Bomb youth says story was blown out of all proportion

Gerald Viccars, who now lives in Desborough, was a 15-year-old schoolboy in 1966 when he retrieved a five-foot long bomb from a pond in his home village of Dingley, with help from his ATC pal Alex Nixon, 14.

The pair wheeled it on a bike three miles to the Harborough ATC headquarters in St Mary’s Road where they hoped to convert the bomb into a cabinet with shelves for the group’s trophies.

Mr Viccars remembered the bomb drama: “After wheeling the bomb in a sack to Harborough, we started to wash off the mud in the ATC yard.

“Our commanding officer came see how the clean-up was going when he spotted a tobacco tin sized object on the side which he thought might be the detonator - next thing we knew the bomb disposal unit had arrived.”

That year the ATC used a large pretend bomb to decorate their carnival float with the boys holding a banner saying We Want Our Bomb Back.

Gerald added: “The story with pictures went into the nationals but it was blown out of all proportion.”