大象传媒

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Most weeks, bright lights that left a trail of smoke behind them could be seen over the Dunstable Downs. These were parachute flares that were fired from mortars situated near the entrance to the Golf Club. There was a concrete base with pipe-work and other fittings that was used to support the mortars. The bombs were fired high into the air above the slope of the Downs, as they reached the zenith of their flight, the end cap flew off and the parachute flare was released. They drifted on the wind as they burned for about two minutes, after which time the parachute slowly descended to earth often as much as a mile from the Downs. The empty bomb cases fell onto the bottom path along the foot of the Downs. The soldiers that were in attendance may have collected some up, but we often found cases that had been missed. In retrospect, I believe they were quality control tests of flares manufactured locally.

I had a collection of two different sizes of empty bombs, the smaller had four fins fixed to a tube with about twelve holes in it and a striker at the rear end, the case was quite heavy and seemed to be made in one piece. The larger was fabricated from several pieces of thinner metal and had a conical nosepiece in contrast to the flat end cap of the smaller bomb.

One morning a policeman came to the school to warn us of the dangers of collecting the bomb-cases as some of them were 鈥渓ive鈥�. He had one of the larger ones that he claimed was 鈥渓ive鈥�, however, he dropped it onto the desk and the sound it made told us it was empty. Of course, we were too young to realise that the police would never have been allowed to take a live bomb into a school. He also showed us a 鈥渓ive鈥� butterfly bomb of a type that the Germans dropped as 鈥渂ooby traps鈥� for children. These were described on posters in the school and also on public notice boards around the town but apart from the one held up in our classroom; I cannot recall ever seeing another.

If we were not at school during an afternoon when flares were being fired, we would track them to the area where they were landing. The parachutes were of silk and were sought after by many people. The smaller size were about half to two thirds a metre in diameter whilst the larger were about one metre. Neither was quite big enough to make an adult skirt or dress but both could be used for children鈥檚 undies and the larger had sufficient material for an adult slip or knickers. Up to a dozen children would trot along under an incoming parachute until one managed to jump high enough to grasp the strings, the wooden base was usually smouldering more than enough to burn one鈥檚 hand. Obviously, taller children had an advantage.

On one occasion when larger parachutes were landing in a field somewhere near Kensworth Church, two older boys with gloves roughly barged smaller children out of their way and having grabbed a parachute would take it to a man and woman who proceeded to cut off the strings and put the silk canopies into a carrier bag. This was obviously an organised group out to make money!

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