Jersey
under the Swastika!

Page 32 - Philip Frederick Le Sauteur

CHAPTER TEN (SECTION 1)

1942

The unwarranted Japanese attack on the American ships in Pearl Harbour in December, 1941, precipitated many things throughout the world, and brought the American nation into the sphere of actual warfare against the Axis powers. Even in this small collection of Islands the "breeze" was felt, for America's entry into the war was marked by the registration of all U .S. subjects in the Islands, and early in January of 1942 those of military age (fortunately very few indeed) were duly transferrred to continental internment camps. There was no preliminary warning at all, neither was there any publicity on the matter.

This curious differentiation from the treatment meted out to nationals of other countries at war with the German Reich, became even more striking a few  weeks later when registration was demanded of all interests and investments held by American citizens, companies or the United States Government.

So, in a certain way, 1942 began on a new note, yet the accustomed things still continued. The R.A.F. was always "doing something", and the Islanders could almost always decipher the events, even if distance was a sort of bugbear to news reception. The R.A.F.'s passage over Jersey to and from Brest was regularly marked by very heavy and concentrated A.A. fire, and on several occasions copies of the JOURNAL DE L'AIR were picked up by the Islanders following these noisy sessions. On one of these occasions, a bonfire lit earlier in the day and believed to be out, blazed up again, and the owner spent forty-eight hours in gaol between several cross-examinations before he finally convinced the German Authorities that it was not an attempt to signal to the enemy.

The R.A.F. daylight raid on Guernsey harbour during January could not very well be ignored, and from the account given in the Guernsey press — later reprinted in Jersey — it could be gathered, despite the belittling, that there was a least one direct hit on a ship, with casualties to German personnel, as well as to Guernsey and foreign labourers who were working on the quays. News reaching Jersey by letter, however, confirmed that a 6,000-ton ship had been sunk, whilst another had been damaged, the latter having had to be beached for repairs — as well as some casualties to German troops machine-gunned whilst they were at drill.

Censorship at any times is irksome to the average journalist and newspaper man but when that censorship is in the hands of an occupying foreign power, it is naturally much more irksome to live under. The average journalist, no doubt, has a certain amount of censorship (or-blue-pencilling, shall we call it?) to withstand, but this is all in the average journalist's game, and he is prepared for it. But not for an occupying power's censorship. For he has to deal with "news" of a different kind, news which he appreciates all along as "manufactured" for a distinct purposes, and usually opposed to the interests of truthfulness. Jersey's EVENING POST, with a German censor and staff permanently installed, was faced with the nauseating problem and a really difficult job. But, with great courage and tact, the numerous pitfalls were avoided.

It was necessary, of course, for the many German orders and official communiques — as well as some officially inspired articles — to be printed, but, in doing so those handling the setting of the type never corrected the numerous mis-spellings and mis-translations, so that quite frequently the meaning of the actual print was opposed to what was originally intended.

The courage shown by the POST in November, 1940, when attention was publicly drawn to the unfairness of confiscating Jersey's radio sets for offences in Guernsey, and on other subsequent occasions, was generally admired, and, in all, the EVENING POST showed many proofs that it was not "collaborating" with the Germans.

More of the irritating "V's" appeared on military sign-posts at St. Ouen's and Millbroolk, and civilian pickets were again posted from 10.0 p.m. until 8.0 a.m., to prevent any recurrence. Singular to relate on these occassions radio sets in the affected areas were not ordered to be surrendered.

It has been repeatedly alleged that all's fair in war, and everybody — or rather, mostly everybody — can enjoy a good joke, even if against himself at times. NaturalIy, a hoax cannot always be immediately resolved as such — it may take time, and during the waiting period many people may be more than a little disturbed. Jersey had some of these during her period of German occupation.

Towards the close of January a hoax set many rumours afloat. Small aluminium records were picked up all over  the place and were supposed to have been dropped by the R.A.F. in place of the more usual leaflets. As might be imagined, the contents grew more and more wonderful at each telling, and reports were heard of all that the R.A.F. promised to the Islands — heavy bombing raids, and very early release being the main theme. As it was necessary for the records to be played with fibre needles — and as there was a shortage of these as of everything else — it was some days before it became generally known that the "message" was an advertisement for a particular branded cigarette.

It would appear that the records had been in the Island since long before the occupation, and as they were stored in an hotel which had been taken over by the Germans, it was strongly suspected that they were deliberately spread abroad with the intention of setting going just such a crop of rumours as actually folIowed the findings.

The numerous rumours afloat during the occupation were a real menace to everyone's peace of mind, although many were so far-fetched as to be laughable. The stock ones included a quotation from some supposed International Law that, in the case of an undefended town, the occupation was limited to a certain length of time, variously given as 48 hours, 7 days, 28 days and 90 days as each of these times drew nearer. This rumour eventually died a natural death, but the one that an ultimatum had been received by the Germans sometimes in the form of leaflets dropped by the R.A.F ., sometimes by sky-writing, and at other times through a neutral source, warning them to clear within a specified time, just refused to be squashed. Given each time with different embellishment, the teller always knew someone who knew someone who had actually seen a copy of the leaflet or other means of ultimatum. Rumour is certainly a lying jade!

Unofficial, but nevertheless confirmed beyond reasonable  doubt by the presence of a strong armed guard around Melton Hotel — the German Military Hospital — came news of the picking up at sea of four members of the crew of an R.A.F. plane, one of whom was said to have been badly  injured. It was not possible to get a glimpse of the men, although everyone would have liked to pass them a cheery word, and after some days they were removed to a prisoner-of-war camp on the mainland.

Early in January, an order was published under which photographs were to be affixed to the Identity Cards which had already been issued to the Islanders. It had been originally intended to have the photographs at the time when the cards were given out, but until now nothing had been done about the matter. This was almost probably due to the lack of the necessary photographic material. Notwithstanding, however, it was several months later before the job was actually completed.

Throughout January and February heavy flak barrages became a regular feature in the Island, the gunners becoming so light-fingered that on at least one occasion they opened fire on their own planes, this ceasing abruptly when the recognition signal was tardily given. On February 20th the Island was included in one of the R.A.F daylight sweeps, being greeted with the usual heavy flak. As on a previous occasion, they just missed seeing a very fine target in the nature of several ships in St. Aubin's Bay.

The training of the garrison troops in the Island was being considerably intensified, even the non-combatant soldiers (butchers, bakers, etc.) were being trained to take their place in the fighting units, their ordinary duties being handed over to local or foreign civilians. The older members of the Hitler Youth were also being given preliminary training prior to their being absorbed into the army. All day, and every day, the various units were to be seen marching to or from their drill grounds, always singing in their tuneful, if rather mechanical, fashion and it was not long before the younger children, unable to remember any soldier but the German, were to be seen imitating them even to a parody of their marching songs.

Compared with English standards, the German trooper seemed to be slovenly, and the lounging attitude adopted by them when on sentry duty caused a great deal of amusement to the onlookers. This was probably due to the almost complete lack of "parade ground" type of drill — the general principle underlying the training seemed to be to cut out all non-essentials, and to concentrate purely on efficiency in battle.

The intensified training included a great deal of rifle and machine-gun sharp-shooting both by day and night, as well as frequent practices by the heavy and light artillery.

Quite a number of shop windows were wilfully broken about this time, in all probability by a small hooligan element connected with the German forces when they were leaving the Cabaret. As a direct result of this, and probably also with an eye to the future when there might be a fear of looting by the very mixed crowd of labourers which had been imported, almost the whole of the shops which were not equipped with shutters had their windows permanently boarded up, making the town an even more dreary spectacle than hitherto. Extra cautions were necessary in the case of butchers', bakers' and tobacconists' shops, all of which were the regular victims of robberies — rather a different situation from pre-occupation days, when any self-respecting burglar would have considered it beneath his dignity to steal a few packets of cigarettes or a few loaves of bread.