Germany and the Channel Islands
It has pleased the German High Command to announce the occupation of the island of Guernsey as a "daring coup de main" of the German Air Force. Why " daring " is not evident, since there were no British armed forces there, no military equipment, and no intention of offering resistance. The Channel Islands lie just off the coast of Normandy, and could soon be brought under gun-fire from the French coast. If they were of strategic value there would be a case for fortify- ing and holding them. But to the Germans they offer no advan- tages which control of the coasts of Normandy and Brittany does not confer, and their defence in such circumstances is impossible. The decision to demilitarise the islands, taken a week earlier, was announced by the Home Office last Friday. By that time the children and much of the adult population had already been evacuated, armed forces and equipment with- drawn, and most of this year's produce of the staple crops has been shipped. The subsequent bombing of the islands by German aircraft, characteristically wanton and barbarous as it was, is perhaps attributable to a desire to embarrass the last stage of evacuation.
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