Occupied Channel Islands Part 2 1940 - Private Dunkirk Footage - Major Albrecht Lanz - Jersey

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That private 1940 Dunkirk footage is sooo good. The images of these sunken ships are powerful and I have a feeling that they might have inspired some of the imagery in Star Wars movies specifically the crashed star destroyer. Do you see it? Let me know in the comment section if you do?

Today we’ll look at material related to the occupation of Channel Islands. We’ll start with a German soldier’s first-hand description of his first sight of the island of Jersey from the beaches of Normandy.Then we’ll the rules set by the German occupational authorities that the English citizens would be living under. Next is some more private footage and we’ll finish up this part of the series with some photographs of the island.

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In June the victorious Germans troops reached the channel in Normandy and the Cotentin Peninsula would be occupied. In the area between Carteret and Lessay it was possible to clearly see a blue-grey stretch of beach. In good sunlight you could make out different hazy shades of green and red. There was no doubt, it was a new coastline! It’s the British Channel Islands! But hardly any of the soldiers peering over with their Doppelfernglas or binoculars knew the names of these islands. They hadn’t learned anything about it in school. Slowly word got out that these were the English islands Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark. Jersey is the largest and it was the Jersey coast that could now be seen.

On June 15th the British War Cabinet decides to demilitarize the Channel Islands and the following day military personnel and equipment began being removed.

By the end of the month 30,000 islanders are evacuated. Most of the residents of the island Alderney left, in Sark most decided stay.

28th June the Germans bomb St. Peter Port on Guernsey and St. Helier or Jersey killing 44 people.That same day the Germans land on Guernsey airport and the island surrenders.

On July 1 the first German pilot, a first lieutenant, set foot on the island Jersey. Here is a photograph of a German plane landing at the Jersey airport.

The following day the new German Kommandant of the Island Major Albrecht Lanz had the following printed on the first page of the Evening Post newspaper.

This private footage taken by a German soldier on the island of Jersey. The original has a runtime of 4.03 seconds.

July 2 - 3 the islands of Alderney and Sark are occupied.