Working for the Occupying Forces during the German Occupation of Guernsey

Mr Ray Caradeuc interviewed by Margaret Le Cras

Transcribers note : Transcription difficult at times because interviewer was nearer the microphone and her interjections sometimes upstage Mr Le Caradeuc, who is rather faint. Where the interviewer’s comments are relevant they have been transcribed in full.

and from there we went digging peat
I………. Oh yes, down at the Grande Mare, yes. My father did that as well, some of the time, yes.
Ray Caradeuc. I was on the pumps, and I had an Irish chappie who was looking after me, because I was small, just seventeen, and he says “you don’t touch this lad” and he was a big Irish chap, he didn’t stand no messing. I was on the pumps, there was always arguments of course, there were about eighty of us I think. I worked for about twelve months there, and then one morning somebody from the [ ] came down, who was a German, he said wanting fifty chappies, and he says “I’ll take them Now.” So I was picked on, [ ] I was picked, and off we went. The following week, up at the airport, there was Danger Money, working at the Airport
I………. So, what did you do at the Airport?
Ray Caradeuc. Making trenches, in the hedges.
I………. What was it, for them to put the Curfew things, ?
Ray Caradeuc. No, to shoot, to hide themselves in, the trench. [ ] because then, they were building, er, hangers, eh, for the planes, and they were all busy there, [ ] because the first one, that was right by the roadway leading to the Villiaze, and that was after five or six months that we were there. We used to be picked up every morning by a German soldier, sometimes we’d have the same chap for about a month or two, and the next thing we had, we had to go to the Corbiere, and do a trench from the top to the bottom.
I………. So it was for them to use it as a passageway, like?
Ray Caradeuc. It was to drain their camps
I………. So it was a drain really? Yes,
Ray Caradeuc. Down the cliff. I was there for about a month or so.
I………. Yes, it would have been
Ray Caradeuc. And we left there, back to the airport. I was there for a twelvemonth, and used to be picked up in the morning, and one morning my German soldier said “You come back tomorrow morning, no, this afternoon, and load a plane with a hundredweight of [ ] ” So we said yes, we couldn’t care less what we did, so, morning went, and I was walking across the airport, going to towards Bas Courtils, where I was working, and I saw a plane come over. Oh, I thought , I’m not going to walk up there, I was close to where they were loading up, [ ] so, I looked at the plane, I saw it do that, [hand gesture?] and it was a very calm day, I thought, that’s strange, [ ]
I………. It was wobbling, like? It was shaking?
Ray Caradeuc. It dropped a load, eh? On the one hanger they’d finished, or were on the point of finishing, the chap was painting it to look like a greenhouse, and the bomb fell right in front of it, and he was killed outright.
I………. He was killed. Gosh, I’d never heard that story before.
Ray Caradeuc. Absolutely killed outright. And all the guns started firing
I………. At the plane?.
Ray Caradeuc. At the plane.
I………. Who was the bloke that was killed? Do you remember?
Ray Caradeuc. I don’t remember him at all. Apparently next morning, who should have the job to go and clean the mess. And I said “I’m not cleaning this”. Ugh. I’d never seen dead bodies before. There was eyes and all that [ ] So I said to my mate, there were two of us, [ ] surname “ [ ] and I jumped on my bike and went home.
I………. Best thing to do
Ray Caradeuc. By the time I come back most of it had been cleared up. I didn’t have a job to do that.
But [ ] we went doing more trenches and helping to clear up the mess because they used to make in granite like you got kerbs from their hanger up the grass so it wouldn’t sink and that was [ ] with the bomb and he was good the chappie that [ ]
I………. He aimed it well
Ray Caradeuc. [ ] it went straight up my nose. The shrapnel was flying everywhere. Caw. I went down to. And there was chaps also that were in the greenhouses, mind you there was a lot of glass missing [ ] dry spots. They were all having their lunch in there when that bomb dropped and you never seen [ ] everybody was coming out where there was no glass. It was funny to see. Off we went to dig some more holes, for them. Next morning we was picked up again, it was [ ] so my chappie said (you know the hangers, they are high, eh?-) he said “go and remove two sheets of corrugated from up there”, I said “no”. I said [ ]
I………. No they’d be gone, the wind would…
Ray Caradeuc. And off he goes and fetch a German officer, and the foreman of the works, he said its either that or get shot, so I said, well if that’s the case I might as well be shot because I’d be killed up there. So Mr Le Poidevin was the foreman, he used to be on the roads, years ago, before that, and he butted in, he said it’s that or the sack. So I said, “well, the sack.” I wasn’t going, [ ] He was the first one to say, So I said I wouldn’t have gone up, because it’s a hanger,
I………. so what happened?
Ray Caradeuc. I don’t know. We had the sack.
[laughter]
I………. Out of work

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