Locations Channel Islands:

During the German occupation of Jersey, a stonemason repairing the paving of the Royal Square incorporated a V for victory under the noses of the occupiers. This was later amended to refer to the Red Cross ship Vega. The addition of the date 1945 and a more recent frame has transformed it into a monument. The Royal Navy blockaded the islands from time to time, particularly following the liberation of mainland Normandy in 1944. There was considerable hunger and privation during the five years of German occupation, particularly in the final months when the population was close to starvation. Intense negotiations resulted in some Red Cross humanitarian aid, leading to the arrival of the Red Cross supply ship Vega in December 1944.

The end of the occupation came only after VE-Day on 8 May 1945. Jersey and Guernsey were liberated on 9 May 1945. The German garrison in Alderney did not surrender until 16 May 1945 and was one of the last of the Nazi German remnants to surrender. The first evacuees returned on the first sailing from the UK on 23 June,[7] but the population of Alderney was unable to start returning until December 1945.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands

World War II
The islands were the only part of the British Commonwealth occupied by Germany during the Second World War. The German occupation of 1940-45 was harsh: over 2,000 Islanders were deported by the Germans, Jews sent to concentration camps; partisan resistance and retribution; accusations of collaboration; and slave labour (primarily Russians and eastern Europeans) brought to the islands to build fortifications, with 65,718 landmines laid in Jersey alone.

The British government demilitarised the islands in June 1940 and the Lieutenant-Governors were withdrawn on 21 June, leaving the insular administrations to continue government as best they could under impending military occupation.

Before German troops landed 30 June-4 July 1940, evacuation took place (many young men had already left to join the Allied forces): 6,600 left Jersey (out of 50,000); 17,000 left Guernsey (out of 42,000); the population of Sark remained overwhelmingly; but in Alderney, the entire population, save for six persons, left. In Alderney, the occupying Germans built four concentration camps in which over 700 people died (out of a total inmate population of about 6,000). Due to the destruction of documents, it is impossible to state how many forced workers died in the other islands. These were the only Nazi concentration camps on British soil.