Jersey Thursday 10th May 1945. Crowds of islanders lingered around the Weighbridge still excited from recent historic events and exchange pleasantries with the British troops sitting on the Pomme d’Or Hotel’s balcony.
Jersey Thursday 10th May 1945. After the speeches the St James Boys Brigade Band, headed by Dae Donavan their drum-major, struck up a rousing march and marched out of the Royal Square followed by Lt-Col Robinson and the troops that had formed the Guard of Honour.
Jersey Thursday 10th May 1945. The section of crowd at the Pierson Hotel end of the Royal Square wait eagerly for the ceremony to begin.
Jersey Liberation Wednesday 9th May 1945. Local girls were eager to speak to the crew of the recently arrived Royal Navy vessels, as Sub-Lt Jimmy Cooper from the LCI(L) 130 soon found out.
The LCI(L) 130 moored alongside the New North Quay, St. Helier Harbour, Jersey. Almost immediately the main 'Omelette’ advance party of some 200 men began to land at 5pm on Wednesday 9th May.
The RAAF Sunderland aircraft, which provided air cover for HMS Cosby and LCI(L) 130, flew at low level over the Albert Pier, Jersey to show the flag
Three British soldiers guard the main gate at Fort Regent to prevent Jersey islanders from entering. John Langlois is the small boy on someone’s shoulders waving the Red Ensign, son of Fred and Mary Langlois. Third from left is 16-year-old Dennis Perrier.
A Royal Navy rating from HMS Beagle’s launch is also given a hero’s welcome by a group of Jersey islanders outside the Harbour Office at the Weighbridge.
Everyone on the Albert Pier in Jersey wanted their photograph taken with the first Liberators ashore. L to R: Miss Betty Richomme, Miss Haines, St John Ambulance Nurses back row unknown, Mary Martret, Margaret Sewell, Surgeon-Lieutenant Ronald McDonald, Miss Frazer, Sub-Lieutenant David Milln, unknown, Maurice Gautier and Major V. Cooke.
As the craft carrying the German Island Commander and the Bailiff of Jersey reached the head of Elizabeth Castle breakwater it was passed by the launch from HMS Beagle inward bound. As the launch passed through the pierheads the crowd could see that the men on board were wearing Royal Navy uniforms, and they let out loud cheers of welcome.
One of the small boats that had made the trip to HMS Beagle anchored in St Aubin’s Bay, Jersey. On returning to St Helier Harbour two on board are holding up copies of the previous day’s newspapers announcing VE-Day, thrown to them by sailors on board the destroyer.
The RM Stores in King Street, St. Helier, Jersey featured the big three. Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt, with 'Winnie’, standing on a map of Jersey, holding up Hitler by the seat of his breeches.
Tuesday 8th May 1945, the Jersey Bailiff, Alexander Coutanche, had a microphone erected on the balcony of the Royal Court witness room, facing the Royal Square. After the Prime Minister’s speech he spoke from the balcony to the crowd.
The gun crew of Flak Batterie Kapellendorf located off Les Grandes Capelles in St Sampson. This battery of four 8.8cm Flak 18 guns which were used in an anti-aircraft role. This sequence of photographs were taken in December 1941. Note the Luftwaffe insignia on the PT shirts.
The gun crew of Flak Batterie Kapellendorf located off Les Grandes Capelles in St Sampson. This battery of four 8.8cm Flak 18 guns which were used in an anti-aircraft role. This sequence of photographs were taken at Christmas 1941.
The gun crew of Flak Batterie Kapellendorf located off Les Grandes Capelles in St Sampson. This battery of four 8.8cm Flak 18 guns which were used in an anti-aircraft role. This sequence of photographs were taken in December 1941.
The gun crew of Flak Batterie Kapellendorf located off Les Grandes Capelles in St Sampson. This battery of four 8.8cm Flak 18 guns which were used in an anti-aircraft role. This sequence of photographs were taken in December 1941.
Flak Batterie Kapellendorf located off Les Grandes Capelles in St Sampson. This battery of four 8.8cm Flak 18 guns which were used in an anti-aircraft role. This sequence of photographs were taken in December 1941.
The gun crew of Flak Batterie Kapellendorf located off Les Grandes Capelles in St Sampson. This battery of four 8.8cm Flak 18 guns which were used in an anti-aircraft role. This sequence of photographs were taken in December 1941.
Big crowds gather on Liberation Day on May 9th 1946 to watch the procession in St Peter Port.
Big crowds gather on Liberation Day on May 9th 1946 to watch the procession in St Peter Port.
Big crowds gather on Liberation Day on May 9th 1946 to watch the procession in St Peter Port.
German soldiers with a local resident at one of the properties alongside the road leading down to Moulin Huet Bay with Jerbourg headland and the beach of Petit Port in the distance.
With Victoria Tower in the background a view of properties in Town taken by the entrance to The Close by Doyle Road.
Taken from the roof of a house near the junction of Les Gravees and Queens Road looking towards the spire of St Jospephs Methodist Church and Victoria Tower in the far distance.
Taken from the roof of a house near the junction of Les Gravees and Queens Road looking towards the spire of Notre Dame Roman Catholic Chapel and convent.
Enjoying a stroll around Guernsey’s southern cliffs a group of Germans stop for a rest near Moulin Huet by Dog and Lion Rocks with the small harbour at Saints Bay seen in the background.
Two German soldiers stop to enjoy the views on the cliifs just west of Pointe De La Moye which can be seen in the background.
A German soldier relaxes on a rock outcrop sited on the coastal footpath leading to Pointe De La Moye with Icart headland in the background.
A typical stop for German troops seeking propaganda photographs featuring British institutions here outside Lloyds Bank located at the foot of Smith Street leading to the Pollet.
HMS Bulldog (Destroyer) H 91 off St Peter Port, Guernsey, on Wednesday morning, 9th May, 1945.
Funeral service for Royal Navy victims of HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne who were buried with full military honours at Le Foulon Cemetery.
Funeral service for Royal Navy victims of HMS Charybdis and HMS Limbourne who were buried with full military honours at Le Foulon Cemetery.
Two soldiers who were killed when clearing their own mines immediately after the occupation are buried in the cemetery near St Peters church in Sark.
Mrs Annie Rebenstorff an English born lady who married a German national and had lived in that country prior to WW1. During the Occupation she was renowned for the work she did to aid islanders in Sark, so much so she was know as 'The Mother of Sark'.
German half-tracks were linked together and used to transport heavy loads such as the guns of Batterie Mirus. Seen here is one of the huge carriages that will eventually mount the 30.5cm gun barrel sitting on a 24 wheeled trailer being towed past the White Rock weighbridge.
Heavy construction equipment was used during the building of the fortifications, this crane with fitted with a grab was used during the excavation process. Photographed at the top of the slipway next to the Albert statue, note the road sign painted at the foot of the wall and the 'Antee’ floating crane seen in the background.
A Guernsey police officer and German chauffeur stand by the Commandants car while he pays a visit to the Little Chapel at Les Vauxbelets, Guernsey.
Food from the SS Vega being unloaded by Germans from railway wagons whilst supervised by the St John's Ambulance in St Peter Port.
Major F. Sargent, Lt-Col Rogers and an Evening Post reporter at Les Landes, 1946. The cliffs at Les Landes, St Ouen, Jersey are sheer and over 200 feet high. These were chosen as the most suitable site for dumping all the German medium and heavy coastal artillery pieces.
A French Char B1-bis tank in one of the German chambers of the tunnel now converted into the Aquarium. These were captured tanks brought to the islands by the Germans as part of Panzer unit 216. The tank was photographed prior to its removal in 1952.
The Germans installed a railway network to move food and materials around the island, these were used extensively during the construction of the fortifications. This derelict locomotive lies in St Sampson along Bulwer Avenue with various rolling stock prior to being scrapped.
An ex-RAF Coles mobile crane lifts a depth charge found at Batterie Mirus by workers of John Upham during the scrap metal drive of the early 1950’s. The charge was originally thought to be a large grease drum used in the operation of the gun, camouflaging its true lethal purpose.
Shortly after Liberation the massive task of clearing ammunition began. The majority of the ammunition was loaded aboard LCTs by German PoW s and taken to the eastern end of Hurd Deep where the water is some 550 feet deep. This image shows the loading of ammunition at Northside, Vale.
The last of the French Char B1 tanks is loaded onto a Landing Craft Tank (LCT), at La Haul Slip, St Aubin’s Bay, Jersey on the 17th May, 1946. These tanks had been captured by the Germans and formed Panzer Abteilung 213 that was stationed in the island. They were returned to France and the French Army.
Britain’s first commando and one of Guernsey’s most respected war heroes, Lieutenant Hubert F. Nicolle, twice landed in German occupied Guernsey on spying missions. He spent his twenty-first birthday in solitary confinement, in the notorious Cherche Midi Prison located near Paris, under sentence of death by firing squad.
A Sergeant and ten soldiers took over Sark at the beginning of the occupation, at the end there were almost three hundred. This image shown German troops marching along the Avenue.
People queuing at the junction of the Rohais and La Foulon to collect rations of sea water in which to boil food as salt was unobtainable.
Oberst (Colonel) Knackfuss, Guernsey Feldkommandantur, with Mr. G.MacDonald, caretaker of Jethou.