I was 17 years old when the Manchester Blitz occurred in December 1940. I lived in Gorse Hill and, with my friend Rawdon Adams, we roamed the district putting out incendiary bombs (and house lights).

At 4 in the morning we were 50 yards from where a land mine fell on the railway at Railway Road.

We were with two other people and we scuttled down Buckingham Road for dear life. We were saved by the embankment, which took the blast over our heads.

We never heard the explosion, but were inundated and slightly injured by the falling debris of stones and clay.