For the 75th Anniversary of Liberation year, I've unearthed another Occupation tale for the reader.
An Occupation Diary by Dorothy Monckton
Dorothy Monckton used to live at Portelet Cottage, St. Brelade. She kept a diary during the Occupation. It lists the various rationing and hardships she and her family and friends had to endure during the German Occupation. Here follows a few extracts of interesting stories from 1940
July 29th 1940 - On Monday evening, July 1st, the first Germans arrived by air and were seen going into St. Helier by bus or motor, the taking over to be at 7 am. on Tuesday July 2nd, at the airport.
A good story is told of an ice-cream vendor. who, when at the top of St Brelade's Hill, saw two German soldiers corning along the Corbiere road and waving their arms at him - since he had no idea Germans had landed - he left his ice-cream tricycle and fled down St. Brelade’s Hill in a panic. Returning after some lime with caution. he found his goods intact, only two cornets gone and two shilling pieces lying on the top and no sign of the Germans!
The week after the bombardment we were a using our cars, but only had one gallon a week and the first orders forbade any private cars being on the road. Other orders were the alteration of time – an advance of another hour to European time! So now I have to get up at 4.30 GMT to get to the 8 o'clock service, and one feels like a naughty child being sent to bed by broad daylight!
17th August 1940 - Major Manley told us a good story yesterday. The man who sweeps out the Forum after the last performance is allowed a permit to be out after curfew. When going home one night he was stopped by two German soldiers who demanded the reason for his being out after curfew. He replied that he had a permit, and putting his hand in his pocket to produce it, found that he had left it in his other coat. "Well, your name?" they asked. "Oh, Churchill." He replied. At that they were very wrath and spoke of ''insult" etc.. etc., and hauled him off to the Commandant. "Well, what is your name?" he asked, when the soldiers had explained the insulting conduct of the man. "Oh, Churchill," he replied again. At that everything happened! The Commandant was still more enraged and insulted and the victim was marched to the police station to be imprisoned When there, his outrageous conduct was set forth to the police officer, who then replied calmly, 'I know the man well, and his name is Churchill."
13th August 1940 - About the row at the Forum (cinema in St. Helier) on Sunday night. I hear the audience at the late performances are generally rowdy. but this time the result was a severe censure from the Commandant.. It seems that they cat-call and sing popular songs when bored and on this occasion, being bored by the German news-reel which they could not understand. they started their usual row and singing, and just as Hitler appeared on the screen they happened to be singing "Run Rabbit Run"! At that, a posse of German soldiers got up and clattered with their heavy boots to the chief culprits. Of course, they stopped singing at once but the song broke out in another part. Round trooped the soldiers. and again silence, only to be broken by the yelling of the song at another spot. More energetic movement on the part of the Germans and a cessation of singing there and the "Run Rabbit Run floated down from above in the gallery No wonder the Commandant issued the order that such unruliness must cease or else the picture house would have to be closed'
20th Sept. 1940 - Leaflets - I think three times - have been dropped on the Island by the RAF. So far I have only seen no 1 with part of Churchill's speech of Sept.? details of world-wide gifts for the RAF
the Free French Army. bombing of Germany, help from the US and a message from then King- "The Queen and I desire to convey to you our heartfelt sympathy in the trials you are now enduring. We earnestly pray for your speedy liberation knowing that it will surely come. George, R.I." and pictures from the Star, the Evening Standard, and Punch. the latter of a man being directed on his way by the "Messerschmidt, the two Dorniers and the 1st Junkers". Also facts and figures about the relative strength of the English and German air forces. From all this one gathers that England does not know that we are allowed now to use our wirelesses. 28th Oct. 1940 - Local paper orders all owners of cars to take them into town, where they will be sold to the Germans, for the buying of food from France for us by the States. who will have to pay the owners in sterling, getting German money from the Germans and changing it into French money for the food! The latest Germans who have come over seem a rougher lot, and their driving is furious. witness the constant breaches in the walls and the patches of broken glass along the roads and the state of cars and lorries, with mudguards bucked, etc.
9th Oct. 1940 - Deputy Le Quesne, who is head of the labour department, is constantly being ordered to send men- twenty or fifty, say - to some spot to do a job of work for the Germans. Last week an order came for thirty men to go down at once to the wharf to unload a consignment of flour just come in from France. He went down himself to see about it, thinking that a large lot of flour must have arrived. When he got there he found the ship and in the open hold, thirty sacks of flour only. So, beckoning to two men on the wharf, he took off his coat, and with their help the thirty sacks were loaded up in about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, the German Marine Officer in charge stood on the side of the wharf wringing his hands in despair and saying, You should not do such a thing, Mr. Le Quesne, in your position. You should not do such a thing, you really should not!"
An Occupation Diary by Dorothy Monckton
Dorothy Monckton used to live at Portelet Cottage, St. Brelade. She kept a diary during the Occupation. It lists the various rationing and hardships she and her family and friends had to endure during the German Occupation. Here follows a few extracts of interesting stories from 1940
July 29th 1940 - On Monday evening, July 1st, the first Germans arrived by air and were seen going into St. Helier by bus or motor, the taking over to be at 7 am. on Tuesday July 2nd, at the airport.
A good story is told of an ice-cream vendor. who, when at the top of St Brelade's Hill, saw two German soldiers corning along the Corbiere road and waving their arms at him - since he had no idea Germans had landed - he left his ice-cream tricycle and fled down St. Brelade’s Hill in a panic. Returning after some lime with caution. he found his goods intact, only two cornets gone and two shilling pieces lying on the top and no sign of the Germans!
The week after the bombardment we were a using our cars, but only had one gallon a week and the first orders forbade any private cars being on the road. Other orders were the alteration of time – an advance of another hour to European time! So now I have to get up at 4.30 GMT to get to the 8 o'clock service, and one feels like a naughty child being sent to bed by broad daylight!
17th August 1940 - Major Manley told us a good story yesterday. The man who sweeps out the Forum after the last performance is allowed a permit to be out after curfew. When going home one night he was stopped by two German soldiers who demanded the reason for his being out after curfew. He replied that he had a permit, and putting his hand in his pocket to produce it, found that he had left it in his other coat. "Well, your name?" they asked. "Oh, Churchill." He replied. At that they were very wrath and spoke of ''insult" etc.. etc., and hauled him off to the Commandant. "Well, what is your name?" he asked, when the soldiers had explained the insulting conduct of the man. "Oh, Churchill," he replied again. At that everything happened! The Commandant was still more enraged and insulted and the victim was marched to the police station to be imprisoned When there, his outrageous conduct was set forth to the police officer, who then replied calmly, 'I know the man well, and his name is Churchill."
13th August 1940 - About the row at the Forum (cinema in St. Helier) on Sunday night. I hear the audience at the late performances are generally rowdy. but this time the result was a severe censure from the Commandant.. It seems that they cat-call and sing popular songs when bored and on this occasion, being bored by the German news-reel which they could not understand. they started their usual row and singing, and just as Hitler appeared on the screen they happened to be singing "Run Rabbit Run"! At that, a posse of German soldiers got up and clattered with their heavy boots to the chief culprits. Of course, they stopped singing at once but the song broke out in another part. Round trooped the soldiers. and again silence, only to be broken by the yelling of the song at another spot. More energetic movement on the part of the Germans and a cessation of singing there and the "Run Rabbit Run floated down from above in the gallery No wonder the Commandant issued the order that such unruliness must cease or else the picture house would have to be closed'
20th Sept. 1940 - Leaflets - I think three times - have been dropped on the Island by the RAF. So far I have only seen no 1 with part of Churchill's speech of Sept.? details of world-wide gifts for the RAF
the Free French Army. bombing of Germany, help from the US and a message from then King- "The Queen and I desire to convey to you our heartfelt sympathy in the trials you are now enduring. We earnestly pray for your speedy liberation knowing that it will surely come. George, R.I." and pictures from the Star, the Evening Standard, and Punch. the latter of a man being directed on his way by the "Messerschmidt, the two Dorniers and the 1st Junkers". Also facts and figures about the relative strength of the English and German air forces. From all this one gathers that England does not know that we are allowed now to use our wirelesses. 28th Oct. 1940 - Local paper orders all owners of cars to take them into town, where they will be sold to the Germans, for the buying of food from France for us by the States. who will have to pay the owners in sterling, getting German money from the Germans and changing it into French money for the food! The latest Germans who have come over seem a rougher lot, and their driving is furious. witness the constant breaches in the walls and the patches of broken glass along the roads and the state of cars and lorries, with mudguards bucked, etc.
9th Oct. 1940 - Deputy Le Quesne, who is head of the labour department, is constantly being ordered to send men- twenty or fifty, say - to some spot to do a job of work for the Germans. Last week an order came for thirty men to go down at once to the wharf to unload a consignment of flour just come in from France. He went down himself to see about it, thinking that a large lot of flour must have arrived. When he got there he found the ship and in the open hold, thirty sacks of flour only. So, beckoning to two men on the wharf, he took off his coat, and with their help the thirty sacks were loaded up in about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, the German Marine Officer in charge stood on the side of the wharf wringing his hands in despair and saying, You should not do such a thing, Mr. Le Quesne, in your position. You should not do such a thing, you really should not!"
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