Islands Siege

With the 75th Anniversary of D-Day (the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in June 1944) coming up this week a friend of mine in Jersey (one of the British Channel Islands 87 miles from the UK and 14 miles from France) wanted me to mention that despite the invasion’s success and the fact that Paris was liberated by August 25, 1944 and the rest of France by February 9, 1945 the British Channel Islands, that had been occupied by the Germans on June 30, 1940, were not liberated until May 1945 (Guernsey’s 24,429 civilians on May 9, 1945; Jersey’s 41,101 civilians on May 9, 1945; Sark’s 470 civilians on May 10, 1945 and Alderney’s 18 civilians on May 16, 1945 - none of these numbers include the thousands of Forced Laborers that the Germans brought to the islands to live in concentration camps and build the Atlantic Wall.)

From June 6, 1944 until May 9, 1945 the German-occupied British Channel Islands were completely under siege and the only food on the island was from the Swiss Red Cross (even that was limited by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who rejected the Germans call for more food and medical supplies by saying: "Let 'em starve. They can rot at their leisure"; it is not clear whether Churchill meant the Germans or the British civilians.)