Bullet holes at toilet block tell war story

They look like nondescript chips in a wall - but they tell an incredible wartime story of the night a German bomber dived on a Black Country town and riddled it with machine gun fire.

It is thought the bomber was on its way to a raid during the early part of the Second World War when it started shooting at a group of people in Windmill Lane, Smethwick, who were making their way to an air raid shelter. One young man, Norman Steele, was killed.

A keen amateur historian delving into the story and hoping to find out more about that fateful day, has told how a toilet block in the town still has bullet holes from the bomber in its wall.

Former Smethwick resident Paul Harris, who now lives in Halesowen, remembers being taken by his father, George Harris now aged 91, to see the bullet holes in Windmill Lane.

Mr Harris, aged 64, said: "I used to live in Smethwick and my father still does. Every time we would walk past he would tell me what he knew about the day and about his time during the war."