Incredible as it may seem today, detailed plans were drawn up to
re-capture the Channel Islands, the most heavily fortified of all
the German-occupied territories, regardless of the potentially
severe' loss of life and the widespread destruction to the property
of the British citizens. Under the codenames Constellation, Condor,
Concertina, and Coverlet, the islands of Jersey, Guernsey and
Alderney were to be attacked in 1943. The operation against
Alderney would be preceded by a bombardment by between 500 and 600
medium/light bombers and an astonishing forty to fifty squadrons of
fighters. The official papers which have now become available state
that: The islands cannot be taken without causing some civilian
casualties. In the case of Alderney, it is thought that the air
bombardment will have to be on such a scale that all personnel on
the island will have to become casualties.' A similar number of
aircraft would attack Guernsey while, for the assault upon Jersey,
thirty-one squadrons of heavy bombers and strike aircraft would
bombard the island's east and west coasts. This would be followed,
on D-Day, by parachute and infantry landings and then a commando
assault in the south-west. On Day 2 of the operation the first of
the tanks were to land, with more armour and infantry to follow on
subsequent days. As the German garrison of the Channel Islands was
some 40,000 strong, the islands would be turned into an enormous
battlefield, and a vast killing ground. The consequences for the
Islanders were almost too horrendous to imagine and the political
fallout beyond calculation if the operations failed in their
objectives after the devastation and loss of British lives that the
fighting had caused. Despite all this, it was thought that such
operations would become the second front' so persistently demanded
by Stalin to draw German troops from the Eastern Front and might
also help the Allied forces which were about to invade Italy -
Operation Husky - from North Africa. Equally, the Channel Islands
would be the ideal base for the D-Day invasion of France scheduled
for 1944. There was much then in favour of mounting the operations
against the Channel Islands regardless of the fact that it meant
the death of untold British citizens at the hands of British troops
and the Allied air forces. The Allied Assault Upon Hitler's Channel
Island Fortress is, therefore, the first detailed analysis of what
would have been the most controversial operation ever undertaken by
the British and American armed forces.
General
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