1,000 pound bomb goes missing

by Rob Peters | April 28, 2008 at 04:33 pm | 369 views | 3 comments

The British Royal navy recently found an undenotated German bomb on a beach in Felixstowe, Suffolk. But then they lost it.

Picture the scene: a large second world war bomb washes up on an English beach, causes panic and the evacuation of a seaside town before it is towed out to sea for safe detonation. But the relief is short lived. The bomb detaches from its leash and is lost, unexploded.

This is how the 1,000lb German SC shell, which washed on to Felixstowe beach last week, has come to be currently lost off the coast. The 1942 bomb is thought to be one of the largest ever to have beached on Britain's coastline with an explosive strength sufficient to flatten parts of Felixstowe's seafront.

Today, Royal navy divers admitted it could take weeks to find the "misplaced" bomb.

The bomb was towed out to sea last Tuesday, with the intention of detonating it the same day, but conditions delayed the operation. Strong currents moved the bomb's position overnight, and the straps connecting it to the ship broke.

Officers said no global positioning system device had been attached to the bomb.

Experts from the Royal navy's bomb disposal unit said the bomb had the potential to "flatten" a huge area of the town's seafront if it exploded on the beach - and cause collateral damage up to half a mile inland.