Fritz and the Colours

[Katie]

I was asked by the IFTC project to locate information regarding a incident which occurred in February 1944 involving 7 boys all from the same Street in Dovecot who decided to pick up a unexploded mortar bomb on Childwall Valley Road (4 of these lads were Killed and they will now be put forward as Civilian War Deaths) (my good deed for yesterday). As I was looking for the article I came across a interesting article regarding a Reunion of the 2/7th King's Liverpool Regiment Many will have served in WW1. And the title reads:-

Liverpool Evening Express 28th February 1944

FRITZ AND THE COLOURS

INTERESTING POINT ABOUT "KING'S REUNION"

When the committee of the 2/7th Battalion "The King's (Liverpool) Regiment" reunion were organising this years event-to be held in the Tudor Restaurant, Kingsway, Southport, on February 26th-They thought it would be interesting to have the regimental colours on view.

So they wrote to Major. J. Burnie M.C, ex M.P for Bootle, who was second-in command to ascertain their whereabouts. He replied; "The regimental colours were passed to St. Mary's. Bootle for safety, but "Fritz" thought otherwise so those members who have not seen them will never see them. The church was burnt out in one of our "firework" displays. Fortunately no one was injured.

A big gathering of all ranks is expected from points "down the line" from Southport to Liverpool and places from much further afield, with Major Burnie presiding.

WW! terms-Fritz-Germans
Firework Display-Star Bursts, Whizz Bangs
Down the line-Long line of Battlefields.

We are all remembering those from WW1 at the moment and the reason for this post is we should also remember those who fought in WW2 and later wars and those young boys who lost their lives playing with what they thought was cool and will now be Commemorated as a Casualty of WW2

[joyconway]

just found this post - my Dad was one of those boys. I recently found the newspaper articles about the incident. he was badly traumatised by the events of that day although grateful to have survived. On the day it happened dad was there in the thick of it as usual, mucking around, when he heard a voice telling him to turn around and walk away immediately. He did and moments later the explosion happened. There was just one area that wasn't damaged and dad was in it - he was unhurt but his friends were dead or seriously injured. Dad has always said that it was his guardian angel - the voice was in his head. Guardian angel or very noisy subconscious that had worked out what was about to happen next - who knows. The boys had been collecting bomb bits etc for a while but on this day things were to go so badly wrong. They had managed to get hold of live bombs a fact that triggered an enquiry.

Seeing all his friends like that and having to go to all their funerals was deeply upsetting to Dad. A tragic event.

I was asked by the IFTC project to locate information regarding a incident which occurred in February 1944 involving 7 boys all from the same Street in Dovecot who decided to pick up a unexploded mortar bomb on Childwall Valley Road (4 of these lads were Killed and they will now be put forward as Civilian War Deaths) (my good deed for yesterday). As I was looking for the article I came across a interesting article regarding a Reunion of the 2/7th King's Liverpool Regiment Many will have served in WW1. And the title reads:-

Liverpool Evening Express 28th February 1944

FRITZ AND THE COLOURS

INTERESTING POINT ABOUT "KING'S REUNION"

When the committee of the 2/7th Battalion "The King's (Liverpool) Regiment" reunion were organising this years event-to be held in the Tudor Restaurant, Kingsway, Southport, on February 26th-They thought it would be interesting to have the regimental colours on view.

So they wrote to Major. J. Burnie M.C, ex M.P for Bootle, who was second-in command to ascertain their whereabouts. He replied; "The regimental colours were passed to St. Mary's. Bootle for safety, but "Fritz" thought otherwise so those members who have not seen them will never see them. The church was burnt out in one of our "firework" displays. Fortunately no one was injured.

A big gathering of all ranks is expected from points "down the line" from Southport to Liverpool and places from much further afield, with Major Burnie presiding.

WW! terms-Fritz-Germans
Firework Display-Star Bursts, Whizz Bangs
Down the line-Long line of Battlefields.

We are all remembering those from WW1 at the moment and the reason for this post is we should also remember those who fought in WW2 and later wars and those young boys who lost their lives playing with what they thought was cool and will now be Commemorated as a Casualty of WW2

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum, thanks for your post, what a tragic event but I'm glad your dad came out of it safely.

[Blue70]

Hi Joy,

Very interesting story. The location of those former gun sites was apparently on fields off Childwall Valley Road near Jackson's Farm. There was a pathway across these fields the pathway is shown on the map below:-

c1950s




Blue