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This story was submitted to the People's war website by a volunteer from CSV Berkshire on behalf of an anonymous RAF WOP/MSR and has been added to the site with his permission and understanding of the site's full terms and conditions.

During a course of training to become a wireless operator I attended a RAF signals school held in the Science Museum in London. My training period coincided with an attack by the German V1 (known at the time the ‘buzzbomb’). At that time, a barrage of anti air-craft rockets were stationed in Hyde Park, and during air-raids we would fire at enemy aircraft. The resultant fallout would be a rain of shrapnel. On this particular night, I was on fire-watch duty in the Science Museum. There might have been a risk that some of the falling objects would be incendiary bombs, and everyone knew that it was the job of whoever was on fire-watch duty to eliminate any danger... So I apprehensively embarked on the task of roaming around the museum. I had the scary job of checking that each crash was indeed shrapnel, not an incendiary bomb, and extinguishing it with a stirrup-bump (whose name created many chuckles at the time!). On completing this laborious and nerve-racking process, I was finally able to conclude that there was no immediate danger to the area. It was a welcome relif as I finished the job. On reflection, I realised that it was the most frightening thing I had ever had to do in my life.

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