As we reported this morning and was followed closely by broadcasters today, a World War Two Bomb was discovered yesterday in Wembley. Army bomb disposal experts were called to support the Metropolitan Police’s efforts and this afternoon, the bomb was removed from London and taken to a secure location, where it was detonated.
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Reyland is Commanding Officer of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Regiment, the team that has led the military response. He said:
For the past 24 hours we have had a specialist military team working to make safe a World War Two air dropped weapon in the Wembley area. This is a routine operation for 11 EOD Regiment and the task went very well.
We have excellent Military EOD operators who are extremely well trained to deal with exactly this type of incident. Our teams are called on a regular basis to deal with legacy munitions around the United Kingdom; almost 2,000 tasks were conducted in 2014. Whilst this is at the larger end of the scale, the approach to the task is no different.
These munitions do represent a serious risk to life if not dealt with correctly and should always be reported to the police at the earliest opportunity when found.
Meanwhile, an EOD officer on the ground, who cannot be named for personal security reasons, said:
This has been a very straightforward operation due to the state of the device when we arrived. The initial team on the ground had cleared the bomb which meant it was in a good state for us to work on it and neutralising the fuse was much quicker than it could have been.
Although this was a routine task, these things are inherently dangerous and can be unstable. It’s a result of the excellent work of everyone involved that the device has been removed with minimal disruption.
All the agencies involved, from the EOD team and Engineers, to the emergency services, have done a great job and worked together extremely well, as usual.
Facts about the military’s EOD capability
- Explosive Ordnance Disposal is the disposal of bombs
- EOD tasks last year ranged from the Orkneys to the Scilly Isles
- The majority of call outs we respond to are in response to the discovery of WW2 munitions, such as grenades washed up on the beach or ‘bomb’s found when digging
- The teams which are tasked are mostly 11 EOD Regiment, based at 14 different locations around the UK
- Teams are at 10 minutes notice to respond to a task
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