ALDERNEY REVISITED

Evening Star, Issue 23865, 21 April 1941, Page 2

ALDERNEY REVISITED

A RESCUE PARTY Before tlie German occupation (in June last) Alderney, was the- home of some 2,500 people. A few weeks later it was deserted, inhabited only by the cattle and dogs that ran wild in the streets. An islander who returned with a party to rescue the cattle wrote a moving description of what he saw. It was,; he said, a strange uncanny experience ; like visiting a lost world. “ For days before the German occupation of the island we had heard the roar of guns on the French mainland. Then one eventful day we knew the Germans were at Cherbourg. Only a few miles separated us from the enemy. In the night we could see tlihe glow of the sky as Cherbourg burned. The evacuation of Alderney immediately began. Judge French, the Governor of the island, could get no help from Guernsey. Suddenly we had a stroke of luck. A Trinity House hoat put into Alderney for water. The Governor used the ship’s radio, sent a personal appeal to the Admiralty, and within three hours got a reply. With the ships they provided the evacuation of the'island was accomplished. I will never forget the sight of the old town crier winding his way through our narrow streets clanging his bell, and announcing that by order of the Judge all Alderney men were to leave their homes within the next three hours.

“ When the evacuation was finished our island was left almost deserted. Nature had it for her own. After we had landed in England it was decided an effort should be made to salvage Alderney’s famous cattle. The salvage party were also to bring back stores. Three small pleasure hots were put at our disposal. Thirty men were chosen. I was one of them. “ For a week the 30 of us, some ambulance men from Guernsey, and the crews of the three ships, carried on our work. After calling at Guernsey our little fleet set out for Alderney. Not knowing whether the Germans had already landed there or not we approached gingerly. We met no one. Everything was as it had been left. Alderney was an island in which life had simply come to a sudden stop. Commandeering the deserted cars thatstood about, we rode into the town. Here we received our first shock. A handful of people, not more than eight or nine, had been left behind in our mass evacuation. Yet now we could find no trace of them. We were at first alarmed. Then, slowly, first one and then another of them came out of hiding v places. They confessed that having seen our boat in the offing they had thought we were Germans, and had run nwav to cover. “ Tn the town some looting had nlreadv begun. Apparently it had been done ■ bv odd parties lauding from Guernsey or France., and helping themselves. We put a stop to this. No boats but our salvage vessels were allowed to berth. We began the evacuation of Alderney's (provisions and cattle. The first day we spent in milking the cattle on to the ground.

After that some 500 head and innumerable stores were taken by day v to Guernsey. With the telegraph wrecked, Alderney was completely cut off from the world, and we kept up a service of communication with Guernsey by carrier pigeons. ■... THE SIGNAL STATION. , '

Our headquarters were the • Grand Hotel, and to guard against a surprise invasion we arranged our trips so that the island was never left uninhabited. Three barrels were placed op the roof of the hotel in such a posi- ' tion that they could be seen some,wa v out to ’sea. If the Germans landed it was the job of one of the salvage party to roll the barrels'away. Failing to see them, boats returning to the island would not .put in. , . . “ On Alderney we lived on the fat of the land. We had the prolusions of the whole island to choose- from. It was possible to walk into . an; empty . shop and help oneself . to Whatever took one’s fancy. Every man who could drive had a , car. He simply changed it for another .when it ran out of petrol. One of the strangest of all our adventures befell the small party, which, with a treasure chart, went to the church at 2 o’clock in the morning to recover the silver which had been hidden there. Reading the chart they found ventilation grills, which, when pulled up, revealed passages running under the church., Groping their way along these they . -retrieved eight sacks of silver., “ Day by day our salvage work went on, until one day the crews of two small boats in the harbour saw . Nazi bombs splashing round the third ns it made its way to the sister island.. We knew our time was up. . After dark we slipped into Guernsey. St. Peter Port had been bombed. And as , the Germans occupied Guernsey soon afterwards, most of our salvage work had come to naught. We had only got the cattle as far as Guernsey, and could not bring them to England. But we did manage to bring off that last handful of Alederney men who had hitherto refused to leave the ‘farms they had tilled for centuries. It included one man who two days before had successfully fought with four of us in order not to be taken off. ' '■

“ Some day we shall all go back to our homes in Alderney. But' that experience can be no stranger than tho one I have already had.”