Help wanted – Location of Unexploded Ordnance in London

I’m not an expert. So I’d find a few: Try these chaps. It’s their job.
Royal Engineers

Alternatively the Met (London’s Police) have bomb threat site securing info, after which they call in the bomb disposal guys. Talk to them.

A W.W.II bomb will be potentially a very high risk if exposed, as the detonators and explosives inside will have degenerated. Ponder, if you will, a moment, on a delicate watch type machine (the fuse, perhaps with bonus anti-tamper devices) dropped, burried and then exposed after over 1/2 a century. Reliable? Nasty.

Any exposed tubes COULD be a gas pipe, but it also could be a bomb, or worse one of the arial mines dropped on London. Many of the bombs had anti disposal devices fitted. These included photo-electric cells (battery driven) to set off the bomb when the cover was lifted off by the bomb disposal officer. Obviously, the cell, battery and wiring’s going to be a mess after all these years, and unlikely to be in working order – but it could still short out…

The mines were dropped by parachure, and were thin cased. Sometimes the parachutes candled or failed, with the result the mine made a hole, or went splat. Most of those which landed under the chutes were exploded or made safe, but what’s there is still a game of Russian roulette.

I agree it’s worth looking for bomb records, but, by definition, there’s no data that will show you unknown bombs. There is therefore a chance of a UXB in your site that you don’t know about – so you’ll haver to have a plan as you’ve said.

’17 Seconds’ by Ivan Southall on the work of the first Royal Australian Navy mine disposal experts working in 1940 Britain is chilling reading. Bravest of the brave these chaps.

HTH, and any corrections appreciated.

It would be useful to know what type of ordnance to expect and where. Is it likely to explode and what would cause the ordnance to go ‘bang’ after such a long time in the ground?

tc

i can send the EX down with a large hammer to help test the likelyhood of any explosions if you like, 😮 :diablo: on a more serious note though. i watched a prog recently where the german bomb disposal crew were using old RAF and USAF post bombing recon pics to help find uxb,s. are there any old luftwaffe pics available?.
hope this helps,
Greg

As the bombing was, by todays standards, “indiscriminate”, it would be hard to pinpoint any high risk areas, in my opinion. The Eighth Airforce, with “high tech” bomb sights couldn’t guarantee a bomb drop within 4 miles of a target in daylight; most ordnance fell on London at night. Therefore, any sight is as high or low as another.
An appropriate risk assessment would therefore be based on any normal worksite; if it looks like a bomb, treat it as a bomb, until proven otherwise. London wasn’t the only place to have bombs dropped on it, and many have been found in the most unlikely of places.
The usual type of ordnance found, these days, are heavy, typically 250 or 500kg, as the light stuff didn’t bury itself too well. “The heavier it is, the deeper it goes”.
Whether it is likely to explode? How long is a piece of string! All ordnance should be treated as “live”. How live depends on the ordnance. In your case, it didn’t go off for a reason. Depends on the fuse as to why; many different fuses, many different reasons. Some fuses were actually designed to detonate when the poor sapper was removing it from the bomb!
Virtually all are, by now, “unlikely to detonate if not disturbed”. But if you do disturb them…..well: you never know!
Regards,
PS: thanks to Dad, ex-sapper, REng.

Thanks the info. We have tried local authority records and engaged a couple of companies that have provided us with a mountain of reports.

What we still need is a formal procedure for locating high risk locations and producing appropriate risk assessments and on site procedures. It would be useful to know what type of ordnance to expect and where. Is it likely to explode and what would cause the ordnance to go ‘bang’ after such a long time in the ground?

tc

Big Bristol’s comment reminds me of the incident at Edinburgh Airport in the 1960s when a BEA Trident landed after a telephoned warning that there was a bomb on it. When the captain asked “Where do you want me to park?” the controller replied “As far away from the tower as possible!”
A complaint was lodged about his flippancy!

“I would be interested to know what procedures anyone has or knows of for dealing with excavation in proximity to UXO.

All contributions gratefully received. “

tc[/QUOTE]

Procedure is as follows:

1: get someone else to do the digging.

2: do not visit site until they have finished digging.

Regards.

Does anyone know if there are records of the unexploded ordnance (UXO)from WWII for Central London and the East London Docks.

Most of the London Boroughs kept “Bomb Maps” whcih shold be accessible via local libraries and archives. These are unlikely to be exhaustive, or completely accurate and will obviously be biased towards coverage of detonations as well as the known UXO incidents but it should at least give a good start.

Hi,

Did a water treatment works in North London last year. Part of project was to refurbish drawoff tower from local reservoir.

Checks into Police Occurence/Telephone logs and ARP bomb plots showed no UXO in the vicinity but revealed that numerous Incendiaries were collected by ARP and dumped into Reservoir on a regular basis.

As a result EOD was planned to appear when the reservoir levels had dropped sufficently to allow scanning to take place.

Needless to say despite all agreed precautions including 24 hr guards one device was taken from site and caused full scale attendance from emergency services. Device recovered quickly and made safe but subsequent reports failed the “chuckle test” in front of the management.

Check the records, plan accordingly, plan for the unexpected, plan a new position if the slightest detail missed.

Ross