MEMORIES of the grim dark days of the Liverpool Blitz have flown from the pen of Denis Brown in keeping our 'wartime recollections' theme bombing on.

One night, during the early 1940s, he was huddled under the stairs, crammed against the meter alngside his mother and young brother Albert.

"My older sister, Gwen, was sheltering under the table with some boyfriend who had walked her home from a dance and had to stay because of the air-raid," recalls Denis of Gerards Lane, Sutton Leach. "My dad and older brother, Ossie, were standing outside watching the skies over Liverpool which were bright red with all the fires. Liverpool was getting a battering."

At that time Denis's family was living in Pine Avenue, Windlehurst, the house facing in the direction of Liverpool. "Apart from the red sky, there were the beams of searchlights, raking the skies, and white shapes which everyone at first thought were parachutes and that we were being invaded.

"They were, in fact, puffs of smoke from the shell-bursts of our own anti-aircraft guns."

And then it happened! "Suddenly, there came a descending whistling sound, apparently heading straight for our front door! Dad and Ossie tried to dive back into the house -- but Ossie wasn't quick enough. Dad had dashed in and slammed the door, leaving Ossie outside, banging to be let in."

The 'missile' passed straight over the Browns' house, landing in Martin Avenue, to the rear. It turned out to be an unexploded shell ("one of our own") which buried itself about 10ft deep in the grass verge by the side of St Mark's field.

The army bomb squad arrived the following day to dig out the shell. They loaded it onto their truck and drove away.

"All the time that this was going on, they roped off where they were working," Denis remembers. "This was to stop anyone falling down the hole, but it didn't stop us kids from leaning over the rope, watching every move. I'm very happy to report that it didn't go off while we were watching!"

THANKS once again, Denis, for recapturing those spirited and comradely times. I'm now investigating a report that Farnworth Street, Pocket Nook, was once bombed, with tragic consequences, and that evidence of this direct hit still exists. Tune in for further update...