The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Nazis during World War Two...
and now filmed on the beautiful islands of Guernsey & Alderney, using the only German newsreel footage shot during the occupation and listening to those incredible islanders who survived German rule, this most remarkable story is told here in Brian Matthews' gripping and highly acclaimed television documentary, now available on DVD..!
Massive German fortifications effectively turned these British Channel Islands into what some people knicknamed 'Hitler's Anchored Battleships', so heavy was the firepower that could be brought to bear on the shiping lanes between the islands and the French coast-line. Now unique wartime footage shows us 'then', while Colin Partridge, author of the book 'Mirus - The making of a Battery', shows 'now' as we visit the immaculately preserved German bunkers, gun emplacements, underground hospitals and munitions tunnels. All of these were built, at some significant loss of life, by Russian slave labourers, effectively making the Channel Islands the most heavily fortified part of Hitler's 'Festung Europa'.
In this fascinating documentary you will experience poignant, moving and sometimes humorous stories as Channel Islanders now recall their own very personal memories of over 60 years ago as rare combat newsreels of German troops in action and the Waffen-SS on parade in Paris, contasts with the stunning film of a British 'bobby' chauffeuring the German Kommandant, and the incredible sight of a German infantry unit in full parade uniform marching up an English high street, in rehearsal for Hitler's planned invasion of the British mainland....and we ask : Could this have been Britain... if Hitler had won?
Also witness at first hand the remains of the only SS-run Nazi concentration camp on British soil and through this film personally tour Guernsey's stunning German Occupation Museum to view Richard Heaume's superb & rare collection of uniforms, weapons, medals, daggers and other amazing military & civilian artefacts, all left behind when the German garrison surrendered to British liberating forces in May 1945 after 5 long years of occupation... without firing a shot..!
"I must write to congratulate you on a very neat production, first class and much more honest and factual than some of the rubbish we've had to endure on television lately....."
W M Ginns MBE, Hon Secretary, The Channel Islands Occupation Society - Jersey.
This DVD also offers a 40 minute bonus: "Stars on the Landscape".
Produced by David Williams, (and narrated by Tomahawk's Brian Matthews), with the assistance of Jersey's German Occupation Society, this is a terrific 'behind the scenes' look at some of the finest German Fortifications of Hitler's Atlantic Wall, all sympathetically restored by Jersey volunteers - a cracking film!!
World Play (all regions) DVD. Duration: 90 mins. Price : UK £16.95 (inc UK p & p) Overseas £17.95
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