The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule 1940-1945 by Madeleine Bunting

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by spider, Nov 19, 2010.

  1. spider

    spider Very Senior Member

  2. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    You do realise that book's fifteen years old?
     
  3. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    You do realise that book's fifteen years old?

    Are there more recent books on the subject?
     
  4. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

  5. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

  6. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    A forgotten archive of personal testimonies compiled in the 1960s has just come to light and I think it will go a long way to refuting Ms Bunting's work. The important thing to note about the German occupation is that the German forces were there in (comparatively) enormous numbers: one man for every three islanders. No other occupied territory was so heavily manned - or fortified. It's all very well calling the by-passing of the islands after Overlord a betrayal, but they were not really strategically valuable and any invasion could easily have turned into a bloodbath. The main islands have only one port of any note each and if the Germans had destroyed their facilities it could have taken years to rebuild them. Added to that, knowingly bombing areas which housed British citizens - a necessary softening-up - would have been totally unacceptable, with the islands being so small that there would have been nowhere to evacuate them to. As it was, the Allies isolated large numbers of German troops there and by the end of 1944 they were almost totally ineffective.

    Guernsey files reveal how islanders defied Nazi occupation | UK news | The Guardian
     
  7. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I saw a news item on the occupation of Guernsey on the BBC recently,with information that was reported as being recently found.One of the photographs in the background appeared to be "Falla" a name which is widely recorded in the account of the occupation of Guernsey.There are already a number of publications that give a valuable insight of the plight of Guernsey from the summer of 1940 to early May 1945 when the German diehards thought,despite starving that they could carry on, ignoring what was happing in the rest of Europe.

    I remember reading the account of the Guernsey police during the occupation and was surprised to read that some police who had infringed the police "rules and regulations" during the occupation for the good of their fellow civilians,were disciplined at the time by the police authority.Worse still was the fact that it took considerable efforts postwar to eliminate what the individuals saw as an adverse note on their personal file.

    The Channel Islands were part of the Atlantic Wall which preoccupied Hitler's thinking in his defence of Fortress Europe.As in 1940, the British assessment of the Channel Islands had no military significance and would "wither on the vine".As it was there was in excess of a division of the Wehrmacht stationed there throughout the war and it was looked on as a choice posting.After the invasion of France,it came increasingly difficult to feed those on the Channel Islands.While the inhabitants did the best way they could with meagre food available and by innovation,the German garrison had one motivation and that was to get food into their mouths.Some were driven to scout the countryside for food which apparently the military leadership imposed harsh sanctions for, on their own.As I said above,despite this, the military leadership envisaged they could hold out.....what for,they obviously could not understand.
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Here's a selection of publications which are relevant to the German occupation of Guernsey which I found helpful when I visited Guernsey.

    The Silent War by Frank Falla.

    Frank Falla was a newspaper reporter who worked on the underground newspaper.His group is the one referred to by the BBC a day or so ago as a new relevation and was betrayed by an Irishman who he identified in the book and who the BBC identified.The group were deported to Germany,some served their time until liberated in three concentration camps.Others did not return.

    One Man's War by Frank Stroobant.

    F.S made notes during the occupation,then wrote his autobiographical account of the extreme difficulties that the local population endured.

    Diary of the German Occupation of Guernsey 1940-1945. by J.C Sauvary.

    Sauvary was a member of an old Guernsey and was a builder,grower,churchwarden and Douzenier.His diary reveals a wealth of his experiences with the German occupation forces.

    I Beg to Report by William M Bell

    Very revealing aspect of policing in Guernsey during the German occupation.

    Hitler's Fortress Islands by Carel Toms.

    Revealing insight to the German occupation with some good photographs of the era.

    The Channel Islands Occupation Review......Guernsey.Published by the Channel Islands Occupation Society (Guernsey) and is published annually.I have one,(No 20) and if the the other reviews are as informative as this one, the series is worth collecting, although I would think availability might be restricted.

    For those interested in the Atlantic Wall fortifications,then Ernie Gavey's A guide to German Fortifications in Guernsey covers all the fortifications and batteries together with the associated engineering layouts.

    Last year,through visiting Brittany,I had contact with a Guernsey lady told me that her mother had written a good account of her experiences as a child growing up on Guernsey.The family had connections with Plouha on the north Brittany coast.
     
  9. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    There's also an After the Battle "Then and Now" volume.

    Cruickshank's "German Occupation of the Channel Islands" is still probably the best overview, even though it was first published in 1975. Maugham's "Jersey Under the Jackboot" is also worth hunting out: most bibliographical references are to the NEL edition published in 1980 but it actually first appeared in 1946.

    There are also Molly Bihet's two books "A Child's War" and "A Time for Memories" and Nan and Joyce Le Ruez' "Jersey Occupation Diary". There have also been other privately-published or limited print run books and booklets which never get seen outside the islands.

    Interesting 1996 link from The Independent, seemingly a reaction to illegitimacy figures quoted in Ms Bunting's book:

    How Jersey's Nazi children disappeared - News - The Independent
     
  10. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I first looked at Cruickshank's publication many years ago and found it very good but I also had the After the Battle, The War in the Channel Islands "Then and Now" magazine,both of which helped me for a visit to Guernsey some years ago.

    However,the books,I refer to are publications that can be readily picked up in Guernsey which I was able to do so and enabled me to plan my tour of the island,ad hoc as it were, on the island.

    Regarding,the ATB 1981 publication,apparently the information was based on the German official document "Festung Guernsey" Section 1.4 (Permanent Fortifications)

    As regards,Festung Guernsey,while the defences of Guernsey were regarded as being of the utmost secrecy,in early 1944, Lieut General Graf von Schmettow,the Commanding Officer of the Channel Islands and the 319th Infantry Division, commissioned comprehensive, detailed accounts and maps of the Channel Island defences.The publications became known as the Festung Guernsey and Festung Jersey and are in separate multi volumes.

    For Guernsey,it would appear that only two copies survive or only two copies were ever made up.One is held at the Priauix Library and consists of four volumes.The other consists of two large volumes bound in leather and is held in the Royal Court Library.

    Molly Bihet is indeed the lady who wrote of her experiences as a child during the occupation.There used to be a very good article on her background and experiences on the internet.While Molly stayed on the island her husband to be perhaps had another story to tell.He was evacuated to Wolverhampton as a child and was thought to be French by the English and not a Channel Islander.
     
  11. Gsyfestung

    Gsyfestung Member

    Not wanting to appear a bore on the subject but I have just short of 400 publications on the Occupation of the Channel Islands so to list all the books would take pages, I have only skim read the other posts which in the main are correct, strategically the Channel Islands were of little use other than to extend the German gun line to encompass the Bay of St. Malo and to ensure that Allied forces were forced further out to sea, the major construction in the Channel Islands commenced in 1942 and were the most heavily fortified place anywhere in the world in any conflict. Ernie Gavets Book is very good but actually only covers a small part of the Islands defences in Guernsey which consisted in excess of 1000 field order and fortress standard bunkers, in fact just over 10% of all the concrete poured in the whole Atlantic wall was poured in Guernsey and 40% of excavated stone in the whole Atlantic wall was removed for the construction of sites in the Channel Islands. The Allies were quite correct in my opinion to by-pass the Islands there were about 24,000 troops station in the Islands and reports just post war reported they guns on the Islands had enough reserve ammunition to carry out sustained fire for over 4 years, on a short stretch of beach known as Vazon in Guernsey about 1 mile wide the beach defences consisted of three rows of anti tank obstacles, supported by two 4.7 cm self propelled guns, a company with 8 & 5 cm mortars, 4 x 10.5 cm anti tank guns cover the bay, along with 4 10 cm emplaced guns on a ridge over looking the bay, with 4 x 4.7 cm, two 7.5cm Pak 40’s, three tank turrets, 1 x heavy machine gun bunker with two MG 34‘s, an M19 5 cm automatic mortar bunker, this was belt feed and capable of a rate of fire of 120 rounds a minute, an entire company of men at each of the two overlooking headlands and 1 reserve company just in land, the artillery that was in land and could also be brought to bare with fire of craft approaching and on the bay was, Marine Batterie 1 Mirus 4 x 30.5 cm, Marine Batterie 2 Steinbruch 4 x 15 cm, Marine Batterie 4 Strassburg 4 x 22 cm, 7 HKAR 1265 Elefant 3 x 21cm, 8 HKAR 1265 Mammut 3 x 21 cm, 9 HKAR 1265 Rhinozeros 3 x 21cm, 10 HKAR 1265 Barbara 4 x 15.5 cm, 13 HKAR 1265 Scharnhorst 4 x 15 cm, 14 HKAR 1265 Gneisenau 4 x 15 cm , 15 HKAR 1265 Dollmann 4 x 22 cm, 16 HKAR 1265 Radetzsky 4 x 22 cm. This does not take into consideration the mine fields, anti landing zones and inland flooded areas in the same bay, this is only one of 27 so called strong points on Guernsey and all that on an Island of only 25 square miles starts to give you some idea of the defences facing the Allies which quite simply would on reflection and in comparison with the Normandy Landing beaches which are much wider and defended much less it shows that very likely the Allies would never have got off the beaches unless they destroyed the Islands and their inhabitants which were of course British subjects. Back to the books, personally I would steer well clear of The Model Occupation it has a great many inaccuracies and was wrongly reported to sensationalise the book and up the sales sadly at the cost of true historical facts. As for the CIOS publications they have produced some very good books (Reviews) which have been published every year since 1966 fist known as Signal and then the review from 1973 onwards, the later additions are more academic the earlier contain a wide variety of articles including personal accounts.
    A very interesting subject when you get into it as you can see.
    Regards
     

Share This Page