Military Team Detonates 115kg WWII Bomb off Falmouth After 300-Home Evacuation

Q: How did bomb squads safely extract a 250kg explosive from a dredger sitting on 20,000 litres of highly flammable diesel?

They got it off the dredger by deciding that the least dangerous option was controlled removal into the water, not any attempt to dismantle or destroy it on a diesel-loaded vessel. At Exmouth Marina, bomb-disposal officers from the Army and Royal Navy treated the fuze as the main threat. They spent hours using portable X-ray equipment and a listening device to work out whether the 250kg German bomb had a mechanical delay fuze or anti-handling feature. Because the casing was heavily rusted and the readings could not rule out danger, they assumed a high-risk scenario. That ruled out two options: leaving the bomb where it was on the dredger, which was carrying about 20,000 litres of diesel, or detonating it on board, which could have caused a catastrophic fire and blast. Instead, they stabilized the scene, imposed a wide evacuation cordon around Exmouth, and brought in lifting equipment. In the early hours of 16 January, the team used a crane to lift the bomb off the dredger and lower it into the water. They then attached buoyancy gear so it could be controlled without resting heavily on the seabed or banging against the vessel, and towed it several miles offshore under navy escort. Only once it was in open water, away from people, fuel and infrastructure, did they destroy it in a planned detonation at 8.13am. The blast produced only a small plume and a dull sound from shore, and no one was injured.

1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 6

At 2:25 p.m. on Sept. 29, a military bomb-disposal team returned to sea off Falmouth and detonated a 115kg American second world war bomb after leaving it on the seabed until its timer expired.
More than 300 households had been evacuated because blowing up the bomb where it was found near Pendennis headland risked rupturing waste tanks 40 metres away and spilling sewage into the Channel.
Royal Navy crews instead lifted the bomb from the water and towed it to deep water, but it was judged too dangerous to send a diver down, forcing the team to wait out the countdown before the final blast.
The Falmouth operation came as UK bomb-disposal units report a rise in large wartime finds—six this year versus one or two annually a decade ago—while juggling other incidents, including a false alarm near RAF Fairford.