CELEBRATING PEACE
The Channel Islands are marking the 70th anniversary of their liberation with gusto
The scene in the Old Government house hotel could not be further from the horrors of war. I reach for a scone, ladle on jam and cream, and marvel that 70 years seems an eternity. Seven decades ago, Guernsey’s only fivestar hotel — on the hillside above the harbour in the capital, St Peter Port — would have had a decidedly less relaxed atmosphere. For during the German occupation of the Channel Islands (June 30, 1940 to May 9, 1945), this stately retreat was commandeered as the General Staff hQ.
The islands’ liberation is being celebrated again this month with gusto. The Channel Islands heritage Festival (on now until May 11) is a five-week hurrah of history, parades, concerts and food that will unite most of the archipelago — Guernsey, Alderney, Jersey, herm and Sark.
This is no small feat. Fiercely individual, the islands have never before combined to stage a big event. But here they have common cause. Liberation Day itself will see St Peter Port and Jersey’s capital St helier swirl with people and music.
It is not hard to find traces of Guernsey’s awful half-decade in the German fortifications littering the coastline: the menacing tower of Fort Saumarez, which rears on the west coast; the sinister Fort hommet in the north. When I walk around the Pleinmont Tower, on the south-west shore, the pillarbox slots in its sides seem to eye me.
You can delve further into Guernsey’s war heritage. What appears to be a car park behind La Collinette hotel on the outskirts of St Peter Port reveals i tself as the hub of enemy communications.
The hQ of the former German Naval Signals, reached by a drab flight of stairs, was a vast underground space that hummed with radio chatter. German signs and instructions are still daubed on the walls.
The bunker will be open to the public as part of the festival — its secrets brought into the light.
FOr a different perspective, the German Occupation Museum at Les houards flits from frivolity to fear: on one hand, the photo album of Freda Oliver, a local girl who dated (and married) a German officer; on the other, exhibits on the fate of the island’s Jewish population.
The darkness of life under Nazi rule i s most obvious at the German Military Underground hospital at La Vassalerie.
This enormous labyrinth was carved out by prisoners of war — plenty of whom died i n the process. As did many of the injured German troops brought here from France after D-Day. With i ts dank passages and horror film ambience, it is an unhappy building.
Jersey is a short hop from Guernsey — an hour by fast ferry, l ess by air. The Jersey War Tunnels — another military-medical complex — have been restored i nto something less bleak.
The effects of occupation can be seen in letters from neighbours informing on each other about hidden radios and petty jealousies. But so can the joy that liberation brought — video footage shows euphoria in St helier as the news of German surrender broke; the Union Flag being hoisted at the Pomme D’Or hotel.
The hotel came to symbolise the Channel Islands’ deliverance. In a way, it still does, peering across what i s now called Liberation Square, where a tall bronze sculpture captures seven people in the act of raising the flag — laughing, as if they are flying a kite. Other echoes ring across St helier. The Jersey Museum and Art Gallery has copies of t he Jersey evening Post dating back 125 years, its photos recalling the war in daily detail (through a f og of German control). The Maritime Museum displays the Occupation Tapestry Gallery — a montage of images stitched by islanders for the 50th anniversary of liberation in 1995, which depict Jersey brought to heel.
And the Jersey Archive is host to more than 30,000 of the Occupation registration Cards, which were forced on islanders by the Nazi authorities.
There are no wide smiles here — j ust f urrowed brows and unhappy faces. The heaviness of the German bootprint is summed up by Battery Lothringen — a concrete watchdog that looks as if it might still bite.
This colossal bunker, which will also be accessible during the festival, ‘protected’ St helier on St Aubin’s Bay. Its stairs lead to gun posts, control rooms and sleeping quarters.
YeT, seven miles northwest, St Brelade’s Bay hotel gazes at the water in a more benign way. In 1940, it was another enemy hang-out, requisitioned by Luftwaffe pilots. It is not difficult to grasp why it was coveted. Breakfast overlooks waves rolling up the beach and St Brelade’s, an 11th century church whose graveyard hovers above the sand.
There is no stomp of jackboots t his morning, but f or f i ve weeks, the Channel Islands will remember the terrible time when there was. TRAVEL FACTS FLYBE (0371 700 2000, flybe.com) serves Guernsey from various UK airports from £50 return; easyJet (0843 104 5000, easyjet. com) flies to Jersey from £40 return. Double rooms at the Old Government House Hotel (01481 724 921, theoghhotel.com) cost from £178 B&B. Doubles at St Brelade’s Bay Hotel (01534 746 141, stbreladesbay hotel.com) start at £140 B&B. More details: visitchannel islands.com, visitguernsey.com, jersey.com.