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Enjoy.
One for the WWII experts
- Thread starter sammaw@bellsout
- Start date
Nickodell
Donation Time
This all just reminded me of an incident that happened in our street a few years after WWII.
The father of a friend of mine, who lived a few houses away, had been in the RA (Royal Artillery) in N. Africa, and had brought home an antitank shell as a souvenir. Wifey didn't like having it in the house, despite dad - presumably knowing what he was talking about - having assured her that it was deactivated (no primer, no main charge).
It sat on the mantlepiece for several years until, one day, when ma moved it for some reason, smoke and flame issued from the base!
The police evacuated everyone for 1/2 mile in each direction, and an Army EOD team moved in. What they found was a definitely empty projectile that ma had unknowingly put down on top of a match (in those days there were no safety matches; they were all "strike anywhere") which had been dropped on the mantlepiece some time before, and this had ignited. A big laugh all round, but ma insisted that they take the thing with them.
The father of a friend of mine, who lived a few houses away, had been in the RA (Royal Artillery) in N. Africa, and had brought home an antitank shell as a souvenir. Wifey didn't like having it in the house, despite dad - presumably knowing what he was talking about - having assured her that it was deactivated (no primer, no main charge).
It sat on the mantlepiece for several years until, one day, when ma moved it for some reason, smoke and flame issued from the base!
The police evacuated everyone for 1/2 mile in each direction, and an Army EOD team moved in. What they found was a definitely empty projectile that ma had unknowingly put down on top of a match (in those days there were no safety matches; they were all "strike anywhere") which had been dropped on the mantlepiece some time before, and this had ignited. A big laugh all round, but ma insisted that they take the thing with them.