大象传媒

POST LIBERATION.

Big boy Derek Le Page took me to the Rohaise to boo at Germans. I didn't know what he meant and couldn't understand the strange shouted noises he made when lorries full of working parties of prisoners drove past.

British soldiers 'Uncle' George and 'Uncle' Reg. used to visit our house. They brought me sweet lumps of honeycomb in tins and even washed me down when one night, all this rich food had proved too much for my digestive system.

The soldiers brought their wives over. 'Auntie' Nan and 'Auntie' Vera stayed at our house.

The soldiers had use of a car and took us to see some of the things the Germans had built. We saw an enormous gun out in St. Saviours and went right underground into a huge fortress at Jerbourg. Uncle George turned a large dial like a great clock and then teased me that we had better get away fast as he had just set the timer on a bomb.

Auntie Lilly Uncle Arthur and Uncle George were allowed to return to The Bungalow Hotel in the Military Zone at Jerbourg. I recall seeing the hotel which had been used as barracks and painted grey. There were holes knocked in walls so wood burning stoves could be used and many of the floor boards had been burned as fuel.

Antie Lilly found lots of her garden plants had been taken by the Germans to make little gardens by their concrete bunkers.

One grey day, Mum Dad and I went to the Airport to greet Mum' brother and his wife who had evacuated to England five years before. I met my two cousins, Jean and Jeffrey Kitts, for the first time.

I met another cousin who had been evacuated with his school and had not seen his Mum and Dad for five years. He had gone away aged nine and had returned as a young adult old enough to start work. He showed me the first electric kettle I had ever seen & was soundly told off for telling me to put the water in via its socket.

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