Dad returned towing 'dinghy full of chickens'

A Guernsey man has recalled the moment his fisherman-father sailed back to the island from England after World War Two, towing a "dinghy full of chickens".

Alan Enevoldsen, 85, shared his memories as part of the Island Memories Project, an archive compiled by BBC Radio Guernsey and Guernsey Museums.

He said his family were forced to flee the island occupation and settled in Totnes, Devon, where his father used his riverboat to tow invasion barges for the Normandy landings.

When the war ended the family returned to Guernsey on the boat - bringing their chickens with them. "It must have been a bit of a shock, this riverboat coming through the harbour, towing a dinghy with our chickens."

Mr Enevoldsen said his father initially worked as the foreman in a Totnes boatyard, building minesweepers for the Navy.

He said his dad would use the riverboat for fishing on the River Dart, and would make his own nets.

Mr Enevoldsen said he remembered his dad looking "very worried" during one fishing trip after he pulled a bomb out of the water.

"I remember he cut the net with a knife and then put the boat full ahead to get away from it and I said 'why did you do that? you don't normally do that'.

"He said 'well I didn't want to be over it if it hit the bottom and went off, it was a bomb'."

Mr Enevoldsen also recalled the moment he and his sister were told to jump into a ditch in a wheat field to avoid being seen by a low-flying German plane.

"My father shouted to my sister and myself to quickly go and jump into the ditch on the side of the field because there was a plane coming.

"We didn't understand but we did what we were told and it was apparently a German plane that came over the field very low and my sister said she can remember seeing the pilot's face as he flew past, looking at us.

"It circled a couple of times and then disappeared. I think my father was afraid it might possibly machine gun us all, I don't know."

Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.