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In the morning, after spending the night in the shelter, we’d go off to school and we used to collect the shrapnel along the way— pieces of metal and bombs — that was our collections.

We were always told not to pick any bombs up but one day my Mother went out to the washing machine (one of those you turn with your hand). She opened it and it was full of bombs which my brother had collected. She fetched the air raid warden and every one was live! It caused a big scare and then everyone in the street never picked bombs up.

This story was collected by Jessie Atkinson and was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Robert Burns and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Robert's stories:

• “No Mother, not the dog!â€�
• We buried the bakers van
• Everyone donated a tin of corned beef

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