My Dad and the Unexploded Bomb!

During the May blitz in 1941, my father was in the civil defence as an ambulance attendant. Walking up the garden one morning, as he came home from night duty, he noticed an unexploded bomb wedged against the wall of the house! Me, my mother and the five other children were all sitting in the Anderson shelter just a few yards away. My dad never said a word to us, and we all went back inside the house to have our breakfast, and then all us kids went to school. As soon as we had all left the house, my Dad went back outside with a spade and dug for all his worth, trying to loosen the bomb. He then took it inside the house and wrapped it up in a copy of the Echo! He then told my mother to keep us all well away from the draining board, and said “I pass the police station on the way to work, I’ll pass it in then”. He went upstairs to get some sleep, and when we all got back from school we were all told to keep very quiet and to keep out of the back kitchen. We did as we were told, and Dad got up as usual and got washed and dressed and had his dinner as though nothing was amiss. He got ready for work, and as he was leaving he picked up the parcel from the draining board to take with him. This was a real unexploded bomb, yet he acted like he couldn’t have cared less!

He reached the police station and approached the desk sergeant. He said “I found this, this morning, in my garden and thought it best to bring it here”. Suddenly there was a big scuffle and then total silence. My Dad was left standing in an empty police station! After about ten minutes my Dad shouted into the back, “Hey I’m on my way to work, and if you don’t hurry up I’m going to be late”. Then very slowly and very quietly, an arm came round the corner holding a bucket of water, “P..p..p..put it in there s..s..sir, very carefully” the officer stammered. My dad was getting browned off by this time and said “What the bloody hells the do with you? I’ve carried this all the way from Sandown Lane and it hasn’t gone off yet”. He then placed the bomb in the bucket of water, and left to go to work.

The next morning, he put his head around the station door and asked “It hasn’t gone off yet then?!”. The officer replied, “No sir, we sent it to the bomb disposal squad, who disconnected it”, he continued, “You’re a bright spark carrying a thing like that through the streets, you might have killed someone”. “I carried it very gently”, my Dad replied. He knew very well what danger he was in, but didn’t want to risk anyone else getting killed. As he said later “It was only a little bomb”! Another morning as he walked up the garden, he was hit on the side of the face with a lovely little black kitten, as a bomb exploded near by! But that’s another story……!!

'This story was submitted to the People’s War site by BBC Radio Merseyside’s People’s War team on behalf of Eileen Swift 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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