Clandestine Crystal Sets - Channel Isles WW2

[Yorkie]

Yes indeed, Pen & Sword are excellent books Gary.

Oradour is in a peaceful part of SW France where there was no fighting going on - the troops who committed the massacre were just passing through on 10 June 1944 en route to Normandy to try to repel the Allied invasion. Many who committed the massacre were themselves killed in action days later.  642 men women and children were rounded up and slaughtered and very few villagers escaped. The women and children were marched off to the church, the children being encouraged by the soldiers to sing as they went. The men were divided into six groups and led off to different barns in the village under armed guard. When the people were all safely shut away the SS began to kill them all.

As to what there is to see, basically, it's a deserted burnt out village left just as it was on 10 June 1944. The only items left there are things that didn't burn - rusting cars, farm machinery,  bedsteads, sewing machines, babies prams  and so forth. I won't post any pics - there are lots here for anyone interested:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=oradour+sur+glane&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-Address&rlz=1I7ADRA_enGB420&tbm=isch&imgil=14wvWSK3GdrCuM%253A%253B74A4aPgqRxdp1M%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FOradour-sur-Glane&source=iu&pf=m&fir=14wvWSK3GdrCuM%253A%252C74A4aPgqRxdp1M%252C_&biw=1440&bih=810&usg=__2y9WSfahjzesWj8RaNzbo0T01Uk%3D&ved=0CEIQyjdqFQoTCI3Q45OvgMgCFUVbFAodMOYOcA&ei=ieb7Vc3nI8W2UbDMu4AH#imgrc=14wvWSK3GdrCuM%3A&usg=__2y9WSfahjzesWj8RaNzbo0T01Uk%3D

The Oradour website is here:

http://www.oradour.info/

Few people visit Oradour and as you can imagine, few would want to. It's certainly not promoted as a tourist attraction. I first learned of it from the 'World at War' TV series where aerial views of it feature in the credits. Along ith my wife and younger son we went there in 2012 as part of a 7-day tour entitled 'S.O.E., S.A.S. & The French Resistance'. Very thought provoking and it stunned everyone into silence. What I found a bit odd was that they built a new Oradour village alongside the burnt out one, yet all but a handful of Oradour residents had perished in the massacre. We went by coach from Hull so it was a long journey via Calais down to Bordeaux ('Cockleshell Heroes') and back:

http://www.visitbattlefields.co.uk/tours.../itinerary

The Occupation & Liberation Tour of Jersey that we've just returned from was an altogether different thing - much more relaxed - not battlefields, no war graves, no destruction etc, very little loss of life, and included two free days:

http://www.leger.co.uk/Battlefields/tour...self-drive

They only do two tours there each year - one in May to coincide with the Liberation - the other is Sept to coincide with the Battle of Britain Air Display.

Sorry it's way off the topic of clandestine crystal sets, which a google search has provided little evidence of, other than so called 'foxhole sets', as allegedly developed by US POWs.

The image of lots of Channel Islanders tuning in on their clandestine homebrew crystal sets is an appealing notion, but I suspect that it's more of a romanticised urban myth than reality. Why would they want to use a feeble crystal set anyway, when the islands would have lots of valves and components to make simple TRF receivers, and the electricity to power them? The late 30s early 40s was an era when simple homebrew radios were the norm for anyone the least bit handy.