Life-saving aid during Guernsey's Occupation remembered

Peter Bott remembers the "great relief" the SS Vega brought to the island's residents

The first visit from the International Red Cross SS Vega to Guernsey bringing aid during the Occupation was remembered at an event on Tuesday.

Guernsey residents were in dire need of food and medical supplies in the months before the liberation in May 1945.

Peter Bott was a child in December 1944 when the ship arrived and remembers the "great relief" it brought.

"Without that, we must never forget that they basically saved a lot of Guernsey people," he said.

Paul Le Pelley, vice-president of the Channel Islands' Occupation Society, said from the fall of St Malo in mid-August 1944 to the liberation of the Channel Islands on 9 May 1945 the islands faced increasing deprivations.

"This desperate situation was overcome by the arrival of aid from the International Red Cross in the shape of the SS Vega," he said.

Peter Bott was a young boy when the SS Vega arrived in Guernsey

Mr Bott remembers that first visit from SS Vega as "such a joyous time" as the aid packages contained "everything you needed".

"If they hadn't have come, obviously things would have become much worse, people were already dying," he said.

"It was fantastic to find that there was something to eat and another lot of people on the other side of the world were thinking about us."

The SS Vega made several visits to the island between 27 December 1944 and June 1945.

The event at the Les Cotils Centre featured talks, displays and presentations about the SS Vega and the work of the International Red Cross.