HAD it gone a couple of feet either way, this could have been a very different story.
This weighty chunk of silver metal came screaming out of the sky over Haden Hill during the early days of the Second World War, and luckily for the Whitehouse family who were directly underneath it, landed with a hefty thud just out of harm’s way.
Eve Marchant (nee Whitehouse) now of Brierley Hill, has kept it all these years, and showed it to us recently in the hope that someone can tell us exactly what it was originally a part of. She told us: “We lived at the bottom of Haden Hill, by the private railway which ran to Austin’s. Stewarts and Lloyds was nearby too, so we knew the German planes would be looking in our area.There were plenty of them about at that time.
“On this particular day, Dad (Jim Whitehouse) and me were going down to the shelter as the sirens had gone. Then we heard a whistling sound, Dad pushed me into the corner and we took cover. We heard a thump and we waited for the explosion.”
It looks like aluminium but feels heavier, perhaps an alloy. As the sirens had been wailing we would assume this is of German origin, perhaps the nose of a bomb, but if it is, that begs the question; what happened to the rest of it? Thankfully there are a few clues around the base of it. Starting from the right of the big crack, is written CY12/39 (39 perhaps being the year of manufacture?) and next to that 110575, with a small arrow above it pointing towards the tip. Then there is 10 9, followed by No. 209 II T.G Co., 9/39. That’s a fair bit of information — which hopefully means something to someon, and we know there are plenty of experts amongst the Bugle’s readership. Please let us know if you can tell us what this is.
