Islands invaded by evil

NEW tonight on Channel 4 we have BRITAIN UNDER THE NAZIS: THE FORGOTTEN OCCUPATION (8pm) - a fascinating programme, well worth an hour or your time (and a further hour next week), but one with a title I must take issue with.

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Specifically, the "forgotten" part. Surely that's nonsense, is it not? Hitler's forces occupied the Channel Islands for just short of five years, from June 1940 to May 1945.

I'm pretty sure nobody on Guernsey, Jersey or Alderney has forgotten that. I appreciate that most of the islanders from that time are no longer with us, but those who live there today will have grown up with an acute awareness of their history. It's ingrained in them.

Visitors also have ample opportunity to learn about it. I've paid goodness knows how many visits, for example, to Jersey War Tunnels, a remarkable exhibition housed in an underground tunnel complex that was built by the Germans using slave labour.