A gallery of photographs of German troops at work during the Occupation of Jersey

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German troops on duty


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This is almost certainly the largest collection of photographs of German soldiers, sailors and Luftwaffe on duty in Jersey during the 1940-1945 Occupation.
Most were taken by official German photographers, and these have largely come from the Berlin Bundesarchive and other German collections.
A number, however, including amateur snapshots taken by the men themselves or clandestinely by Jersey photographers, are in a small number of private collections which have been put at the disposal of Jerripedia.


A detachment of German troops marches through Charing Cross in 1940

There is a stark contrast between these two pictures taken only a few months apart. The picture on the left shows the Royal Jersey Militia marching through the streets of St Helier in 1939. Not many weeks had passed before the island had beeh occupied by German troops in the summer of 1940 and it was soldiers of the Wehrmacht who were marching through the streets of town. The Militia picture was taken quite openly; the second picture was taken clandestinely through curtained windows. Discovery would have incurred a severe penalty for the photographer

A German staff car outside the churchyard at St Brelade
Troops at the Airport
A German staff car - a commandeered local vehicle - passes through King Street
1940 band parade
A well laden troop carrier in New St John's Road in 1944
Weapons training at Portelet

Elizabeth Castle 1941

A secretly taken photograph of German troops on College Field

Propaganda photographs

The Germans sent official photographers to the island on a number of occasions to take photographs for propaganda purposes.

There seems to have been no actual attempt to document the Occupation, or if there was, the pictures have been lost.

The Bundesarchiv, the German Federal Archive, has only 118 photographs taken in Jersey in its online collection. We have chosen a selection to reproduce here. Many have been ignored because they are very low quality images and even those shown below have had to be digitally enhanced to obtain a reasonable quality.

A commandeered Jaguar used as a German staff car, outside Gloster Terrace, the headquarters of Regiment 582
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