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Ok, never heard of the Battle of Jersey ? It was one of the conflicts between Britain and France which took place during the American War of Independence. In OTL, the French tried to seize Jersey in early January 1781 and almost succeeded.

Ah, don't know about Jersey or where it is ?

Start here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailiwick_of_Jersey

Right, back to the timeline. The first POD is a successful French invasion of Jersey as outlined below:

On January 5th 1781, a French force under Baron Philippe de Rullecourt, numbering some 2,000 men lands on three locations on the east and west coasts of the island of Jersey. (OTL, only about half the force made it ashore). With the British celebrating “Old Christmas Night”, the French are able to move almost undetected toward the island capital of St Helier.

By the following morning, a force of some 700 French had occupied St Helier. The Governor of the island was captured in his bed and messages sent to the garrison urging surrender. These were refused by the British commander, Major Pierson, who assembled his own force of some 2,000 men to the north of St Helier. The 78th Regiment of Foot was repulsed by the French while the 83rd Regiment was isolated by a large French force at Grouville and forced to yield.

The main battle raged through St Helier where de Rullecourt awaited reinforcement from Grouville, which arrived later in the afternoon. Pierson was killed in a French counterattack in the Market Square while the arrival of more French forces led to a general British capitulation. By dusk, the British had surrendered and Jersey was secure.

Two days later, a small French force landed and occupied Alderney while de Rullecourt dispatched half his force to occupy Guernsey, Sark and Herm over the next week. With British forces engaged on Gibraltar and in North America and given the geographic proximity of France, there was little London could do.


The fall of the Channel Islands is a serious psychological blow for Lord North and the British Government. Though it's not a necessary part of the timeline, I've added the fall of Gibraltar on September 13th 1782 (the day in OTL of the largest unsuccessful Franco-Spanish attack on the rock).

On October 19th 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to a Franco-American force at Yorktown while on September 13th 1782, Gibraltar fell to a combined Spanish/French assault. The end of the War of American Independence left Britain physically removed from Europe. Gibraltar was ceded to Spain while the Channel Islands, British Crown dependencies since 1066, were handed to France.

For Britain, this is the worst military reversal since the loss of Calais. The North American colonies, Gibraltar and the Channel Islands have all been lost. This won't however affect the development of the British Empire in Africa and Asia nor does it have any other major changes.

In 1789, the French Revolution led to chaos across the country. The British hoped to regain the Channel Islands but although Guernsey held out for Louis XVI for a few months, the revolutionaries rapidly took over the islands.

Following the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Aldenhoven on July 2nd 1815 (note: in the OTL Waterloo is a limited victory for Napoleon. Blucher does not arrive in time and Wellington is forced to retire with heavy casualties. The French also take heavy losses and are in no condition to face a large Russian/Prussian force a fortnight later), the Congress of Vienna reconvenes with the Holy Alliance in the ascendant and wanting to punish France.


Now for the second POD - a different Waterloo. I have to do this otherwise all that happens is that the Channel Islands and Gibraltar are returned to Britain at Vienna which would make for a dull and rather short timeline so I've added a touch of spice to the whole thing.

Essentially, the Prussians under Blucher do not reach Waterloo on June 18th 1815. Wellington is forced to retire from the battlefield having taken heavy losses - the French too have suffered badly and this has an impact further on.

In the chaos that follows, Brussels falls to the French and Wellington is forced with most of his men to flee in disorder to the ports but Napoleon does not pursue. The Russian army increases the pace and crosses the Rhine on June 23rd (OTL, June 25th). They turn north and meet up with the Prussians.

On July 2nd, this vast force meets the French near Aldenhoven. Outgunned and outnumbered having failed to make up the losses of Waterloo, Bonaparte is defeated and captured by the Prussians.

The Congress of Vienna reconvenes with the Holy Alliance (Russia, Prussia and Austria) in charge. Britain is excluded though its position as the paramount maritime power is recognised. As for territiory, Gibraltar is returned but the issue of the Channel Islands is more complex.

The issue of the Channel Islands is discussed at length. The islands were taken while France was still a monarchy and the Holy Alliance is uncertain how to treat these pre-Napoleonic conquests. There is reluctance to allow the British to regain a territorial foothold on the Continent but no desire to see France reassert dominance. After much negotiation, Metternich conceives the solution placing the Channel Islands as a fiefdom of Austria along with the former Spanish Netherlands. The Holy Alliance regarded the strategic importance of establishing a cordon sanitaire around France as warranting this solution,

Now, in OTL, we know Austria had no interest in regaining its influence in Belgium and the Dutch proposal to create a single Kingdom of the Netherlands came to be accepted and was the case until Belgium gained its independence in 1830. In this timeline, I'm arguing that a more dominant Holy Alliance might see Austrian possessions to the immediate north and north-east as a guarantee against future French expansion. With the added extra of the Channel Islands, the Austrians agree to take on the territories.

Thus, on November 1st 1815, Jersey, Guernsey, Herm, Sark and Alderney came under Austrian rule as the Austrian Channel Islands. Their first and most important ruler was Archduke Louis Joseph Anton Johann, son of Leopold II. He was known as the Count of the Islands and spent much of his time working on and around the islands. Under his tutelage, industry and education thrived and even when Belgium broke from Austrian rule in 1830, the Channel Islands remained Austrian.

In 1848, the Revolution swept away much of the previous dynastic rule but Archduke Louis remained ruler of the Channel Islands where he was genuinely loved and respected However, in 1859, war broke out between France and Austria as part of the agreement between France and Piedmont-Sardinia concerning the planned unification of Italy. With the defeat of Austrian forces at Solferino, the Treaty of Zurich of November 1859 compelled Austria to relinquish control of the Channel Islands.


In OTL, Archduke Louis was a successful soldier and administrator often aiding Leopold. He retired after the 1848 Revolution but continues in the OTL as Viceroy of the Islands where he is held in high regard by the inhabitants. The war of 1859 plays out as in OTL. Napoleon III agrees with Cavour to further Italian unification and Cavour pledges Savoy and Nice to France in exchange for French help. The chance to reacquire the Channel Islands would only have sweetened the deal for the French.

On January 1st 1860, a French naval squadron landed at St Helier and escorted Archduke Louis and other Austrian officials from the island of Jersey. Within a few days, the French were back in control of the islands.

In 1870, France went to war with Prussia and was defeated at Sedan and elsewhere. The Prussians soon realised the strategic value of the Channel Islands as a way of keeping an eye on French developments and at the Treaty of Frankfurt on May 10th 1871, the Channel Islands were ceded to Germany.


I suppose it's fair to ask why a victorious Germany would have wanted the islands but the Austrians and French might well have built sheltered harbours (the British did in the 1850s in OTL) and the geographic proximity of the islands to France is a useful strategic and military asset recognised by Bismarck for the future. Possession of the islands allows the German fleet the potential of accessing the Atlantic easily while keeping an eye on the French.

On June 1st 1871, Jersey welcomed its first German Governor, a Prince from Oldenburg. The Germans found the islands in a generally prosperous state but made huge strides improving transport and infrastructure and began developing tourism in the 1880s and 1890s. The islands were also fortified against the threat of French aggression and a number of German settlers came to the islands. A naval base was constructed on Guernsey and on the eastern coast of Jersey at what became known as Wilhelmshaven.

After over forty years of Austrian rule, I think the Germans would not have found the Channel Islands too unpleasant or onerous. The Germanisation of the islands would have taken place over a couple of generations.

In August 1914, Germany and France were once again at war. German troops on the islands prepared to launch raids against the nearby French mainland while the French and British instigated a blockade of the islands. Realising Alderney was indefensible owing to its proximity to France, German troops abandoned the island in October 1914 and the French swiftly moved in.

As the war bogged down in France, the Channel Islands were seen increasingly as a dangerous presence. On June 17th 1915, a French naval force bombarded Jersey causing much damage in and around St Helier. The German naval presence was neutralised in a sharp cruiser engagement with the British known locally as the Battle of La Hocq. In the confusion, French forces landed in some disorder on the west coast at St Ouen and in the north at La Mare. The Germans fought tenaciously but a second French assault on the east coast forced the Germans to retreat into the defences of St Helier itself. The battle for the town lasted nearly a week by which time most of the town was in ruins. Hundreds of civilians were killed by the time the Germans finally surrendered on June 26th 1915.

The Germans surrendered Guernsey, Herm and Sark without resistance on June 30th 1915. The French occupation was harsh as there was a widespread belief the islanders were pro-German and news of German atrocities in North-East France and Belgium also provoked a reaction.


I'm probably straying into ASB territory here but I think it fascinating to consider how the allies would have dealt with a piece of conquered German territory. I'm basing my thoughts on some of the known excesses of the French in Germany after WW2.

Germany surrendered on November 11th 1918. The French went to Versailles fully expecting to retain the Channel Islands but this was opposed by both the British and by American President Woodrow Wilson, who asserted the principle of self-determination was as valid on Jersey and Guernsey as for the Saar and Danzig. A proposal that the islands should be a League of Nations Protectorate was rejected in favour of a plebiscite of the population of all five islands.

Within the islands, anti-French feeling was strong following the years of occupation and the fighting of 1915. The plebiscite took place on September 1st 1920 and by 62% to 38%, the Channel Islands voted to remain part of Germany. Only Alderney voted to become part of France.


Given that the Saarland voted to remain German, I'm not sure the above is inconceivable. I also doubt the French would be as emotionally attached to the islands as they were to Alsace and Lorraine.

The 1920s and early 1930s saw the islands resume the development of tourism and industry while relations with France began to improve slowly with the instigation of regular ferries to St Malo and Granville by 1930. Politically, the islands did not at first follow the drift to extremism of the rest of Germany but a small Nazi party was founded on Guernsey in 1927 and an organisation established in Jersey in 1929. In 1931, the Nazis took over the running of the local Guernsey Bund but were never voted in with a majority in Jersey, Nonetheless, the islands felt the force of Nazi terror from the summer of 1933 onward. Sark was evacuated and a forced labour camp constructed in the mid-1930s while the fortifications of Jersey and Guernsey were rebuilt and strengthened.

This isn't the Sudetenland or Danzig - this is still part of Germany but unlike other parts of Germany in many ways. I think it would have been an intellectual grouping that would have orchestrated the Nazi party on the islands but it's not a widespread mass movement. In OTL, Alderney was a camp for Russian POWs. An island like Sark or Herm would have made an ideal forced labour camp.

On September 3rd 1939, Germany and France went to war. The French quickly formulated a plan to invade the islands while the Germans tried to bolster their defences. In early October, Jersey and Guernsey were bombed by British and French aircraft while a German naval unit attacked shipping at Cherbourg in November 1939. On March 15th 1940, French forces landed at Alderney and captured the island after a brief battle. It was the first German territory captured in the war and was presented by the British and French as a huge success.

Given how ineffective French and British efforts at offence were in the Phoney War I doubt there would be a major effort to take the islands but Alderney is only eight miles from the French coast. The propaganda value of the capture of Alderney would be considerable.

That sense of success was short-lived as on May 10th 1940, German forces invaded France and the Low Countries. By the end of May, the French and British had been utterly defeated and German forces in Jersey crossed to St Malo to meet the forces of Erwin Rommel. The French vacated Alderney which was recaptured by the Germans on July 1st.

On June 6th 1944, Anglo-American forces landed in Normandy. The following day, a parachute force landed on Guernsey and seized the island in a dramatic coup de main. Alderney was occupied by the Americans in September 1944 but Jersey, Herm and Sark remained under German control though completely isolated.

On May 2nd 1945, the allies invited General Hussek, German military Governor of Jersey, to surrender. He refused to surrender to the French but agreed to surrender to the Americans. On May 7th 1945, an American naval floatilla entered St Aubin’s Harbour and landed a small force of marines. They found the German garrison formed up, ready to surrender. General Hussek committed suicide as the first American soldier reached his office.

Herm and Sark surrendered the following day and a joint American/Canadian/British force occupied the islands. It soon became clear that the Germans would no longer control the islands while the French were not wanted. For three years, the allies wrangled over the fate of the islands until an agreement was reached.


I wonder if the Germans would have fortified the islands as much as in OTL. The fall of Guernsey is irrelevant. The interesting thing is that the French are not involved in the liberation of the islands. The local population makes it clear it will not accept imposed French rule and clearly German rule is unacceptable.

On March 1st 1949, the Channel Islands returned to British rule for the first time since 1782. While the return of British rule was cautiously welcomed, some islanders still wanted German rule. The British re-eatablished the Crown dependency status of the islands and recognised the autonomy of the islands in dealing with their own affairs.

Nearly sixty years on and the Channel Islands seem content under British rule albeit very indirect. They have prospered as part of the EU and are a hugely popular destination for German tourists who enjoy the Germanic feel of the islands (all road signs are English and German for example). The occasional pro-German separatist raises the thought of a return to Germany but no one takes that too seriously any more,


I know, I know but I couldn't think of anything better to be honest.

Any thoughts/comments welcome...
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