Top-rated
2015
On 30th June 1940 a plane full of German soldiers touched down at Guernsey airport. It was the start of 5 years of occupation. The traditional image of the Channel Islands is sun, sea and sandy beaches. But Tony embarks on a 5 day walk to explore the darkest chapter in the Islands' history, which 70 years on is itself becoming a tourist draw. Starting out in Guernsey to uncover memories of the German aerial attack on the port and the invasion itself, Tony voyages to Jersey which is littered with physical reminders of the Nazi presence. Although of little strategic importance, the Islands were of great propaganda value to Hitler. He ordered extraordinarily large fortifications to be built along the vulnerable coastline. Slave labour was imported and today there are still clear memories of the life and times of those slaves. Tony circumnavigates the island following the story of the Occupation - the brutality, the shock, the difficult balance between co-operation and resistance. In 1944 D Day may have taken Allied troops right past the Islands - but the Islanders and the occupying army were left to cope with few supplies, for the best part of another year before Allied troops landed to accept the German surrender.