"Do they ever come back?" I asked the curator of the Occupation Museum in St Helier, the capital of the Channel Islands. I was of course, referring to the Germans who occupied the islands between 1940 and 1945.
"Indeed they do," he answered. "And I can always spot them. I notice very old German men looking at the exhibits with a special interest." He told me that the week before an old man had come to him and whispered in poor English: "I was here during the occupation in the Wehrmacht." "Indeed," answered the curator, "but I hope we're not going to see an action replay". The veteran assured him that was not likely and explained that as a young conscript he had no choice but to participate in Hitler's war.
The German Occupation began on July 1st, 1940, after the collapse of French resistance and the retreat of the British Army from Dunkirk. As the British government decided that the islands could not be defended, the military presence was withdrawn and Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm were occupied.
Hitler regarded the conquest of the Channel Islands as a special prize. They were, after all, the only British territory occupied by the victorious Germans.
Long-range guns
From the point of view of the German High Command, the islands were the same as five battleships anchored off the French coast and the newly installed batteries were in a position to command 250 miles of French coastline, ensuring that when the Allied invasion came, it would not be in the area dominated by the long-range guns on the islands.
An entire German division of 21,000 men supported by tank troops, artillery and antiaircraft guns, Luftwaffe and naval personnel constituted the occupation force.
Under the direct orders of Hitler, the islands were quickly converted into impregnable fortresses with bunkers, underground storehouses, mined beaches and every area of coast covered by German artillery and machine-guns. Much of the work was carried out by slave labour - Russian prisoners of war, French political prisoners and a number of Spanish republican sympathisers arrested in France after having escaped the Franco regime.
For the people of the islands, in contrast to other parts of Europe, the occupation was a reasonably bearable experience. The German army was in control, the dreaded Gestapo never appeared and only a small section of the SS was in charge of a concentration camp in Alderney. The civil administration and the Germans co-operated in a reasonably civilised manner to make the best of a bad situation. With some islanders, however, it went from co-operation to collaboration because, as Churchill pointed out, there will always be, in every country, people who willingly warm their hands at the fires of the invader and seek to profit by it.
The only nuisance was the German military police who were intensely disliked, not just by the islanders, but by the ordinary German soldiers. Martial law was in operation however, and there were at least two executions of Frenchmen who sent military information to England.
Pleasant station
For the ordinary Germans, the islands were a rather pleasant station. Most survived the war without experiencing any action. Discipline was maintained by the officers in a very simple but effective manner. A soldier who offended in any way against army regulations faced a particularly dreadful punishment - transfer to the Eastern Front with the inevitability of death or capture by the Russians.
Even in the shadow of war and occupation, romance still blossomed. Fraternising between German soldiers and local women was frowned upon by both sides. But love did find a way! One relationship between a German sailor and a local girl had a happy ending when her suitor returned in 1946 after being released from internment. They married, settled on the island and, one hopes, lived happily ever after. The parents of the well known Irish-language poet, Gabriel Rosenstock, met in the islands during the occupation. His father was a doctor in the German army and his Irish mother was a nurse in a hospital in Jersey.
The islanders, as the occupation continued, did suffer many shortages, but it was only after D-day - Normandy invasion on June 6th, 1944, - that the situation became critical with the islands cut off from supplies of fuel and other necessities from Allied-occupied France, everything was in short supply.
War damage
The German military authorities allowed Red Cross ships to land essential supplies that kept the islands going until the surrender by the commander, Vice-Admiral Huffmeier, a few days after the unconditional surrender of Germany brought an end to the bloodiest war in history. As happens after all wars, it was the ordinary soldiers who suffered. German soldiers were employed on the islands in repairing war damage and in the dangerous work of clearing minefields, while the senior officers were detained in comparative comfort. The legacy the Germans did leave - massive fortifications, gun emplacements, and even a partly completed underground hospital - have now been turned into museums and sites of visitor interest.
Having finished my visit to the St Helier Occupation Museum, I remarked to the curator "You were occupied by the Germans for all of five years, and the experience has been turned into a major tourist attraction. I wonder if like us in Ireland, ye had been occupied for 700 years what would have happened?" He smiled and replied: "Yes, I know all about that because I am a Welshman." Wait and see what will happen in an independent Wales!