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The following story was told to us by Neville Hounslow from Blackburne, Lancashire.

As my father spent a large part of the war in Italy and especially so in Naples, he was right on the doorstep so to speak when Vesuvius decided to go pop. All forces personnel not on active war duty were immediately seconded to rescue the local populace from the sides of the mountain. My father found himself and several others transported to a town half way up the mountain where they were sent out into the town to rouse people up to the danger and evacuate them. He said to me when he told me of this, that he had been bombed at, shot at, [see previous story...out with a bang (nearly)] and seen many nasty things during the war, but the one time he was really afraid was when he was banging on the doors at the bottom of a street while molten lava was pouring in at the top of the street . All that you can see of this town now is the church steeple rising above the now cold lava. I know, I have been there and my father pointed it out.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Merseyside’s People’s War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his/ her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.’

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