大象传媒

It was during the August school holidays in the summer of 1940,it seemed to be quite good weather from memory.The authority responsible for the security of the coast decided to open some of the beaches which involved moving some of the barbed wire fencing,this was done at the North end of the beach at Whitley Bay, Panama Beach.I went down to the beach with my cousin Harold who was about 4 years older than I and in a short period of time was calledup into the R.A.F.We had been warned about mines in the sea before going down to the beach.My cousin and I went into the water with a few other people when to our surprise there was indeed a mine floating not far in front of us,it was getting washed backward and forward by the current,everyone seemed to get out of the water at once.My cousin said to me, " I think that we should go quickly to the police station where he understood we would receive a Pound for reporting the presence of a mine.However we were too late by the time we got to the Police Station the mine had had already been reported,and when we got back to the beach it had already been cleared.So all in all it was not much of a day at the beach.I think after that it was not long before the coast line was again closed until much later in the war.

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