The Channel Islands are a much-famed grouping of isles located within the English Channel near France's Normandy coast. Consisting of two bailiwicks, the Channel Islands are not specifically under control of the United Kingdom, although they are still considered British dependencies. Though they are grouped together, these bailiwicks do not in any way share sovereignty and are both in fact very different from one another. Of the two, Guernsey is arguably the most fascinating for a variety of reasons.
Guernsey is rich with history and has been inhabited in some capacity since the dawn of man. Around the 1100s Guernsey was not unlike the fictional pirate coves portrayed in cinema with French pirates battling naval ships as pillaging and plundering aplenty took place. By the 1300s the island was completely under the control of France, as the 100 Years War raged on. As centuries passed, Guernsey was always in the mix during every major war because of its strategic location between France and England. The English Civil War put Guernsey on the side of Calvinists while the wars in the 1700s and 1800s made Guernsey a necessarily fortified strongpoint against France and Spain.
If the city of Guernsey seems perennially locked in struggle, the twentieth century was perhaps the bloodiest. World War I turned the city into a militia town with the training of infantrymen happening in large numbers. Unfortunately, Guernsey didn't fare as well in the 2nd World War when Germany captured the island and exercised their trademark destruction on all things sacred. This was perhaps the darkest time for the people of Guernsey as before the invasion many children were sent to England or elsewhere for safety and were thus separated from their families. Many of them were forced to wander the world as orphans during daily bombings. An even worse fate befell those who weren't able to evacuate the island: Those captured by German forces were shipped off to German concentration camps to perform forced labor. Some were killed while others starved to death. Even more harrowing, the first and only concentration camp ever built in English territory was set up in Alderney and many citizens of Guernsey were forced to work to death in their own homeland as invaders cavorted in their hallowed streets. Several Jewish people who lived in the island suffered perhaps the worst fate: Deportment to Auschwitz to be tortured to death.
Germany held on to Guernsey until the decline of the Third Reich and, during its tenure on the island, many fortifications were built up to prevent British and American soldiers from taking back the land. Tourists and residents alike can still see many of the ruined walls and forts that are scattered around the city just by walking around and taking in the lush scenery. Guernsey is once again under the wing of the United Kingdom though it is largely in control of itself as a Danish territory. Anyone lucky enough to visit the Channel Islands would do well to take a gander at Guernsey and pay heed to its massive cultural and historical importance in the world.
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