- 13/06/2025
Category
ðº
TVTranscript
00:00my walks take me to every corner of Britain as I seek out history embedded in the landscape in
00:10this country you're never very far from mysterious ruins of a shadow of unwelcome visitors so from
00:19romantic moors to majestic peaks I'm really enjoying some serious walking each of my walks
00:27leads me through a different time at a stunning location to find the stories you can only really
00:34appreciate on foot this time I'm walking through two of the glorious Channel Islands and one of the
00:41darkest chapters in British history Jersey and Guernsey have got dozens of beautiful beaches
00:47and almost all of them have got something like that on them an old bunker or the remains of a
00:52machine-gun post left over from the Second World War but these weren't built by the British they were
00:58put up by the Germans who invaded these islands in 1940
01:0270 years ago the tiny Channel Islands faced a grave threat to their traditional tranquility
01:18Jersey and Guernsey are proudly British but between 1940 and 1945 they were occupied by Nazi Germany
01:30today in Guernsey's capital St Peterport it's hard to imagine German soldiers marching through British
01:38streets but that's exactly what happened and I want to find out how this tiny corner of the British Isles
01:46I've planned a four day walk exploring Jersey and Guernsey's unique wartime heritage
02:01I'm starting inland at Guernsey Airport where the first German troops landed on British soil
02:09from there it's a bracing 10 mile walk along the stunning south coast finishing
02:16in St Peterport where a ferry will take me the 30 miles to Jersey on day two I'm heading west to
02:23discover how the Germans turned Jersey's exposed coastline into an impregnable fortress inland it's
02:31cross-country to visit war tunnels with a grim secret before returning to the north coast
02:38and on my final day I'll follow the road to victory finishing in Jersey's capital
02:45and the liberation of 1945
02:48in May 1940 the Nazi war machine swept across Western Europe pushing the British army back to the beaches of Dunkirk
03:02from Belgium to the Channel Islands British troops scrambled to escape to England the Germans were now
03:09just 14 miles away from British soil today's walk in Guernsey is taking me through that chaotic summer but
03:21before I start I've got time for a quick look at St Peterport in 1940 Guernsey's
03:28tiny capital was a town gripped by fear as residents desperate to leave rubbed shoulders with refugees
03:35arriving from France you can imagine can't you local people watching the refugees get out of their boats
03:43and stagger up onto the docks clutching the few possessions that they'd managed to save I'm wondering if their homes would be the next in line
03:56German high command was planning to invade but the Nazis didn't realize that all British troops had retreated to England
04:03so the Germans carried out an armed reconnaissance
04:06on the 28th of June 1940 three Luftwaffe bombers flew low over the harbour and attacked
04:17these docks were lined with trucks all the way down to the seafront which from a few thousand feet up
04:22could have looked like troop carriers but they weren't in fact they were stuffed full of these Guernsey tomatoes
04:31ready and waiting to be loaded and exported to the UK
04:36the raid killed dozens of innocent people and heralded five years of German rule
04:49the actual invasion started here two days later
04:53I've caught a lift to my walk start in a Morris 10
04:56one of the few cars that survives from the war
05:0070 years ago this airport drop-off was a grassy runway
05:03and it's where i'm meeting local historian chris oliver
05:09on the 30th of june 1940 a platoon of german troops landed here and to their relief they met no opposition
05:17the tiny british garrison had left
05:20realizing that defending the island would lead to a pointless bloodbath
05:23gurns is certainly small just 24 square miles
05:32many of its quieter roads serve as footpaths too where walkers have priority
05:37traffic is limited to just 15 miles an hour
05:40chris and i are heading out into the surrounding villages where the invading germans wanted to make
05:46a good impression
05:48what do the germans think of the islanders they wanted it to be a model occupation there's no doubt
05:53about that there were so many similarities in berlin's mind between the english and the germans
05:59the records actually show that the german high command were thinking hang on a second
06:05this is part of britain we actually want to think in terms of the british people
06:11being akin to the germanic race in actual fact some soldiers who got here thought they were landing
06:16in the isle of wight and they were really trying to be as respectful as possible and they were having
06:19lots of people who they were bringing in amongst the armed forces who spoke english to get on with
06:23the population the german troops for the first time stepped foot on english soil
06:31those in the british army of occupation fled or were taken prisoner the third reich's propaganda
06:37machine was delighted this german newsreel painted a picture of british life supposedly
06:44carrying on as normal under german rule the life of the island population proceeds
06:49orderly under the protection of german weapons the local papers though revealed a few telling
06:55details the clocks went forward to berlin time and the pound was pegged to the reich mark when they
07:02arrived the following day in the newspaper front page orders of the commandant and it said curfew
07:0711 o'clock till six o'clock gradually islanders were not allowed to go out fishing but they were
07:12allowed to do other things they were allowed to sit in church and pray and offer prayers up and hymns up
07:18for the royal family and why did they do that well arguably it's because really the germans were on a
07:24high in 1940 thinking we are gang in england we're going to england and we're going to win the war
07:35the surrender of the channel islands was a humiliating blow to british prestige
07:39and churchill insisted that the empire must strike back
07:42the islands were once part of normandy and there's still a strong french feel about them
07:51but the islanders are among the most loyal and long-standing subjects of the crown
07:55they've been fighting alongside the king of england since the days of william the conqueror
08:00this is petty bow bay which i think you'll agree is pretty flipping lovely
08:11and behind me this beach defense tower was built in order to repel invaders from the continent
08:17although at the time that was put up it wasn't the germans they were trying to chase off it was the french
08:22in july 1940 these popular little tourist coves became the island's secret back door
08:34and i'm heading eight miles along the coast back to st peterport to find out how
08:42the steep cliffs are tough going
08:44but hugely rewarding
08:51god it gets better and better
09:01churchill was determined to strike back after the germans had landed
09:05he decided that guernsey would be the perfect place to try out a new elite unit of the british army
09:11he said that their job was to develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast they were called the commandos
09:21london planned a daring raid special forces would seize the coastal path and head inland to attack the
09:28airport but first they sent in a young lieutenant called hubert nicole to gather intelligence he landed here
09:37at e-car point
09:40to us nowadays lieutenant nickle's daring raid seems like boy's own stuff but back in 1940 it was deadly
09:48serious as he scrambled up the path from that beach down there with his heart in his mouth
09:54he knew that if he was captured he'd be shot as a spy but nicole had grown up in guernsey he knew this
10:02island like the back of his hand and he discovered that only a handful of germans had captured over 25 000
10:09islanders it seems incredible but he managed to find out the exact number of germans on the island 469
10:20nicole had exposed just how weak the enemy was 140 commandos now crossed the channel to capture and
10:28kill as many germans as possible it would be one of the first commando raids in history
10:35but it ended in complete failure one boat ended up on the island of sark over there in the distance
10:43two capsized one crashed into a rock only 40 men from number three commando finally made it here
10:50exhausted and soaked and when they got here they couldn't find a single german soldier
10:59the commandos survived but for britain the war was going from bad to worse
11:06germany was getting ready to invade england along the coast at clarence battery machine gunners watched
11:13as german planes crossed the channel just a few weeks after the invasion of the channel islands
11:21the battle of britain began in the skies of southern england over there to many people living here under
11:27german rule the result must have seemed like a foregone conclusion
11:31that's certainly what the germans told people as more and more troops appeared on the streets of st peterport
11:43in august 1940
11:48many islanders were frightened at the prospect of any contact with the enemy troops
11:52molly beehay grew up on canisher street during the war
12:01what was your family's reaction like when the germans finally disarived my mother was really terrified
12:07she was frightened and she didn't want to meet any germans she was scared of what they look like and what
12:13they would do and she just wouldn't leave the house there was weeps that she didn't want to move she
12:20didn't want to see any germans but then we children got used to them we didn't like the look of them
12:28they looked very very stern always a helmet and gums and big boots but so we i suppose we just got
12:37used to them and didn't really realize the fear that the grown-ups but suddenly your whole life was changed
12:45definitely definitely 27 000 german troops were to descend on the islands almost half in jersey which
12:56is my next destination thank you should be in jersey in about now 1940 had been a traumatic summer
13:06but the focus of the war was about to shift because that september the raf won the battle of britain
13:13and the germans were forced to put their invasion of england on hold by the end of 1940 it was clear
13:20that the channel islands were the only bit of british soil that hitler was going to be able to get his
13:24hands on at least for the moment the german war machine was ordered to transform these islands
13:31even tiny little herm and sark over there into island fortresses with the islanders trapped behind a
13:38curtain of guns bunkers and barbed wire but how are they going to be able to do that i'll be finding out
13:46tomorrow
13:58i've arrived in jersey to continue a walk through the channel islands wartime history
14:03this morning i'm treating myself to an al fresco breakfast at st obin's bay
14:12it's a lovely place to have my fried egg and bacon sandwich i think about the rest of the day
14:1970 years ago it would have looked very different around here that cafe for instance wouldn't have been
14:23a cafe it was a german bunker called resistance nest three and it didn't house a cappuccino machine
14:31but a 10.5 centimeter gun
14:37today i'm finding out how hitler's fixation with the channel islands transformed their appearance
14:45this leg of my journey will take me west from st oban's bay
14:49to the heavily fortified headland at la corbiere i'll then turn north for five miles along st one's
14:57beach before ending my day at a clifftop stronghold in leland a 15-mile journey in glorious sunshine
15:08in the summer of 1940 the german army had quite literally strolled into jersey
15:13british troops had abandoned these beaches without a fight
15:19but when the raf won the battle of britain hitler feared churchill might try to reclaim these islands
15:27hitler was obsessed with holding on to the channel islands the image of jack boots striding up and
15:33down british streets was a fantastic propaganda victory for him so he decided to turn the whole
15:39place into an impregnable fortress
15:43the islands became part of the atlantic wall a network of fortified bunkers stretching from norway
15:54to southern france building the wall took an estimated 17 million cubic meters of concrete
16:03well over a million of which was used here in the channel islands
16:06at the far end of the bay the germans modified an old railway line to carry ammunition and material
16:18today the line of the old tracks is my route to the west coast
16:22four miles of beautiful shaded walk through the island's interior
16:26you can see how the germans altered the island's infrastructure but you've got this lovely old jersey brickwork
16:36here and then suddenly wham german concrete to support this bridge so that the big trucks can go past overhead
16:46the railway walk is maintained as an arboretum
16:49it's a refreshing change from the heat of the beach and the canopy is filled with traditional oak trees palms and sycamores
17:01the railway line terminated here at corbier headland one of the island's best known landmarks
17:06corbier's lighthouse was built in 1874 and was the first in the british isles to be made of reinforced concrete
17:18but the germans now built new concrete structures right next to it
17:26look at this bunker those walls around about two meters thick
17:31you can see why the germans would have wanted to put up such impressive fortifications here
17:38from up here you can see almost the entire coast it's pretty lovely isn't it and you see that tower
17:46it's called an mp2 it's where range finders used to be able to direct fire onto enemy ships
17:54well that's what they used to do in the war now it's a holiday home
17:57these bunkers are now part of the tourist trail but historian paul sanders says their construction
18:06left the islanders with a terrible dilemma the germans demanded men to help build them but the local
18:12island authorities refused how could they do that under the hate convention or an occupier is not allowed to
18:20force people to work against their own country so the jersey authorities made it very clear to the
18:26germans that they that for certain types of work they wouldn't uh oblige they said that we can get
18:32people for you who will work on building airports or building bridges or infrastructure work that's
18:37not immediately war related but we're not going to help you building your gun emplacements and it's a
18:42nice moral stand to make but i would have thought that the army could go over the bridges and go past
18:47the gun emplacements that's the dilemma again here we go catch 22 yeah yeah but it's still a fairly elegant
18:53way out of out of this dilemma the civilian authorities walked a dangerous tight rope between
18:59protecting their own people and helping the enemy they're kind of caught between a rock and a hard
19:04place very much so there's always the slippery slope waiting for you yeah you can see you can
19:08exceed to german demands on some issue and then you know they they take your hand and they want the
19:14whole arm at the end of it the germans held most of the cards but they did have something to lose
19:21they wanted to build an empire that was somehow similar to the british empire so by getting hold
19:28of the channel islands it was like they got a little slice exactly yeah so if they dealt well
19:34yeah yeah yeah having so if they dealt well with the channel islanders it would hey guys this is
19:39what will happen if we take over britain we'll be fair exactly yeah it was a charm offensive here
19:44i'm now turning north heading up st one's bay which stretches for five miles as the tide goes out jersey
19:54grows in size by about a fifth making beaches like this the perfect place to land an enemy army
20:02this is a panzer mound german word of course panzer is the german word for tank it's up to 20 foot high
20:08curves at the top the foundations are covered in about six feet of sand and the reason that the
20:15germans were prepared to invest so much in the defenses here was because it was this open west coast where
20:21they thought the british would attack
20:26but the allies never had any intention of taking jersey back by force
20:30so one's anti-tank barrier was nothing but a huge drain on german resources
20:37and it wasn't the only one i'm leaving st one's beach and continuing north to leland
20:44jersey's largest maritime heathland and home of another serious fortification
20:51granite cliffs dominate this part of the island and gazing out across the atlantic ocean is one of the
20:58most complete world war ii gun batteries in existence
21:06this is battery maltka which is maintained by volunteers from the channel islands occupation
21:12society hi tony hello tony this is a beautiful gun isn't it absolutely superb yeah does it have a name
21:19yes it's a 15.5 centimeter k418f french field gun it was quite a serious piece of defense
21:27oh absolutely yes battery maltka was the first heavy battery to actually come to jersey march 1941
21:34this fearsome gun had a range of 12 miles
21:38it was one of four captured from the french and garrisoned by a hundred german soldiers
21:45where did they live where did they cook their tea well they had the exterior barracuts
21:49um for everyday things like that but when they're actually on action stations they had the subterranean
21:55corridors and personnel shelter to hide in
22:01once underground you realize how massive this battery is
22:04well i wasn't expected well it's something isn't it the tunnels have been restored along with signs and
22:10symbols you don't expect to see on british soil
22:15hitler had even grander plans for this place but the bigger guns never arrived the men inside
22:22trained and waited for an invasion that never came
22:27must have been very boring being stuck here i i i think they must have thought of home quite a lot
22:34actually did any of them try and get away well there's a few that actually tried to sign up for
22:39russian front there were some that really wanted to see action they'd rather be on the russian front
22:44some were really wanting to go but i'm sure that they some of the older ones realized that they're
22:50better off here absolutely
22:54it's rather comforting that hitler's prestige project turned out to be a white elephant
22:59the gun platforms are now surrounded by heather one of more than 200 plant species here
23:10it's in full bloom during july and august and it glows with color in the evening light as i reach the
23:16northwestern tip of the island it's pretty good viewpoint this isn't it there's sark
23:23herm little brecu guernsey over there and somewhere over the horizon alderley
23:33tomorrow i want to swap sides and find out what life was like for the islanders who lived in the
23:39shadow of these concrete fortresses but it's getting late and i've still got another couple of miles to go
23:45if i don't want to spend the night in a german bunker
23:57i'm in jersey on a hike through the island's wartime heritage
24:02and it's time to find out what life was like for local people during the nazi regime
24:06as well as the struggles of everyday life german rule threw up new kinds of moral dilemmas
24:17how far should you cooperate with the germans should you even speak to a german soldier could
24:22you or should you resist the occupation these weren't philosophical questions they were matters
24:28of life and death especially when the islanders were confronted with one of the darkest aspects of
24:35the occupation one which exposed the brutality of nazi rule
24:45i'm setting off from st one heading south for six miles towards the jersey war tunnels where i'll
24:51hear stories of courage and betrayal the footpaths disappear halfway across the island so i'll catch a
24:57lift continuing my walk back on the north coast a pleasant 12 mile hike but with some
25:05dark reminders of our recent past
25:18heading south i've come to the val de la mar reservoir
25:25from here there are stunning views over the west coast
25:28but if i'd been stood here 70 years ago i'd have been looking down on slave laborers from eastern europe
25:36being forced to build bunkers and the military railway
25:45in 1941 the german army had launched an invasion of the serviet union their advance eastward resulted in
25:53millions of prisoners many of whom were put to work all over europe so was this part of the defensive war
26:00dr jillie carr has spent years piecing together their story
26:05jillie it's hard to believe isn't it when you look out on that view that so much human suffering could have
26:10taken place there yeah it's true i think one of the stories that isn't told enough here is the story of the
26:15slave workers and force workers i mean the germans brought about 16 000 workers to the channel islands
26:22what's the difference between a forced worker and a slave you get paid if you're a force worker and you
26:27don't get paid if you're a slave worker the force workers are people who came from western europe but
26:32also the spanish republicans as well the people who were fleeing franco in spain germans had the spanish
26:38republicans used them to help build the atlantic wall in france and then brought them over to the channel
26:43islands the slaves were mostly russian and ukrainian prisoners of war over 3 million soviet pow's died
26:51at the hands of the germans during the war but 3 000 were brought to jersey these are the sort of
26:56people that the germans are treating really badly giving very little food they're kicked they're beaten
27:01when you read accounts in people's diaries it was shocking and some channel islanders tried to
27:06intervene to stop these people being beaten and kicked and generally treated like dirt what conditions did
27:11people live in when they were working here we know there are labor camps across the channel island
27:15there were 12 labor camps in jersey alone so i guess we should picture wooden barrack huts larga immelman
27:21would have been down there it was uh it was a russian slave worker camp and if we were living during
27:26the war we would have been able to see that from here this aerial photograph taken in 1943 is thought to
27:37to show where larga immelman once stood a circle of six huts surrounded by barbed wire
27:47some of the soviet prisoners living in the camp were marched to work many miles away
27:53and i'm heading east to see what they built
27:55this entrance was carved out of the rock by slave workers and there's not just one tunnel down there
28:10these are the jersey war tunnels
28:16they were intended to be an underground invasion shelter but there's nothing comforting about what
28:21went on here
28:32i find this really disturbing it's an unfinished tunnel and it gives you a very vivid sense of the dreadful
28:38conditions in which the slave laborers worked you can't go any further even today because of the risk
28:45of falling rocks
28:48we'll never know exactly how many prisoners died from exhaustion starvation and beatings
28:55but some are still buried here
29:03many islanders were so appalled by the treatment of the russian workers
29:07they risked their lives to help them
29:08louisa gould ran a local shop in st one and in 1942 she offered refuge to a prisoner
29:17who had escaped from nearby lager immelman
29:20he was feodor polikarpovich burich a russian pilot shot down in 1941
29:28bob lasur who's 93 remembers them both well
29:32what kind of woman was louisa gould she was a splendid individual and she had only just recently
29:42received a red cross message to say that her elder son had been lost at sea
29:49and her words to me were i had to do something for another mother's son
29:56feodor became known as russian bill and he stayed hidden at louisa's house for 18 months
30:05but in 1942 louisa was betrayed russian bill managed to escape but she was arrested and sentenced
30:13to two years in a german prison and this is where you come in i came in because i already knew him
30:21i put him in the filing room of my office and it must have been either easter or whitson it was a long
30:30weekend and so i had an extra day to find somewhere which was first a lock-up garage
30:38then a garden shed then the flat of a crusty old bachelor then the quite luxurious home of the crusty
30:47old bachelor's girlfriend and he survived in jersey till he survived in jersey with two young men sharing a
30:55flat until the liberation why did you do it why do you think louisa did it i think in most cases
31:03it was common humanity i think that was why i was doing it
31:20the war tunnels have been turned into a museum and it reveals how the occupation brought out the best
31:27and the worst of people one of the most chilling exhibits for me in this entire museum is this little
31:35collection of three letters all written to the germans by jersey citizens in which they denounce their
31:44neighbors uh look at this one it's written to find the envelope yes that one the commandant
31:53and it says please search brampton villa st union road for at least two wirelesses hidden underneath
32:03floorboards loft and cellars it is a lodging house and it's all in capitals so that no one will be able
32:11to identify who wrote it and okay this stuff is horrible it is disgusting but in a strange kind of
32:18way there's an upside isn't there because it shows that there was resistance going on there were acts
32:24of defiance there was some kind of secret heroism but bravery came with a high price 250 people who
32:33broke the german rules were sent to prison on the continent 29 of them never returned louisa gould
32:41died in ravensbrook concentration camp just a few months before the end of the war
32:54from the war tunnels i'm picking up the trail towards the north coast where there should be
32:59a view right across to france it's a pleasant walk along more of those walkers roads
33:05they take me past the museum of country life in hampton
33:12in 1941 islanders fought a daily battle against hunger the basic rations would later provide
33:19everyone with just a thousand calories a day everyday items became luxuries
33:27i've arranged to meet islander marion rossler for a coffee
33:30except this is a cup of wartime coffee brewed by chef sean rankin but made with parsnips
33:39it does smell a bit like it doesn't it uh great some parsnips and dried them out cooked them in the
33:44oven for around about 20 minutes and i was going to put them in the pestle and mortar grind them up and
33:47then see if we can try some coffee for islanders like marion substitute food became the norm
33:54ah look what you're going to have to drink thank you very much you're welcome
34:01right let's have a taste
34:05it's not that much like coffee but it's it it's like those old chicory coffees that used to have
34:10what was it like for you as a child having to eat all this wartime food
34:14i didn't know any different i suppose you didn't that's what you would have always remembered do you
34:19ever remember being hungry as a little girl yes i do i do remember being hungry we were very lucky in
34:25that we lived near the sea which was good for fish for fish bread was something very special and i can
34:32remember my brother and i found a loaf that was the weak supply for four of us we ate the lot my poor
34:40mother what could she do for the rest of the week but that's the way it was it's probably down to their
34:46diet that by the end of the war channel island children were on average one inch shorter than
34:52they should have been from hampton it's mostly roads until i reach the north coast
35:02so i'm getting a lift on what's known around here as a jersey van
35:08in the early days of the german occupation many islanders had their vehicles requisitioned
35:13but by 1944 fuel shortages meant that even the germans had to get around by horse
35:23by this point though germany was losing the war on all fronts
35:29the allies were on the offensive in russia and the mediterranean
35:34and their next target was jersey's closest neighbor
35:37there's normandy on the horizon just 19 miles away and in june 1944 the allied invasion over there
35:47gave the islanders hope that they too would soon be free liberation did come for them of course but
35:53not until may the following year and tomorrow i want to try and find out why it took so long
36:04some of the 11 000 planes that opened the path through the so-called impregnable atlantic wall
36:16on the 6th of june 1944 more than a hundred thousand allied troops stormed the beaches of normandy
36:23this was d-day the liberation of occupied france had begun just 15 miles from jersey
36:37here in the german occupied channel islands people didn't need to hear about d-day on their hidden
36:42wireless sets they could see and hear it for themselves
36:45the final morning of my wartime walk has brought me to saint catherine's bay on the east coast
36:54to see how the occupation came to an end i'm heading along the sprawling sandy beach of grouville bay
37:01and across into saint helia where liberation finally arrived in may 1945
37:06the fighting in france put the germans in jersey on high alert and their commander a proud professional
37:18soldier ordered his men to dig in at places like victoria tower where i'm meeting historian ian ronane
37:26they placed a an anti-aircraft gun on top of it there's famous pictures you'll see of a german and a gun
37:31pointing up the germans realized to their horror that despite their mighty atlantic wall their
37:37defenses on this side of the island were inadequate must have been an incredible psychological shift
37:43both for the germans and for jersey people once all that land was back in allied hands i think for
37:50the islanders it was a time of real mixed emotions you know firstly they could see the fighting going
37:54on and hear the fighting going on and therefore there was an elation about we may be liberated soon
38:00but progressive they realized that actually the germans were going to remain here and they were
38:04isolated and cut off why didn't churchill try and take the channel islands back after d-day i think
38:11churchill quite frankly would have taken them back at any time if he could have done but level
38:15heads were saying look you know this this would be such a catastrophic loss of life potentially so
38:21they made that decision to isolate the germans here and let them starve and you know churchill said
38:26it let them wither on the vine the downside of doing that of course is the locals starve alongside
38:30them in august all supplies stopped in nearby montalgai castle hungry germans watched as the allies
38:41cut off their lifeline to france churchill tried to persuade the occupiers to surrender
38:48but in reply the germans asked the allies to send the islanders food aid to make their own rations go
38:54further everyone on the island was competing for the same dwindling supplies and all faced starvation in
39:03the coming winter
39:11i'm pressing ahead along the royal bay of greuville which in 1944 was heavily mined so couldn't be fished
39:17hungry islanders couldn't even exploit traditional sources of food those black things they look like
39:26invasion craft don't they but they're not they're for farming oysters
39:33you'd get a lot of oysters out of one of them wouldn't you lovely
39:37walkers have to be a bit careful here the tide can come racing back in at more than six miles an hour
39:46that's probably faster than most people can run but after d-day several young islanders were willing
39:53to risk not just the strong currents but also the german patrols in order to escape to france
39:58i'm calling in on john floyd and his wife caret in november 1944 john took part in a daring attempt
40:07to sail away and join the british forces in normandy how old were you when you escaped i was 20
40:14just 21. and you two were courting yes why did you decide to escape was it patriotism
40:22adventure it's a bit old-fashioned now isn't it but i don't know it was i was brought up that way
40:28we would sort of left behind and our brothers and elders and all fighting the war which we heard
40:34about of course so naturally we felt out of it and um wanted to join them how did you feel about him
40:43escaping oh not very pleasant not and didn't enjoy the fact that he was going so many things went
40:49wrong you couldn't believe it was actually going to work caret helped john and two friends smuggle
40:56a dinghy onto the beach right under the noses of the german guards the plan was for the three young
41:02men to slip away in the dead of night a few weeks earlier someone else had attempted the same thing
41:08and been shot dead by the germans but that didn't dissuade determined young islanders but we got about
41:16a mile or two out and we met the people who were leaving at the same time in a different boat and they
41:22couldn't start their motor and we stopped to give them a tow and the water came over the back of the
41:29boat and and wet the outboard motor and that was finished then it wouldn't go after trying and failing
41:37to restart his engine john did eventually drift to france he found the british army but caret didn't
41:44know if he was alive or dead how long was it before you knew he was safe not till the following may
41:51when the war ended really yes and when were you reunited end of july beginning of august i think
41:58and you've been together ever since yeah more or less escapees like john confirmed to the british
42:07authorities just how desperate conditions were for the 40 000 islanders but help was on its way the
42:14allies had finally agreed to let the red cross in after a 50 mile journey i've arrived in st helia
42:22where on new year's eve 1944 the ss vega docked carrying 120 000 food parcels liberation still took
42:32another four months but the food kept the islanders alive through the winter and people took heart as
42:39the allies advanced into germany v for victory that started springing up all over the place
42:56by early may 1945 hitler was dead and the war was over into the harbor of st peter port on guernsey in the
43:05channel islands steams a british warship with the white ensign flying on the 9th of may two british
43:13destroyers hms's bulldog and beagle sailed into the channel islands and took the surrender of the german
43:20garrison jubilant crowds gathered in what's now liberation square 200 british troops marched into st helia
43:32and received as you can see a rapturous welcome the memorial at the center of the square is dedicated to
43:40all those who made that day possible it's now a tourist attraction and where i'm meeting bob
43:48marion and their fellow islander leo harris another day of liberation was incredibly important to everyone
43:55who was living in jersey but marion you were such a little girl do you actually remember it i do all i can
44:03remember was my parents being very very excited and saying that our boys were coming now i didn't know
44:10who our boys were but i knew that friendly airplanes were overhead so it must be something special and you
44:17got some photos my mother had a brownie camera and we saw our boys coming in and these are treasured
44:26possessions they really are leo was it very different for you most different thing i suppose was the fact
44:33that my brother had just come out of prison after six months he was taking a german army rifle so they'd
44:38locked him up without any trial and after we got over the joy of saying hello to him we came down here
44:44here with these homely british soldiers speaking in hampshire accents just here actually it was very
44:50spotless sitting in now did you get a sense that things had changed very much two spitfires shot over
44:58the bay came around zoomed over a second time and i burst into tears but i mean burst into tears with sobbing
45:13now in those days it was highly bad form to show any emotion of any kind in public and i couldn't
45:24control it but i happened to see a man of about 40 standing nearby who was also in tears and i didn't feel
45:33quite too badly it's been very moving to hear so many personal accounts of these wartime events
45:45i'm ending my walk at elizabeth castle in st helia where many germans found themselves staying on as
45:51prisoners of war from here the invaders could look back on the island they'd ruled for five years
45:59and wonder what it had all been for since the war the islanders have rebuilt their lives but they've
46:08preserved an assortment of bunkers and batteries as a reminder of their darkest hour and now it's beyond
46:15doubt that the occupation is part of the tourist trail but after 70 years it's beginning to move from
46:23living memory into history and i think it's reassuring that it's starting to become part of the island's
46:29future ensuring that what went on here in the war years will never be forgotten if you want to follow
46:37in my footsteps you can download a guide to my walk by going to www.channel4.com the life-changing injuries
46:46and the attitudes to disability arthur williams presents world war one forgotten heroes it's
46:52available to catch up with on 40d next tonight color tv and teletext all came in this decade
46:58but what are attitudes like it was all right in the 70s
Recommended
47:02
|
Up next
1:45:10
47:10
1:05:37
47:20
1:04:05
46:38
51:40
45:42
47:01
1:34:11
1:07:02
1:28:31