大象传媒

Edited transcript of a taped interview with Herbert Nicholls

You had whatever you could get hold of, because just before the Red Cross parcels came, the shops had nothing. You had ration cards but there was nothing. Now and again there was an announcement you would have, some salt, and you would get a tiny little ration of salt, perhaps two ounces of salt, and that was sea salt, and that was all. Nothing, just nothing.
All the greenhouses were utilised for growing food, it was a marvellous organisation really, they were called the G.U.B. Guernsey Utilisation Growing Board, G.U.B., and there were little placards in the greenhouse. G.U.B. and they had, like, experienced growers that had a big vinery for a year, they had a job and they called them organisers, and they used to say well you grow carrots, you grow parsnips, you grow this, you grow that to get a variety but the food was getting so short that potatoes were the main stay and nearly every glasshouse was planted in potatoes and just when they were due to harvest this would have been towards the end of, say about August 44, the German鈥檚 commandeered them, most of them, and some of the greenhouses they even mined them, with mines at either end, and even bunks and they used to sleep in them. Ye Gods, and so you couldn鈥檛 dig up the crop, because the crop was just about forming, and they dug them up, you know, so you wouldn鈥檛 dig them up, and they used to sleep in them,

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