Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A small number of British and other Jews lived on the Channel Islands during the occupation. Most had been evacuated in June 1940, but British law did not allow enemy citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity, to enter Britain without a permit. When the Germans arrived, 18 Jews registered out of an estimated 30–50. [11]
During the First World War, about 3,000 island men served in the British Expeditionary Force. Of these, about 1,000 served in the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry regiment formed from the Royal Guernsey Militia in 1916. [39] From 30 June 1940, during the Second World War, the Channel Islands were occupied by German troops.
Raids on Guernsey in 1336 and 1337 by exiled David Bruce, [15]: 2 came at the start of the Hundred Years War, they were followed by Sark being captured and using this as a base, the next year when, starting in 1339, Guernsey was occupied by the Capetians, holding the Island for two years and Castle Cornet for seven.
German soldiers in Jersey. During the five-year German occupation of the Channel Islands (30 June 1940 to 9 May 1945) civilian life became much more difficult. During that time, the Channel Islanders had to live under and obey the laws of Nazi Germany and work with their occupiers in order to survive and reduce the impact of occupation.
When it became clear that the Battle of France was lost, time was limited for anyone to evacuate, even so 25,000 people went to Great Britain, roughly 17,000 from Guernsey, [2] 6,000 from Jersey and 2,000 from Alderney in the ten days before the German troops landed at the end of June 1940. Most civilians who were evacuated went to England.
Everything changed on 8 May when the Germans released all British, French and American prisoners of war and all German prisoners held in the islands. [2]: 180 Bunting and flags were put up in the streets, [10] radios, which had been banned for years upon pain of imprisonment, were produced in public, connected to loudspeakers.
It falls on the same day as the European Union's Europe Day, which celebrates post-World War II peace and European unity. 9 May is a public holiday in both islands and each has different celebrations and commemorative events; the centrepiece of Jersey's is the Liberation Day re-enactment in the Liberation Square, while Guernsey's is an ...
The Crown Dependencies [c] are three offshore island territories in the British Islands that are self-governing possessions of the British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey, both located in the English Channel and together known as the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland.