Did you know about the ship that brought food to the occupied Channel Islands?

You've probably never heard of the SS Vega. This ship, however, is regularly celebrated in one corner of the world: the Channel Islands, the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Germans in World War II. She has appeared on local stamps and is regularly depicted on floats made of flowers at a local annual carnival. She was not a warship, so what makes her so well-loved there?

The Channel Islands are far from self-sufficient in food, and rely on shipments from Britain. These shipments understandably stopped in June 1940, when Nazi Germany overran the islands and established a garrison there (The Channel Islands in WWII). The civilian population acquired a new food source by sending delegates to German-occupied France.

Food shipments from France, however, were cut off when the Allies invaded Normandy on D-Day and eventually occupied all the nearby ports, leaving the Channel Islands without sustenance. Civilian rations were reduced to 1,137 calories per person, and eventually to 900 calories, while the average British citizen (also beset by supply problems) consumed 3,500 calories.

Enter the Swedish ship SS Vega. 15 days after World War II broke out, she was stopped by a German submarine, forced to make port in Germany, and cargo onboard "belonging to the enemy" was removed. The ship itself was allowed to leave, and was soon chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross for relief activities, mainly transporting supplies from neutral Portugal to Vichy France.

In December 1944, she undertook her 39th voyage, this one to the starving Channel Islands. She docked in Guernsey on December 19, 1944, almost exactly 80 years before the publication of this article. She made another stop in Jersey two days later, then returned to Lisbon. She delivered almost 120,000 standard food parcels, 4,200 food parcels for invalids, 4 tons of soap, 5.2 tons of salt, over 4,100 pounds of medical supplies, cigarettes and children's clothing.

SS Vega made four more trips to the Channel Islands, the last three bringing fewer food parcels but 500 tons of flour each. The last trip coincided with May 9, 1945, the first day of the liberation of the islands. When British forces arrived in Guernsey, the Vega, the ship that saved the islands' population from starvation, was already waiting for them in the dock. Join us on our Normandy-Channel Islands Tour to learn more about the German occupation of the archipelago and see the sites where the SS Vega delivered her cargo to islanders in need.

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