Richard Weithley was 14 years old when the German soldiers first marched down Queen Street and he was not impressed. Blessed with an unquenchable appetite for mischief, a characteristic not entirely unknown in young men of that age, along with a few of his pals he soon set out on a mission to plague the occupying forces, whose presence was an affront and a provocation to him. Resentment at the harsh constraints on their activities grew to the point at which Richard and his pal, Peter Hassel, hatched up a plot to blow up German cars by lighting petrol-soaked rags trailing into their petrol tanks.
Friend deported
Nerves failed and fortunately the scheme was abandoned at the last moment, but they did succeed in draining the fuel from a number of vehicles. An indication of the very least punishment the boys would have received had they been caught was clear when his friend was later caught trying to escape by boat to England and was deported to Germany.
Richard remembers being part of a crowd on Mount Bingham who sang patriotic songs and shouted insults at German soldiers who were escorting deportees to the harbour. When scuffles broke out, a German lorry drew up with a mounted machine gun pointing at the crowd. The situation was only calmed after the deportees were returned to where they had been held. No doubt they were taken away at a quieter moment, but at least a protest had been made. Some months later, Richard’s acts of resistance were ratcheted up anotch when he, Don Bell and Francis Harris broke into a German armoury in Mary Street off Belvedere Hill. They had observed it for somedays previously and noted the strict routine followed by the German patrols. When it was quiet one night, they removed a loose pane, entered, and stole three rifles leaving a Todt Organisation cap to be found as a false indication who the culprits might be.
Not all of their acts were anti-German, however. On one day at Havre des Pas swimming pool the three boys were idling about when they noticed a German soldier in obvious difficulties. None of the other German soldiers around made any effort to go in and rescue him, presumably because none of them could swim. The boys took it upon themselves to save the man and dived in. They dragged the near-dead soldier out and carried out what resuscitation they could until anambulance arrived. A German officer wanted to reward their action, but the boys preferred to play it down and kept quiet about it.
Repeat performances
While the Mary Street escapade was carried out with fear and trepidation, repeat performances began to inure the boys to the dangers. Having acquired rifles, the boys wanted bullets and thought that the bunker at the South Pier was a likely place to get them. They watched the site for several days and worked out the guard’s regular routine, which allowed them 45 minutes to get in, out and away. They use a crowbar to break the padlock and found not only bullets, but a storehouse of tinned food. They fled with full sacks. Their families, no doubt familiar with the boys’ characters, noticed the odd tin of food appearing in the pantry from time to time but were wise enough not to ask any questions.
Desperate to fire a rifle, Richard went down into the basement of his house when everyone was out and fired at a wall. The bullet penetrated the wall and dislodged large pieces of plaster from the other side which covered the stairs. Fortunately, nobody saw fit to investigate the noise.
The boys raided the South Pier bunker four times and the Green Street bunker three times, but their luck could not last forever. While investigating a warehouse yard in the Esplanade one March evening, Richard and another boycalled Vitel, were surprised by two German guards who immediately arrested them. One guard gave his rifle to his companion and grabbed the two boys by the scruffs of their necks and marched them away. Fearing the worst, Richard swung round and punched the soldier in the stomach. As the guard fell, the other one juggled his two rifles, but not before the boys had fled full pelt up Castle Street, through Charing Cross and across to Waterloo Street, before diving into Wests Cinema.
Richard and his pals became expert at breaking and entering. Among the guns, ammunition, food and clothing stolen by them over the months were two German stick grenades, which they were desperate to explode just to see what it was like. The grenade was primed one night and thrown into the sea near Havre des Pas pool. It duly exploded with a muffled roar and a gratifyingly tall plume of water. The boys scurried into some rocks and hid until the Germans had investigated and departed.
By now the allies had landed in France and gunfire could be heard daily from across the water. British and American aircraft passed overhead. More German soldiers arrived in the island as they fled from the allied forces now moving across the Cotentin peninsula. With food becoming ever scarcer, patrols were stepped up and bunkers were more heavily guarded. Richard’s larcenous escapades had dwindled to none, but one night he was arrested by the Gestapo and his house searched. Knowing he worked at Bob Cornish’s farm they had gone there also and discovered a rifle and ammunition.
Theft admitted
Richard admitted the theft from Mary Street. His friends had also been arrested, but Richard never discovered where the Gestapo had acquired their information. The Gestapo appeared to believe that he was part of some secret organisation set up by the British waiting to move when the British invaded the Island. Fortunately the interrogation did not involve violence. No doubt the Germans were anxious to avoid repercussions when the inevitable Liberation took place. He was taken to Newgate prison and put in a cell with Don Bell.
Exchanging stories, they believed themselves to be in serious trouble and immediately hatched a plot to escape. The first plan involved a trip to the hospital. Richard persuaded another prisoner, Bill Bennet, to makea deep cut in his forearm with a razor blade. The plan was for Francis Harris to be at the hospital also and they would escape together, but Francis never turned up and Richard returned to his cell with several stitches in his arm. One of his guards suspected a ruse and warned Richard that if he tried to escape, he would be shot. This did not prevent Richard from making a second plan which required the skills of another inmate called Douglas who was proficient at picking locks.
Although Richard made it to the main prison yard, the plan also foundered when two Jersey men working at the prison refused to turn a blind eye and called the German guards. Nothing daunted, escape plan number three, hatched with Don Bell and Frank Le Pennec, was soon on track. Feigning illness, Richard fooled Walter, one of the younger, better natured guards, into thinking he was ill then managed to draw him into his cell and overpower him. The young men ran out into the yard and climbed up a drainpipe wrapped in barbed wire. Ironically, it was the wire that gave them the grip to make it to the top, although it was not the most comfortable climb. As they reached the top of the wall guards appeared and started firing into the air.
Beaten in prison
The fleeing men now faced a 30-foot drop into Newgate Street. Don and Frank ran off into the night, but Richard had broken his ankle in the fall. He still managed to stagger as far as Westmount before he was picked up by a German patrol and taken back to prison on a stretcher. Back in prison, he was beaten with a soup ladle by one of the guards, getting a cracked a rib in the process.
Liberation soon followed and Richard left the island to join the RAF. Forty-five years later he found himself on a bus with others on the way to Basra, where he was held under guard in a hotel. Bizarrely, the hotel staff were so embarrassed by the whole affair that they opened the bar, giving free drinks to all the captives. And so it was that Richard passed his first night as a hostage in a haze of alcoholic confusion. He had worked for 40 years throughout the Middle East as a consultant quantity surveyor after leaving the RAF.
Kuwait
Despite the constant undercurrents of political instability, it was a good life and Richard felt at home there at a time when British technical personnel were held in highest esteem. His consultancy work had taken him to Iran, Oman, Aden (Yemen), the Lebanon, Egypt and Bulgaria. And now, in a roundabout sort of a way, it would take him to Iraq. From Basra he was taken to Baghdad and imprisoned in a variety of locations, all of which had one thing in common; they were places which were to a greater or lesser extent important sites occupied by the Iraqi military machine.
It was clear that Richard, along with many others, was a hostage and being used as a ‘human shield’ to deter potential attacks by western forces. There was no question of ill treatment while he was in Baghdad. The Iraqi guards, who spoke good English, allowed him to watch TV, even though it was in Arabic, of which Richard had only a rudimentary understanding. The food was not to his liking at all, which resulted in him losing a considerable amount of weight during his five months captivity. On one occasion, Saddam Hussein visited the place where he was to personally oversee the release of a number of women and children hostages. Naturally, he was anxious to appear affable and kindly during that exchange, when the western allies were building a coalition for invasion, but Richard has no illusions about the kind of man he really was.
It was in December that, in a last bid to deflect western hostility, Saddam sanctioned the release of all British and US hostages. Richard was flown to Gatwick Airport with 383 others in an Iraqi Airways aircraft and was greeted with yellow chrysanthemums tied with yellow ribbons by the Gulf Support Group and reunited with his wife, Marigold, in the airport’s Sir Winston Churchill Suite.
Richard retired to Jersey and lived quietly with Marigold in his cottage on Trinity’s north coast until he died in July 2019.
