大象传媒

One of my hobbies during the War was to collect shrapnel, and the bigger the pieces you had, the more the other lads would look up to you. All schools were closed after an air-raid, and after one in particular, my friend and I went down on our bicycles to the Promenade to see what we could collect. This would have been about 5am on 2 May 1941. It had been rather a heavy raid, and unknown to us, this was the start of the May Blitz. As we cycled along the Promenade towards Derby Bathing Pool, we came across a neat hole in the road and as we got off our bikes to have a better look, we saw the tail fin of a bomb. It was nice and shiny, so we decided that we would have another look at it when we came back from the baths -- but we never got the chance. By then the Police had arrived, and had roped the area off and of course we were told to clear off with a flea in our ear. That bomb exploded about six hours later, making a huge crater.

A few days later, again in the same area, I saw lots of boys on the shore picking up Incendiary Bombs. These devices were highly inflammable and could kill, if not handled with the utmost care. It would appear, so the story goes, that a German bomber was shot down, but before ditching it dropped a "bread basket" of incendiaries. These having partly been burned out in the water, or having been well and truly soaked, were now being collected.

Not to be outdone, I also went onto the shore and collected thirteen bombs myself. When I got back onto the Promenade, I noticed that these lads were banging the bombs on the sea wall, to loosen the cap which is situated on the base of the bomb. Once this was loosened, you could unscrew it and shake the damp phosphorous out, thereby making the bomb safe. If, however, you found a brown metal cap inside the casing, you would ditch it immediately, as this was a second and highly active fuse, liable to explode at any moment. A few of these were found by the lads, who discarded them right away. I took the belt of my mackintosh and fed it through the fins of the bombs, all thirteen of them, and took them home feeling very pleased with myself. Having placed them in the back garden, I called my mother and asked her to come and see what I had got. I will leave it to your imagination as to what she said. Incidentally, the belt to my mack was ruined. No need for me to tell you how mad we were in those days, but all the lads were like that. This was a war time adventure on the Home Front, and were were thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM "WALLASEY AT WAR, 1939-45", PRODUCED BY THE WALLASEY HISTORY SOCIETY. THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN BY B.A.THOMSON, AND WAS SUBMITTED TO THE SITE BY KEITH LEIGH,OF SEABRIGHT, WORTHING. HE WAS ONE OF THE BOYS INVOLVED IN THE STORY.

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