When the officer of the Guernsey garrison (forgot his name) requested his troops to surrender witht the Nazi salute, his soldiers told him to go to hell and refused to do so. They were just fed up and wanted to go home. Similar raids were made in the Lorient pocket. It was bravery but it was mostly dictated by despair and starvation. The example you mention is about coal, but sometimes soldiers died for a patato field (example near Lorient). The main reason why the Guernsey pocket remained almost intact was because the soldiers had no chance to desert. Those in pockets on the continent often crossed the lines and surrendered to French or U.S. troops. I'm not certain that the 60 men who were freed at Granville who thought the war was over for them, were particulary happy to follow these soldiers to the front, luckily for them it was a short period.

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