Royal Navy clearance divers have carried out the controlled explosion of a WW2 bomb that had been discovered by a recreational diver off the coast of Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
“It was believed to be a German-made SC250 bomb, which was an air-dropped weapon during the Second World War,” Guernsey Police reported. “It was found and identified under water by a local diver, and arrangements have since been made to destroy it.”
Also read: Women break into NZ + Korean navy dive-teams
SC250 bombs were 1.6m long, weighed 250kg and were dropped extensively by German bombers during WW2, when Guernsey was under Nazi occupation.
Guernsey Harbours was contacted in advance to warn boat-owners and ensure that the area, about four miles north of the capital St Peter Port, was made safe for detonation by the explosive ordnance-disposal dive-team on 27 July.
Also read: New Year honours for RN divers
The resulting blast was reportedly recorded by British Geological Survey seismometers in both the UK and France as being equivalent to a 2.7 magnitude earthquake.
In late 2020 a WW2 anti-submarine depth-charge found by recreational scuba divers off Guernsey was also detonated by Royal Navy divers, as reported on Divernet. That ordnance had posed a greater threat to the public, however, lying unsuspected close to the entrance of a marina in St Peter Port.
Also on Divernet: ’80s bomb cleared from popular dive-site, RN divers extract huge bomb from London wreck, Clearance divers spared as Tallboy blows
