Captured in his pyjamas: GI returns to POW camp » News » This Is Jersey AN American veteran has returned to the spot where he was held prisoner in Jersey to celebrate his 96th birthday. The then First Lieutenant Newell Younggren was captured by a German force from occupied Jersey in March 1945 after a daring raid on Granville. It was carried out principally as a morale booster for the German troops in Jersey, who by then were isolated from the mainland by the victorious Allied armies who had already liberated Normandy and Brittany. During the raid a coal freighter was taken and, with a number of American officers as prisoners, the German troops came back to Jersey. Mr Younggren was one of those captured, and spent the next eight weeks as a prisoner of war in Jersey until released when the Island was liberated in May 1945.
That's Jersey in the Channel Islands .... not New Jersey !! :noidea: It would NOT have been a comfortable billet there ..... dreadful things happening there - they had a really hard time right up to the very end ! I had a relation taken POW and shipped to Germany from there Annie
I think DL would have been referring to them having a roof over their head as opposed to being in the field on mainland Europe? Annie, the Jersey Islands are under-represented so I for one would appreciate hearing more about your relative please.
It seems that a couple of those who were taken managed to escape: 2 GIs Relive Escape From Jersey / Nazis held them as POWs on occupied British island
Fascinating stuff. Having read so much about escaping etc, I found it odd at first for the escapees to be rowing to France. It was almost like, "You're going the wrong way!" LOL. Calssic double-take until I realised what year it was. That's the first I've read of an escape to France by Allied personnel.
