Liberation from the German Occupation of Guernsey,, and afterwards

Mr Donald Board interviewed by Margaret le Cras.
Edited transcript of tape recording of the interview

I………. So the day of the Liberation, did you go right into town?
Mr Board. Yes, my wife didn’t come. I suppose it brought back memories to her, her sister, she’d be coming home sometime, she didn’t come. But we went on the flat roof of the house next door, and we could see the boats. Yes, I went down, and this big landing craft had come in the Old Harbour, and they were throwing tins of spam and all sorts…
I………. I just remember the chewing gum.
Mr Board. I always remember, one batch of soldiers came off the White Rock, the Weighbridge, walked along the front, and I followed, and they stopped at what was called Normandy House at the bottom of Well Road, and they were leaning out of the windows, throwing out stuff to the people. And nearly at the top was a chap, and he must have been from Bolton or somewhere, up North, and he called out “For the Lyedy with the Byeby” I always remember that.Yes, Liberation Day, that was a great day.

I………. So what happened to them? Did they become prisoners of war in England?
Mr Board. Yes. They were well treated.
I………. But how long before they got back to Germany?
Mr Board. I don’t know…
I………. Because some of them took two to three years before they got back home.
Mr Board. Theo was back about a twelve-month. I had mail from him.
I………. That was not too too long, then,
Mr Board. And he made friends, I forget the name of the town, now,
I………. But he was billeted, like, in England somewhere?
Mr Board. Oh, yes. He made friends there, and the children, the children would come and bring him sweets and that sort of thing, Yes, they packed their stuff and went off… I’ve got to think a minute…
I………. How long before they left Guernsey, actually, from the day of the Liberation? How long did it take before they left the Island? Was it days or was it weeks?
Mr Board. It wasn’t weeks, it could have been a week,
I………. Because a lot of them had to stay, didn’t they
Mr Board. To clear up. At the top of my wife’s family’s home at the Mont Saint, there’s a patch of ground which wasn’t cultivated or anything, and her father used to cultivate it, they mined that, you must know the tower at the Mont Saint, that belongs to the Mont Saint house, and incidentally I went up in that after the Germans had gone, and I don’t know how I managed to do that, because it was mined, it might have been cleared beforehand, I went up in it, and it was a range-finding place, and they had some marvellous artists, they had all pictures of round about, St Saviour’s Church, and how many kilometres, and on the floor were two German field telephones, I don’t know if you’ve seen them, brown cases with a handle on the side, and of course would I take one, and I thought no, because they’d booby-trapped a lot of things, and I thought I might cut the wires, and I’d be gone. So I left them. I did the same with the big guns at the Frie Baton, the Mirus guns. I went in there, and I saw down below the stretchers with the shells on, and the headphones were hung there, and I thought shall I take a headphone, and I thought no. Anyhow, this patch of ground was mined, and the Germans occupied the Mont Saint house — that’s the first place where we went to work — and the dog got in there, none went off, but they must have seen the dog, and they shot the dog. Later on, when we were living at the Mont Saint — that’s when our son was born — I cultivated a bit up there, see, there was the skull, with a little hole, of the dog!
I………. Well, straight after the war, we lived at the Choffins, just at the end of the Dam, you know, a lane, you know where Mr Guilcher’s house is? You go up, and you carry on straight.
Mr Board. Ah yes,
I………. There’s a big farm there, well that’s where my Father farmed, and the Germans were still here then, and they were clearing the mines, and all up that side was being heavily mined, and they decided, the, sort of, British engineers in charge of them, that the best way was to set fire, so all those small fields that is a green lane going up to the Hougues, they set fire to the lot, and it was the biggest firework display you’ve ever seen, but you see the Mont Saint would have been quite close, so all the area was very heavily mined, and I really don’t know why. All like Haut Sejour, eh, all that area was heavily mined.
Mr Board. What we called North View, they had guns up there, and that was on their…
I………. At that time they had the big guns at North View, and they had them all camouflaged, all in wooden, and painted to make it look like a house. And one morning we went, and all the wood had been stripped, and it was just the bunker, and its still there.
Mr Board. They camouflaged up at the top of the Frie Baton, they had a cottage up there,
I………. Right. You see the photographs, eh, it was very big.
Mr Board. I don’t know how long they were here after,
I………. Well the liberation was in May, and this was definitely at the end of the summer, when they set fire, because I remember the bracken and all that was brown, it wasn’t green, it was tinder dry, so it must have been at the end of the summer, so you’re talking September time, and that’s why they reckoned it was easier to set light to it. And I remember we had to as children — we weren’t made to stay inside but we had to stay in the yard of the Choffins — and then they set fire virtually all the way round.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.