大象传媒

The occupation of Jersey lasted for four years and I was aged between 6 and 10 years old. The middle one of three boys.

My father had been in the Jersey Militia and volunteered for the British army and we heard from him only seldom. My mother ran the Marina Caf茅 at Portelet and she received an ultimatum from the Germans, either she opened the caf茅 or the Germans would take it over. The main beverage they sold was parsnip coffee to the Germans and the locals such as the cycle club. Towards the end of the occupation customers had to bring their own potatoes.

All English people were deported, this was a direct order from Hitler. My mother was English but my father was Jersey, if it had been the other way round we would have been deported. I can remember them getting into lorries for the journey to the harbour,
most of them returned safely.

The only British person to come out of Belsen alive was sent from Jersey for sheltering a Russian prisoner of war, and after the war he taught my young brother.

There was a curfew and within the red line zone it was an hour earlier and I remember trying not to cycle across the red line which was simply painted on the road.

Double summer- time was all used all year, we left home in the dark to get to school for 10.am. There was a soup kitchen at lunch- time in what is now St Brelades Parish Hall.

We often marched back with the band taking the troops back to barracks usually ex hotels. On one occasion I was taken in and given a tin of food.

There were a total of eight children living locally and we used to have the beach to ourselves. We used to stamp out union jacks in the soft sand of the causeway to Janvrin Tomb, right under the gun emplacements on both headlands.

German blank bullets had red wooden tops and could be picked up after manoeuvres, it was easy to remove the cordite and make little cannons, we nearly deafened ourselves when we set one off in an empty machine gun post.

We had a big garden and granddad kept rabbits and chickens and grew lots of vegetables.

All wireless sets were confiscated we kept one hidden also a crystal set. We were often kept up to date with the news by a Polish soldier who did not want to be in the German army.

Towards the end of the war we received Red Cross parcels, my mother always kept the Christmas decorations in the Red Cross box. The Red Cross ship was called 鈥淰ega鈥�.

When the war ended we inspected the holiday camp where the Germans had been stationed and collected bayonets and knives but when we got home my mother made us get rid of them.

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Lis Edwards of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Ian Michael Priddy. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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