One thing that most people in mainland Britain don't appreciate is the fact that the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied during the Second World War. In Guernsey it's difficult to escape the fact - there are fortifications built by the Germans all round the island, museums recording details of the occupation, and in the bookshops there are many books giving details of that part of the island's history. The ninth of May is celebrated each year as liberation day. The story of the occupation is detailed here and there's also an interesting site giving details of fortifications which have been preserved. I took several photographs during our recent visit and here are some of them:
The German Occupation Museum
The Naval Range-Finding Tower known as MP3 has been restored and re-fitted with optical and communication equipment that it would have had during the war and the two photographs below were taken there.
My fading knowledge of the German language dating back to my schooldays of over 50 years ago tells me that the warning stencilled above the telephone on the wall seems to mirror the wartime reminder in Britain for people not to indulge in careless talk because 'walls have ears'.
The gun emplacement at the restored coastal artillery battery known as Batterie Dollmann
Many of the children of Guernsey were evacuated to Britain in 1940 and in Stockport, not far from where we live, a blue plaque was recently unveiled at the railway station commemorating the children who were cared for in Stockport until the Channel Islands were liberated in 1945.
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