3rd May 1942
An Occupation escape attempt goes wrong
Peter Hassall, Maurice Gould and Dennis Audrain hatched a plot to escape Jersey for the mainland with pictures and plans of the German defences. They couldn’t have chosen a worse night to set off. The wind was up and the sea was rough. It capsized their small boat and Dennis Audrain drowned.
Incriminating evidence
Hassall and Gould made it to shore but were captured by German soldiers. A failed escape attempt was serious enough, but to be caught with the incriminating papers in their possession was more problematic. According to the Jersey War Tunnels, they were sent to France, tortured by the Gestapo during a lengthy interrogation, then transferred, ultimately, to Hinzert, where the torture continued. Combined with poor living conditions and malnutrition, this would ultimately lead to Gould’s death – but not right away.
As reported by the Frank Falla Archive, Hassall and Gould’s families were not informed where they’d been sent or their ultimate fate under the Germans’ NN, or Nacht und Nebel decree, which was designed to psychologically torture relatives of the convicted.
Maurice Gould dies
The men were transferred again, this time to Wittlich, but Gould’s health had been seriously damaged by his ill-treatment. They were sent to work in a basket factory, and it was during this posting that Gould died of tuberculosis. He was buried in Wittlich cemetery and moved in 1973 to a military cemetery. However, this was not to be his final resting place. In May 1997, Gould’s body was exhumed, and his remains brought back to Jersey for re-burial in the Allied War Cemetery at Howard Davis Park.
Hassall survived his incarceration in the camps and was eventually liberated by allied forces.
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Other events that occured in May
Snow Hill railway station opens
- Snow Hill station was the terminus of the Jersey Eastern Railway, whose services should have extended as far as St Catherine.
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Methodist minister Jean de Quetteville is born
- Jean de Quetteville took Methodism from Jersey to Guernsey but the locals on the neighbouring island weren't initially keen to hear him preach.
- Read more…
The Channel Islands are liberated
- The Channel Islands were liberated on 9 May 1945 after several attempts at negotiating the German army's surrender.
- Read more…
Disco doorman is sentenced to death for murder
- The Royal Court sentenced a 23-year-old man to hang for the murder of Judith Harris, who had been found battered in an alley.
- Read more…