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We lived in a terraced house with living rooms at the front, a kitchen at the back and a long passageway that went around from the front door. You could get into the kitchen from either side and father, who was quite a short man, a proper little Guernsey man, was out there making a cup of tea or doing something at the cooker. He looked around and there were two tall German soldiers there and of course as you know, they were always fully armed all the time, bayonets and daggers and guns in their holsters and everything.

There was a couple of carrots on the kitchen table and they were making to my father they were hungry and wanted some food and could they have those carrots. That’s all there was in the house for us to eat and my father, he was so angry I can remember him to this day! What he did next, he just let rip on them, and well, I don’t know if they could understand all the English, but I think they could tell. He said “No, you can’t have those, that’s all I’ve got to feed my family on today, if you’re hungry that’s your fault you came here!”
And he got them, he had to reach up to get hold of them by the scruff of the neck and he physically pushed them all the way the length of the house down the two steps onto the footpath. He said “Now get out, and go, look what you are doing to my family”.

I know that is true because I saw it happen. But you see they were frightened because they weren’t supposed to do that, they weren’t allowed to interfere with the civilian population.
RUTH WALSH

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