Its great to see people discussing the history of the Occupation on this site as it is one of those events that's so easily overlooked. I was particularly interested to see JCFalkenbergIII's comments about the Granville raids in the opening post. I recently published on the web an interview by a German soldier called Artur Bock who directly referred to that event and how it was viewed as a suicide mission. The interview is at In Toni's Footsteps: The Channel Islands Occupation

I myself had the pleasure of growing up in Guernsey until I left for Uni in 1996. It was as idealic a childhood as one could ever hope for and part of that was down to being surrounded by the most amazingly preserved examples of WW2 fortifications virtually anywhere in Europe. I used to play around the bunkers with my brother and all my friends, playing "Germans and British" in the day and scaring each other witless by exploring and telling ghost stories in the night. It wasn't until I was older and got speaking to my grandad that the realities of the Occupation hit home including the famous near starvation of everyone, the deportations to German POW camps, the SS camp in Alderney, the shameful collaboration and betrayals that affected many people's lives.

Since then its a subject that's fascinated me- its been covered in books, magazines anda few documentaries but few ever seemed to do the full story justice. I myself produced a documentary called In Toni's Footsteps: The Channel Islands Occupation Remembered that tried to look at all sides including the German experience (in all honesty most Islander personal account books treat them as cardboard cut out bad guys rather than human beings), which I was interested in because no-one of the older generation ever used to mention the soldiers themselves.

If anyone on this site is interested in eye witness accounts from the Occupation, then please keep an eye on my website In Toni's Footsteps: The Channel Islands Occupation as I am creating a blog archive of personal interviews and written accounts about the Occupation that I've accumulated during my research for the film, which I'd love to expand to a true online archive if I can get the backing fo the States of Jersey and Guernsey. We interviewed over two dozen German soldiers and islanders from Jersey and Guernsey about the events of the war years and all these interviews are being transcribed and put online along with any other third party submissions people can provide me with, clips of the film, a shop containing every Occupation related book I could find and image galleries.

If you know anyone with any info that can help expand the site, please encourage them to submit them as I would love to hear from them.

Also I have set up an account on Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing if you search for group "Occupation Archive" there's a bunch of images relating to the general Occupation, Toni film and more (submissions again very welcome!).

If anyone has any questions about the Occupation I'd be glad to try and help answer them!

Thanks

Carl Timms