In today’s world, we have to learn and update with news every day about what’s going on. It is also important to take lots of care in our health as well. As the days go by, we must learn from what we hear around us not only in the news via local radio. Read the full tips here.
On Sundays, I take a quiet walk with my family in the seaside town of Felixstowe. It was an unpleasant afternoon and there was a lot of work going into strengthening the sea defenses there.
Watch Danger UXB
The next morning, I took a break from work to catch up on local news and was amazed to see a headline on the website of a local newspaper reporting an unexploded German bomb had been excavated by work officials. The worker had scooped up the device in his digging bucket which, unsurprisingly, gave him little surprise. He still had thoughts ahead of taking some of those photos before leaving the area and calling the authorities.
It turns out that this device is a German 500kg bomb (shell type SC, to be precise) dating back to 1942 during World War II. No one knew how unstable the bomb was so bomb disposal experts had to treat it as if it could still cause maximum damage. As a result, a large area in front of the Felixstowe sea was guarded and 1,200 local residents were evacuated.
Danger UXB by Transdiffusion
The bomb disposal team came up with a plan to tear up the bomb offshore, sink it to the seabed and then detonate it from a safe distance at around 2pm on Tuesday. The North Sea is not very deep, perhaps no more than 15m in the proposed blast area so there is still plenty of scope for a large explosion.
So I went to Felixstowe around 1pm. After all, it’s not every day that you get to see World War II bombs detonating. I found a good point of view and not surprisingly, a number of people were already there. There is a good mix of people; a young mother with her son, an old man (we had a good chat about Shingle Street and World War II) and a few passing shoppers.
The local radio also provides regular updates and soon we have news that the explosion has been delayed to 14.30. As time approaches we have more news that the strong currents have prevented divers from completing their work which means there won’t be an explosion for us to witness.
On Wednesday, I wake up and tune in to the local radio for the latest news and again there will be no explosions to watch as the bomb has gone. On that face, this sounds like the bomb squad has been a little useless but unless you’ve been diving in a strong current it’s pretty hard to appreciate the trouble they run into. These guys are professional divers and if they can’t work in the water it means the current is very strong and will easily move a 500kg bomb.
Hopefully, this story will end with a safe bomb blast but what it highlights is the fact that even though there hasn’t been an air strike for over 60 years, there are still dangerous and undiscovered weapons out there. If you’ve come across old items on an old battlefield, it’s very important that you don’t take them home as souvenirs. These things are designed for mame and kill. In the Flanders fields, farmers regularly dig up various items dating from World War I. These were left by the side of the road and taken away by local bomb disposal experts.