大象传媒

WHAT A FIND! By Chris Wyer

When I was a schoolboy of about 10 years old, I was playing on Palm Bay beach at Cliftonville, near Margate, Kent. I noticed on the rocks a metal object which looked like, to me, to be a bomb. I picked up this metal object and carried it over to an elderly gentleman who had a beach hut on the concrete promenade. He looked at it and, much to my disgust, said that it was only an old mortar bomb from the last war (2nd World War). He then threw it on the rocks - about 50 yards away - from where I had just retrieved it. Thankfully it did not go off - as you will see. I then decided to see if there were any more, helped by my friend Richard Nudd. We soon had a pyramid of some 15 metal objects which consisted of 13 mortar bombs, 1 anti-aircraft shell complete and 1 pipe bomb (these being later identified by bomb disposal personnel).

My mother in the meantime, who had been sitting on the promenade with her friend and her son plus my sister. As I had been preoccupied for sometime with this task my mother became concerned, as all mothers do when children are very quiet, about what I had been up to. She came over and asked me what I had been doing. I then proudly pointed to my pile of ordnance and said "Mum, I have found all these bombs!". A look of horror appeared on her face, she then yelled at me to come away from them immediately. She went up to her friend and said "June, do you know what my son has been up to with his friend Richard?" Having recovered sufficiently she quickly went up to the road to the nearest public telephone box (no mobiles in those days!) but in fact omitted to tell those around her on the promenade.

A middle-aged police officer came down in a Hillman estate car with my mother. I then had the biggest telling off of my life from the Officer, pointing out that I could have blown up the whole of Palm Bay beach with the amount of ordnance that was there! He then removed a cardboard box from the back of the estate car and calmly placed the bombs in the box and put them in the back of the estate car.

The best end to this day was that my mother had the audacity to ask for a lift up to our car, parked on the road above. My mother then proceeded to sit in the front with the Police Officer, with my sister and myself in the back with all these bombs behind us. The police officer then sounded his horn to clear people out of the way who were sitting enjoying the sun on the promenade!

The next day the bombs were checked by the bomb disposal personnel at Margate Police Station where they had been stored overnight in a sand bin. They said that the 1 pipe bomb was in a very unstable state and that I was lucky that they had not gone off and set the whole lot off.

This story then appeared on the main news which my grandparents were horrified to hear my name on their television in Wolverhampton. They were on the phone immediately to my parents demanding to know what I had been up to! I naturally after this event was told in no uncertain terms by my parents never to look for any more ordnance. My friend Richard Nudd was not told this and found a hand grenade the next day. A newspaper article from the local Isle of Thanet Gazette dated summer 1962 issued an article entitled Boy's beach 'haul' of explosives.

As an aside, the beaches were swept by the Army every year since the 2nd World War to check for any ordnance left and the Council was extremely upset that I had found this quantity of ordnance during the height of the holiday season. Naturally they felt this would not do the local holiday industry any good. Luckily I am alive to tell the tale!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.