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Herm
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===19th century to the Second World War=== In 1810, an inn was founded; and during the [[Industrial Revolution]], roads, paths, a harbour, accommodation, a forge, blacksmiths, a brewery, a bakery and a prison were built to cater for the largest number of inhabitants since prehistoric times. Most were quarrymen working in new [[granite]] quarries.<ref name="History"/> Several quarries can still be seen at present, such as on the Common.<ref name="History"/> When Prince Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt <ref name="History "/> and [[Evelyn Princess Blücher|Princess Blücher]]{{sfn|Evelyn|1921|p=vii}} leased the island from the British government in 1889, he introduced a colony of [[Red-necked wallaby|red-necked wallabies]] to the island, which lasted until 1910. Offspring were "said to have been eaten as food by English soldiers occupying the island during World War 2".{{sfn|Long|2003|p=42}} [[Compton Mackenzie]], an English-born Scottish novelist, acquired the tenancy in 1920. He recalled that his three years there had numerous logistical problems. It has been suggested that Mackenzie was the basis for the character Mr Cathcart in [[D.H. Lawrence]]'s ''The Man who Loved Islands'', about a man who moved to ever smaller islands much as Mackenzie moved from Herm to the smaller [[Jethou]], but Lawrence himself denied it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/mac/comptonmackenzie.html |title=Compton Mackenzie: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland |work=Undiscoveredscotland.co.uk |access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Bunting, Madeleine |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/08/hebrides-shaped-british-culture-madeleine-bunting |title=Island mentality: how the Hebrides shaped British culture |work=The Guardian |date=8 October 2016 |access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref> [[Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry]] was the tenant from 1923 to 1939. The [[German occupation of the Channel Islands]] during the Second World War essentially by-passed Herm. The island was claimed on 20 July 1940 by [[Nazi Germany]],<ref name="History"/> a few weeks after the arrival of German troops in [[Guernsey]] and [[Jersey]]; German soldiers landed on the island to shoot a propaganda film, ''The Invasion of the [[Isle of Wight]].''<ref name="History"/> Herm's sandy beaches were soon used for practising landings from barges, in preparation for the [[Operation Sealion|invasion of England]], but otherwise the island saw little of the Germans beyond officers making trips to shoot rabbits.{{sfn|Page|1995}} Herm had only a little German construction during the war; a [[flak|flak battery]] was placed on the island for a few weeks, and mines were placed in an area.{{sfn|Page|1995}} Occasionally German soldiers would travel to Herm to cut wood for fuel.<ref>{{cite book |first=Martin |last=Le Page |title=A Boy Messenger's War: Memories of Guernsey and Herm 1938-45 |publisher=Arden Publications (1995) |isbn=978-0952543800}}</ref> ====Operation Huckaback==== [[Operation Huckaback]] was a British Second World War military operation that was originally designed to be a raid on Herm, Jethou and Brecqhou, but instead became only a raid on Herm undertaken on the night of 27 February 1943, following an earlier attempt that had been aborted.{{sfn|Forty|2005|p=195}} Ten men of the [[Small Scale Raiding Force]] and [[No. 4 Commando]] under Captain [[Patrick Anthony Porteous]] {{post-nominals|country=GBR|VC}} landed 200 yards to the north-west of Selle Rocque on a shingle beach and made several unsuccessful attempts to climb the cliff in front of them. Porteous finally managed to climb up the bed of a stream and pulled the others up with a rope. They later reported that they had found no sign of any Islanders or Germans (who were supposed to be billeted near the harbour).{{sfn|Messenger|1985}} They had failed to make contact with the few civilians on the island whose duties included looking after the sheep.
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