The four German paratroopers and a Kriegsmarine sailor were anxious. This was the ideal moment to
make their escape. They had broken free from the POW camp at the French port of Granville
and were now concealed from the military police in a hidden nook near the docks.
The winter of 1944 was setting in, and the weather continued to deteriorate with each passing minute.
Suddenly, the Germans caught sight of an unguarded US Navy landing
craft and determined that it was now or never.
Without hesitation, the men sprinted toward the vessel, commandeered her, and, armed with only a
hand-drawn map and a compass, embarked on their journey to the German-occupied Channel Islands.
The escapees bore valuable intelligence on the abundant
supplies housed in Granville’s warehouses and fortifications.
Over 30 miles of turbulent Atlantic waters lay before them, but if the five men were successful,
the famished German forces on the Channel Islands would be able to orchestrate a bold
assault against the French port, continuing their fight against the Allied forces…
The Channel Islands
On September 3, 1939, the United Kingdom declared war against the Third Reich following the invasion
of Poland. During the initial months of the Phoney War, life remained largely unchanged
across the British territories in Europe. When it came to the Channel Islands,
an archipelago in the English Channel near the shores of French Normandy, there was barely any
tourism or travel restrictions despite the increased presence of Royal Navy vessels.
However, the situation shifted when the German forces occupied Belgium,
the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France, which capitulated in June of 1940.
As the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe readied their assault on the United Kingdom, the British
government concluded that the Channel Islands held no strategic value and left them defenseless.
To Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s dismay,
the government relinquished the British crown’s oldest possession without firing a single shot.
Military and civilian personnel were evacuated from the islands,
but some residents chose to remain even after their home was declared an open town. When the
Germans bombed the harbors of Guernsey and Jersey in late June 1940, they were entirely oblivious
to the Channel Islands' demilitarization, as the British had suppressed the news.
On June 30, Luftwaffe pilots touched down on the
desolate airfield of Guernsey and were informed about the open island decree.
Within days, the entire Channel Islands archipelago came under German control.
Between 25,000 and 30,000 Wehrmacht personnel were dispatched to fortify the islands against
an eventual British counterattack. However, the anticipated assault never came to pass.
Escaping Granville
In the winter of 1944, after nearly five years of occupation, both German troops and the civilians
struggled with hunger and the biting cold. Completely cut off and without a supply line,
they lacked food, clothing, and provisions. After the Normandy invasion of June 6,
Churchill declared: (QUOTE) “Let them starve. No fighting. They can rot at their leisure.”
Lieutenant General Rudolf Graf von Schmettow, the commander on the islands,
sought a solution to the crisis before starvation decimated his troops. Surprisingly,
an answer arrived in the most unexpected of ways. In late December 1944, a daring
act of heroism roused the idle German garrison and reverberated throughout the faltering Third Reich.
On December 21, 1944, a group of four Luftwaffe paratroopers and
a Kriegsmarine sailor escaped from the Allied-occupied French port of Granville,
located approximately 30 miles from the Channel Islands. The intrepid prisoners
meticulously devised their escape plan and risked their lives as they fled the harbor.
At midnight, the Germans stole a US Navy Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel
and navigated the ocean with nothing more than a pocket compass and a hand-drawn map.
Emulating ancient mariners, they then braved 30 miles of turbulent Atlantic waters,
gambling everything to reach Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands.
The desperate escape paid off. The prisoners soon
made it to German territory and told General Schmettow about the valuable
supplies that could be plundered from Granville to save the starving garrison.
Granville Port
The French port of Granville had drastically changed since the outbreak of the war in
1939 and the French loss against the Wehrmacht. For a brief period of time,
Granville became Europe’s most important harbor after being the first port liberated
by the Allied forces following the Invasion of Normandy in June of 1944.
Over 20 cranes, alongside warehouses and bulk-loading railcars,
were constructed to handle the abundant supplies the invading forces received.
Logistics were crucial for maintaining momentum against the German garrisons in the sector,
and supplies were vital for the American, British, Canadian, and French forces. However,
Granville’s importance waned as the Allied forces pushed the Wehrmacht out of occupied France.
The port eventually transitioned into a coal hub where German prisoners of war worked as laborers.
These captured soldiers worked at the docks and were housed in an enclosure near the harbor.
A US Army battalion was stationed on a hill near Granville, while US Navy patrol
boats provided security by monitoring the harbor and dockyards. Despite the presence
of Navy patrol boats and some Military Police, security remained minimal and lax.
The German POWs who managed to escape provided all this valuable information
to their brothers in arms in the Channel Islands.
This intelligence convinced the German officers that a small force could storm the port and seize
much-needed food and coal without drawing the attention of larger Allied forces.
The success of the raiding mission now hinged on favorable weather conditions and German daring.
Scheduled for the night of February 8, 1945, the starving soldiers and sailors readied themselves
for a swift, merciless, and effective raid, evoking the spirit of ancient Viking marauders.
Foul Weather
Disaster struck the Germans before the raid even began. The surviving POWs were summoned by Adolf
Hitler himself to be decorated in Berlin for their epic escape. The five men were picked
up by a Junkers aircraft dispatched by the Fuhrer, but it never reached the Fatherland.
The special transport was shot down by American night fighters over Bastogne as
Axis and Allied forces clashed during the initial stages of the Ardennes Offensive.
Nonetheless, preparations for the raid continued, but adverse weather conditions forced its
cancellation on the night of February 8, 1945. Thick fog, heavy swells, and the presence of
the US Navy sub-chaser PC-552 forced the raiding party to turn back and reevaluate the operation.
Unfortunately, some of the raiding vessels received the recall order too
late and came so close to Granville’s harbor that they could hear the music
emanating from Hotel Normandie and Hotel des Bains. Other Kriegsmarine
craft collected British parachute mines and redeployed them near Saint-Malo.
The LCVP used by the German paratroopers during their escape also joined the raid but floundered
and had to be abandoned. Amid the ensuing confusion, one of the German E-boats became
separated from the raiding party and encountered a US Navy sub-chaser, which immediately opened fire.
A frantic high-speed chase then unfolded in the foggy harbor waters, but after enduring more
than an hour of relentless pursuit, the German E-boat managed to evade the American onslaught.
Amphibious Assault
Upon the return of the raiding party,
General Schmettow was replaced on February 20 by Vice Admiral Friedrich Hüffmeierm,
who assumed command of the Channel Islands and promptly prepared another raid.
Hüffmeierm envisioned not just a raid to obtain valuable resources but also a daring attack
against the port to liberate the German POWs and deliver a cunning blow to the Americans.
The operation evolved from a simple raid to an amphibious assault with multiple objectives.
In addition to procuring food and coal and rescuing prisoners, the raiders were tasked with
sinking any Allied cargo vessels or patrol craft, and even capturing American officers. Hüffmeierm’s
raid party consisted of 12 vessels divided into four groups, each assigned a specific task.
The vice-admiral quickly re-established contact with several French collaborators in Granville to
plan his assault accordingly. One of them was a French woman who worked at the Hotel des Bains,
where some of the American officers were stationed. She provided the Germans with
the latest troop movements around the harbor and the overall state of the harbor's defenses.
The woman then gave the green light on March 8,
and Hüffmeier launched the attack after he made sure the forecast was suitable for the operation.
41-year-old Captain Lieutenant Carl Friedrich Mohr was tasked with leading
the mission, which comprised over 600 men distributed among three fast motorboats,
three barges, six minesweepers, and other craft.
The raiding party finally departed the Channel Islands under a calm sea and moonless sky.
It was now or never.
Detected
The flotilla split into five groups, each pursuing its specific objectives.
But despite the precautions taken, the raiding party was detected by a US Army radar station
at Coutainville at 10:00pm. Joint Operations Command in Cherbourg and Granville’s commander,
Major William Brown, were alerted to the imminent assault and prepared their defenses accordingly.
At around 11:30pm, the German vessels began to converge at the port.
Major Brown had the port darkened and sent the Germans POWs to the prison stockade.
Within minutes, the Allied patrol craft in the harbor started to spot the German vessels.
Allied craft PC-564 then opened fire with her 3-inch gun against three German
sweepers carrying 88-millimeter artillery pieces. PC-564 was struck by four rounds,
rendering it out of commission with multiple casualties.
Around 1:00am, the remaining sweepers entered the harbor, while the torpedo boats targeted the
US officers at the hotels. Over 70 German commandos quickly secured the dockyards,
but firefights erupted as they attempted to board the coal ships.
The German POWs were liberated, and the warehouses were pillaged before the Americans could regroup.
Meanwhile, other German units set about detonating trucks, cranes, and specific targets, and another
team seized control of Hotel des Bains and captured nine Army officers, including a Marine.
The Unexpected
Everything went according to plan until the raiders tried to remove the coal ships from
the harbor. The tide was too low, and the ships were fully loaded. Only the
small coal vessel Eskwood could be maneuvered, and one of the minesweepers also ran aground
due to the low tide when attempting to attack a radar station near the coast.
As each minute passed, American and French resistance intensified, and the
German commandos retreated to their vessels in an orderly fashion and exited the harbor.
The German raiders returned to Saint Helier with high morale,
as the raid had been a success. They had acquired ample coal and supplies,
liberated the German POWs, and captured dozens of Allied prisoners.
However, the victory was short-lived. Just hours later, while the Germans were still
unloading the captured supplies, Allied aircraft dropped news leaflets across the
islands bearing an ominous message. The US Army was letting the Germans
know that Allied forces had just secured a bridgehead across the Rhine River at Remagen.
It was only a matter of time before the Reich crumbled, and when Berlin collapsed two months
later, the undefeated Wehrmacht garrison at the Channel Islands had no choice but to surrender.
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