Jersey
under the Swastika!

Page 28 - Philip Frederick Le Sauteur

CHAPTER NINE (SECTION 2)

1941

Tremendous quantities of war materials continued to be brought in by sea, and it was noticed that the ships carrying these were of nearly double the size in tonnage normally regarded as practicable for the harbour. These were loaded with cement, sand, guns and other war equipment.

The real fortification of the Island began in earnest with the fixing of several big guns at Noirmont. Subsequently, heavy calibre guns were also installed at Grosnez and St. Martin's so that before long all approaches to the Island were covered by guns.

There were many episodes in the Islands generally which caused a great deal of irritation to the Germans, even though in themselves their intrinsic value was low. At this juncture, someone cut a telephone cable in Guernsey, and the Island was in disgrace once more. Punishment followed in the nature of an 8.30 p.m. curfew and 60 civilians were ordered to patrol the affected area every night.

Power problems still continued to worry those in authority, and new orders for Jersey forbade the use of electricity excepting for lighting purposes and the radio — coal was forbidden for everything but cooking, and gas for anything but lighting and cooking.

B.B.C. news was always of interest to the Islanders, especially anything in anywise related to the Channel Islands themselves. Local news always is of interest to "locals"! News came through the radio that a direct hit had been scored on a ship lying in Alderney harbour, and everyone's interest was immediately aroused. That was something, as it were, on one's own doorsteps. The ship was the S.S. DIAMENDE, a vessel of 800 tons, but the ship arrived in Jersey a few days later and under her own steam. Apparently the vessel had suffered superficial damage only.

One of the war's most exciting maritime incidents was that in which the two German warships, the SCHARNHORST and the GNEISNAU, were involved. Despite the 100 miles which separate Jersey from the town of Brest in France, the enemy raids on these two vessels were not only audible, but the reflection of the fires caused could sometimes be seen in the sky.

The R.A.F. were always on the "busy", and their planes passed over the Island each night en route to their objectives. Other planes, too, passed over — those of the Luftwaffe — on such nights as they made their raids on the English West Country or the Midlands, although, it must be said, at this time no German planes were operating from the Island of Jersey itself.

The telephone sabotage in Guernsey was followed by a proclamation on April 6th loaded with threats of the death penalty and of reprisals on the entire population if the acts of sabotage and general unfriendliness towards the German troops persisted. A footnote to this indicated that the acts referred to in the proclamation had taken place in Guernsey only, and that our own Island of Jersey, so far, had behaved itself well. There was the usual threat, however — it had better continue behaving so — or else! We seemed to live under a system of perpetual threat!

The Easter season saw an extension of the curfew hours, this time to 1.0 p.m. with the 12.30 closing hour for the public houses.

On the evening following, and for a whole hour, parachute flares, bomb flashes and gun fire could be seen and heard to the north of the Island. Despite this evidence of a heavy and concentrated raid, no mention was made of it in the broadcast British news.

New and more powerful searchlights had been brought on the scene, and they went into operation whenever the R.A.F. passed over the Island on the way to Brest or St. Nazaire. One thing was easily noticed — no matter how good the lights themselves, they were handled in a most haphazard fashion, and they regularly failed to locate their objectives.

Hitler's 1941 birthday was celebrated by the showing of the film VICTORY IN THE WEST, one night being devoted to the German troops, and one night to civilians. For the occasion, the Forum Cinema was decorated with swastikas. Some of the empty shop windows throughout the town were used for the display of propaganda photographs of the German Fuhrer and his wonderful works.

So many copies of German orders, proclamations, etc., had been posted up about the town around this time that the prominence of the German direction signs was marred. Consequently, a general "spring-clean" was carried out and all notices were removed, prior to the inauguration of another system (the third or fourth to be tried!) of sign-posting the Island.

There was very little air of military activity during May of this year. Despite the considerable amount of work which had been put on the airport, the latter was seldom used. In fact, the mere sight of a plane was most unusual.

As usual, however, troops were continually on the move, —  both inwards and outwards.

Work on the so-called "improvement scheme" at Noirmont proceeded at a fair pace. This included a concrete road, and many barrack buildings for the forces.

It was unofficially reported that two German soldiers had been killed by land mines at St. Martin's.

Many pranks were played on the Germans. This was to expected, for it is in the heart of almost everyone to give vent to humour, even without thinking what might be incurred. The Germans didn't take kindly to these things, and there were the usual sheafs of reprisal promises if they continued. One of the pranks was the annoying one of turning round direction arrows. This particular kind of thing was given a spate of publicity by the Military Authorities.

Human nature being what it is, certain things are almost bound to occur at times, even when plain commonsense should prompt people to act otherwise. Perhaps the stress of war conditions overrules the dictates of commonsense with many, the present moment being the only one which counts with them, not the moment when conditions may be radically altered. In this direction, one aspect which was of considerable annoyance to the more British of the Jersey people was the manner in which girls — and even married women — overlooked the fact that the Germans were their enemies. Life under occupation was, of course, an abnormal condition, and this might produce abnormal results, but an amazingly high proportion of the women folk some of them wives of prisoners-of-war, or of men serving in the British forces, simply threw themselves at the heads of the German soldiers, to the utter disgust of the remainder of the population.

At the close of May, the 1935 model cars were ordered to be brought in for inspection. Possible purchase by the German Authorities was in the offing!

The curfew in the Military Zone was brought into line with the rest of the Island. This was 11.0 p.m.

A new spate of orders covered the Jewish population, small though it happened to be in relation to other races, and under these the unfortunate members were forbidden to hold business or investment interests of any kind, or to undertake employment in any job which might bring them into contact with the public. Furthermore, they could be dismissed for no other reason than that they were of the Jewish race, without any compensation. A list of trades covering nearly all spheres was appended, in which all Jews were forbidden to engage.

Managing administrators were appointed to control Jewish interests and holdings, with precisely the same rights as the owners of the shares, and were ordered to advance to the Jewish owner no more than was absolutely necessary to support life. As the administrators were appointed by the German Authorities, it can be assumed that the sum dispensed would be the merest pittance. To sum up this matter, it was made just about impossible for a Jew to obtain a living in any way.

The purchasing of cars was suspended about the middle June as the depots were simply crammed with vehicles awaiting shipment elsewhere. It was also reported that those already taken were causing congestion of the quay at Granville.

Several light tanks were brought over the Jersey, and this occasioned havoc to the roads generally, being tarred, and not suitable for such vehicles.

During the night of the l7-l8th June, a seaplane repair ship of the type normally anchored in mid-Atlantic, spent the time in harbour, leaving early the following morning. A little later, loud explosions were heard, and the lifeboat was sent out. Nothing, however, was found and no further details were revealed.

Another land mine accident occurred on the cliffs at the north of the Island. An Irishman was killed, whilst another was injured.

Possibly due to the intensified R.A.F. activity during this time, there was a considerable movement of troops from France to the Islands, for which purpose all available vessels — including Jersey's S.S. NORMAND, were pressed into service. It was currently believed that there were some 8,000 German troops in Jersey at that particular time.

The rule of the road was altered to the continental "KEEP TO THE RIGHT," thus removing the anomaly of some people keeping to the right — as had been their habit — and some to the left — as the law up to then had required.

There was an acute shortage of coal in Guernsey at the time, and in order to ease the situation supplies were reshipped from Jersey. This had the unhappy sequence of shortage in Jersey, for there was anything but an abundance of fuel in our Island. Conservation of stocks became the order of the day, and to assist herein it was forbidden to use gas excepting between the hours of 7.0 and 8.30 a.m., 11.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m., and between 5.30 and 7.0 p.m. Outside of these hours it was supposed that the gas was really cut off, but when it was discovered that it was not, this order, like a similar order relating to the electric supply. was more honoured in the breach than in the observance.