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Camping's a real blast

A family of seven had a lucky escape after hitting an unexploded mortar bomb with a tent peg while camping.

Mum Laura Smith, 32, said: "When we realised it was a bomb, I screamed at the kids to get off the site."

Bomb experts, who blew up the World War Two device, closed the site in Sheerness, Kent, to hunt for more.

Sunday Mirror, 14.08.2011

Have you ever come across anything interesting when pitching your tent?

Not quite a bomb Thank God but last weekend my daughter came across a broken off tent peg.....lovely gashed knee and not being able to bend her knee for a few days as it opened the cut everytime was not quite the way she planned on spending her weekend

Should be grateful that a tent peg is all it was!

Good old Isle of Sheppy........ it's a bit fated with explosives.  The island also has the Montgomery ship that went down a few miles off the coast carrying explosives and cannot be moved.

Am glad it all worked out ok.

Jewels

Quote: Originally posted by raf48 on 14/8/2011

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I used to sail round the Montgomery wreck when I lived down south. Amazing that they can't do anything about it, when you consider the damage the wave would cause. I've seen radar traces of the tankers sailing the wrong side of the channel buoys, so not beyond belief that one will hit it at some point. By By Sheppy Southend etc.

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Quote: Originally posted by Fotogen on 15/8/2011

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Was with a walking group on Dartmoor, improving our map and compass skills right away from the usual paths, when we came across an incendiary device. The leader flagged it and waited for disposal team while we continued. Remember reading in a local paper of a boy finding one and taking it home. These things appear at times and best left alone, just inform police if unsure.

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I lived on the idle of sheppey for a number of years as i was growing up and the warden bay/point end was forever crumbling away   and was always drummed into us kids not to touch if we found one .

but yes thought of tent peg and well

Hi Scep,

I agree with you, I could never understand why so little was done to protect the wreck, if the resulting BANG would do so much damage. I've never heard anything about it in the last forty years though. A friend of mine, had to blow up a ship during the second world war, (tacticle) He told them it would not blow up, and was proved correct. I think he said it just burned with a lot of black smoke for a few days. The incident was/is quite well known, but I think it blew up in the film. !!!!!!