"One night in 1942, a load of incendiaries fell across the 3.7 Heavy AA Battery on Mumbles Hill and set off a huge fire-a beacon, which could be seen in Devon. During Home Guard Parade in the former Regent Cinema, volunteers were called for to go immediately to Bracelet Bay to assist the gunners of the Batteries to control the fire.

"Three of us, Frank Martin, Peter Hooper and myself (two of us 16 and one 17) immediately volunteered and with other groups, made our way to the scene.

"As we rounded the Cutting towards the Big Apple, we gasped at the sight of the whole of the Mumbles Hill, on our right hand side, covered with a sea of flames. Vehicles of the AFS, army trucks and ambulances were coming and going and we could hear raised voices, commands and vehicles revving. The red glow in the sky was now almost above us-we could hear crackling, see sparks floating, feel heat and smell wood burning.

"Soldiers, sailors, maybe airmen too, and the NFS were beating the flames with wet sacks. A light breeze complicated matters by fanning embers of beaten areas back into flame.

We were called by a sweating bombardier, handed sacks dripping from a water-filled oil drum and led to a group beating frantically half way up the slope. A Cockney voice bellowed, ' Beat like hell, lads! Jettisoned incendiaries!' We beat and we beat! It was pretty obvious why there was a degree of urgency. On the sea side of the road lay the coastal defence guns and an arsenal and on the top of the Mumbles Hill lay the 3.7 Ack Ack guns. Both these units now had a glorious beacon of fire between them, which could be seen for miles down the Bristol Channel-what a navigational aid for the Luftwaffe!

"Gradually we ascended the slope of the Mumbles Hill. Behind us another line of men dealt with stubborn smouldering bracken. The conflagration was beaten. No longer was Mumbles in any danger from Hitler's knavish airmen. Frank Martin, Peter Hooper and Grafton Maggs had saved the village from almost inevitable destruction (with the help of a few hundred others). Later, I went to home to the Vic where I had the usual telling-off for being so late, with school the next day!"

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