On 14 January 2026 two Second World War bombs surfaced in Devon within hours of each other: a 250kg German bomb dredged up and sitting on a barge at Exmouth Marina, and a 50kg device uncovered more than four metres down on a Plymouth building site. The discovery triggered a coordinated response from military and civilian teams - the army’s 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment, Royal Navy divers and private UXO contractors - and an initial communications mix-up over locations and device sizes. The piece follows operators on the ground, including a diving bomb-disposal operator known as “the Doom Watch,” and shows how decisions are made under pressure: assess the fuze, cordon and evacuate, then either render-safe by removing to sea or place sandbags and detonate in situ.
The account explains why these legacy munitions remain a core part of modern bomb-disposal work: the Luftwaffe dropped tens of thousands of tonnes of ordnance on Britain and an estimated one in ten failed to detonate. Fuzes - electrical ones now inert and mechanical delayed-action “tickers” - determine whether a bomb can be moved. Corrosion, shifting ground and past manufacturing flaws make fuzes unpredictable. Rising urban development, hobbyist magnet-fishing and deeper excavations have increased detections, while past civilian and specialist deaths underline the continuing lethal risk.
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