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If You Smell Geraniums……..

Leaflets were distributed around the time of the Coventry bombing full of information on possible gas attacks which included the warning ‘If You Smell Geraniums — You’re dead!’

My four sisters and I were all in the garden watching the planes going over in droves; it was a beautifully clear night. We had put night cream on our faces, which was geranium scented. Suddenly one of my sisters said `Can you smell geraniums?’
`Oh yes’ we all cried in reply. We rushed inside and told my father about the smell, convinced we were going to die, quite forgetting our night cream! My old aunt was with us. `Don’t talk, don’t talk’ she kept saying. Why not we wondered? `They might hear us’. She was convinced the German pilots could hear our conversations from their planes!!

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