大象传媒

On 5th July 1941 I was in the fields with my father to eliminate incendiary bombs from our farm. Patrolling buildings and fields to protect farm animals. We wore milk churn lids on our head to protect us from shrapnel. We were walking by the rickyard when we heard a bomb falling very close by, so we dived into the ditch next to the road and felt a large impact. Next morning we discovered a delayed action bomb weighing 600 pounds. If it had exploded on impact my father and I would have been killed. Also, many people from Coventry were shltering in farm buildings to escape the nightly blitz. There would have been many deaths and injuries among them too.

5 days later a bomb squad came to remove it. They were known as suicide squads as the work was so dangerous. The bomb was timed to explode in 7 days, so that was another lucky escape.

The cows in the nearby milking sheds were milked at top speed in case the bomb went off!

Mr Hefford a friend of ours who was an ironmonger in Coventry had a piece of the bomb cut out as a keepsake. He engraved the piece in memory of that night.

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