Miner divers neutralize two World War II bombs

In Szczecin, mine divers from the 12th minesweeper Squadron neutralised two dangerous objects. Both unexploded bombs were found during underwater works.

Without a doubt, finds of this kind from the Second World War are still not rare. First, on Tuesday, 6 April, specialists from a group of mine divers had to deal with a deep-sea bomb. The unexploded bomb was found on Easter Sunday, 4 April, by a dredger working on the Szczecin-Świnoujście waterway. The machine sucked up the excavated material a bomb of german manufacturewhich contained 120 kg of explosive.

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Luckily for the dredge crew, the bomb was not armed with fuses and its hull was unsealed. The operation consisted in removing the bomb from the dredger’s ejector and transporting it to a safe place, where it was neutralised using a traditional method by blowing it up – we read on the website of the 8th Coastal Defence Flotilla

Bomb No. 2

However, this was only the beginning of a busy week. Already on Wednesday, 7 April, the Group of Miner Divers had to deal with another problem. Although this time in the form of an American aerial bomb. The unexploded bomb was found by workers during the works in the Kaszubski basin in Szczecin harbour. The inspection determined that the find was a 500-pound American AN-M76 aerial bomb.

In this case, the problem was the proximity of the port infrastructure and the high danger of detonation during the extraction. The divers therefore divided the operation to remove the dangerous object into two stages. First, the bomb was lifted off the seabed and towed in the depths to the vicinity of the Mielensk trench. This place is located far away from buildings, so it was much more suitable for neutralization. Then the divers placed the bomb back on the bottom and prepared it for the next day’s activities. In turn, on 8 April, they deployed the explosive charges and, as planned they carried out the detonation.

Undoubtedly, for the qualified specialists of the 8th Coastal Defence Flotilla, the removal and neutralisation of dangerous WWII finds is their daily bread. Whenever companies working underwater come across “relics” that pose a threat to safety, they are there to solve the problem. Effectively.