An empty grenade crate where 24 AW bombs would have been stored.
I have compiled several recorded incidents of AW bomb discoveries previously, but here are a few more I have found recently which shows just what a pain they really were/still are.
The first from The Spalding Guardian of 17th August 1962 is a typical example of back garden digging going wrong. The 48 grenades that would have been in the two boxes like the one pictured above were found in what used to be a Home Guard Headquarters.
It is clear that these fucking idiots did not even bother to bury them more than a foot deep, and is another example of why this organisation was not fit for purpose.
We all know what that plate said!
Copyright I Carroll
Of course, the bombs never worked at all, they were useless.
Another demonstration of the incompetent Home Guard was shown in the Daily Mirror of 7th February 1966, and this time they upset the local vicar. 😛
Another cache of bombs had been buried by the uniformed clowns at their old HQ in the rectory stables. The finding is another example of new development finding the buried items. What is most interesting is the quote from one of those who buried them.
“When the war ended, we were given orders from the top to bury the bombs”.
Oh yeah, please name names so they could get the blame , yer daft Dick. Why anyone would have thought this would be a good idea and just “followed orders” is pretty lame to say the least. I very much doubt the story.
The Sunday Mirror of 18th January 1970 uncovers another find in the woods, by another recurring theme in that children had found the devices whilst at play. It is not clear if they were still in a box or just loose at surface level, but it is obvious that they were also just dumped by The Home Guard of that area.
A further 9 AW bombs were found in another garden in Tunbridge Wells- yes even the posh areas saw them buried too. The Kent and Sussex Courier of 19th March 1971 tells how more garden digging found them. I’m not sure that the local plod would have appreciated them being taken into the station.
The final article from the Dundee Courier of 30th April 1987 occurs around 45 years after the Albright and Wilson milkers were written off.
This tie a bakers dozen were found by more workmen, one of whose boots started to smoke. I’m not sure that the RAOC idea of blowing them up on the beach, and then telling the public to stay away from the area where the bottles were found makes any sense at all. I would have advised people to stay away from the beach where the army blew them up, as this is not the correct way to deal with such devices at all, given that all those years ago, white phosphorus AW bombs that had been disposed of similarly gave off remnants that poisoned wild animals.
You can probably see why they wanted to dump them into some type of pit, where the public would be discouraged from going, and that too had a beach area.
It’s just a question of how many of them went into a clay pit in Tividale after the war under the cover of “a waste disposal site”.