After five years under the jackboot – and at times it must have felt much longer – the end came in something of a rush. Liberation Day was to come on the 9th but from the beginning of May there was acceptance among the remaining, dispirited Germans that it was over. Now at least they could go home. So they thought. For most there were still many months ahead before they could return to their homeland.
Some very rare video footage of the German visitors training in our sister island Guernsey
And among the population of the Channel Islands there was at last a spring in the step. At first the defiance was cautious but the news filtering through from London and Europe left no doubt. Union flags, musical instruments, radios, even alcohol appeared from nowhere. After so much false hope, especially after the D-Day landings 11 months earlier, this was the real thing.
On 8th May a crowd gathered in Jersey’s Royal Square. Britain’s legendary wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill was due to speak at 3 o’clock. Loudspeakers had been installed and the equally legendary Bailiff of Jersey Alexander Coutanche was present together with his wartime administration team. At last Churchill spoke these oft-quoted words:
‘Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, but in the interests of saving lives the “Cease fire” began yesterday to be sounded all along the front, and our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today.’
a ‘crossover’ photo of the original flag raising from the excellent website https://www.facebook.com/tracesofwar
The following day the liberating British Force 135 oversaw the surrender and, memorably, the Union flag was hoisted at the Harbourmaster’s Office and nearby Pomme d’Or Hotel to unrestrained scenes of joy.
Seventy years later it seems that the occasion burns stronger than ever in the memory of those, now few in number, who lived through Occupation and Liberation. There was a near revolt this year when the flag re-enactment was to be sidelined in favour of a much bigger bash up the road at the People’s Park. The Bailiff’s office did a smart U-turn and put things right. All will go ahead as generally expected with the now-expected rendition of Beautiful Jersey by local lass Sadie Rennard. Festivities will continue throughout the day with a mega fireworks display in the evening.
After 70 years it might be that Liberation Day might slowly fade away, along with the old folk. But I thought that after the 50th. I doubt I’ll be around for the 100th but I’m guessing the celebrations will be fiercer than ever.
Back On The Rock 
It seems that commemoration is becoming more important the further from the event we get. I’ve just watched a very moving programme on BBC about the Greatest Generation. They deserve to be remembered and honoured and with our younger generation like my son who is very determined not to forget, I think we can rest assured that the memory will out live all of us. Lovely post, Roy.
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Hi Jenny, it’s a curious phenomenon. I think perhaps it’s the amazing access we have these days to information, images etc. It makes it easier to get a public groundswell behind these commemorations. Liberation was certainly noteworthy after WW2 but it only became a big event on the 50th anniversary. Today the 70th is even bigger.
I’m think that the commemoration of the START of WW1 this year was a bit illogical – the end of the war and the awful toll on everyone, yes of course. We’ve just had the Lusitania 100th, next year the 1916 Easter Rising etc. I’m happy that our youngsters grow up with exposure to the memory of these historic events which place our own times in context.
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Thanks for sharing this piece of history, Roy. Who knows…you might be around for the 100th celebration.
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Thanks Jill. Haha, you never know. If so I’ll be getting a VIP seat of the festivities right at the front I suppose 🙂
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I can’t even imagine the hardships and terror the people of Guernsey and Jersey went through. I was watching a couple of islanders on the news and their recollections were so clear, after all this time.
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Indeed Cathy, an awful time but still better than it might have been given the atrocities going on elsewhere in Europe at the time. They interviewed one woman today who, as a little girl in the crowd on 9th May 1945, caught a sweet tossed by a British soldier. She says 70 years on she can still see the vivid orange/yellow object there in her hand after all the years of grey deprivation.
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Very powerful Roy, I think anniversaries generally seem to be made much more of these days – maybe it’s also the fact that we have 24/7 news so we need something to fill it – or maybe it’s that we’re looking for something more meaningful in our lives. There’s been so much going on for WWI this year, but it’s good that a lot of it has been with children so they’ll grow up having an awareness they might not have had.
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Yes Andrea, agree completely. These days there is much more opportunity to study and remember significant occasions in our history. Certainly Jersey kids grow up with an awareness of the past whilst rightly forging their own futures. This can only be a good thing.
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Roy, I can’t think of this time without vivid scenes from your novel, Tess of Portelet Manor running through my mind. I see her sitting in a restaurant drinking weak tea when there was absolutely nothing else to order because the place had no food. Yes, I can imagine how the people felt when all of a sudden things they hadn’t seen for years were available again. It is hardly to be imagined in our world of plenty. Great post.
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Hi Fran, and nice that you still remember my Tess story 🙂 There’s been a little Occupation exhibition running these last couple of weeks. Schoolchildren have been sampling things like parsnip jam, nettle tea etc and their faces have been a picture. When bananas arrived in 1945 the young ones hadn’t a clue how to eat them! A pity really that good, fresh food is now second best to processed rubbish for too many of us.
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Great historical accounting, Roy. It’s so important for us to remember these events and the real human impact they had to help prevent them never being repeated. Sadly, I fear that modern warfare has become more faceless, dehumanized, and glorified than ever, and that a repeating of events may be inevitable.
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Thanks Janna. One of the most amazing things to come out of the Occupation is the reconciliation that’s occurred since between the Channel Islands and German people. There’s been a real human understanding forged which wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. Regrettably the spectre of nationalism still lurks in many corners.
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Agreed with what some others have already said about the importance of historic anniversaries. I, for one, am grateful that even in this high-tech world we live in, we aren’t completely dismissing the importance of the past. What a relief!
That rare footage was so interesting! I’ve never seen anything like it. The video shows the enemy as a human—horsing around, sometimes looking a little bored. Very awesome, Roy!
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Hi Britt! That footage is really rare as cameras etc. were immediately banned after the invasion. And yes, most of those guys were no different from our own boys, sent off to fight in a war that they had no part in starting.
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As the others have said, I think it’s important to mark these anniversaries too, and perhaps it will be harder to do so in the future with the nature of modern warfare. Thanks for sharing this account with us, Roy. The footage was so fascinating.
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Hiya Letizia! It’s telling that the impetus for these commemorative events come from the people themselves, and they will decide what is worth remembering. As I mentioned in this post there was a big fuss kicked up over the proposed programme until it was changed to reflect the popular wishes.
Yes, that old footage gives a better sense of what actually went on. In the islands you still come across (for example) the remnants of trenches, gun positions etc. hidden in undergrowth, often on private land.
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How interesting to have remnants of the war on one’s private land. About an hour from where I live there’s a field where they fought a battle during the American Civil War. The only remnants are the “fences” (barriers?) which have, no doubt, been repaired over the years. What’s most striking is the big open field in the middle of the farms not being used for farm land but just left open in commemoration of those lost during the battle.
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I don’t suppose the opposing sides in the Civil War dug in long enough to create physical remains Letizia? I guess that bits and pieces, musket balls etc. must have been collected over the years? Nice of the landowner(s) to leave the battlefield uncultivated like that.
Here of course the Germans held a defensive position for five years and they did a whole lot of construction during that time. Still I too find it remarkable that old dumps (cars, washing machines etc) still remain uncleared and covered in undergrowth, as well as some old German fortifications, and the landowners simply farm around the sites rather than go to the expense of clearing them.
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I got an idea of what life on Jersey might’ve been like under the Nazis after our trip to your excellent World War II Museum on Jersey. I appreciated a very frank look at life on the island during the war. Liberation from oppression is an occasion well worth celebrating, 70 years or 700 years from now. Thanks for sharing this, Roy.
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Hi Naomi, yes the War Tunnels is a ‘must visit’ for any visitor and they’ve done a great job there. I hope the coming generations keep the flame alive. It’s only when a place or people have suffered like this that they can know the fresh air of freedom.
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So true, Roy. It seems like such an important part of Jersey’s story, with so many visible signs still standing. I am certain that the flame will burn for many more generations to come, if not forever.
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Amazing footage Roy, I am sure the tradition and ceremony will be held in high regard as part of the cities history for always.
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Thanks Kath, certainly that’s the way it seems at present but who knows once the old folk are gone?
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