he one memory that still resonates with me about the Dame of Sark concerns the local guide who met our boat at Sark's small jetty harbor back in the late 1940s. He immediately launched into an almost theatrical performance about the Dame and, with much glee, intense pride and excitement, told us how she had outsmarted the Germans during their occupation in WW2.

The Dame of Sark in WW2 - here she is with her husband, as they are greeted by a German Officer, at her home the Seigneurie. Photo courtesy of the German Bundesarchiv

When the Germans occupied the Channel Islands (30th June, 1940 to May 9th, 1945) she not only refused German commands to leave Sark, but made sure that when senior German officers visited, they were met by her maid at the harbor and made to feel like guests in the Dame's home. She spoke first-rate German and had an exceptionally good relationship with the Islands' top commander based in Guernsey.

Whenever ANY German officers' came to Sark they came to her, and NOT the other way around. In addition, and equally riveting, she told them when they arrived at her home they must bow and kiss her hand as was done in olden times, and then – and only then – take a seat. Her "Imperial Attitude" and complete and absolute refusal to be intimidated and submissive to the enemy infuriated top Nazi brass, especially when she refused point blank to sign any orders issued by the Germans requiring her signature, advising them she didn't have the authority to do so. She was, in every sense of that overused word a "Character."

Since my features are called "Travel With A Difference" you'll always get info on "Travel Treats" NOT usually found in most travel articles. In WW2 the Islands were also a place holding Allied prisoners of war. On January 8th, 1945 two Americans, Captain Ed Clark and Lieutenant George Haas, broke out of their prison camp in St. Helier on Jersey and, helped by local citizens, "removed" a boat from the harbor and rowed to Carteret on the French coast. A plaque describing all this is in the village of GOREY on the east coast of Jersey.

The Islands have a profusion of the old, classic British red mailboxes and telephone booths, except they're all blue! See the oldest one, circa 1853, on Union Street, St. Peter Port in Guernsey.

Sark Ambulance. Photo courtesy Sark Tourism

Railroad buffs will be delighted there's an actual railway on the island of Alderney. Even more eye-catching is that most of the rolling stock is made up of former London Underground carriages. The railway opened in 1847 and only runs for about 2 miles, but it's a must see visit.

Part of the German WW2 Museum in Guernsey. Photo courtesy Guernsey Tourist office

For an idea of what life was like under the German occupation, be sure to visit the "Channel Islands Military Museum" in Jersey. It's housed in a former German bunker that was part of Hitler's gigantic Atlantic Wall defenses.

Sheep racing (!) on Sark. Courtesy Sark Tourism

The smallest of the Channel Islands is Herm and I urge you to go there for one specific reason. It has a (now) world famous beach called "Shell Beach" and I often went there during summer holidays to take home some of the countless, unusual multicolored and interesting shells – large, small and everything in between. Herm is only a mile long, but you'll find lots of fantastically colorful shells on almost every inch of Shell Beach.

Oh yes, I too have always wondered why there was never an American "State of New Guernsey."

Related Articles:
Sark is THE Island to Visit When Traveling to England's Channel Islands; The Aran Islands; The Long Good Bye to Ireland; A 1944 WW2 'Cover Up' At England's Slapton Sands; A Return to the Emerald Isle; North Wales Has A Place For You!