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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Mairi Campbell of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ on behalf of Mrs Marjorie Watt and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

During the war, my aunt, Mrs Ruth McKenzie, ran the regal café in Marschall Street Peterhead. The café was attached to the Regal Cinema, and my aunt and uncle had a small flat through from the café. One night in the early40’s, the siren went and bombs started to fall. My uncle Fred who was in the A.R.P., hurriedly got dressed for his warden duty. Instead of going down the café stairs he took the short cut through the cinema and out into the pitch black foyer, in those days the metal cases containing the film reels from the previous night were left out in the foyer for uplift and were then replaced by the film for the coming night.

As Uncle Fred felt his way across the dark foyer his foot hit something metallic and assuming it was the film container he tried to kick it aside — but without success he briefly flicked on his torch and to his horror saw that he had been kicking and unexploded German Bomb! It had obviously dropped onto the street outside, then ricocheted up the few wide steps and was now lying in the cinema foyer at his feet. And his wife was in bed just above it!

With shaking legs he rushed upstairs and managed to blurt out the news to Auntie Ruth, about ten minutes later she arrived ashen faced at our small hotel dressed in her nightie and dressing gown and curlers. The bomb was later disposed of and they were able to return to their flat.

I was only a little girl at the time, but this incident stuck in my memory.

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