Incidents Remembered

A Memory of Doe Lea.

Doe Lea was near to Hardwick which during the Second World War was an Airborne training camp, we could go into Hardwick and watch troops jump out of a balloon, they had to jump from a balloon a few times before jumping from a plane, I remember a lad had picked up some shrapnel which he had put into his pocket which burned a hole in his jacket.
The incident I remember very clearly was when one evening a group of us children were playing on the top row of Doe Lea, it was during the evening, two lads came running towards us saying they had found a hand grenade, one of the lads had it in his hand. As he showed us, one of the lads grabbed the grenade and pulled the pin, it started smoking so it was dropped and we all scarpered, it exploded but no one was hurt, a piece of shrapnel went through a window of a house and smashed a picture on the wall.
Another incident I can recall the troops from Hardwick were always marching down the lanes, in the winter we would lay in ambush and pelt the soldiers with snowballs and get away with it as there was no retaliation until! one day as we started throwing the snowballs the sergeant dismissed the troops and they gave chase, they all but buried us in the snow, that day the troops won.
I have travelled the world quite a bit, holidays and 11 years at sea, the place I remember most is Doe Lea.

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