Man claims chunk of detonated bomb landed not far from him
A CLAIM that a large chunk of a Second World War bomb detonated by Guernsey police at Icart last year landed close to two men at Saints Harbour came as a surprise to members of the police explosive ordnance disposal team.
The 300lb roll mine had been discovered several days earlier and due to its size and the risk of it detonating, a controlled explosion was carried out. Warnings were sent out and a cordon put in place to keep people away.
Work was undertaken to direct the blast out to sea, but one of two men who thought they were safely outside the cordon at the time said that at least one large fragment did not go in the intended direction.
Ian Browning was sat with another man on a bench near Saints Harbour at the time the explosion was carried out and said they had a shock when the fragment splashed into the water about 150ft from them.
He had gone there after his attempt to return home was stopped by the police cordon.
‘I was sat on a bench and then the bomb exploded,’ he said.
‘Seconds after, you could hear it whizzing around and I thought someone had a drone in the air. Then loads of dust was coming down on us and the slipway.
‘It came over the top of Icart and over the tea rooms. All of a sudden I saw a splash on the side of the slipway.’
He said there were people on the beach who also saw the fragment land as well as watch the dust come down.
‘I thought to myself: “Next time they blow something up I’m going to stay inside, well out of the way”,’ said Mr Browning.
Alan Bonnel regularly visits the harbour and was once involved on the moorings committee. After hearing about the incident from Mr Browning, he went down at low tide and found the fragment on the slipway.
After getting the lump of metal home he found that it weighed 1.7kg.
It was only after reading about the Guernsey Police’s explosive ordnance disposal team’s work in the most recent chief officer’s report that he decided to reveal the fragment.
Mr Browning said his son, who was one of the crew of the lifeboat when the ordnance was found, had pictures of it and Mr Bonnel's fragment looked like it was part of the casing.
A spokesman for the EOD team said it was very experienced and well-trained and dealt with about 50 controlled detonations a year.
‘The team regularly train with specialist counterparts in the UK to ensure their skills are kept up to date, but through the course of their duties now have lots of hands-on experience with the types of ordnance regularly found in the Bailiwick,’ he said.
There was a risk attached to any controlled detonation and one of the team’s key roles was to manage that risk in making its decision to detonate a particular piece of ordnance.
‘That decision must be balanced against the inherent risk a large piece of ordnance laying dormant in our island presents, which is why the decision is often made to destroy them when they are found,’ he said.
‘Historic ordnance is extremely unpredictable and could be very dangerous if accidentally disturbed.’
Regarding the Icart explosion he said nobody was put in danger due to the extensive mitigation measures carried out before the blast.
‘While it is possible a piece of shrapnel landed nearer Saints Bay, officers received no reports of this until this media enquiry, over 12 months later. We are glad everyone was safe in that area.’
