大象传媒

The Germans requisition Guernsey housing

During the first year of the occupation we lived in a house in Croute Havilland, which was left to us by a family who had evacuated. When Germans wanted a particular house they gave people just a few hours to get out and as the only transport available was horse driven, and if you were lucky enough to know a farmer who would help, perhaps with a tractor, this became quite a task. Within the first year the house at Croute Havilland was commandeered and we moved into the Castel in a house at Le Dos Dane called Fairmount, but this was not to be for long as it had a good view overlooking Vazon and again was commandeered. We had only two to three hours to get out of this house and but for the assistance of Eric Ozanne and his tractor we would have found this almost impossible. After this we moved into our own house in Rue a L'Or, St Saviour that was under repair at the outset of the occupation and remained empty awaiting completion at the end of the war. There had been a large monkey-puzzle tree in the front garden, which had been brought down in a winter gale and had fallen on the house, resulting in some of its branches going through the front windows. The house was in a dreadful mess without any services or cooking facilities and we had to use a garden barbecue for the first few months. It took Pierre, a carpenter and two plumbers a year to complete the repairs. One family joke at that time which springs to mind concerned two workers who were brothers, who mainly spoke Guernsey French, which was very evident when they spoke in English! We had a roof leak, which was proving difficult to trace, and on discussing the matter with them one remarked "Ah, but my father 'im 'e 'ad a leak 'im for twenty years, we used to put a bucket us under the leak and empty it when it was full it"!!

Lily Mauger.
Written from notes in 1995.

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