Divers removed an unexploded ordnance located near the Port of Gdynia harbour master's office

Divers removed an unexploded ordnance from World War II that was lying underwater near the harbourmaster’s office in Gdynia.

On Monday, 29 November, minesweeper divers from the 13th minesweeper Squadron of the 8th Coastal Defence Flotilla conducted an operation to neutralise an artillery shell. The unexploded ordnance, which was lying on the seabed near the captain’s office of the port in Gdynia, was found by accident by workers.

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The area near the dangerous find was secured by soldiers and police. Due to the danger posed by the found shell, it was necessary to properly secure the immediate vicinity. People were evacuated from the area of the harbourmaster’s office, the Emigration Museum and French Quay for the duration of the action.

A team of divers-miners worked for nearly two hours to extract the unexploded ordnance. Then, specialists from the sapper patrol in Rozewie took over the dangerous explosive. It was they who transported the unexploded ordnance to the military training area and neutralised it.

The shell was found on Thursday, 25 November, by workers overhauling the Pilot Spur. They made their discovery right next to the harbourmaster’s office in Gdynia. They immediately notified the relevant services about their discovery. On the following day, experts came and carried out a reconnaissance, which preceded the neutralization of the dangerous find.

The unexploded ordnance which the workers found was a 150 mm artillery shell from World War II. Unfortunately, similar finds are still common when working underwater. Near the Polish coast, workers come across similar “souvenirs” every now and then. Fortunately, the Polish Navy has specialists who come in every time to neutralise the danger.

What should you do if you come across an unexploded ordnance?

Various types of dangerous objects are also found by ordinary divers. What should you do if you find an unexploded ordnance underwater? How to behave and whom to notify? You can find out all this in the article below.

Photo GNM 13.dTR

Polish lakes are also full of dangerous objects from the Second World War. What to do when you come across one of them? How to behave? You can find out in Sebastian Łepkowski’s article, which appeared in the second issue of our DIVERS24 quarterly! The digital version of the magazine is available free of charge, while the printed version can be purchased in our online shop.