The Raid Was Over -But One Bomb Could Keep a Whole Street Out of Its Homes

The Raid Was Over -But One Bomb Could Keep a Whole Street Out of Its Homes

An air raid could finish without every bomb exploding.

Some disappeared into roads, gardens or patches of open ground. Others buried themselves beneath damaged buildings. Sometimes the first clue was simply a crater that did not quite match the damage around it.

These were the unexploded bombs - the UXBs.

A British Army training film made in 1941 shows just how seriously reports of them were treated. Air-raid wardens were taught to examine the scene carefully before drawing conclusions. A crater, pieces of a bomb, surrounding blast damage and even apparently undamaged windows could all help establish what had happened.

Once a UXB was reported, the information passed through Civil Defence and military channels. The bomb was assessed and given a priority. One shown in the training film threatened Post Office cables; another lay near a railway shunting yard.

For the people living nearby, that often meant evacuation.

Police, wardens and Civil Defence workers kept people away while bomb disposal specialists took over. Residents who had only recently emerged from shelters sometimes found themselves leaving home again, carrying a few belongings and not knowing when they would be allowed back.

Bomb disposal was the responsibility of specialist Royal Engineers units. The work involved locating buried bombs, identifying them and, where possible, making them safe or removing them.

It was exceptionally dangerous.

On the 13th of December 1940, Acting Captain Michael Flood Blaney of the Royal Engineers was working on an unexploded bomb at Romford Road, Manor Park. The bomb had fallen on the 5th of December and was causing serious disruption to an important road out of London.

While Blaney was attempting to remove its fuze, it exploded. Blaney, eight other Royal Engineers and Metropolitan Police Inspector Henry Lane were killed.

So when the aircraft disappeared and the all-clear sounded, life did not always return to normal.

For one street, a single bomb buried beneath the ground could mean barriers, evacuation and an anxious wait for the men sent in to deal with it.

Had you ever thought about what happened to a neighbourhood after an unexploded bomb was discovered?

 

A Bomb Disposal Squad Digging Out an Unexploded Bomb, Philip Hutton, 1945. Imperial War Museums collection. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.