Jersey Liberation Weekend

The Rapide G-AGTM did indeed land on the beach- memories of the time that Viv Bellamy had make an emergency landing on the beach at Biarritz in appalling weather in G-AIYR circa 1960.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42392

The Rapide G-AGTM did indeed land on the beach- memories of the time that Viv Bellamy had make an emergency landing on the beach at Biarritz in appalling weather in G-AIYR circa 1960.

Jersey

I made a mistake with reference to Dave Homewoods query, the south west France last redoubts were on the estuary out of Bordeux, to the west of Royan, can’t find my French map as the house is in upheaval, but there is a headland there with some massive fortifications which I have visited, I gather it prevented the use of the port for some time.
When the Germans left Jersey all their artillery was dumped in the sea, some has been recovered since I was there 40 years ago, in those days some of the farmers were driving around in Mercedes trucks from the occupation, and there were real treasures to be found in some of the bunkers, a lot of it had just been left untouched. My mate went to Guernsey and got into an ammo store, finding loaded machine guns and grenades.
I remember flying back to East Midlands Airport that year in an empty BM Handley Page Herald, as an excited 15 year old I was allowed to sit in the cockpit all the way across the Channel, unfortunately we hit a severe thunderstorm and I had to go back and strap in, now that was hair raising.
We should be about halfway through Duxford by now and the weather here, only about 15 miles away, is appalling, I have’nt been able to go because of my hand injury, perhaps that was lucky considering the weather, however I have just heard the sound of some heavy metal props in transit to the east of the village, couldn’t see what they were though.

A totally fascinating period of history I knew nothing about till tonight thanks to this thread and the radio.

I know the TV series ‘Enemy At The Door’ was set in the Channel Islands, but is it considered to be an accurate portrayal of events? I’m too young to remember it.

If I remember right Enemy at the Door was based on event in Sark, and drew on the experience of the the Dame of Sark, a formidable lady !!!! I don’t recall much of the series myself, though the more recent series which was filmed in the Isle of Man, was complete and utter bull’t.

some info

Hi,
Just some info,
an extract from the RAF harrowbeer station record diary

12 may 1945, aircraft of 26Sq patrolled the channel islands to ensure the safe arrival of the main force which was to liberate the channel islands, one of the aircraft , Mustang I, AP219, crashed on landing, swinging off the runway and into a blast pen , killing LAC Marsh.

Possibly one of the last deaths as a result of WW2 ( in UK ) ?

Cheers
Jerry

By almost complete co-incidence I just heard a really interesting account on New Zealand’s National Radio programme “Sounds Historical”. Historian John Dunmore who lives in Auckland apparently grew up in the Channel Islands and lived on Jersey through the war. He wrote a piece for the programme, read by the presenter Jim Sullivan. It is quite astounding how cut off and affected the islands became it seems, much worse off than the French in terms of rationing and other hardships.

He also related his memories of VE day where the locals and the Germans all stood in the town square but there was no jubilation in case things turned nasty with the occupiers.

A totally fascinating period of history I knew nothing about till tonight thanks to this thread and the radio.

I know the TV series ‘Enemy At The Door’ was set in the Channel Islands, but is it considered to be an accurate portrayal of events? I’m too young to remember it.

Very nice pictures Ian, have you had chance for a flight yet? If it wasn’t for my hectic university finals I’d have found my way down there this weekend, oh well cest la vie 😉

(at least I will probably avoid Rapide cleaning duty…..)

Hi Will, going to the airport this morning to sign up for a flight, I see the Company Chairman plans to land the Rapide on the beach at St Aubins at 5pm on Monday. Hopefully we’ll get a few shots to post here. The BBMF will also be in attendance as will the Red Sparrows.

Very nice pictures Ian, have you had chance for a flight yet? If it wasn’t for my hectic university finals I’d have found my way down there this weekend, oh well cest la vie :rolleyes:

(at least I will probably avoid Rapide cleaning duty…..)

I’m flying down to Jersey and meeting Ian tomorrow. Never been before so really looking forward to it. I’m there just for the day, flying back to BHX early evening. Really looking forward to being able to see some of the commemorative events.

Regards,

kev35

Thanks Pete, that’s really interesting.

Nice photos Ian. Thanks for sharing them.

Please excuse my ignorance, but who actually liberated the Channel Islands? British Army? Americans? Canadians? Royal Navy?

And why did it take so long after D Day? I’d have thought they’d have been taken soon after the French landings. I’m quite surprised to hear it was not till the end of the war.

The problem with Jersey was that it had been turned into a massively fortified island, any invasion attempt would have resulted in a bloodbath to invaders and locals alike. The decision was taken to starve the Germans out, the locals were recieving Red Cross parcels while the Germans were reduced to eating rats.Following the German capitulation at Luneberg Heath, a token British force arrived at Jersey in a destroyer and accepted the German surrender without any fighting.
There were similar pockets of German resistance in south west France on the mouth of the estuary up from Marsaille.
When I was a kid and did rather foolish things like climbing cliffs, I was at Bouley Bay on the north of Jersey and halfway up the cliffs found a line of canon shells sticking out of the rockface, I always assumed that this the result of a straffing attack by the RAF.

Nice photos Ian. Thanks for sharing them.

Please excuse my ignorance, but who actually liberated the Channel Islands? British Army? Americans? Canadians? Royal Navy?

And why did it take so long after D Day? I’d have thought they’d have been taken soon after the French landings. I’m quite surprised to hear it was not till the end of the war.

Ian

Hope the weather is kind to the Jersey events. Look forward to seeing more pictures.

Lovely shots, especially the third. Use less JPG compression though, as it kinda ruins it…

That sunset shot’s nice Ian, I like that a lot. 🙂