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Videotape of interview with Lynne Ashton Transcribed by J David 23/9/05

Mr Le Moignan. My name is Ronald John Le Moignan, and I was born in 1936, May 18th 1936
I………. Can you tell us what you heard about the liberation of Guernsey, and then how you came back?
Mr Le Moignan. Yes. The Liberation of Guernsey was mixed up with the general Liberation and celebrations, Because during the war there had been a big long shelter built in the middle of the road, a brick shelter with a very thick concrete lid, and we used to go there of an evening, and in the back garden was a little shelter, a brick shelter again, and as in Coronation Street it had a long passageway around the back, and escape hatches there, and we spent a lot of time in those shelters as well, as of course there was bombing there but not so much. How we knew about it was because there was a big party which was held in the street, a street party, I remember that well, the tables laid out, and the ladies running around, and we had jelly, you know, which was fantastic, and we had tins of food which had come from Canada and America, and various things, things that we had not seen for years, and it was very exciting. My father had to return to Guernsey, he was one of the very first people going to Guernsey, again because of the skills, because he was able to go straight into the fire brigade in Guernsey, and so I remember that we journeyed down to London, initially , and we stayed overnight in a staging post like a very large hall, where I was sick, actually, that night, I think it was the excitement and the travelling, and eventually we came over by boat, we arrived by sea onto the White Rock, and at that time the barbed wire was up at the end of the White Rock, where the Weighbridge is now, both sides, there was British sentries around everywhere, lots of people there, and I do remember being welcomed and hugged and picked up, almost, and swung around by two total strangers who I’d never known, and couldn’t understand, because they looked very old people to me at that time, and of course it was my grandfather and grandmother welcoming the family back. I’m nine at that time. 36 to 45, nine years old, and I remember that vividly, when we met my grandparents. We were then billeted straight away up at the Town Arsenal, because that’s where the Fire Brigade is, still is, actually, There were large numbers of German prisoners-of-war there, which were housed down the far end, and there were Nissen huts in the yard there which accommodated German prisoners of war, and there were troops everywhere, and my father of course resumed service in the Guernsey Fire Brigade. I used to play in Monument Gardens, that was when the cannons weren’t there, because the cannons were buried under the grass, in the middle, and I saw those being excavated, I remember that, that was after the war, here. And the German prisoners were bussed, and trundled around in trucks, and they were doing renovations around Guernsey at the time, and I had a yacht built for me by one of the German prisoners, I do remember that the currency at the time was - my parents were not allowed to pay the prisoners for any work — so it was a trading in cigarettes, so it was paid for by cigarettes, - and unfortunately I’ve lost that yacht and I no longer have it. And nevertheless that’s a fairly brief episode of my life.

Ron Le Moignan

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