Music exam cancelled because of German Occupation of Guernsey

Mrs Stella Le Tissier interviewed by Margaret Le Cras 25/4/05
Edited transcript of recording

The memories of the Occupation are very precious to me. We all know what happened at the evacuation, so I won’t go into that, but I will just tell you that when the Germans landed in Guernsey, we were having our tea, as you call it now, about half past six, at seven o’clock, we heard a terrible noise, we went up to the bottom of the field — we lived at Pleinmont, at La Vallée, Pleinmont, in the Rue les Valniquez, - we went up to the top of the field, and it was all smoke we could see on the horizon, all black smoke, I’ll never never ever forget it, and it was our Dad said, “There’s the Town on fire, the Germans are here and we’re finished”. And I had a music exam the following week, and I was troubled about that, that I wouldn’t have my music exam, which I did. Anyway, we settled down, home, and the next-door neighbours came, and we all chatted, and we were all cast down. Anyway, things went well on the Saturday, on the Sunday evening , we were at Torteval Chapel, and when we came out, we had half-an-hour’s walk to walk from Torteval Chapel to Pleinmont, and the planes came, and they went flying [ ] and the people that were with us - there was about seven or eight of us walking home — they were terrified. And we were walking along the hedges. And anyway, we came home, the Monday morning we heard “The Germans are here,” so that is the description.

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