Forums Forums Local News bomb or mine blown up in mersey?

just been told there was a bomb or mine washed up in the mersey yesterday and they blew it up, any one else hear of this? i went to wales and missed all the fun i think

Mersey World War II bomb detonated off Liverpool coast

A World War II bomb discovered by a dredger in the River Mersey has been detonated off the coast in Liverpool Bay.

Bomb disposal experts were ferried to the site by the Hoylake lifeboat after the dredger company alerted the coastguard.

They made the bomb safe by lowering it to the sea bed and detonating it in an area that was clear of other vessels.

The bomb was discovered late on Sunday evening close to Liverpool's port.

Source

Anyone remember when they blew up a bomb way out in the estuary? It would have been 4-5 years ago. The bomb was supposed to be massive and there was goning to be a big splash of water. Thousands of people crammed up the end of New Brighton prom to get a view of the fun. But it all turned into a bit of a damp squib :-)

i remember that . total waste of time , people were worried about the foundations of the mersey tunnel but the actual explosion was no biggerr than a f**t

The military always tend to go over the top with such things. stewy's comment about the Mersey Tunnel is a prime example. That said, I heard on the radio this morning that a one ton bomb (one of ours) had been discovered when excavating for a sports stadium in Germany. It went off and killed 3 Bomb Disposal Officers !

A ton of HE going off in the open is the other side of the coin I guess. So sad for the BDO's and their families.

Some say the detonators and primer get more sensitive with age. Some say less so. Don't know if I'd want to put it to the test !
The main charge (Amatol or RDX ?) remains stable.

That's sometimes the idea, you use very high speed explosives to spread the old bomb material without it exploding as one contained mass, but obviously this tactic can go wrong and the bomb blows before being demolished.

There was a car bomb in northern island that made a nice crater when the high speed explosive trick didn't work properly.

I know they are very careful when they find something. They found a "bomb" off the shore at Guinea Gap in 2000 and the disposal people spent 5 hours with it until eventually they found it was an acetylene cylinder that had been in the water for years.

Yeah, that was it. They found it somewhere near Twelve Quays and towed it out into the estuary to detonate it. I know 'cos I work at Twelve Quays and we were ordered to evacuate. Didn't though, we covered our ears and waited for the bang