The 5.4-ton Tallboy pump was found in September 2019 under a waterway leading to the port of Szczecin during work to deepen the pass. More than 750 people were evacuated for the sappers’ operation, as it was located at the southern end of the popular Baltic Sea resort of Swinoujscie, which like Szczecin was a busy military port for Nazi Germany during the war.
Largest WWII bomb found in Poland explodes underwater while defusing https://t.co/oucLfGyTDA https://t.co/T2Zdbzqumk
– Reuters (@Reuters) 1602638400000
The demolition experts from the Polish navy were trying to neutralize it underwater via remote control fast burn, which means burning their explosives, but exploded in the process.
A Navy spokesman, Lt. Col. Grzegorz Lewandowski, told The Associated Press that no one was injured as all the sappers were at a safe distance from the blast, which was felt by local residents in Swinoujscie.
“The operation was carried out perfectly and safely and the bomb is now safe,” Lewandowski said.
He noted that it was the largest operation of its kind carried out by sappers in Poland, where unexploded bombs, missiles and war grenades still remain.
The Tallboy pump was designed by British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis and used by the royal air force to destroy large Nazi-controlled assets through clandestine shocks.
Swinoujscie’s was probably used in April 1945 on the Nazi German battleship Luetzow. Experts don’t know why it didn’t explode at the time.
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