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We also found our way into a store shed where spare aircraft parts were kept. These were for the servicing of the Auster. And included spare wings, tail, wheels and other parts including spare engines.

When the German bombing did start in earnest it was towards the end of the war, we as schoolboys were far more interested in collecting debris than being concerned with the dangers. It was far more exciting to cycle miles across the fields to collect bits from “Flying Bombs” that were falling in the area all the time, than to get to school on time. When we were questioned about our reasons for being late, our excuse was always the same, “. A near miss”. Near our house would cover us in most cases!

It was during 1942 that I spent one of the best holidays ever. Dad rented a lovely bungalow at Brean on the North Devon coast. The situation was idyllic, backing onto the sea and only a few hundred yards from the beach .We travelled to Devon in our old, 1929, Hillman car, which at one time, had been owned by Lady Gilbert who lived in our area. In order to obtain the petrol for the journey, we needed to save our petrol coupons for a whole year.

The bungalow we rented was situated right in the dunes and throughout these dunes were practice anti-aircraft gun emplacements that used large aircraft canon shells. There was barbed wire at the edge of the beach, supposedly for our safety, but throughout my life.

I never let such restrictions deter me and soon I was exploring the beach with all the usual enthusiasm. There were shells everywhere in the sand and we had soon found hundreds of unused shells from which we could empty out the cordite and explosive pellets unbeknown to my parents. By the end of the holiday we had a bucket full and soon found it was an ideal propellant for firing home made rockets. My father was unaware we had loaded his car with well over twenty pounds of high explosives and I think such knowledge my of caused him to suffer a heart attack!

Like all kids who have taken chemistry at school I was very interested in Explosives and after leaving school I managed to get hold of some really old Pyrotechnic books from the reference library. These often had to be sent away for but there was no restriction in those days.

On one occasion with some school friends we tried our hand making “Nitro Glycerine”. We mixed the Acids as the reference book indicated and added the glycerine to the mixture. This caused the whole mixture to bubble and steam one of my friends had been following the experiment from the book noticed a warning: “Under no circumstances allow mixture to rise in temperature above 45 degrees F. and here it was near to boiling point. We poured the lot down the sink and with a soft report exploded while passing the S-Trap!! That took a lot of explaining to my parents.

On another occasion I was trying my hand at making Potassium Idoide. This I dried on a sheet of blotting paper but when I tried to get it to explode with a hammer it did not respond, loosing interest I left the sheet of blotting paper with the powder layer on it in our outside toilet.

The following day our home help when using the “Lu” must of touched the sheet of blotting paper for she came rushing into the house in a great panic saying she was

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