Man finds washed-up sea mine on Cornish beach and rolls it home

Three classmates found an anti-tank mine on an army range. Two of them came back in boxes, the third survived, but never came back to school.
 
Brilliant.
Reminds me of an old boss of mine who was called to a suspect bomb call in the sticks and decided to put the thing in a car and bring it back to the office where everyone else was nearby.
And they promoted her.
 
A medic mate of mine, when working in casualty at St Mary’s Paddington had an old boy come in late one night with a bofors shell stuck up his rear end. He used it to push back his piles! Upon removing said shell my mate, a TA artillery boy, realised it was live. All potentially very messy!!!!
 
doris said:
A medic mate of mine, when working in casualty at St Mary’s Paddington had an old boy come in late one night with a bofors shell stuck up his rear end. He used it to push back his piles! Upon removing said shell my mate, a TA artillery boy, realised it was live. All potentially very messy!!!!
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What was the calibre...I think we should be told.?
 
38mess said:
40mm normally
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The question was tongue in cheek...but never mind. ?

FWIW Bofors produced cannon up to 80mm. Common anti tank weapons of that period were 37mm, 47mm and 57mm. The ubiquitous 40mm was an AA gun, but certainly not the only Bofors in common use...but again...
 
If he knew it was a practice mine, and the hiviz paint is a bit of a giveaway, it's a non-story. "Scrapyard owner finds scrap metal on the beach"

There was a bigger story when I was in the ATC and the warrant officer who normally took us shooting wasn't available, so the CO, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Captain Manwaring, told us to burn the empty cartridge boxes. Except that one box wasn't empty...

I had a .303 bullet on my keyring for years afterwards
 
Achosenman said:
The question was tongue in cheek...but never mind. ?

FWIW Bofors produced cannon up to 80mm. Common anti tank weapons of that period were 37mm, 47mm and 57mm. The ubiquitous 40mm was an AA gun, but certainly not the only Bofors in common use...but again...
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Sorry, it went right over my head. I get it now... As far as I remember on our Ship they were 40s or were they 50s
 
Fimacca said:
Reminds me of an old boss of mine who was called to a suspect bomb call in the sticks and decided to put the thing in a car and bring it back to the office where everyone else was nearby.
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Was it actually a bomb, though, or was it obvious as soon as she got there that someone had mistaken some innocuous item?

I once accidentally left one of those plastic parts boxes with many drawers, full of loose electronic components, in the canteen at work. The catering staff called it in as a bomb, presumably because Hollywood thinks electrical parts look sexier than blocks of off-white putty. Once the grownups got there they had no problem picking it up and taking to to Lost Property for me to collect, since it was patently obvious it wasn’t a bomb.

doris said:
bofors shell stuck up his rear end. He used it to push back his piles!
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According to a nurse I used to know, it’s always the older generations who come up with excuses like this (“I fell on it while cleaning!”) ?

Pete
 
Many years ago I used know a fisherman who worked the Thames estuary. It was not uncommon for them to haul up all sorts of WWII ordinance. I have been told that often, if possible, they drop it back over the side as a report can really mess up your days fishing.
 
doris said:
A medic mate of mine, when working in casualty at St Mary’s Paddington had an old boy come in late one night with a bofors shell stuck up his rear end. He used it to push back his piles! Upon removing said shell my mate, a TA artillery boy, realised it was live. All potentially very messy!!!!
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So which end was inserted?
 
doris said:
A medic mate of mine, when working in casualty at St Mary’s Paddington had an old boy come in late one night with a bofors shell stuck up his rear end. He used it to push back his piles! Upon removing said shell my mate, a TA artillery boy, realised it was live. All potentially very messy!!!!
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Had he been taking Henry V too literally?----"Once more into the breech-------"
 
madabouttheboat said:
Many years ago I used know a fisherman who worked the Thames estuary. It was not uncommon for them to haul up all sorts of WWII ordinance. I have been told that often, if possible, they drop it back over the side as a report can really mess up your days fishing.
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The fishermen I knew in Scotland were quite happy when they trawled up a mine. The Admiralty compensated them for loss of catch and by paying for a new net.
 
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