Robert (Bob) Le Sueur is an occupation survivor from Jersey who has been credited for his role the escape and survival of multiple Russian prisoners who were held in Jersey. For this and other Humanitarian work he did during the occupation he was awarded an MBE, and was on the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2013. When Bob came in he had some great stories to tell about life in the occupation here are some of my favorites:

A Porky interruption: This story starts on the morning of July 1st Bob was awoken to the sound of German planes flying overhead and went to look out at them to see if they had doped bombs again, as they did a few days prior, but they hadn’t they dropped 2 parachutes which at first could be soldiers but were too small. They ended up being containers that held a message to the leader of the military of the island. The message said that if the island wasn’t to surrender within 24 hours it would be carpet bombed which would have almost wiped out the population of Jersey. The states were unsure of the best cause of action as they had heard false propaganda showing the germans as rapists and evil people. The only words of advice that would be given by the crown and the uk government was to ‘do the best for the population’. There was a crowd growing in the royal square in front of the states. To control the crowd a man named Capt. Bentley, who was an affluent businessman within the islands, went out to address the crowd and then started barking orders at them. Telling them to get into line and quiet down. In this moment of great tension as Bob described it a bird flew over top and then relieved itself all over the captains pork pie hat, the crowd then erupted with laughter. Bob says this was a heaven sent message to relax the people and break the tension.

The Slavic Soiree: For this story bob talked about a party that he was involved in. He didn’t say what it was specifically for but he said that they had them for everything from the last day of having a gas supply to people’s birthdays. Bob then enlightened us on the best way to make sure that everyone that comes to your party has a good time. He said “invite guests that haven’t eaten properly in months, cook a rabbit and then serve them calvados” which is a sort of distilled cider that had a higher proof than vodka. At this party there was one man who lived with them who was a Russian escapee. Before the party however this man had gotten into the calvados which meant that his Slavic side came out and then he started doing ‘Gopak’ dancing and singing slavic folk songs at the top of his lungs in the middle of town. As he was doing this a German patrol passed by but luckily they were singing their own chants so the Russian couldn’t be heard.

Bullet Bike: This story took place on liberation day. Bob, the Russian from the previous story, one of the people the Russian lived with and two girls were all together when they got the news that there was an American destroyer that had been spotted passing Normint point and at this point they all knew that there had been an armistice signed for the western war (Japan was still going at it). When they got this news they all got on their bikes and then went to cycle out to the end of Victoria pier. On the way however, some misfortune befell Bob, when he was going past the German tunnel entrance that was filled with weapons and guarded by two soldiers, which is located opposite the old lifeboat station or the rowing club, his bike tyre which was made of a hose pipe as there were no more tyres the clasp that held it together snapped. This sound was comparable to that of a gunshot which made the German guards anxious and could have almost gotten Bob killed but they saw what had happened and was ok. When he looked up to see if his friends had stopped for him they were almost gone already, he said this was fine though as they saved him a good spot to watch the destroyer come in to St Aubins bay.