Robert Hathaway, the Seigneur of Sark. One of nearly fifty islanders deported to Germany in the aftermath of the commando raid, the former American consistently defied his captors. (Island Archives, Guernsey)
Mrs Sibyl Hathaway, the Dame of Sark. The feudal ruler of the island, she encouraged islanders not to evacuate when the Germans arrived. (La Société Sercquaise)
The Dame of Sark and her German ‘guests’, in the Seigneurie. (La Société Sercquaise)
A map of Sark with everything renamed in German. The Hog’s Back, where the commandos landed, is labelled here as ‘Schweinsrücken’. (La Société Sercquaise)
German soldiers relaxing in the Sark sunshine. They considered the island to be a ‘little paradise’. (La Société Sercquaise)
German officers on Sark. The Inselkommandant, Oberleutnant Heinz Herdt, is standing in the middle. (Doris Theuerkauf)
Oberleutnant Herdt on his horse. To the islanders, he was known as ‘Little Steve’. (Doris Theuerkauf)
A view of Sark’s east coast, as seen from the Hog’s Back. The steep cliffs seemed to provide a natural defence. (Eric Lee)
The eighteenth-century cannon on the Hog’s Back mistakenly thought to be a German machine gun emplacement. (La Société Sercquaise)
Petit Dixcart. This was the commandos’ ‘primary target’ but was found to be empty. (Eric Lee)
La Jaspellerie. The commandos’ ‘secondary target’, this too had no German soldiers – but Mrs Pittard, a 40-year-old widow, lived there and provided invaluable intelligence.
Mrs Frances Pittard. ‘Is there a fire?’ she asked when the commandos broke into her home. (Kevin Adams)
Miss Page, one of the managers of the Dixcart Hotel. (La Société Sercquaise)
Miss Duckett, the other manager. Both women claimed to have slept through the raid that took place only metres away from where they slept. The Germans suspected them of aiding the British. (La Société Sercquaise)
Hubert Lanyon, the baker of Sark. He was eventually arrested and jailed for distributing an underground newspaper on the island. (La Société Sercquaise)
Anderson Manor in Dorset, where the Small Scale Raiding Force lived and trained. (Eric Lee)
Major Geoffrey Appleyard, commander of the Small Scale Raiding Force and leader of the Basalt raid.
Lieutenant Anders Lassen, the legendary Danish commando and future recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Sergeant Joseph Henry ‘Tim’ Robinson. One of the soldiers of No. 12 Commando, who joined up with the SSRF for the raid. (Graham Robinson)
‘We live in deeds, not years’. The only memorial on Sark to the raiders. (Eric Lee)
Cover illustration: MTB 344, the ‘Little Pisser’. (Chris Rooney)