting target. "Some tried to shelter under their vehicles only to be crushed as the fires started and the vans and trucks collapsed. The blood of the wounded and the dying mingled with the juice of the tomatoes, and when I came on the scene just as the last Hun plane faded into the distance the sight was one I shall never forget; the flames, the bodies, the cries of the dying and injured, and the straggling line of people emerging from their shelter under the pier jetty', wrote an eyewitness. The main damage occurred
from St Julian Avenue to Salerie
Corner, and in the countryside bombs fell at St Saviour's, and Vazon. The only reply was some desultory fire from anti-aircraft guns on the
Isle of Sark
steamer, and the Germans had long gone when six RAF Ansons appeared.

Limited civil defence forces did what they could. Members of St John's Ambulance Brigade, the police, special constables, the Auxiliary Fire Service, and the ARP hurried to the scene. Among the dead were an ambulance driver, Joseph Way, a policeman, Clifford Bougourd, and out at sea, Harold Hobbs, son of the Guernsey lifeboat skipper, kille
d as the Heinke
ls straffed boats. The youngest of the 44 victims was 14 and the oldest 71.

But the lack of response had convinced the Luftwaffe that the Kriegsmarine were being over cautious, and Schuster and Lindau's plans were short circuited. Soon after midday on Sunday 30 June Captain Liebe-
Pieteritz and three other Dornie
r pilots were on reconnaissance over Guernsey when he decided to land at the airport. He entered the airport building finding no one and leaving his pistol behind. According to German sources the Dorniers engaged Blenheims in a dogfight shooting down two of them. Between six and seven that evening four or six transport planes with a small contingent of Luftwaffe soldiers landed under Liebe-Picteritz's command. Sherwill rang up Markbreiter to say the Germans had arrived, and despatched Inspector William Sculpher, Chief of Guernsey Police, to the airfield with a document stating the Island was demilitarized. The soldiers and Sculpher then drove to the Royal Hotel, and Sherwill was sent for by a policeman and a German officer.

Sherwill picked up Carey, the bailiff, and together they went to the hotel where they found about six Germans, the harbour-master, and a Swiss hotel owner to act as possible interpreter although some of the Germans spoke English. Instructions were issued, and it was agreed to produce special editions of the
Guernsey Evening Press,
and the
Star
containing them. The meeting broke up, and apart from the smashing of wireless apparatus at the harbour nothing else happened that night. Frank Falla of the
Star
went in to work on the special edition: I got out my bike and started on my way, but I'd not gone very far along the coast road when my worst fears were confirmed. I stopped and stood staring along the road ahead of me. I found I was gazing at the first member of Hitler's army I had ever seen in real life: the green uniform, queer-shaped helmet, the jackboots, the gas mask in a tin, and the rifle at the ready.'

 

Lindau was now stung into action, and prepared to take Guernsey next morning only to find himself delayed by fog. At last in the evening Junkers transport planes with naval assault troops, a company of infantry, and a light anti-aircraft unit occupied the Island.

 

That day Guernsey people read in their papers a statement by Carey that the public were to offer no resistance, and to obey the orders printed in the paper. These orders included a curfew, no use of private motor vehicles, the handing in of all weapons, a ban on the sale of petrol, the advancing of clocks and watches to Central European Time, the banning of all boat movements, the closure of the aerodrome to the public, and a demand that all British military personnel report to the authoritie
s. On Tuesday 2 July Major Albre
cht Lanz, the first commandant of Guernsey, and his English-speaking chief of staff, Major-Doctor Maass, arrived, and had a meeting with Island officials after which a second list of German orders was issued.

In Jersey the first indication of the coming German invasion was the dropping of several copies of a demand early on the morning of 1 July. Because no one in government circles could read German, a Jesuit was sent for to translate the document which ordered the Island to display white crosses on various places, and stated that if this was not done 'a heavy bombardment will take place'. But once again the Luftwaffe could not resist taking swifter action. This time it was Lieutenant Richard Kern who landed at the airport to be met by the airport controller. Kern asked why white flags were not displayed, and it was pointed out that the bailiff had to get agreement before acting, but that they intended to surrender. Coutanche held a meeting in Royal Square, and there was considerable discontent in the crowd when he said they must surrender. 'We've got men, we've got our fists' called out someone. But there was no alternative. The white flags were put up, and Coutanche accompanied by Duret Aubin, the attorney general, went to the airport. By this time, a small number of planes under the command of Staff Captain Obernitz had arrived, and it was to Kern and Obernitz that actual surrender was made. As in Guernsey some Germans entered the car with the bailiff and the attorney general, and they drove to St Helier town hall which became their headquarters. A meeting was arranged for ten o'clock next morning.

At the meeting Coutanche, Duret Aubin, Edgar Dore
y, and the bailiffs secretary, Ralph Mollet met the German
commandant. Captain Erich Gusse
k. A more detailed set of occupation orders was presented and agreed. These laid down the relationship between the Germans and the existing government. They ended with an ominous little clause saying, that the privileges granted to the civilian population were dependent on their good behaviour, and that military necessity might require the orders now in force to be made more stringent.

On 2 July two small p
lanes under the command of Scrge
ant-Major Schmidt landed on Alderney to find it practically deserted. It was decided that all that was needed there for the moment was a small detachment of 80 harbour defence troops under the command of Captain Koch.

The old Guernsey lifeboat brought Lanz and Maass to Sark on 3 July with a small contingent of ten men and a sergeant who were billeted in the Bel Air Hotel. When th
e Germans entered the Seigneurie
, they gave the Nazi salute to Sibyl Hathaway and her husband, after they had walked up from the harbour with the seneschal. They began by presenting a copy of the conditions, but matters relaxed when Sibyl Hathaway spoke in German. Lunch was served, and thereafter 'I was treated with great courtesy by the senior officers, and I, in turn, extended to them the hospitality of the Seigneurie'.

 

These first few days were halcyon ones. The German commandants were all civilized men on the surface even if they served the Nazi regime. The first orders were not oppressive, and the first German soldiers were young healthy men more interested in good food, buying up goods in the shops, and getting down to the beaches than in any brutal occupation tactics. The occupation orders contained an important reassurance which said that 'The German Commandant has taken over the military powers of the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. The population is hereby required to retain calmness, order and discipline. If this is assured, the life and property of the population wi
ll be respected and guaranteed.’

Both sides thought occupation might not last long. The Germans thought England would fall. The Islanders believed they would be rescued in some way. Julia
Tremayne
was disappointed when Churchill's broadcast urging the French to resist made no mention of the Channel Islands, but as late as December she was writing 'we long for the British Navy to come and put the fear of God in their hearts, and I pray it won't be far off. For a few months the Islanders could get used to Germans passing Boots the Chemist and Barclays Bank, marching along the lanes singing, and even to meeting them at dances or football matches. As the Germans anticipated this was not what people expected. They had achieved a bloodless conquest, and had established themselves without a shadow of opposition, apart from a few incidents as when James Colgan struck a German soldier in a St Helier cafe for which offence
he received a month in prison.

 

Inside the Channel War Zone for Five Years

 

Not long after D-Day when the government on Jersey plucked up a little courage to complain about food and other shortages the Military commandant von Schmettow replied. 'People in the Islands do not know what war is, nor what war means. They can have no idea of what every German town, the whole of France, London and the South of England are experiencing daily in the way of sacrifices and sufferings." Morrison, the home secretary, made the same point when he told his cabinet colleagues that the Islanders had 'lost touch with events in the outside world' and 'had no comprehension of conditions in this country, including the bombing and war time privations'.

 

Churchill was naturally furious when he heard about the seizure of the Channel Islands, and minuted General Ismay demanding that 'plans should be studied to land secretly by night on the Islands and kill or capture the invaders'. The prime minister thought this would be a useful task for the newly forming commandos. As a result his large scale attacks on one or more of the Channel Islands were considered in 1941 and 1942. In February 1941 Operation Attaboy was put forward involving the
landing of 5,000 troops on Alde
rney. Sir Roger Keyes, Director of Combined Operations, was asked to make plans, and Churchill was prepared to accept heavy casualties. Keyes and the Joint Planning Staff put forward numerous objections saying fighter cover would be menaced by the Luftwaffe in France, a
nd that though capturing Alderne
y or another Island was feasible, it would bring no strategic gain, and a long-term maintenance problem. Churchill argued for even a day's occupation, but the plan was abandoned.

1942 saw the development of a second major operation called at first Operation Blazing. Consideration was given to capturing all three main Islands although it was stressed that cither Guernsey or Jersey would require up to 8,000 troops with large scale air and naval support. Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten had just taken over as Chief of Combined Operations and supported Blazing because he knew Churchill liked offensive actions of this kind. He argued that Island captures would provide facilities for attacking German shipping while at the same time helping the Navy with a Channel base, extending air cover of France,

and providing a useful starting-point for raids on the French coast by Commando forces. Mountbatten proposed an invasion of
Alderney
with 5,000 troops landing from up to 23 ships protected by six destroyers, and covering air attack designed particularly to elimina
te Fort Albert overlooking Braye
. But once this plan was put forward the chiefs of both Fighter
and Bomber Command, and the new
ly appointed head of the Airborne Division all object
ed, and Churchill and Mountbatte
n abandoned the plan on 11 May.

BOOK: The Channel Islands At War
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