This has reminded me of a tale, passed down through three generations of my family, about a weapons test that went humorously wrong. (Although not as spectacularly as the Panjandrum.)
My Grandfather Graham Lee was one of the scientists working on the Bouncing Bomb with Barnes Wallis (whatever the film might suggest, Wallis didn't do it all himself). He was a chemist specialising in explosives and furzes.
Here he is with my Grandma, Dad and Auntie Ann.
During the time when they were testing & training at Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire, they had to ensure each dummy bomb was confirmed at the bottom of the reservoir or recovered at dawn. This was to ensure enemy espionage did not get wind of the design or the plan of attack.
One day one of the dummy bombs bounced clear over the top of the dam.
They hunted everywhere for it.
There was no sign of it anywhere.
PANIC ensued amongst high command.
Had it been stolen by spies before the recovery crew could get out at dawn?
A couple of weeks later a very annoyed farmer contacted them.
He had gone to take some hay from his hay-rick and there was a weird barrel thing burried in it. Was it anything to do with you nutters who've been flying over every night and keeping me awake.
The thing about a rapidly spinning bomb encountering an old style hay-rick is it will just bury itself right on in there.
According to my Grandpa, the official reports into the incident were very carefully worded. In that they didn't have any words in them. Our family oral history may be the only surviving record of this incident.
Unless they are still talking about it in the Yorkshire Bridge Inn.
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