Another extract from Eureka – the club magazine which was the predecessor of our website. This one written by former chairman Brian Streeter in the July 1987 issue.
“Cannon shells, usually the 20mm variety, were at one time quite common finds and I have neutralised several of these. At one time I had no means of destroying the percussion caps, so I got inventive and found an unorthodox technique which, if fully known, would be the envy of the Ministry of Defence. This technique would give them the excuse for blowing up all sorts of things whilst pretending it was for the common good of everyone or just an accident. One such example was the removal of the percussion cap of 20mm cannon shell found by Lesley Burr at South Hawke Woods. For some reason, and I don’t think it was because she thought the club needed a new chairman, she asked me to do the business. As always, I succumbed to her charm (that is to say I thought she might hit me if I refused) and agreed. The first part was fairly straight forward, out with the extractors, out with the bullet, out with the filling, out with the? “Oh no, Lesley,” I thought. “You don’t get me that easily.” So I stopped and pondered the problem for the rest of the evening. During the night inspiration came and early next morning (about 6 30 am) I went into the garden where I stuck a can in the ground and placed the shell case on top of it.
Next I lit my blowlamp and, with a six inch high temperature flame, proceeded to warm the casing. Moments later there was a small popping noise as the detonator (percussion cap) went off – at least I thought it was a small pop but my neighbours didn’t. Evidently, several people, including my wife, had a rude awakening and, in one case, I was held responsible for the conception of a child by a couple who were indulging in early morning exercises of a non athletic nature.. Windows shook, my wife’s fist shook, I shook and my blowlamp shook so hard it went out. What appeared to be a miniature fog arose mushroom cloud like over the house. From the safety of the small space under the workbench, where I had now hidden myself, I watched for the vengeful until about midday when I emerged and retrieved the now safe shell case.
Yes, the primer was gone and I could reassemble the lot and return it to Lesley and say: “Nothing to it. My pleasure and all that.” Successful? Well I still had all my digits, the birds had settled down, the dogs had stopped barking and the garden tree would probably grow new leaves next year, so I suppose it was.”
I did chuckle when reading this but of course there is the serious side. I found a Messerschmitt cannon shell a short time ago. Inside was a small amount of propellant powder. A match ignited it instantly and it flared up alarmingly. Just shows how dangerous something that has been buried for nearly seventy years can be. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Andrew.
