Dangerous bomb explodes during neutralization in Poland

The bomb was at the bottom of a shipping channel in northwestern

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A huge bomb from World War II exploded Tuesday, October 13 during a particularly delicate operation to defuse it.

The incident took place at the bottom of a navigation channel in northwestern Poland, without causing any injuries, the Polish authorities said.

The deminers-divers had for mission to neutralize this machine of more than five tons located near the town of Swinoujscie, described as one of the biggest bombs of the Second World War.

The latter was capable of causing a mini-earthquake.

Nicknamed "Tallboy", this British bomb was designed to explode underground next to a target, generating destructive shock waves: the operation, unprecedented, to defuse it was therefore particularly difficult.

It ended without damage although, despite the initial plans, the bomb eventually exploded.

Deminers opt for a blast

For security reasons, the deminers had thus excluded from the start the traditional method of detonation, which is more frequent but also more violent.

This method is all the more formidable in the case of a bomb more than six meters long loaded with 2.4 tons of explosive - equivalent to 3.6 tons of TNT -, lying 12 meters underwater at proximity to housing and major infrastructure.

The deminers had instead relied on the process of the deflagration, consisting of combustion of the charge at a temperature below the threshold of detonation.

Eventually, "the process of the blast turned into a detonation," the spokesman for the 8th Polish Coastal Defense Flotilla, Grzegorz Lewandowski, said in a statement.

But this detonation was "without risk for the people directly engaged in the operation", he assured and this bomb, dropped by a British plane in April 1945, "can be considered as neutralized".

An important base of the German navy

A spokesperson for the town hall of Swinoujscie said he did not mention "any damage" to the health of people, to buildings and infrastructure in the city.

Some 750 residents of the 2.5 km safety zone had nevertheless been ordered to leave their homes.

Traffic and maritime traffic had been stopped in this port city of 40,000 inhabitants, on the German border, scattered over 44 islands.

Swinoujscie (Swinemünde in German) was during the two world wars one of the most important bases of the German navy on the Baltic Sea.

On April 16, 1945, the Royal Air Force had launched 18 Lancaster bombers of the 617th division stationed at Woodhall Spa, 225 km from London, towards Swinoujscie where the German cruiser Lützow was located.

A total of twelve Tallboys had been released on Lützow, including the one that did not explode.

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