Islands at War
A Podcast about the occupation of the Channel Islands by German forces 1940 to 1945. Focusing on personal experiences of those that lived through it using diaries and our own research. Social, practical and military aspects of the occupation of the Channel Islands.
Join Keith Pengelley and Nick Le Huray as they talk you through the occupation month by month. Oh and we drop our own family stories in as well.
We will talk you through the occupation as it happened.
Questions welcome at occupied@gnetradio.com
Islands at War
Interview with Melva Stacey - Life as a teenager in Guernsey
Nick was absolutely thrilled to be offered the chance to speak to Melva Stacey. Incredibly grateful to Melva's daughter Karin for contacting me and asking if I might be interested in interviewing her mother who is 95 years young about her time here during the occupation.
I didn't need to be asked twice! Melva told a fascinating account about how life was for her as a child, her family, working in the Red Cross message bureau and nursing. Plus much much more.
I really enjoyed talking to Melva and by strange coincidence it turns out that her father used to be one of the listeners to a radio show that I used to present on local hospital radio and sometimes on the BBC back in the 1980's and early 1990's! He used to regularly write in with requests for people in nursing homes and hospitals.
You can see some pictures of Melva here including a wartime one.
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If you want to email in a question send it to occupied@gnetradio.com. Alternatively you can send us a text with the link at the bottom of these notes (only works with iPhones).
You can find out more about the occupation on Nick’s website Island Fortress here.
Thanks to Gnet Radio for recording the podcast and thanks to Jim Delbridge for the use of his song ‘5 to 7’ as our theme.
