My daughter has decided to do her World War 2 homework on Alderney as we are spending our summer holiday there.
Does anyone have any photos or stories regarding Alderney during WWII, she has about a week to do her homework so this weekend's quite important to get some info together.
Also the kids + another families kids are entering the sandcastle competition where we are there and they are hoping to build a sandcastle of Alderney with all the forts etc.
I heard that after the war when the island was liberated the Germans and POW's were all starving and had no heating oil. They had resorted to burning doors and windows from houses on the Island in the previous winter. Many Germans had to remain for up to a year to fix the damage and remove defences. It's a great story and worth checking to see if it's all true.
I heard that after the war when the island was liberated the Germans and POW's were all starving and had no heating oil. They had resorted to burning doors and windows from houses on the Island in the previous winter. Many Germans had to remain for up to a year to fix the damage and remove defences. It's a great story and worth checking to see if it's all true.
Excellent! thanks dude The kids can use google but I'm trying to show them that there's more out there
There are some excellent books specifically about Alderney and the war. One was published very recently 'Festung Alderney' which was a follow up to an earlier edition 'The Fortifications of Alderney'. They were written by two local experts; Trevor Davenport and Colin Partridge. Both authors still live on the island and I'm pretty sure would be happy to give some help to your daughter if you asked nicely. PM me if you want contact details. It would also be very worthwhile making a visit to the museum (typically only open mornings). There is lots of info available and various books and pamphlets that you can buy there.
Alderney was the only Channel Island almost completely evacuated and the earlier comment about timbers in houses being stripped out as firewood is correct. Many houses were also used as target practice. When the islanders returned all the remaining furniture from the wrecked houses was gathered together and placed up on the Butes. The returning islanders were then able to identify what was theirs and take possession of it again.
Other interesting tidbits include the fact that Alderney was the only British soil to have German concentration camps on it. There were four camps namley Lager Sylt, Lager Normandy, Lager Helgoland and Lager Borkum. The campsite is where one of them was located and the concrete bases for the current cabins are a legacy of the time. You can still see the gate posts to Sylt behind the airport by the old VOR tower. There are obviously some very grim aspects to all of this so you may want to be a little bit selective.
You can still see the anti tank defences on Platte Saline including the metal spiky things not dissimilar to what you throw in a game of Jacks.
There are lots of anecdotes floating around and I think a couple of YouTube clips. Google Iris Godfrey as Channel TV interviewed her a few years back about her experiences.
Thanks everyone for your help regarding this Homework, since the kids were shown how to copy and paste from Wikipedia at school their homework has become degree standard over night
So asking questions and reading books were part of this homework.
So thanks again everyone and thank you for the book Andre
The homework is now complete And what an interesting subject
Tickler
And what an interesting subject 
