30 April 1942

April 1942 Island shipping requirements and civilian conditions

Editorial note: Monthly report or annex; placed at the end of the reporting month because no single document date is supplied. Dates within the text retain their original meaning.

The Vichy government changes made little impression on the population; Laval was sometimes described as a traitor. The public wanted prisoners of war returned and the war ended. The attack on a leave train was widely condemned, partly because reprisals affected the whole population. Rumours persisted in Caen that Britain would attack the French coast in spring. Coastal opinion was judged predominantly pro-British. Rising prices, static wages and inadequate bread rations caused hardship. Japanese successes and failed British operations depressed opinion on the islands; poorer residents sometimes stated that post-war sovereignty mattered little to them. Official co-operation remained good.

Supply remained satisfactory. Fuel-saving shifted administrative journeys to horse-drawn vehicles, although additional transport was still needed for fortification materials. The corps again pressed for safer passenger shipping to the Channel Islands: leave personnel travelled irregularly on overcrowded vessels, often standing on deck, making heavy casualties likely under air attack. Three passenger ships and a hospital ship for forty to fifty stretcher patients were considered urgently necessary. Panzerjäger companies for the infantry regiments of 319th Division were completed. The accompanying situation map is reproduced below.

Corps situation map accompanying the April 1942 activity report. Source PDF page 0268.

T-314 Roll 1603, T314_Roll_1603_English_Translation.docx. Source PDF pages 0264–0268 | Annexes to the April activity report