How normal life began to resume in the aftermath of the Occupation
This page consists mainly of a collection of photographs of life in Jersey in the days and weeks after the end of the war, but here are two links to special sections of the website
Hedley Clement's diary: A detailed account of how Jersey returned to pre-war normality; sometimes slowly, sometimes surprisingly rapidly
Evacuees' applications to return
Force 135
The next set of photographs, taken in the days immediately following the Liberation, show members of Force 135, the army unit sent to help start Jersey on the route back to normal life. Some of them were taken by members of Force 135, others by the Evening Post and other local photographers
Bailiff Alexander Coutanche addresses the crowd in the Royal Square
A window display at R M Stores in King Street, thanking allied leaders
Prisoners released from Newgate Street prison
A German vessel heads out to HMS Beagle
Landing craft on the New North QUay
HMS Cosby
This picture is said to show the Bailiff at the Weighbridge, but we are not certain that he is in the photograph
Three Jerseymen selected as part of Force 135 - Privates Ahier, de Gruchy and Mangan
ARP volunteers about to be deployed to keep important routes to the harbour clear for the liberating troops to move equipment
A member of Force 135, Captain Le Brocq, meets old friends
Colonel Robinson briefs a war correspondent
Landing craft in Victoria Harbour
Communicating with the offshore naval vessels from the Weighbridge
Brothers Kevin and Bernard Le Cocq reunited
Troops carry mortars as they are deployed to defensive positions
Soldiers wait at the Weighbridge
A DUKW arrives with more equipment
DUKWs lined up at the Weighbridge
Town pilots return after guiding Force 135 vessels to shore
Liberators mix with islanders at West Park
Landing craft
Landing craft
Processing German prisoners at St Lawrence
Force 135 members happily pose for a photographer
Prisoners of war clearing anti-tank defences at Archirondel
The King and Queen arrive in Jersey
The Bailiff meets participants in a football match on 18 May 1945
The King and Queen tour the island
Queen Elizabeth in Jersey
A memorial service to honour the bravery of Francois Scornet
The bodies of US servicemen ready to leave the island in 1946 - Picture Evening Post
A proper funeral in 1945 for Frenchman Francois Scornet, executed by the Germans in 1941 - Picture Evening Post
The colours of the Island Militia return to the island in 1946 - Picture Evening Post
Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery visits Jersey in 1947 - Picture Evening Post
Field Marshal Montgomery visits Jersey in 1947
A salute by Field Marshall Montgomery in 1947
Saluting the returning Militia colours in 1946 - Picture Evening Post
German guns are dumped over the cliff at Les Landes in 1946. They were recovered some years later. Picture Evening Post
The large bunker at Gorey Harbour was finally demolished in 1972 to create a coach park - Picture Evening Post
The drumhead service held at the Weighbridge on 25 August 1945 - Picture Evening Post
Large numbers of islanders and troops attended the drumhead service held at the Weighbridge on 25 August 1945 - Picture Evening Post
French tanks brought to the island by the Germans are shipped back - Picture Evening Post
One year on, and People's Park is the venue for Liberation Day celebrations in 1946]]
A long queue outside Lloyds bank as residents try to change their Reichsmarks
The 1946 celebrations on People's Park
The 1946 celebrations on People's Park
The 1946 celebrations on People's Park
Crowds watch the Empire Day parade on 24 May 1945
French tanks lined up on the Circus Field at Millbrook, ready to be sent back to France
The Empire Day parade on Victoria Avenue
Viscount Montgomery with the Bailiff and Lieut-Governor in 1948
People's Park celebrations in 1946
Visit of Home Secretary Herbert Morrison in 1945
An arch erected on Victoria Avenue for the 40th anniversary in 1985
Breaching a German sea wall in 1946 to restore access to the beach
Empire Day
German guns are taken away to be dumped at sea
A German officer now a prisoner of war
German soldiers were supervised in the clearing of mines after the Liberation
The September 1945 memorial service for Francois Scornet
Breaking through the bunker at Bel Royal to open up the slipway again
Visit of Field Marshal Montgomery in 1947
German prisoners removing a defence installation on the Albert Pier
Removing a bunker blocking the slipway at Beaumont in 1946
Empire Day parade on 24 May 1945
Diagram of layout for first anniversary of Liberation celebrations in People's Park in 1946
Removing railway track at Commercial Buildings
German prisoners of war arrive in Southampton
Kingsley Avenue, St Clement, holds a Liberation anniversary celebration
Field Marshal Montgomery.s visit in 1947
German prisoners of war landed at Southampton
German trains in 1946
German guns in a pile ready for disposal
Mine clearance
German prisoners were required to clear barbed wire at the Harbour
Church parade in July 1945
The Bailiff's address
Drumhead service
Barbed wire at Gorey
Guns over the cliff
Evacuees property stored awaiting their return
Token issued by the States in 1946 to mark the Liberation
Liberation token
German trains waiting to be shipped out of the island
Life quickly returned to something like normality. This was a church outing to Greve de Lecq in summer 1945
Fencing awaits removal in front of Commercial Buildings in May 1945
The Union Flag raised on Les Minquiers shortly after the Liberation
A storeroom full of confiscated radios
Brigadier Snow and Bailiff Coutanche on the dais for the Empire Day parade in 1945
Defensive obstacles yet to be removed from the Esplanade in 1945
An Evening Post picture of German prisoners removing rail tracks in front of Commercial Buildings at St Helier Harbour in 1945
Prisoners put to work in Green Street
German prisoners put to work clearing coastal defences at Millards Corner
Setting explosives in a gun turret in the early 1950s
The result of the explosion
Ammunition collected in Queen's Valley ready for disposal
Evacuees welcomed home
The first post-Liberation commercial flight
Soldiers return
Evening Post Liberation supplement
These individual photographs, some of which can be found elsewhere in our Liberation galleries, were taken from a rather faded copy of the supplement
The Queen talks to wives of servicemen
The King and Queen outside the States Building with Bailiff Alexander Coutanche
The King inspects a guard of honour of liberating soldiers in the Royal Square
The King and Queen at the Harbour
Guard of honour at the Harbour
Autographs for eager young ladies
First sight of a jeep for these youngsters
Naval contingent in the Empire Day parade
Army vehicles cross St Aubin's Bay
A landing craft attracted curious islanders
The Queen meets ex-servicemen
In the Royal Square
The King meets British Legion members
The Queen meets WREN sisters
RAF posting
His family do not know why, but Flight Lieutenant John Duncan Crombie, DFC, of Bomber Command, was briefly posted to Jersey in September and October 1945. These pictures show him somewhere on the island's coast and on the deck of a landing craft in St Aubin's Bay; and also a photograph of the Airport where he was based, and aerial views of the island he apparently took
Prisoner of war letter
Red Cross letters sent to and from Jersey during the Occupation, and letters from German troops to their families, remain fairly common. This letter sent home by a German prisoner-of-war a year after the Liberation is much more of a rarity.
We are grateful to Malcolm Amy for supplying this information:
- 'St Peter's Barracks became a prisoner-of-war camp (No 802 POW Camp) on 24 May 1945 to house 1,680 German engineers, weapons experts and vehicle mechanics, who were retained in Jersey to remove land mines and other lethal stuff. The POWs soon became a familiar sight as they cleared barbed wire, lifted explosives, disarmed artillery batteries and repaired property. At first they were driven to site under a heavy guard by British troops in Bedford 3-ton lorries. But as the British military presence diminished the Germans drove themselves to site and by the end of 1945 a working camaraderie had developed between the PoWs and their guards, based on their shared aim of release or demobilisation. The last group of five German PoWs left Jersey on 30 July 1946.'
It seems likely that Karl Haarbach, the sender of this card, was one of those five. He wrote that he was 'fine' and 'healthy', but there is no suggestion that he knew that his release was just weeks away.
A permit to travel to Jersey. The date is not clear, but was probably February 1946
Rationing continued
Clothing ration book from 1946
Rationing was still in force long after the Liberation - this book is from the early 1950s
Liberation celebrations
A 21st century Liberation anniversary celebration on the beach at West Park
Programme for a celebration concert in 1990
Commemorative stamps
During the Occupation stamps were produced in Jersey from designs by local artist Edmund Blampied. In 1948, to celebrate the third anniversary of the Liberation, the British Post Office released new stamps incorporating Blampied drawings
