Free The Channel Islands At War by Peter King

had Germans standing in her house just staring at her, or invading her garden.
     
    "The mental torture", wrote Mrs Tremayne, 'from this German occupation is becoming indescribable'. Some, like the teacher on Sark, broke down under the strain, and it will always be impossible to say how many lives were shortened by the experience of occupation, or how many suicides resulted from mental pressure. According to Doctor Lewis there were three in Jersey shortly after Occupation, and there were at least three caused by the threat of deportation in 1942-3.
    At first the Islands were held by small forces on the main Islands and token contingents in Alderne y and Sark. As late as June 1941 there were only 13.0(H) military personnel on the Islands, but then two decisions were taken that altered the position. On 15 June a major strengthening of the garrison was ordered, and on 20 October an order to fortify the Islands was given which led to a massive increase in troops, and to the presence of the Organization Todt and its slave workers, as well as other organizations like the Reichsarbe itsdienst (RAD). By the end of 1941 there were 15,000 Wehrmacht, 5,000 Luftwaffe, and 1,000 Kriegsmarine forces on the Island. The Luftwaffe men were 'flak' or anti-aircraft and maintenance and re pair crews, and the Kriegsmarine defended the harbours. Two companies of engineers, the 14 on Jersey, and the 19 on Guernsey and Alderney accounted for 1,400 troops wh ile supply forces accounted for 3.5(H). There was constant movement of forces to and from the Islands, but on paper at least the garrison reached a strength of 37,600 in April 1942 equal in size to the evacuated population and giving a ratio of one German for every two inhabitants.
    The bulk of the new forces ordered in was Infantry Division 319 from the Seventh Army which replaced Division 216. Amounting to some 21.000 troops they were commanded independently from October 1941 to September 1943 by Major-Gene ral Erich M ü ller. and from February 1945 by Major- General Rudolf Wulf. At other times the troops were under the orders of the Islands' military commandant from October 1940 to February 1945, Colonel Graf Rudolf von Schmettow. The only exception were Alderney troops who until December 1941 were under naval command from Cherbourg. Throughout the occupation the troops varied in quality with a steady tendency to decline. At first, life, wrote a Guernsey baker in March 1941, had been tolerable enough, 'owing to the general courtesy and inoffensiveness of the German officers and soldiers'.
    But as German chances of occupying Britain, and then of leaving the Islands, declined and war turned against the Reich, troops began to change, particularly those who had seen service in Russia, and could not unlive their new brutality. Russian war also brought to the islands companies of Russian troops lighting for the Germans (ROA). A new relationship based on fear and suppressed hatred resulted as a typical incident involving Russian troops will show. Bonamy Martel agreed to help night-watch at a friend's farm. He had with him a member of the Feldpolizei, and the two men hid under hay in a stable for the night. In the early hours of the morning, the farm was approached by two Luftwaffe men who ran off when they were challenged. After an hour two ROA soldiers appeared. The security policeman was shot dead, and one of the Russians ran off. The murderer produced a knife and stabbed Martel, and a grim fight began in the barn. The Russian tried to finish Martel off with the gun, but he broke his aim with some lead-piping. The two Russians were captured, and the murderer was executed.
    Alderney had 3,000 and Sark nearly 300 military encamped on them by 1944. After D-Day the Islands lost most of their Todt workers, except on a maintenance basis, but more naval troops arrived, and in August 1944 evacuated forces from St Malo including 600 wounded who soon filled the military hospitals. A few escapers also reached