´óÏó´«Ã½

It was 1942 and I was working in Shoreham at the South Western Tar distilleries, which was know locally as the chemical works.

I was 16 years old at the time and I was a fitters mate. Work covered both sides of the river Adur. One day I was working on the south side and whilst being ferried across the river, my friend and I saw an unexploded bomb standing there in the mud. We walked up to it and noticed that it had ‘incendiary’ written on It. It was two metres high and a half a meter in diameter and there were 4 doors on the side.

My friend and I decided to get a crowbar from the fitters shop later that day and we returned to the bomb and proceeded to prize the door open to reveal rows of bombs.

We each grabbed an armful and took them to the fitters shop. Placing them in a vice and unscrewing the nose cap, we shook the phosphorous out of each one. We then proceeded to throw the nose cap against the wall until each of the detonators exploded after which we screwed the nose caps back on.

We did this with all the bombs and we then went around selling them as war souvenirs for 1/6. The next day our boss called us into his office and told us off. As we left my mate said while we were there we should have asked for a raise.

This story was added to the site by Phil Moore on behalf of Leslie Robertson who understands the site's terms and conditions.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.