Joan was 6 years old at the beginning on the occupation
Joan lived on the north coast of the island, from her home she had a view from France, which lead to being to hear the horrifying noise of bombing from France
She portrayed the feeling that the Jersey government was selling the island to Germany- metaphorical feeling
When the war first began people all around island, everyone would put out white sheet as a representation of surrendering to the Germans
In June 1940 Joan and a 5 year old girl from across the road went and sat in the middle of a field across the road and watched the planes fly over the sky, however soon to be interrupted by their concerned mothers came over soon to warn them to move under a tree if they wanted to watch the plane to avoid being a target for the Germans to shoot.
Joan said she liked watching the plane and seeing the white vapor trail of around 30 planes flying over her home and the island
It was reported later that day that multiple people were shot along the avenue and died
Germans began to store guns near the center of the island and soon began to block people of from certain areas of the island, this soon led to a more realistic feeling of the island being taken over
At the begin of the war there was a fair amount of food still available although the process of each individual having a restricted ration.
Her father having a ration of 5oz of butter compared to her mother who had an allowance of 4oz however Joan’s mother registered with an incorrect address in order to receive more rations- she used the address from the farm house across the road
Military zones were made all around the island and curfews were introduced- summer 22:00 and winter 21:00 however many people always tried to find way to go against the rules
A night no lights were aloud to be seen from each individual home so each night Joan and her family would board up their homes using blackout frames to cover windows and door cracks
Used to see the star at night, ‘the star would light up the sky’ unlike nowadays, which the night sky is destroyed by the light pollution
After a couple months into the occupation the ‘pinch for food’ began.
They started to substitute food, for example tea- used to peel parsnips and grated them placed in a oven and let them brown. After made sure they were dry before placing in a mug and pouring boiling water over them and called this substitution tea or even coffee
There was also no sugar available so therefore sugar beat was used instead
