Saturday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
December 28, 1940.
}
NANCY
HOW'S DAT
I CAN'T
FER A
FIGGER EIGHT, NANCY?
WELL---
I STILL
SEE ANY FIGURE .EIGHT!
HOW'S & CAN'T DAT ONE?
SEE
ANY
FIGURE EIGHT!
AWRIGHT,-** I'LL TRY IT
AGAIN!
By Ernie
Bushmiller
HELP!
LOOK! --- YOU GOT UP.
TO: SEVEN ANYWAY!
First Complete Personal Narrative of the Occupation
THE Germans have now
ruled a small part of the British Empire, the Channel Islands, for three months.
Recently eight Channel Islanders managed to slip away from Guernsey in a 20-foot boat and make Eng- land. They brought with them the story of what it is like to live under German rule.
Three of them, Mr Fred Hockey and his two sons, George and Harold, have now given that story to me in the most minute detail.
They have told me of the demilitarisation of the island, the evacuation of the islanders, the German bombing, the narri- val of the first German troops, and everything that has hap pened in Guernsey since then.
And from what they have told me I am able to reconstruct the
first full story of Guernsey
under the Nazis, Britons under the swastika,
THE
in
NAZIS
the CHANNEL ISLANDS
Here is the first of
a series of articles
Port, and I saw my own family snil.
"Don't you believe any of
Guernsey
Alderney
Sark
Jersey
MINQUIERS → Sp
FRANCE
George and I cycled down to St. Peter Port afterwards and saw the real damage-blaz- ing fruit sheds, a line of, tomato lorries afire, the weighbridge smashed up, broken glass over all the roads.
"They had rushed the wound- Next week, however,
the ed to the Victoria hospital, and the Germans even killed an am- island shook itself back to bulance driver at his wheel on those stories about overcrowded normal. The tomato boats, that the way there. Fifty-one killed
The British Gov- bad censed running during there were, and 140 injured. conditions. ernment sent enough ships to evacuation week, started run
"We cycled back soberly to telling for the first evacuate the whole of Guernsey, ning more busily than ever, our house, passing people stand- time the story of of the ships called back again The lorries piled up by the quay- ing in little groups at their side at St Peter Port, and the front doors, talking quietly to- nearly empty,
that lovely sunlit the occupation by "On the Saturday, since the mail boats came in again as gether on
evening. There had been almost women and children, had already usuni. the Germans of a
no time to feel indignant. We gone, anybody else who liked
"I never had such a busy were shocked, and a bit dazed, week," gaid Fred Hockey, but the feeling was not even "But as the people streamed was signaller at the island's part of the Unit- could go.
dawn to White Rock, the bailiff "Everything seemed so normal quite that.
Signaller At
St. Peter Port
Fred Hockey, short, sturdy Guernseyman of Devan parents,
principal harbour, St Peter ed Kingdom-the
Port-that pleasant little holi-
day town sloping down to the Channel Isles. Told
Hea on the east coast of the island, facing France.
by
Posters Said:
and some other leading men of that a few people who had gone' "I think we all knew then that the island climbed on to plat- away to England came back the Germans were really com- forms and urged them not to
again in the mailboats, although ing, and there was no escape. leave.
some others decided to evacuate The last mall-boat sailed that night. The last cargo boat, after all-though this time they full of pigs from Alderney, put had to pay their own fares. out next day. There were no Don't Be Yellow "On Tuesday, it is true, a more British warships lying off German plane came over, flying the coast, as there had been evacuation "They said trade would carry on as usual, there would be no very high, and on Wednesday. when the official
took place. worry or trouble, and if it came another swooped so low that I
"No, we knew then that we to the worst they would see that could see the black crosses and were for it, the Germans were mile inland from Bordeaux Bay, "I saw the British garrison everybody got safely away, the pilot in the cockpit. On coming. We did not. kriow, farther north on the island's go out.
He worked in a signal station on the end of White Rock, the solid granite breakwater that embraces St Peter Port har- bour, and his job was to signal in and out the, ships that used the port.
Ho lived in a house half a
"east coast, just by the second-
DUDLEY BARKER
"THEY
Then cume Friday-Friday,
They had cars going round with Thursday there was another though, that they were coming STARTED EM. posters saying, 'Don't be yellow. high-flier, but the boats came in, quite so soon." largest town, St Sampson.
"There was no compulsion, and the tomatoes went out To that house he returned BARKING EVERY TILING,
MONDAY: HOW THE periodically in the years when MEN, GUNS, TRANSPORT. but they persuaded thousands galore, like I'd never seen be
GERMANS CAME. he was sailor in the ships that THEY WERE ALL GONE BY of people not to leave. 1 my-fore: ply between the islands. In 6 O'CLOCK, AND THE HAR- self booked out large ships the that house he raised his family BOUR WAS EMPTY AGAIN, Government had sent, with only June 28, the, day, although wel a handful of people aboard. didn't know it, that the British of 13 children. And when he AND QUIET.
"I SAW ONE SHIP THAT Government announced got a job ashore as signaller at
HAVE CARRIED Channel Islands hud been the port, be expected to settle the troops were going until the COULD down placidly in that house for day they went, and there was a 4,000, AND 1 DOUBT IF SHE demilitarised. the rest of his life.
bit of an uproar that evening, HAD MORE THAN 50 PAS- "That was the day of the
bombing. You've heard all! Some of his sons became with everybody flocking to the SENGERS. sailors, some growers of tomi- streets to find out
"Rumours were, spread, too, about that, I daresay, toes in the miles of greenhouses happening, everybody asking that kept people back. My son that stretched all around his anxious questions. But still Harold, here, and his sister. Bathing When
"Nobody on the island knew
what WAS
house for this is the island of there were no answers.
were going on the Saturday fishermen and tomatoes and "Mr Carey, the bailiff, was morning, with the sisters of the summer holidays, the little sun- left in charge of the island, with girl's young man. shine island, with its rocky the police inspector. cliffs to the south and its genile
benches to the north, its new Then Women
airport, its herds of cattle, its
quarries falling into disuse, its
self-government,, patois, quaint
Saw British
the
Bombs Dropped
TELEGRAPH
QUIZ
"Well, on Friday night they "Being off duty, I was in bed heard a rumour that Guernsey in my house at the time, which] people who had reached England probably saved my life, for they]
1. What part of the body is were being compelled to sleep went for the harbour.
the 'crus? And Children out in the parks. So the girls "George and a friend of his
wouldn't go.
had just started out to bathelish river, and how long is it?
2. Which is the longest Eng-
the
local laws and quaintly-named "The militia had been dis- "Harold came down to my when three planes went over, 3. In what month did (a) officials, tiny income, inx, cheap banded, and the Home Guard, signal station to tell me that he machine-gunning. wines and spirits.
as you would call them over here, wouldn't go either and I gave "George, who had never heard British naval forces rescue sca- were disarmed. For two days him the rough side of my machine-gun, thought the man from the Gorman prison ship nothing happened.
tongue.
planes were backfiring, till he Altmark (b) Germany invade the "Then, on Saturday after. "The result of that rumour is heard the bombs dropping at Netherlands and Belgium?
4. A cablo's-longth is (a)
· Garrison Go noon, we heard the news that my daughter is still on the St Peter Port. Then he rushed
evacuation of women and chil island. I offered to bring her into the house. I got dressed 100 fathoms (b) 120 (c) 150.
5. In what yoar was The last war touched the dren.
with us when we escaped, but quickly, and we crouched in af island practically not at all. "The officials came out in the she was nervous of it. And I pit by the green-house.
University of Hongkong opened? 6. What word means the art This war too, it seemed, might parishes with bells, like your couldn't press her, for the trip "People took cover every- pass it by until the news came town criers do.
WAK dangerous enough.
So where, for the Germans machine of perceiving a porton's character that the Germans were in Paris. was in St Sampson, and I she's still there."
gunned all up and down the by the features of his counton~ "That started a bit of dis- watched the man there climb on The various smaller islands island. My cousin, who was ance? quiet," said Fred Hockey, "and to a lorry ringing his bell, and dotted about acted variously in haymaking in a field, got a 7. What is the highost in- people began to wonder. The reading out the proclamation. the matter of evacuation. bullet through his hand. ("." dividual score mado in first-class' news got worse and worse-the "Every woman
When? und every Everybody, for instance, left "They machine-gunned the cricket? By whom?
8. Which are the Soven Vir- Germans were approaching the child under the age of 14 hnd Alderney, and even the cattle life-boat on its way to Jersey, French coast, they were on the to register at the schools. My and pigs were brought across to killing the cox's son. They tues (a) Faith (b) Hongur (c) coast. they were in Cherbourg, wife, of course, went along with Guernsey and shipped to Eng- machine-gunned my friend Mr Hope (d) Charity (o) Truthful- That was when the islanders all our children under 14. The land. On the other hand, no- Sauvery out in his fishing boat, ness (f). Justice (g) Fortitude started talking about evacua, children were told they could body went from the little feudal but luckily missed him. tion. But still nothing was take one change of clothes, fale of Sark. said about it officially, nothing toothbrush and toothpaste, face And on Saturday evening the Ambulance was done.
flannel, some lunch, and a gas last of the evacuation ships "The first hint I got that mask.
*slipped quietly away along the
:
Man Killed bascum.
{h} Temperance (1) Prudence?
9. Give the popular names of those flowers (a) mimulus (6) thymus (e) myosotia (d) vor-
things were really wrong was "And on the next Wednesday holiday route to England, leny-
10. In which of his plays does pno afternoon, about 2 o'clock, the three-day evacuation of Ing a curious desolation in the They bombed a boatload of Shakespeare present, the tragic when I was on duty in my little women and children started. Island that persisted all that pigs coming over from Alderney love story of a Montaguo and a aignalutation at the end of "I was on duly, booking the week-end in the glorious June and drove it into St Sampson Capulet? White Rock.
for shelter.
Answera on Page 14
ships in and out of St Peter weather.
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