A must read for all you history fans...

[Kpt. Kozloff]

Hi there,

I've always been much into the WWII history. But there is one thing i found out only not so long ago because of the place i live and work at the moment and it's Jersey - the biggest of the Channel Islands. These were actually occupied by Germans during WWII (1 July 1940 - 9 May 1945) which makes them the only part of Britain lost to Germany.
Here are some pics:
observation tower at Les Landes
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/German_World_War_II_tower_Jersey.jpg/250px-German_World_War_II_tower_Jersey.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:German_World_War_II_tower_Jersey.jpg)[/URL]

battery at Noirmont Point
http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/about_jersey/images/noirmont.jpg

The fortifications are huge and still here. During the D-day Channel Islands were ommited because of these. It's believed that Churchill said: "Let 'em rot...". He meant the Germans but it obviously affected the whole community.
There were over 11000 German troops on Jersey.

Wouldn't it be great if this was reflected in SH3 or one of the mods or a single mission? These guns here were a real threat when going thru this part of the channel.

The capitulation of German forces in the Channel Islands were signed aboard HMS Bulldog for Guernsey and HMS Beagle for Jersey. (do these names sound familiar?)

There is a pretty interesting story behind all this. You can check it out on the following websites:
http://www.thisisjersey.com/code/showarticle.pl?ArticleID=000186
[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/myisland/history/occupation.shtml"]www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/myisland/history/occupation.shtml (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/German_World_War_II_tower_Jersey.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Channel_Islands
http://www.societe-jersiaise.org/whitsco/liberat1.htm


Kpt. Kozloff

[Jimbuna]

A very interesting read...thank you :up:

[Mooncatt]

cool nice one thanx :)

[Captain Nemo]

Good read. I have always found it interesting that some parts of Europe were left under German occupation right up until Germany's surrender in May 1945. Remarkably some French ports on the Atlantic coast that were home to u-boats were left in German hands right up until the end, these included St Nazaire and La Rochelle.

Nemo

[KevinB]

I went there a few years ago and vistited many of the sites.
The German Underground Hospital is a must see. It's an incredible feat of engineering, but sadly at the loss of many of the Russian slave labourers.

[Gezoes]

The BBC made a very good miniseries about the occupation of Channel Islands. I believe it was called The War at Home. Not sure though...

[Woof1701]

Good read. I have always found it interesting that some parts of Europe were left under German occupation right up until Germany's surrender in May 1945. Remarkably some French ports on the Atlantic coast that were home to u-boats were left in German hands right up until the end, these included St Nazaire and La Rochelle.

Nemo

It's only logical. The objective of the Allies was NOT to reconquer every little part of occupied land but to force Germany's surrender. As soon as Germany surrendered all occupied territories fell back to their rightful owners anyway (or were under dispute and later "assigned" to one of the victors). The uboats weren't a real danger anymore anyway, so deviating from Normandy to the Atlantic Coast would only have slowed down the progress, cost many more lives and prolonged the war.

At the time of Germany's surrender, many parts of France were still under German occupation. As was Denmark and IIRC parts of Norway. Germany hadn't been fully occupied by the Allies either. The idea was: if Berlin fell, Germany would fall. And that's exactly what happended.