大象传媒

GRANDMA'S EXIT FROM JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS
Taken from her diary written at the time. Aged 14 and 7 months
THE VOYAGE FROM JERSEY TO INDIA
Friday June 28th 1940
Jersey had been de-militarized for about a week. Many people had left the Island. Mr. and Mrs. Le Sueur, with whom I had lived since leaving my school near Portsmouth, the previous summer, had been awaiting instruction from Cooks the Travel Agents. At the last minute they called at Cooks, only to find that the shop had been closed for 3 weeks. So, acting on all the urgent telegrams from my parents, with panic setting in, Mrs. Le Sueur got my passport on Thursday.
Mrs. Le Sueur sewed 拢10 into my vest, she told me all her family were remaining in Jersey
I had packed the night before, so with Gladys Marrett in charge of me, we set off. My paternal Grandma, who lived at the same address, suffered from Parkinson's Disease. It was sad when she said "I shall never see you again"
I got up at 7am. The ship, named " The Isle of Sark" left at 10-30am.
We had a pleasant voyage, but had to take cover once.
At 1 pm we arrived at St Peters Port Guernsey, we were allowed to go ashore and be back by 7,30 to 8 pm.
We had lunch at a small cafe. There were a number of us, Gladys, Eileen Mc Nair, a girl of my age who went to my school, Jersey College for Girls. It used to be Jersey College for Young Ladies, the name had been changed recently. Eileen's brother lan aged 10, Kath aged 7, Doreen aged 5, Mr. and Mrs. Mc Nair, Gladys鈥檚 sister Helen and her husband. I bought a costume and had a swim, the beach was very cold and windy.
By-the-way, there were a number of French men, who had got out of France in a small boat. They had not had any sleep for 4 nights. They were hungry and spoke to Gladys in their own language, as the old cafe waiter couldn't understand them.
We had our tea at 4.30.We ate rissoles, the waitress forgot the pot of tea and bread and butter. We had been there one hour by the time we had finished.
The Mc Nairns went to the ship to put Doreen to bed. I nearly went with them.
Gladys, Helen and her husband and I went to get some ham rolls. We were in he shop when a loud whistling sound like the air-raid warning but we soon knew it was a whistling bomb, we lay flat on the floor.
We got out of the shop and luckily found a shelter. Then we heard another warning, so thinking it was the all clear we went up the stairs, but we were soon down again.
Five or six more bombs fell, shaking the air-raid shelter a lot. The shelter was in a Fort by the harbour. The lights were flickering and then went out. A man brought a glass and some water in jugs. Each person had half a glass of water. There was a girl next to me who had been with her mother, hiding under a lorry. The all-clear siren went and Gladys and I went out to see what damage had been done. "White Rock" the name of the pier was blazing, all the tomato lorries were on fire. The ambulance had been machine-gunned and the driver killed, everyone sheltering under the lorries was burnt. The town clock was on fire, also many warehouses.
We were sent back while they cleared up things, the fires were soon under control.
Gladys鈥檚 sister and her husband wouldn't leave the shelter, so Gladys told them the boat was
still there.
We heard another explosion, as all of us made our way to the pier for the second time, it turned out to be the petrol dump. We got on board, the ship had been machine gunned.
The Mc Nairs were in the boat but during the raid they were under the pier with the French men on top of them.

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