大象传媒

This is the story of Billie Brooks 35 Hills street Jersey

My Journey to the main land
This happened 2 days before the Bombing of Jersey

My father who was a retired Army RHA, still working for them undercover, decided we would leave the island, If we could get a boat out.

Being 17 and a half and a Horticulturist and running a small export company. Exporting flowers to Covent Garden & Hotels. I though Mainland would have been the same size as Jersey, but was curious to go to Covent garden.

We had a curfew on the island we had to be in by 8pm and couldn鈥檛 come out to 6am.
This was because they were evacuating Dunkirk and bringing in some of the wounded at night, they managed to get them out again, so there was no boats or planes for us to get off the island.

Mean while the island was declared Open, which meant no Union jack Flag could fly from the fort, the Banks closed, there was no more money, all the spirits were tipped down the drains. All you had was what you had in your pocket.

One of my fathers missions was to blow up the run way at the airport, which he did, Turn the guns off the fort, which was a German request, because the Germans said they would not bomb or attack if the guns were destroyed. So my father went and turned them over.

Permission had to be got from the Town Hall to leave the island, I was given the choice of staying or going to the main land, I decided to go, when I got to the Town Hall the queue was a mile long and 10 deep, every body wanted to leave, I was very lucky to know some welsh, who were in the queue, who pulled me in, because I was friendly with them. The barrier went down right behind me, and when I went to sign on, my mother was there, we were told we would have to pay a fare on the boat, if one turned up mother said that was fine.

Then we went home and I went to bed early, in the morning I was told to get my bike out and go and get my sister Alice Leviellez, who lived at St Marys on the other side of the island, and bring in a horse and cart my mother wanted to see her. As we, might be leaving the island.

My sister turned up on her, and my mother asked her if it was possible to get off the island would she consider taking my mother place and take care of me, but she refused saying she wanted to stay with her husband and the children on the farm.
That was the last I saw of her until after the war.

We could only take 5 lbs in weight of a change of clothes, which mother had asked me to pack on my own, which was a treat as I had never been allowed to before, I had started to cry and was told no time for tears, So we bathed and went to bed early, at 5 in the morning my mother woke me, to have breakfast, which we ate and left everything as it was, my mother said 鈥渨hat ever your father tells you to do, you do鈥�
We put on our coats, and went out the front door, which had to be left open, and we walked down the street to the harbour, where we were stopped at the top of the pier before going on. We were told if you go down the pier you cant come back or you will be shot,
My mother and father placed me in between them, and we walked to the end of the pier. There were a few people milling around but not connecting, the tide was out, there was no row boats no nothing, we were all waiting for the mail boat and the tide to come in.
At one stage my father disappeared and my mother was frantic, he turned up and took us under the pier to the landing stage, not sure how long we were there, but there was nothing on the horizon, then there was a little black spot. Every body got excited, but when it came in, it was a coal barge, which was lost in the fog, which was wet and thick, same as Dunkirk, which would soak you quickly and you couldn鈥檛 see through it.
The next thing I knew it was dinnertime, my mother said, 鈥測our father is going to cover you over鈥� (because I had blond hair, I stood out like a sore thumb),
The barge was empty, had no coal, carried me on the barge and placed me at front of the barge and covered me over, I was not to get up, I could see though the slit, in the cover. I heard people saying submarines were all around the island, I didn鈥檛 worry because I thought that ok because I can swim not realising, what damage a submarine could do, I could hear the motor of the barge start up, and we went towards the cliffs of the island, which I had never seen from the water, it must have been very high tide.
The cargo hold was wide open, not closed at all, showing we were empty,
In the evening it was a Harvest Moon, the sea was like a millpond, it was beautiful
.
My mother took me to the wheelhouse where my father was, helping the skipper there was a large bucket of tea, which was made in the bucket, which I declined,
Mother then asked me if I had my fathers medals, which I had taken out of the cabinet they were in, I was told not to lose them, which I had.

We chugged away the whole of the next day, when we arrived in Weymouth, I was searched and had to have a medical examination, because I was unheard of on the Mainland. Next we were put on a train, to Exeter where my father鈥檚 mother lived.
We landed on her door step un-expectedly and she had not seen her son for 22 years, My fathers sister was looking after her as she was an invalid she quit often confused me for my father, from years before, she died in the Exeter bombings.

My mother and father set up home in a flat over a shop, which she furnished.
I got a job working in Woolworth鈥檚 where every thing was 6 pence or less. For a month until they could prove her you were. Then I joined the army as a volunteer at Exeter, where I went to Aldmaston at reading for 6 weeks training, came back to Exeter and was a gardener to houses that were occupied by Army, but as the war was only going to last 3 months, and the people would be coming back to them, the gardens had to be up to scratch, Many of the Volunteers were typist of the highest quality, they had to give me so many hours a week, which they didn鈥檛 like because of their hands which I could not understand as I had never met one before.
Next I had to train as a waitress, because I was taken off the gardening war was going on to long.

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