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Transcribed from CD of Sue Grimsley being interviewed at home probably by Becky Kendall of ĂŰŃż´«Ă˝ Radio Guernsey. March 2005. Transcribed by John David November 2005.

[Transcriber’s note. Mr C T Roussel lived at the Rocher, Rocher Lane, Vale. His son Tom, mentioned in the account, died in 2004

His name was Cecil Roussel, he was known as CT to a lot of people, just CT. He was a grower. When the schools were evacuated my brother had only just started school. He was at the Capelles School, which was evacuated with the Vale School, and my aunt was a teacher at the Vale School, so she kept him under her wing. And then my mother went with my sister and at some point — I don’t know when — my brother was re-united with my mother and my sister.
I………. Where abouts were they, do you know?
I don’t know, because they went to several places, and my sister can’t remember because she was only two, she can’t remember what order they went in. I think my brother went to Oldham with the school, but my mother went to relatives and friends variously in Basingstoke and Hereford and other places. She was a teacher fortunately so she was able to earn enough to keep them. My father, like many men, wanted to evacuate, and that was when the harbour was bombed. The tomato lorries - a lot of people went to hide under the tomato lorries and sadly were burned to death. My father — I don’t know exactly what happened — but he was hit in the leg, my uncle went with him just to take him to the boat, uncle wasn’t planning to go away, but my father was the one who was hit, and — well — they had to stay anyway. He spent several months in the Câtel Hospital.
I………. So he was planning to be evacuated, to go and meet up with the rest of the family, but because he was injured he couldn’t go?
Well, nobody could go after that anyway.
I………. Was that because the Germans had invaded?
Yes. My mother heard through the grapevine about the bombing, and was told that dad was dead, and it was a couple of months before she found out that he was still alive.
I………. How did she find out?
I don’t know, I don’t know if it was through Red Cross messages, or if they were able to send post at that point. But obviously she actually stayed at different times with — her sisters went at the same time, and her sister in law, but they all had their husbands with them, so she didn’t want to stay with them and sort of interfere with their family life, but she was in touch with them all through the war, I think.
My father spent several months in the Câtel Hospital,
I………. Was that the main hospital then, at the time?
It was. The Emergency Hospital. And he nearly lost his leg, they nearly had to amputate it because he had gangrene, - it is rather an unpleasant thing to say, but because of the gangrene under the plaster, the maggots got in, and I know it sounds revolting, but that’s what save him, because maggots eat gangrene and clean the flesh. That’s why they are now using them again for leg ulcers and things. So it was pure accident then but it is now being used again as a medical treatment, under control
I………. So he must have been pretty badly injured, then?
It was quite bad, I believe the shin bone was badly shattered, but somehow — he had a shortened leg for the rest of his life — he was able to walk. A few years before he died — he was ninety when he died — he had a little sort of pain in his leg, and he went for an X-ray, and it was shrapnel that had worked its way to the surface. That does happen.
I………. How many years later did you say?
That was about ten years ago
I………. You said to me earlier that he didn’t really like to talk about it all that much, but he did mention a few bits to you before he died. Did he mention anything of the events of the day the harbour was bombed? About how it happened, did they have much warning?
No, I don’t know if it was too painful for him to think about it, or if he just wanted to put it in the past. He wasn’t one for clinging on to the past, really, except for the bit at the end of the war, which I’ll come on to in a minute. The other thing that upset him a bit was that he wasn’t able to send money over to England for my mother, all the money in the bank was frozen at this end, so they couldn’t transfer any, but as I said mum was able to earn her keep for her and the two children. One other little thing that dad did mention was that in his house there was a big space under the floorboards, and they kept potatoes in there, and he kept a radio as well, so they were able to keep up — I don’t know whether they used it all through the war, or just part of the time.
I………. So did they remain in the family home, then?
Yes, it’s a farm.
I………. Was he able to carry on farming during the war?
Yes. I don’t know how long it took for his leg to heal completely, but there’s a photo of him, and his friend, and dad was on crutches, and apparently he had to walk from, it’s near the Camp du Roi, to the Câtel Hospital on crutches for physiotherapy, and that’s quite a long walk for anybody, let alone on crutches. It must have been very uncomfortable, but that was the only way he could get around. And that again, I think he was in hospital for a few months, and it would have been several months as well, having physio, he got on with it, and went back to — when I say he was a farmer, he was a grower, but in the fields, he grew cabbages, potatoes, and other veg, they were helping to supply the island.
That’s about all I can really say about the actual part of the war. I asked dad if the went to the harbour for the liberation, he said no.
I………. Did he know it was going to happen, then?
Yes, they knew, but he just didn’t see the point, because mum wasn’t there. In fact, he went to the harbour several times to try and get mum returned, I think her sisters who had their husbands with them were able to return earlier, because the menfolk were needed, but dad, he got very upset, it was always, we’ve got officials coming over, and they seemed to take up the space on the boat when he felt mum should have been coming back, so she didn’t get back until October, in the end, with my brother and sister.
I………. A good five months later.
Yes, that was the thing he spoke about most, the fact that mum should have been here and she couldn’t get back.
I………. So they were separated , then, for five years?
Five years.
I………. Such a long time!
Apparently my sister was frightened when she saw dad because she was only two when they left, and didn’t remember him. I think dad always wanted to make up to my brother for the fact that he hadn’t been there between sort of five and twelve, he wanted to take Tom to football matches and do boy’s things with him, and Tom wasn’t interested in sport, he was more interested in music, so he got a bit upset because dad didn’t seem to understand him, although I can imagine dad was trying very hard, it must have been very difficult for a family to be re-united after all that time.
I………. It’s a lot too miss out on, as well.
Yes,
I………. And you came along a bit after?
A bit later, yes. I think I was a bit of a surprise. That’s all I can say, I think, for my parents’ side, but I don’t know if you want to hear about our Austrian friend?
I………. Yes please
His name was Paul, he died a couple of years ago, unfortunately, but he did visit Guernsey with his son, about fifteen years ago, and he told us that he had been conscripted into the German forces, as an Austrian he didn’t really want anything to do with them, and his family still hate Germans, unfortunately, My father never had a grudge against the Germans but this family did, and he was based at the Friquet as a weather man, what is now the Friquet Hotel, and he told us that he used to have to let up balloons to judge the wind speed, and direction I suppose.
I………. Is this something he was trained to do as part of the German Army?
I think so, I don’t think that was his job before, and he’d broken his arm playing football, so he couldn’t use a gun, that was why he came to Guernsey initially, and he told us that after the war he was picked up on the Normandy Beaches by the liberating forces, and sent to America for a couple of years, I think.
I………. Why was he sent to America?
Because he was picked up by the Americans, he was a prisoner of war.
I………. So he was seen, although he was Austrian, as a German soldier?
Yes, and I think there were a lot of them over here, all they wanted was to go home and be with their families, they didn’t want to be part of the war, some people think they were all Germans, they were all Nazis, but they weren’t, some of them were genuine family men, and they didn’t want to be here, they wanted to be with their families as much as those stuck here wanted to be with their families in England.
I………. What did he remember about Guernsey?
Not a great deal, because they weren’t allowed to go very far from their base, they were only allowed to walk within about a mile radius or into Town and back, they were allowed to go to the cinema, but they were segregated from the Guernsey folk. He said he had a good war, because he wasn’t on the Russian Front like his brothers, one of them was killed and the other seriously injured, but in his very broken English he said “I had a good war” but he hated every minute of it
I………. How did he feel when he came back here? You mentioned it was fifteen or so years ago.
When he saw the bunkers, he was in tears, he was very upset, because he knew the human sacrifice that had gone into building the bunkers, and he did not know it was going on when he was here, and he felt — not responsible — but he felt that he had inadvertantly been part of it. The locals and the Germans would have seen these foreign labourers, I know my father said he saw someone eating cabbage stumps in his field, because towards the end of the war they were starving, and he felt so sorry for them, he could have reported them, but if he had, they would have been shot. It was a very difficult time, and I think that my father and his family that were here lived in the country and they were growing food, because those in the town had a more difficult time.

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