14 November 2013

Alderney At War

On 23 June 1940, one week before the German invaders arrived and with just a few hours notice, the island of Alderney was evacuated of all but a handful of its 1,450 inhabitants. During its occupation Alderney became an island fortress and slave labour camp. Alderney at War offers the fullest account ever published of events on the island during the war, as well as an examination of the circumstances leading up to the evacuation and the subsequent fate of the refugees. Brian Bonnard draws on both German and British official records and on the fascinating eye-witness accounts of former Russian, French and islander prisoners, as well as personal diaries and photographs taken by members of the occupying forces. "Alderney at War" is a factual record of this remarkable episode in British history, which is sure to enthrall residents and visitors to the Channel Islands, but its comprehensive coverage of those grim years guarantees it a place alongside any Second World War History.

Table of contents (note - this is from a previous edition published by Sutton)

Prologue: Alderney at Peace, spring 1939

Alderney Evacuated
  • War Begins
  • The Evacuation
  • Exile Begins
  • The Alderney 'Domesday Book'
  • Commerical Alderney
Interlude
  • Before the Enemy Comes
Alderney Occupied
  • Swastika over Alderney
  • Silence Descends
  • Slave Island
  • Prisoner in Alderney
  • The Slave Workers
  • The Captors
  • The Defences
  • The Enemy under Attack
  • Capitulation
Alderney Relieved
  • The Devastation
  • The Graves
  • The Legacy
  • The Islanders Return
  • The Return Legislation
  • The Settlers
Epilogue: Fifty Years On

Available from:
The History Press
Amazon.co.uk

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