TREVOR Green was only about three years old when his father Joe returned home on leave in February 1940.

It was an occasion caught on camera by a JEP photographer, as Joe was one of a number of servicemen being welcomed home at the Harbour by excited families.

Trevor was too young to remember the occasion but wrote to Temps Passé to say that he had been delighted to open his paper and see the picture. After this period of leave in 1940 Joe Green was posted to Crete.

‘The interesting thing about Crete was that it was the first time that the Germans used paratroopers in great numbers,’ says Trevor. ‘They hammered the island and eventually took control. Out of a force of 32,000, 12,000 allied troops were captured.’

During the battle for the island Joe was wounded when his vehicle was blown up. For a period of time he could not be moved but was eventually taken to a camp in Germany.

Trevor and his mother Gladys and older brother remained in Jersey and this, said Trevor, allowed the occupying force and Joe’s captors to play a fairly vicious game.

Throughout his time in captivity the threat hung over Joe’s head that should he be involved in any plans to escape there would be consequences for his family in occupied Jersey.

‘He was told basically you will not escape and you will be a model prisoner because if not we will take revenge on your family,’ says Trevor. Joe told the British authorities about the situation and was consequently never involved in escape plans.

The Germans, knowing this to be the case, used him on outside work parties. On one of these duties he was punched and kicked by one of the Germans and was hospitalised. Meanwhile, in Jersey, Gladys got a knock on the door one day and was told to report to Gestapo headquarters. She went first to Silvertide opposite the Ommaroo Hotel at Havre de Pas and was sent up to Victoria College House with the information that ‘it was something to do with her husband’.

Here she was told by a high-ranking officer that her husband had been captured and that if she did not obey the rules imposed during the Occupation revenge would be taken on her husband. It meant that she too was terrified that anything done by her or her sons would mean that her husband was punished.

Trevor said that although the surname had escaped him, the second serviceman in the picture was called Lennie and he had worked at Le Riches in Colomberie.

Picture: Trevor Green says that he was delighted to open the JEP and see the picture of his father arriving at the Harbour