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David Martel interviewed by Becky Kendall of Radio Guernsey at the Guernsey Museum March 2005, transcribed from CD by John David Nov 17th 2005

I………. It was war time, and the Germans did have weapons, there were fortifications,
Oh yes, there were a lot of fortifications, a colossal amount. When British planes passed over, the anti-aircraft fire was enormous. It was a bit frightening, on one occasion, - at home we had an old-fashioned well like it was almost to every other house, because there was no supply of water, a lot of it was drawn from wells. The chap from across the road from us used to come and fetch his water from this well in a tin bucket, and it was during an air raid that started while he was fetching water, and there was that much gunfire going on, in the end you could hear the shrapnel from the explosions of the shells coming down, so he was at the well, he put the bucket over his head, and you could hear the shrapnel hitting the bucket as he was coming away from the well.
I………. You were here during the initial air raids, and I wanted to ask you about that. They lasted fifteen minutes or so, is that right?
Well like I say, we were at home, us, during the raid, we saw the planes…
I………. You were at the Landes du Marché?
In the vestry of the Landes du Marché, the cottage, and the next door neighbour to us, he worked for a farmer, and they were gone down to the White Rock to collect the cattle from Alderney, and the people — because they were on their own — they came into us, to my parents, and we were under a table, we didn’t realise they were just after the harbour, and then he came home after the raid, and his boots were covered with blood and that, because Mr De Garis, the one he worked for, he’d got killed, and so had three of the Le Pages, a father and two sons, so that Mrs Le Page lost her husband and two of her children.

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