大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Allan Price on behalf of David Wright and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

During the war I was just a little boy, and all I can really remember is the fun that we had. Although there were some scary times too.

We lived very close to the Kilbirnie Steel works, which made munitions during the war. I remember some of the older boys (who were about 13 or 14) would break into the factory. The brought back Sten Guns, and we would run around the fields playing with them - thanksfully they weren't loaded.

I also remember seeing Spitfires and Hurricanes flying low over our village, and we would chase after them waving to the pilots. It wasn't just our planes I saw. I remember once, when I was on a bus, seeing the tail of a German plane sticking out of the ground in a field. It must have been shot down the night before.

One of my most vivid memories was just before D-Day. I remember being out in the street and seeing hundreds of tanks rumbling down the main road of Dalry. There must have been hundreds of them, one after another. And this convy went on for hours, if not days. They must have been travelling down to the coast to be shipped down to be part of the D-Day invasion force. I always remember that they caused a huge amount of damage to the streets and pavements. It was years before the kerbs were mended.

A few years after the war, we were still finding bits and pieces around where I lived. I was playing with a couple of pals down by a burn when I saw a bit of metal sticking out of the ground. I pulled it up. It turned out to be an unexploded bomb. I could see the metal trigger on the tip. I rushed back to my Grans house, still clutching the bomb, so I could show her what I found. When she saw it she screamed at me and told me to put it back where I found it!

So I trudged back to the burn with the bomb in hand, and just threw it back into the water! I can't imagine the fuss it would cause nowadays if anyone uncovered something as dangerous as that!

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