NOT long married and with a baby on the way, a young Albert Whinston was somewhat shellshocked at the war he was asked to fight against the Germans.

For after being called up in 1940, the 23-year-old Blackburn joiner became part of a new bomb disposal company within the Royal Engineers, formed soon after the evacuation of Dunkirk.

After three months training, his destination was London, where he and his comrades diffused thousands of Nazi bombs, dropped during the Blitz on the capital.

It’s said that 132,000 of the bombs dropped on London during the Nazi bombardment did not explode.

And among the simple equipment for this nerve- wracking job was a spade, hammer, coil of rope, and a stethoscope.

Albert who is now 94 and lives in Tockholes, said: “I was called up and asked to report to Halifax for training, but had no idea what for and, once we discovered our mission, we could not talk about it. It was frightening at first, but after six months, working continuously as the Blitz went on, it got that you didn’t think anything of it.

“We had to learn about the different bombs and fuses as we went along, but were told not to say a word. We did not want the Germans to find out that we were working out their system, but it is true that they did later start putting booby traps in some of them.”

The first that Albert helped diffuse was one which fell on St Paul’s Cathedral, while the largest weighed two tons, was 13 feet long and buried itself 67 feet into the ground. He and his team once diffused 11 in one day.

He said: “The most dangerous were the half ton, two-fuse bombs, which had both an electrical and mechanical fuse.

“But whenever you were called out, you never knew what you were going to find, or how, or if, it would detonate.”

Albert was in the squad for four years, reaching the rank of sergeant and was joined for a short period by his younger brother Norman, before he was transferred to Burma and joined the campaign against Japan.

“After locating a bomb, we would dig a hole round it and strengthen the sides with timber. Often it would be resting in water-running sand, so we would attach secured rope around our waists before going down.

“At the beginning of our operation, we would pull fuses out by hand, although it obviously had to be steady, but later, after losing four men, we retreated behind sand bags and pulled them out via a rope and pulley system. The bombs were later detonated in Hackney marshes.”

After the war, Albert returned home to his wife, Fanny, and daughter, June, in Livesey Branch Road, and went back to his job at Blackburn ROF, where he worked for almost 40 years.