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The German Garrison Forgotten At The End Of WWII
“We’ve been forgotten by the British.”
There are a series of rocky islands in the southern English Channel called The Minquiers, pronounced: “Minkies.” These tidal islands rise and fall with the swells, and very few of them remain out of the water for long periods of time. The largest island measures just 50 meters across. The islands lay north of Saint-Malo, France, and include the southernmost buildings in the British Isles, a collection of huts and shacks. There are no permanent inhabitants of these islands.
It is unsurprising to learn that such isolated and remote islands were the site of one of World War II’s oddest stories. While uninhabited today, during World War II, Nazi Germany had established a small listening post on the islands. The outcroppings provided the perfect place for Germans to lie low and watch passing shipping and planes. During the war, a small armed force stayed in the huts on the islands and communicated with their headquarters on Jersey in the Channel Islands via radio. The Germans relayed information about shipping in the Channel for years with little interference.
The End of the War
Nazi Germany officially surrendered its military struggle on May 8th, 1945. All forces were ordered to lay down their arms and surrender to the nearest Allied forces. The Channel Islands, the only piece of home territory successfully seized by Germany during the war, were liberated on May 9th, 1945.
As the Third Reich collapsed, the radio link connecting the tiny garrison on the Minkies was severed. The Germans on the island were left in the dark and had no way of knowing what was going on. They could not receive additional orders or supplies. Worst of all, they didn’t even have a boat. When Jersey was recaptured by the British, the tenuous link between the isolated garrison and the Third Reich was broken.
In the confusion of the surrender, the British had no idea that there were Germans camped out on the Minkies. The Germans on the tiny island had no way of calling for help from Germany or from nearby Britain or France. They were stuck.
While the islands lay inside the busy English Channel, they are small and out of the way. The only way the…
