大象传媒

From a typescript by Edward J Rowe

Mr Rowe was fourteen when the war started and had just left school.

[After the Germans arrived and occupied Guernsey]The problem now was work. Nobody was taking on young boys or anybody else for that matter. Money was very short as the quarries where my father worked as a blacksmith had closed down. It was pretty dull and boring. The Germans didn't trouble us much at this time only for 'nigly' little things, like making us step off the pavement when they walked past.

I reported to the Labour Exchange to see if there was any work, this was still run by the States with a German guard outside the door. There were German guards everywhere, sometimes it seemed like the whole German Army was corning to Guernsey. "We only have two jobs going for a young man like you", said the clerk. "We're sending a working party to
Aldemey, nobody left up there you know!, or you can stay here and put poles up in the fields I for the Germans to prevent paratroopers landing see" - "Oh well I had better go for a trip to Alderney" I said, thinking it would be a couple of weeks work. "Right", he said, "Report to c the harbour on Monday, somebody will see you're alright".
It is a bit difficult to jog the memory after all this time, but I think I spent about two years on "Devils Island鈥� as we called it then. We went on a Dutch trawler with a German Captain. He seemed to know the waters all right as we rounded the Swinge and approached the long breakwater, Alderney looked a foreboding place. We were sixteen of us altogether, the oldest being the foreman, he seemed pretty well organised. "You wait here", he said. "1 have to get transport to load the stores we've brought". He and two others trudged off up the long winding hill. After about an hour they came back with a tractor and trailer so we all got working and loaded all our gear on the trailer. Nobody asked where he had found it. We found out later that not everybody had evacuated, one farmer and his wife had stayed, to look after their cattle. He was so pleased to see us he lent us his tractor and what little diesel he had.

Eventually we settled in Victoria Hotel, two of us to a room. There were some Germans around, but they said nothing to us so we did likewise. Try and Imagine a Ghost Town all the shops had just been abandoned. We kitted ourselves out with clothes and extra blankets, but nearly all the foodstuffs had been pilfered by the soldiers. So we had to rely on the stores we had brought with us. This was adequate at this time, but plain. Later one man was given the job of catching rabbits to help with the diet which mostly consisted of porridge and rabbit stew, fortunately there was plenty of coal on the Island so there was no problem with cooking on the old fashioned big oven in the Hotel or keeping warm in our rooms. One man invented some sort of mixture which he made in bottles and he could use as yeast with flour to make bread Sometimes though the bottles would explode with a loud bang and we would have soldiers running down to see who was shooting. Once we had explained they thought it was quite a joke.

It was decided our first job was to take a look around the Island to see what needed doing. This proved to be a sorry sight. Animals had been shot and left. Houses had been left, it seemed in a hurry. Some still had washing on the line. I suppose they could see the enemy lorries and tanks on the Cherbourg Peninsular and thought it best to get out in a hurry. We cleared the mess as best we could and tried to bring some semblance of order. We never entered any of the empty houses. It didn't seem right somehow. Although later when the Germans poured in by the hundreds they weren't empty for long. As time wore on the
Germans started to do a lot of work on Aldemey. This was the first time I saw slave labourers. They really looked a sad sight, thin, ragged clothes. sacks tied around their feet instead of shoes. Their masters were some of the worst men I have ever seen 'Organization Todt' with swasticas on their arms. They would stand over the slave workers with whips in their hands and if one stopped for a breather he would feel it across his back. This is when I started to hate Germans and felt glad that I worked for the States of Guernsey.

We had no communication with Guernsey except for the boat which brought our stores once every fortnight, although later on we were allowed to go home every six weeks for a week in turns. This could be a little exciting as every now and then a spitfire would appear and strafe ships leaving the harbour. We got wise and always tried to on our little Dutch trawler, he seemed to be lucky. It is not so much as fighting a war, but being a survivor.

It was around this time that the Germans thought they would play games with us. They would come to our billet just after we'd settled down for the night and say "all out", then we would have to go out in the street and put our hands on the wall. We were usually kept outside like this for twenty minutes when we were allowed back we would find all our gear tipped out on the floor, and our bed turned upside down. After a few episodes like this we thought it time to play a game of our own. Remember there was only men on the Island apart from some nursing sisters they had brought over to nurse their wounded when they were strafed by the Spitfire.

Two of our boys rummaged around the shops and managed to find two lovely ladies dresses and clothes, they dressed themselves up and looked lovely. They went parading up the main street, passed all the German billets and back quickly to change into their own clothes and hid the ladies dresses. Sure enough after a while down comes a patrol and one says "where are the ladies?", of course we all looked at them and say there are no ladies on Alderney, they all ran away when you arrived. I don't know if this did it, but we didn't get bothered after that.

There was no kind of entertainment at all in Alderney so I suppose these things used to go on out of shear boredom.

One day a train driver from Sark arrived on the stores boat, along with a diver and a dynamite expert. We were told that someone in a States Office in Guernsey had decided that we must start work on the Alderney breakwater as it should be under permanent maintenance.

I thought this a bit silly because if the breakwater was allowed to slip into the sea the Germans would not be able to bring their large ships in, especially those bringing the slave workers. As I was the youngest I had no say in the matter, so the little train was steamed up and work began. I worked in the Quarry loading trailers with large boulders. We also had a steam crane which handled the larger boulders. Once all the trailers were loaded the Sark driver would drive the train to the breakwater and dump the rocks over the side. This work went on every day weather permitting. We were allowed dynamite to blast the sides of the quarry, but the dynamite had to be searched every evening in case we decided to blow up the Germans.

This was very hard work and we were glad to get "home" at night to our rabbit stew. Although this was a hard life and restrictive, we took heart in the fact that we were heaps better off than the slaves on the Island.
Little did we know at the time that Hitler had decided to make Alderney part of his 鈥淎tlantic Wall". There were bunkers and fortifications being built all around the Island, big guns and anti aircraft guns were being set up. This work was being done by using slave labour. They worked hard with only a bowl of cabbage soup and a slice of brown bread for lunch. God knows how many died from exhaustion and whippings. We felt sorry for these people and one day we saved some food from our meals. Being the youngest, I was elected to take it out to them. When I went to hand it over a German Guard came up and knocked the whole lot out of my hands shouting something about don't stop us from working. I dare not try this again in case I was shot. I mention this to point out how inhuman these nazis were.

I remember I spent one Christmas in Alderney. It wasn't my turn for leave. There weren't any presents or anything like that, but our cook made some sort of cake. We managed to get together a few delicacies and packets of tea. We seemed always to have tea, probably pilfered from the shops before the soldiers got it.

We put these "goodies" into a box and marched up to the prisoners camp not knowing what to expect. I don't know what it was, perhaps even they mellowed at Christmas. but we were I allowed in one of the huts made of wood and gave our presents to some of the slaves. We I sang a carol. On the way out a guard said "Crazy Englanders." We were happy at this and sang as we walked back. As we walked back past the hospital some nursing sisters came out with biscuits and coffee. To me this was one of the most memorable Christmases.

In the spring another party arrived headed by Mr. Norman. They were going to grow wheat in all the spare spaces on Alderney as Guernsey was getting short of flour for bread. I expect it was from France, but sacks of seed came. Old tractors were brought out from sheds, diesel oil arrived. We even got hold of a harvester thresher. I thought this man must have some go in him at last we could do something useful.

I left the quarry job and went to work in the fields. We started at first light and worked till dark. Our midday meal was brought out to us" it was a good Summer the sun shone and the crops did well. Harvest time came and it was all hands on deck. It seemed hard to keep the thresher going.

Now the British were stepping up the bombing off France just across the water. The anti aircraft guns were shooting every night, it was difficult to get a good nights sleep.

We had a good crop, tons of wheat was stacked high in St Annes Church which we used for a store waiting to be shipped to Guernsey - we thought. Then came the Germans with two lorries, loaded up half of what we had and drove off with it, all we could do was watch.

Just as well we had harvested all the wheat because a spitfire landed in one of our fields on the Braye. It didn't catch fire like you see on the films and the pilot stepped out, he was unhurt. We tried to have a chat to him, but the Germans were soon there, all he had time to say was that he was a Canadian and his war was over. He was marched away and we never saw him again.

One day a stranger arrived at our breakfast table. I, for one, don't know where he came from, obviously one of our party had been hiding him, probably in the cook-house because he came from this area. During breakfast some Germans came and took him away. I found out much later that this man was Mr. Buckingham. He had many exploits against the Germans and escaped again in Guernsey and hid out for three years. Another time I was helping the blacksmith in his workshop, when a German Sea Captain came in saying the metal parts of the rudder on his boat had broken. "You must come and mend it" he said. When we arrived at the beach it was one of the little Dutch trawlers, the Germans had a lot of these. We unbolted the broken parts and took them to the blacksmiths ship and did a welding job, then went back to the beach and bolted them back and replaced the rudder.

That's that, we thought, but the Captain said "I will fetch you this afternoon when the boat is afloat and we will try it out". He drove us up and down the Swinge, stood on deck with the sea breaking over us. He was in the wheel house laughing. Fortunately we'd done a good job and arrived back wet, but safe.

By now I had reached the ripe old age of sixteen and with a plain diet and hard work I felt pretty strong and fit. I thought I was a man. We had a gardener in our party who used to grow vegetables with rabbit, porridge from the wheat crushed which we had grown, we were fairly self sufficient with a little help from Guernsey.

On one home leave I met my first girlfriend. We spent a few nice days together, we went to parties that went on all night as we couldn't go home because of the 9.00 p.m. curfew.

In Alderney we could come and go as we pleased so long as we behaved ourselves reasonably well. I think the Germans respected us a little because of the work we were doing. After all they were stealing half of our crops, but we still had to think that half was being sent to Guernsey which was better than nothing.

My girlfriend didn't want me to go back for another stint in Aldemey because it was so close to Cherbourg and with the war stepping up could be dangerous. I don't know, but I think perhaps the comradeship and the lifestyle we had set up appealed to me, or perhaps I didn't know any better, but I felt I had to keep my job in Alderney. So I returned this time in the little Dutch trawler. This was to be my last six months in Alderney. As a matter of fact we were called back early as the States had decided to give up the Alderney project.

In this period things were getting pretty hairy. Cherbourg was getting bombed day and night. The Germans had difficulty getting their supply ships in or out. The British planes were using rockets and we could see many German bodies in the Hospital yard opposite our Hotel. These were from ships that had been hit on the way to and from France. We didn't know at the time but they were warming up for D Day.

We were in a vulnerable position because the British didn't know there were civilians on the Island and we were a bit sorry to have to go, because we had done useful work perhaps on the breakwater and growing wheat.

I could be an Alderney Breakwater Expert!!!

So we, unsung heroes, returned home to live in a house again, and meet up with our girls. I joined the British Army and fought in Egypt, during this time my girlfriend married someone else!

The rest of the story has been told many times, the near starvation, the red cross parcels, and the joyful liberation day. I think a war leaves a mark on anybody who goes through it.

I should like to thank the Alderney Farmer and his wife for the milk he gave us for our porridge.

Edward J. Rowe

I dedicate this story to my daughter Carolyn. - Perhaps she will understand why I am what I
am.

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