With the hope that the Channel Islands would be Liberated with the Allied invasion of France on June 6th 1944 not materialising, and with the adjacent French coast firmly in the hands of the Americans by late September 1944, Jersey was under siege. With this prevailing situation and the nearest point on the French coast only 15 miles away, it was inevitable that some local inhabitants would attempt to escape undetected by small boat. Many succeeded (at least 140 Islanders) but there were also failures with some ending in tragedy. Miss Belza Turner, a 21 year old whose parents owned the Bagot Laundry, met up with Siebe Kosta, a Dutch seaman who worked for the Hafenschutzflotille (Harbour Protection flotilla). Together they decided to escape with the aid of a small rubber dinghy that Siebe had obtained from a German ship laid up in St. Helier Harbour on 16th September 1944. With no knowledge of the tides, reefs or currents, they set off from Havre-des-Pas in broad daylight at about 6.30pm. It is amusing to recall that some Germans swimming in the pool at Havre-des-Par waved to them no doubt thinking that the bearded and fair headed Siebe was one of their comrades taking his girlfriend for a row! Expecting to make the journey in a matter of hours they had not taken any extra food with them. After rowing and drifting for 76 hours they eventually made landfall on the 19th of September. Not in France as they had hoped but La Corbiere. Engelberts part in this failed escape; “One day I saw through my field glasses a small boat in distress. For about three to four hours it stayed near to La Rocco Tower and was unable to get away from the coast. The boat eventually foundered near the lighthouse, so we went to rescue the stranded crew who turned out to be an Irish woman and a Dutchman who were very weak. As I helped the woman from the boat she rammed her elbows [in protest] into my ribs. We took them up into the lighthouse and gave them some food and water and they were kept there until the ‘Chain Dogs’ [Feldgendarmerie] arrived and took them to St. Helier for questioning.”
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:19:09 +0000
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