Moustache - HANDLEBAR, PENCIL, HORSESHOE OR TOOTHBRUSH.

We have just spent 10 days on Jersey and Guernsey. These are part of the Channel Islands, just off the northwest coast of France.  

Today the Channel Islands consist of Alderney, Guernsey, Sark and Jersey.

Some history from the BBC:

“The Channel Islands were owned by the Duchy of Normandy, and passed to the English Crown when William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066.”

“The islands are not part of the United Kingdom or European Union, but rather are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations. Their inhabitants are British citizens.”

During WWII the Nazis occupied all four of the islands from 1940 until the end of the war in 1945.

On June 15, 1940 Britain left the islands undefended and they were demilitarised.

Hitler believed that the islands could become a ‘stepping stone’ to an invasion of Britain.

The Nazi invasion of the islands had a profound influence on the local population. This is physically evident by the infrastructure that they left behind.

They built lookouts, fortifications, gun placements and storage depots. Much of this work was carried out by by workers from a forced labour camp that was situated on Alderney.

There was even a concentration camp there.

As you drive around you are constantly reminded by just how much the Germans built and how well they built it.

Today most of what was constructed in those five years remains intact.

Surprisingly, this has had a beneficial influence on the islands today.

Most of the fortifications, such as the bunkers and gun placements, were built along the coastline and then joined by containment walls, This has left a legacy of coastal erosion barriers that today keep the rising water at bay.

These structures are also a great tourist attraction and many are open to the public.

Rarely anything good comes from war but in this case there have been some benefits.