The Second World War. A terrifying grown-up nightmare in which children can be killed but have no right to fight back. Then fourteen-year-old Chas McGill stumbles on his biggest German souvenir yet. A machine gun.

Brilliantly outwitting police, parents and the army, Chas and his friends steal the gun. Then they build it a fortress. They have become the machine gunners. But with the gun comes danger.