Two RAF pilots are buried with full military honors by German occupation soldiers, Channel Islands, 1943
An RAF pilot is buried with full military honors by German occupation soldiers in 1943.
The Luftwaffe granted full military honors to RAF Sergeants Butlin and Holden, who had been shot down over Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is believed that this was an attempt to pacify the local population. The Luftwaffe behaved quite differently than the SS or the Wehrmacht. It behaved in a considerably more chivalrous manner.
RAF Sergeant Butlin departed from RAF Burn in Yorkshire at 11:15 p.m. on a mission to Frankfurt and ditched about 5 kilometers southwest of the Channel Island of Jersey after Sergeant Odling requested assistance. The body of observer Sergeant Holden eventually washed up in St. Ouen’s Bay, Jersey, on June 3, 1943.
On June 5, his body and that of Sergeant Denis Charles Butlin were laid to rest in the hospital chapel. Hundreds of islanders visited the coffins to pay their respects before a service was held on the morning of June 6.
The coffins were then covered with the Union Jack before being taken to the cemetery. Hundreds of people lined the route, but the Luftwaffe prevented them from entering the cemetery gate.
Hundreds of people lined the route, but the Luftwaffe prevented them from entering the cemetery gates.
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi German forces for most of World War II, from June 30, 1940, until their liberation on May 9, 1945.
The Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey are two British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, near the coast of Normandy. The Channel Islands were the only part of Great Britain occupied by the German army during the war.
Expecting a quick victory over Great Britain, the occupiers experimented with a very soft approach, which served as their guiding principle for the next five years. The island authorities adopted a similar stance, leading to accusations of collaboration. Over time, however, the situation deteriorated increasingly, culminating in famine for both occupier and occupier in the winter of 1944/45. Liberation took place peacefully on May 9, 1945.
Flowers from the Air Force.
