Jersey
under the Swastika!

Page 51 - Philip Frederick Le Sauteur

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (SECTION 3)

The end - Freedom

To mark the occasion of the Liberation of the Islands, the following message was broadcast by His Majesty the King, this royal gesture being greatly appreciated.

To my most loyal people in the Channel Islands I send my heartfelt greetings.
Ever since my armed forces had to be withdrawn, you have I know looked forward with the same confidence as I have to the time of deliverance. We have never been divided in spirit. Our hopes and fears, anxieties and determinations have been the same, and we have been bound together by an unshakable conviction that the day would come when the Islands, the oldest possession of the Crown, would be liberated from enemy accupation. That day has now come, and with all my Peoples, I cordially welcome you on your restauration to freedom and to your rightful place with the free nations of the world. Channel Islanders in their thousands are fighting in my service for the cause of civilisation with their traditional loyalty, courage and devotion. Their task is not yet ended; but for you a new task begins at once — to rebuild the fortunes of your beautiful Islands in anticipation of reunion with relatives and friends and neighbours who have been parted from you by the circumstances of war. In this task, you can count on the fullest support of my Government. It is my desire that your ancient privileges and institutions should be maintained and that you should resume your accustomed form of government. Meanwhile, the immediate situation requires that responsibility for the safety of the Islands and well-being of the inhabitants should rest upon the Commander of the Armed Forces stationed in the Islands. I feel confident that the Civil Authorities, who have carried heavy a burden during the past years, will gladly co-operate with him in maintaining good government and securing the distribution of the supplies which he is bringing with him. It is my earnest hope that the Islands, reinstated in the ancestral relationship to the Crown, will soon regain their former happiness and prosperity.

Mr. Herbert Morrison, Lord Munster (Now Lord Morrison of Lambeth) and other Home Office officials paid a flying visit to the Islands to enquire on local conditions and needs. As soon as a supply of English currency arrived in the Island, the German Occupation Marks, longsince the only currency in use, was withdrawn and reimbursed at the occupation rate of exchange — 9.36 to the £.

Within ten days of the Liberation, there was a very considerable increase of rations, made possible by the generous quantities of food brought over by the Liberation Forces. Potatoes and flour (both unobtainable for some time) and bread were all ration free, and very soon the basic ration was higher than in England, in order to compensate for the extreme shortages during the previous months of siege. Chocolate, tea, soap and cigarettes were issued as a free gift from the British Government. It was not long before urgently needed clothing became available, sixty coupons being issued immediately in order that everyone might have a fair share.

Some 150 Germans were still at large, some of them having been given civilian clothes, food and shelter by their Germanite friends. These were being routed out one by one and passed into the prison camp which had been set up at St. Peters' Barracks.

Now that it was possible to cull more of the truth, it came to light that there had been a small-scale Commando raid at Trinity on the night of Boxing Day, 1943. The farmer whom the four British soldiers knocked up that night naturally found it wiser to keep quiet about it whilst the Germans were in control. Quite a number of the Russian workers who had escaped from the Germans, and had been helped and sheltered by local people, told their stories before being repatriated.

Other tales which reflected credit on the loyalty of the Island people included a very gaillant rescue of an American airman by a young Jerseyman at St. Brelade's, and the unofficial organization which grew up spontaneously to help many of those who chose Fauvic beach as their starting point for escape from the Island towards the latter end of 1944. News was also received of the escapees themselves, most of whom arrived safely, and were now serving in the Forces.

News was received of most of those unfortunate people who were taken to German prison camps for such "heinous" offences as having kept their own radio set. A few were known to have lost their lives in horror camps, and one or two were rescued just in time. There were a few the fate of whom it proved impossible to ascertain.

The M.O.I. documentary films were being shown during the first weeks, and they helped the Islanders to realise how fortunate they had been, even in their misfortunes, to have suffered so little of the material devastation of war. A special B.B.C. broadcast to the Islanders of greetings from relatives and friends now eagerly waiting to return was heard by almost everyone on May 22nd. Many employers sacked the "Jerrybag" members of their staffs, and they and the men who had been working for the Germans found great difficulty in getting employment for a time.

Within a very few weeks, the shops began to restock such goods as were available in England, manufacturers giving special consideration to the needs of the Islands after five years of being without almost everything, and the place began to regain its pre-war air of happy busy-ness. It was truly amazing how quickly the Island started to get back to something approaching normal. Certain restrictions were necessary about passing money out of the Island, in order to prevent black market profiteers from removing their ill-gotten gains from the Island before legislation had been introduced to mulct the great majority of it.

The mail-boats and air services were operating very soon, and, slowly at first, those who had evacuated to England or been deported to Germany returned to their homes and rejoined their families. Gas again became available to the great joy of the housewife, to whom the lack of cooking facilities had been a nightmare. It was generally agreed that it was the womenfolk who had born the heaviest burdens throughout. They concocted meals almost wholly of vegetables, cooked them wih inadequate fuel, mended unmendable clothes without proper material, and worried lest their efforts shall not be good enough. To them goes the greatest credit for courage under very trying conditions.

The troops themselves were busy clearing the immense quantities of ammunition, it being officially stated that there was sufficient to wear out three barrels of every one of the many guns in the place. More than 50,000 land mines were cleared, and the German guns dismantled. Even those who had been in Jersey throughout and had seen something of the amount of work carried out were amazed at the extent of the German fortifications. Miles of tunnels had been hewn out of solid rock in St. Peter's Valley, St. Aubin's and elsewhere, and on every gun site there were deep excavations. Amongst the St. Peter's tunnels was a completely equipped hospital capable of holding about a thousand patients. Guns of 6" calibre pointed seawards from every strategic point, their crews being accommodated in hills dug into the rock or in deep underground concrete shelters equipped with air-conditioning plants, central heating and gas-proof doors.

Military controls came to an end August 24th, and the Island reverted to its pre-war constitutional government with a Lieutenant Governor appoined by the Crown.

So passed the years which the locust had eaten, wasted and irreplaceable years which reduced one of the most prosperous small communities in the world to a state where "toil, tears and sweat" must be their lot for many years to come. And yet many lessons were there for the learning.

On all sides was the determination that Sunny Jersey should, with the help of her great neigbbours, again become the happy and prosperous Island of pre-war days.

THE END