ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

My father, Harry Northover, was one of the first in the city to join the Local Defence Volunteers (later the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard). He threw himself whole-heartedly into preparations for our defence in the event of 'the Invasion'. He helped to set up booby-traps and equip pill-boxes and bunkers. One of the simple devices he made was the 'Molitov Cocktail' - a beer bottle filled with petrol and an igniter to allow the fuel to ignite when the bottle was thrown and broken. He made crates full of these in his builder's yard, loaded them into the small trailer towed behind his Morris 8 car and distributed them, rattling in their crates.

I was a child of 8. I sensed that my mother was anxious. I overheard my father remark on his return from one of these trips, "Just as well there were no breakages!". It didn't bear thinking about!

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