cards in a field near the village when we heard the explosion. We were so used to explosions that we did not pay attention to it. A few minutes later we heard women's screams and we knew that something had happened. Two of the boys died immediately, the other two lasted a few hours. Accidents like these did not deter older boys to handle dangerous material. Some of the teenagers used to take mortar shells apart. The winged bottom parts were used as ashtrays or oil lamps. The explosive caps inside, the size of short cigarettes, were pulled out from the hole in the explosive charge. The firing pin was a pointed screw that was operated by a frontal wheel with slanted holes and which turned as the shell fell downward thus screwing the pointed pin up to the detonating cap and which caused the device to explode on impact. Our inquisitiveness and our stupid daring pushed us to dangerous experiments.

There were thousands of rifle shells. We used to take the bullet out of the casing, collect the powder from inside and then explode the firing cap at the bottom of the shell with hammers or by throwing them in a fire. We did the same with the small detonators we got from the inside of mortar shells. The explosive from inside the mortar shells was harmless without the detonators and we often burned chunks of it in fires to produce a black and acrid smoke. There were also cakes of explosive (like huge soap bars) which we used to explode anytime we could get caps and fuses. We used to make a stream of black powder