Island at War by Deberah Car 2021 360pg 15/2/22 The Channel Islands

 This is a novel on the 5 years that the Channel Islands were under German Occupation 

I have recorded the historic aspect of the story -1940 June 19th The Lieutenant General announced that the Channel Island will not be defended if invaded by sea.  

Estelle was going to remain behind to help her father and grandparents run the farm. Her mother had died giving birth to her younger sister Rosie when Estelle was 7.  Rosie is taken to evacuate to go to her aunt in London. The ferry leaves for Weymouth in Dorset.

St. Malo is the French port closest to the Channel Island and some troops escaped there at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation.

1940 Jan2nd The German's bombed the port killing her father while he was taking potatoes to sell there, then dropped flyer to say they were under occupation. St Ouen's village was their nearest shop. Her boyfriend on leave from the army and friends looked for a boat to escape on as the ship had been cancelled..

The Germans had put up their flag on Regents Castle. Their uniforms were the same as seen on Pathe News at the cinema. They were told to hand in their weapons and the soldiers on leave were taken away as prisoners of war. German troops were buying up all they could at the shops, especially luxury items. Goods slowly became scarce.

The holiday camp at Grouville was turned into a prison or internment camp with barbed wire.  They were not allowed to pay in Pounds and had to change their money to Deutschmarks. On the farm they hid things as the Germans were confiscating them.

The services like the buses were drastically reduced  .German officers were billeted in their homes, and they cooked and did laundry for them but this was by arrangement. Where they were lucky and had a decent officer he helped them send and receive a telegram. Germans would drink Gluwehn (mulled wine) over Christmas. Farms that grew their own food were sought out as billets. The number of cows and  pigs they had had to be registered with the authorities. Trucks were confiscated and so bicycles were in high demand.

Elizabeth I  Castle had given refuge to Charles II during the civil war.

 Those in London described that everything seemed to have a coat of soot on it. There was a bucket of water and sand in every building in case of fire. Silver barrages were put up against low flying enemy planes and Lyons Corner House where you went for tea. Bombs and incendiaries were dropped on the city. Besides London, Coventry , Liverpool and Clyderbank as well as Plymouth were badly bombed.

School Kids helped harvest potatoes and everyone helped their neighbours especially those alone. At the local grocer you got your weekly ration. The other Channel Islands include Guernsey, Herm Jethrou and Sark. fuel was scarce so tractors could not be used and many were hidden.  People who had not discarde their old clothes put them back to  use. Worn sweaters were unraveled and knitted into winter socks. 

Jarrais is a French dialect that most kids learned from their parents and had a revival so that the German or the French could not understand. However, kids who spent the war in England returned unable to speak it. Where people fell out with their neighbours or had a grudge they snitched on them to the Kommandant. A French boy was caught trying to escape to England and was shot.

1941 May 10th ws the heaviest night bombing during the blitz as it was full moon with the Thames at its lowest. This was a last effort before the Germans needed their planes to attack Russia.

1941 June 22nd Germany attacked Russia. Somebody illegally listened to the BBC and told the others the proper news. When Germany started losing the war they had to hand in their radios, some people made crystal sets.

The few Jews were rounded up and sent away. What farmers grew was strictly controlled by the authorities. German soldiers throught that they were there for a brief holiday till Germany crossed the channel, but that was canceled.

Wood for heating was rationed and even on your own land you could not just take what you needed. The BBC appealed to people to put V signs on walls as a protest.  They made ersatz tea with bramble leaves, dried carrots and peapods. After storms when trees  branches broke off and hid them before the Germans took control of them.

Professional soldiers were sent to the Eastern Front while less skilled ones were brought to the island. Women were brought from the continent to brothels to keep the German soldiers occupied.

Germans brought in slave labour to build fortifications along the beaches with massive guns and cannons. These slaves were badly fed and clothes and dogs on leads were used to control them, and the islanders were not allowed to feed them. This was organized in Germany by Fritz Todt in 1938, he died in a plane crash in Feb1942. Spanish Republican who fled the civil war to France were rounded up and used as slaves to build the Atlantic fortress and on the islands.

The islanders took sea water to use as salt. People born in Britain now were being deported to Europe and some killed themselves rather than be taken away. Limpets were eaten but they took 2 hours boiling to get them soft.

In Germany chocolate bars were given to Luftwaffe pilots, for others they were hard to come by.

1943 August Italy was being besieged, while on Jearsey the beaches were blockaded and had barbed wire and mines on them. There was an outbreak of diphtheria and many of the soldiers took ill with it, and German nurses were brought in to relieve the local nurses to care for the German soldiers, but no medicines were getting through to the islands.

1944 June D'Day for the first time a Hawker Typhoon flew over and was shot down by German Ack Ack, and German supply lines to the Channel island were cut by the allies, very little food arrived. Papers were dropped in German telling them to surrender the islands.

1944 Christmas the Neutral Red Cross Ship the Vega brought provision to the islands to stop people starving.

1945 March The Palace hotel where German officers were living  and nearby ammunition caught fire. 

1945 9th May HMS Beagle arrives with British troops. Note the Germans refused to capitulate so were just left there isolated till the war ended.

The novel part of the book is based on the writer's family as her father was 4 years old with his family and cousin evacuated from the island.