The Day German Troops Arrived in the Channel Islands

The Day German Troops Arrived in the Channel Islands

I have been following what happened to the Channel Islands during those extraordinary days in the summer of 1940, and after the bombing of the 28th of June came something the people who remained could do almost nothing to prevent.

German occupation.

On the 30th of June 1940, a German Dornier aircraft became the first enemy aircraft to land at Guernsey Airport. The Germans had not initially known that the Channel Islands had been demilitarised. There was now no British military force waiting to oppose them.

German forces followed, and the occupation of Guernsey began.

The British Government had decided during June that the islands could not realistically be defended. British forces had been withdrawn and thousands of civilians had already left, but many thousands more had chosen to stay.

Now they were faced with German soldiers arriving on islands that had, only days earlier, been theirs.

Jersey followed on the 1st of July.

German aircraft dropped an ultimatum demanding clear signs that there would be no resistance. White flags were to be flown and large white crosses painted in prominent places. One of those crosses was painted in the Royal Square in St Helier.

German forces then arrived at Jersey Airport, where Bailiff Alexander Coutanche and Attorney-General Charles Duret Aubin met the arriving officers.

German soldiers were now appearing in the streets, orders and proclamations also began to be issued.

At first, around 1,750 German troops were stationed in Jersey. But by the end of the first year of occupation, that number had risen to around 11,500.

The Channel Islands were dependencies of the British Crown, but there was now no British military force there to defend them.

For the people who had remained, the question was what occupation was actually going to mean for their lives.

They would have almost five years to find out.

Next in my Channel Islands series: what happened during those first days of occupation, and how quickly did the new rules begin to change ordinary life?

Image: Orders of the German Commandant, Jersey, 2nd July 1940. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.