Man recalls 'horror occasions' from WW2 occupation

A man from Guernsey has shared some of his most frightening memories of experiencing the German Occupation of the island during World War Two.

Pierre Tostevin, now 86, was six years old when the island was liberated on 9 May 1945.

He said he remembered "horror occasions" encountering forced workers who came begging for food, while he was also told not to tell the Germans anything.

Mr Tostevin said the firing of a "massive gun" broke the windows of his house and planes called "moaners" would fly overhead.

He said he remembered one labourer coming to his family home and asking his father for food.

Mr Tostevin said: "This man came in rags with the sacking on his feet.

"He was a Frenchman, I remember it to this day and I felt sick after seeing him come in looking so bedraggled and so ill-looking.

"To see him like that, it frightened me, they were those horror occasions really when you saw these things."

On one occasion he saw the man in an old pumping shed "with a crystal set" who said "don't tell anyone that I'm here because they'll shoot me".

Mr Tostevin said: "We never divulged anything that was said in our home, because of being caught out."

He has shared his experiences as part of the Island Memories Project.

The project records islanders' memories for future generations.

Mr Tostevin's family lived in Torteval and were grape growers.

The 86-year-old still lives in the same house and still grows some of his family's grapes in his greenhouse.

He said: "There was a plane that used to fly around every single night and it had the droning sound and they called it a moaner.

"In the evening they'd say 'oh there's the moaner' and we were frightened of the moaner.

"Another time I was in the field next door, again very small, and there was a German plane flying over and the pilot was looking down at me and I was very scared because I thought, what's he going to do to me?

"Now I've thought since, maybe he was saying to himself I've got a son of that age, who knows."

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