This page contains our collection of photographs of life in Jersey in the weeks and months after the end of the war
They follow on from our gallery of pictures of Liberation Day itself and its immediate aftermath
We have tried to avoid too much duplication, but there will be pictures as parts of sets on this page which are included in the other gallery
A major reorganisation of the page was carried out in March 2023, but it still remains to group together photographs of similar subjects and to complete the captioning of all images'
Except where specifically otherwise identified, the majority of these photographs were taken by Evening Post staff photographers, film and chemicals being unavailable for amateurs.
We have not identified each picture which we believe to have been taken for the newspaper
Force 135
The next set of photographs, taken in the days immediately following the Liberation, show members of Force 135, the army unit sent to help start Jersey on the route back to normal life. Some of them were taken by members of Force 135, others by the Evening Post and other local photographers
Bailiff Alexander Coutanche addresses the crowd in the Royal Square
A window display at R M Stores in King Street, thanking allied leaders
Prisoners released from Newgate Street prison
A German vessel heads out to HMS Beagle
Landing craft on the New North QUay
HMS Cosby
This picture is said to show the Bailiff at the Weighbridge, but we are not certain that he is in the photograph
Three Jerseymen selected as part of Force 135 - Privates Ahier, de Gruchy and Mangan
ARP volunteers about to be deployed to keep important routes to the harbour clear for the liberating troops to move equipment
A member of Force 135, Captain Le Brocq, meets old friends
Colonel Robinson briefs a war correspondent
Landing craft in Victoria Harbour
Communicating with the offshore naval vessels from the Weighbridge
Brothers Kevin and Bernard Le Cocq reunited
Troops carry mortars as they are deployed to defensive positions
Soldiers wait at the Weighbridge
A DUKW arrives with more equipment
DUKWs lined up at the Weighbridge
Town pilots return after guiding Force 135 vessels to shore
Liberators mix with islanders at West Park
Landing craft
Landing craft
Processing German prisoners at St Lawrence
Force 135 members happily pose for a photographer
The big clear-up
Within a few days of the Liberation German troops were being taken out of the island to prisoner-of-war camps in the United Kingdom, but some remained to start on the work of clearing ammunition, weapons, railway lines, barbed wire and other obstructions
St Helier Harbour
Barbed wire on the Albert Pier is removed
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General
Guns at Fort Regent awaiting disposal at sea
German guns are dumped over the cliff at Les Landes in 1946. They were recovered some years later
The large bunker at Gorey Harbour was finally demolished in 1972 to create a coach park - Picture Evening Post
German soldiers were supervised in the clearing of mines after the Liberation
Ammunition being dumped at the Hurd Deep
Clearing beach defences at Grouville
German guns are taken away to be dumped at sea
Breaking through the bunker at Bel Royal to open up the slipway again
German prisoners removing a defence installation on the Albert Pier
Removing a bunker blocking the slipway at Beaumont in 1946
Removing railway track at Commercial Buildings
German trains waiting to be shipped out of the island
Barbed wire at Gorey
Guns over the cliff
German guns in a pile ready for disposal
Mine clearance
Fencing awaits removal in front of Commercial Buildings in May 1945
Defensive obstacles yet to be removed from the Esplanade in 1945
An Evening Post picture of German prisoners removing rail tracks in front of Commercial Buildings at St Helier Harbour in 1945
Prisoners put to work in Green Street
German prisoners put to work clearing coastal defences at Millards Corner
Setting explosives in a gun turret in the early 1950s
The result of the explosion
Ammunition collected in Queen's Valley ready for disposal
Re-opening of the Bel Royal slipway in 1949
Demolition of the First Tower bunker
Life gets back to normal
A runaway Army Chevrolet at South Hill
St John Ambulance Brigade in 1945
St John Ambulance Brigade in 1945
Members of La Societe Jersiaise visit tunnel HO5 in July 1946
An early round of golf
Members of La Societe Jersiaise visit Noirmont
Members of La Societe Jersiaise visit Noirmont
Members of La Societe Jersiaise visit Noirmont
A queue to change German money at Lloyds Bank
Traffic control in David Place
The Bailiff meets participants in a football match on 18 May 1945
The bodies of US servicemen ready to leave the island in 1946
The colours of the Island Militia return to the island in 1946
Saluting the returning Militia colours in 1946
The drumhead service held at the Weighbridge on 25 August 1945 - Picture Evening Post
Large numbers of islanders and troops attended the drumhead service held at the Weighbridge on 25 August 1945
One year on, and People's Park is the venue for Liberation Day celebrations in 1946
The 1946 celebrations on People's Park
The 1946 celebrations on People's Park
The 1946 celebrations on People's Park
Visit of Home Secretary Herbert Morrison in 1945
An arch erected on Victoria Avenue for the 40th anniversary in 1985
File:EP-US-servicemen-1946.jpg|The bodies of US servicemen ready to leave the island in 1946
Diagram of layout for first anniversary of Liberation celebrations in People's Park in 1946
German prisoners of war arrive in Southampton
Kingsley Avenue, St Clement, holds a Liberation anniversary celebration
German prisoners of war landed at Southampton
German trains in 1946
French tanks lined up on the Circus Field at Millbrook, ready to be sent back to France
German helmets abandoned in a tunnel
Children playing on an abandoned gun at Mont à l'Abbé
Liberation Square now commemorates the events of May 1945
A German tank in 1945
Food rationing continued many years after the Occupation ended
German guns in a tunnel in 1946
A German tunnel explored
A soldier directing traffic in David Place in 1945
Special cards were quickly produced to allow normal family communications to resume
French tanks being loaded at La Haule to be returned
1946 Liberation anniversary cavalcade
One year on, and People's Park is the venue for Liberation Day celebrations in 1946
Church parade in July 1945
The Bailiff's address
Drumhead service
Evacuees property stored awaiting their return
Token issued by the States in 1946 to mark the Liberation
Liberation token
Life quickly returned to something like normality. This was a church outing to Greve de Lecq in summer 1945
The Union Flag raised on Les Minquiers shortly after the Liberation
A storeroom full of confiscated radios
Evacuees welcomed home
During the Occupation Havre des Pas pool was used almost exclusively by the Germans. Now local girls can relax there and meet the 'tommies' who liberated them
The first post-Liberation commercial flight
Soldiers return
An auction of German equipment in 1946
Evening Post Liberation supplement
These individual photographs, some of which can be found elsewhere in our Liberation galleries, were taken from a rather faded copy of the supplement
The Queen talks to wives of servicemen
The King and Queen outside the States Building with Bailiff Alexander Coutanche
The King inspects a guard of honour of liberating soldiers in the Royal Square
The King and Queen at the Harbour
Guard of honour at the Harbour
Autographs for eager young ladies
First sight of a jeep for these youngsters
Naval contingent in the Empire Day parade
Army vehicles cross St Aubin's Bay
A landing craft attracted curious islanders
The Queen meets ex-servicemen
In the Royal Square
The King meets British Legion members
The Queen meets WREN sisters
French North African PoWs
French North African prisoners of war had been housed in a camp at South Hill. They were freed on Liberation Day
RAF posting
His family do not know why, but Flight Lieutenant John Duncan Crombie, DFC, of Bomber Command, was briefly posted to Jersey in September and October 1945. These pictures show him somewhere on the island's coast and on the deck of a landing craft in St Aubin's Bay; and also a photograph of the Airport where he was based, and aerial views of the island he apparently took
Prisoner of war letter
Red Cross letters sent to and from Jersey during the Occupation, and letters from German troops to their families, remain fairly common. This letter sent home by a German prisoner-of-war a year after the Liberation is much more of a rarity.
We are grateful to Malcolm Amy for supplying this information:
- 'St Peter's Barracks became a prisoner-of-war camp (No 802 POW Camp) on 24 May 1945 to house 1,680 German engineers, weapons experts and vehicle mechanics, who were retained in Jersey to remove land mines and other lethal stuff. The POWs soon became a familiar sight as they cleared barbed wire, lifted explosives, disarmed artillery batteries and repaired property. At first they were driven to site under a heavy guard by British troops in Bedford 3-ton lorries. But as the British military presence diminished the Germans drove themselves to site and by the end of 1945 a working camaraderie had developed between the PoWs and their guards, based on their shared aim of release or demobilisation. The last group of five German PoWs left Jersey on 30 July 1946.'
It seems likely that Karl Haarbach, the sender of this card, was one of those five. He wrote that he was 'fine' and 'healthy', but there is no suggestion that he knew that his release was just weeks away.
A permit to travel to Jersey. The date is not clear, but was probably February 1946
Rationing continued
Clothing ration book from 1946
Rationing was still in force long after the Liberation - this book is from the early 1950s
Hoteliers claims for damage
Jersey's hoteliers were keen to get back in business when the war ended, but they wanted compensation for the severe damage done to their properties by the Germans. This letter written to the Bailiff by S D Frain, of the Aberfeldy Hotel, setting out the desire of members of the Jersey Hotels Association to make claims under a number of headings, is part of Jersey Archive's collection of Occupation documents, which can be viewed by subscribers to their online catalogue
Liberation celebrations
A 21st century Liberation anniversary celebration on the beach at West Park
Programme for a celebration concert in 1990
Commemorative stamps
During the Occupation stamps were produced in Jersey from designs by local artist Edmund Blampied. In 1948, to celebrate the third anniversary of the Liberation, the British Post Office released new stamps incorporating Blampied drawings
