[BITList] German Bombs

[HUGH]

John,

I know that in York, to dig more than a small depth, one has to alert the
York Archaeological Trust, or whatever it's called, though it's nothing to
do with UX bombs.  My childhood memories of the blitz in our area, Lower
Clyde, include lots of whistling bombs, but few explosions have been
retained in memory, so I'd guess there are more than a few nasties waiting
to be found in the circle round our shelter, radius equals how far away a
whistling bomb can be heard. Much of the damage here was caused by mines.
One time the local inhabitants were all huckled out of bed and removed some
distance to Lithgows' Canteen where we slept on makeshift beds (planks on
trestles), at least the children did.  There was an unexploded mine on the
shore which was about 200 yards from our house.  After breakfast (I assume,
though I don't recall eating any - I was 6) we trooped along the road,
through the danger area, to Port Glasgow Town Hall at the other end of town
and spent another night there.  I got a large splinter on my bum from the
floor.  Before we got home we endured the great "we're all getting bussed to
Ayr" rumour that involved families running hither and thither to wherever
rumour had it the bus would leave from.  If the mine wasn't made safe and
removed it will still be there - I didn't hear a bang.  There's a new Tesco
about where it was, so now would be  good time for it to explode.

We used to walk out along the river edge to Langbank, a few miles, and at
low tide we could walk out to the navigable channel, a long long walk out
through the silt.  Here and there were conical depressions left by bombs
(this was late 40s/early 50s), and we would sometimes have a "swim" in them.
They were quite deep in the middle. Mayhap one or two still had bombs or
mines still in them, but we didn't care.  I suppose they have all now been
filled in by the mud and silt.

I have never heard of a register of where bombs landed up here. We do have
aerial photos taken c1938 with the targets outlined in black, wellnigh all
of them missed.

Hugh.