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Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1940, Page 6

An amusing story is told by Private Fred Fleming, Fourth Field Ambulance, First Echelon. It relates to the finding of a thermos flask in the desert. “All hands had been warned that the Italians were dropping time bombs which looked like thermos flasks. An ofl'icer was called. He went down on hands and knees, examined the thing, and then asked for a rifle. An interested crowd of soldiers had gathered, and they were waved back as the ofl'icer, a crack shot, took careful aim from a safe distance. There was a breathless hush, and moments ticked by like hours as his trigger pressure increased. Then the shot. No great sheet of flame, no roar of a high explosive blast, but merely the sound of shattered glass as someone’s morning tea container went west."