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DaveOJ12 t1_iu5v843 wrote

Tackling unexploded bombs seems risky.

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SteO153 OP t1_iu5xjfu wrote

The detachment was formed by 3 people: him, his secretary, and his chauffeur :-)

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JuzoItami t1_iu5ynxh wrote

There was a great British TV series about forty years back called Danger UXB ("UXB" was the abbreviation for "unexploded bomb") about the guys who defused bombs in London during The Blitz. Worth seeking out

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snow_michael t1_iu69k4l wrote

It was so well written and acted, but massively understated the danger that these men faced on a weekly - even daily - basis

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TacTurtle t1_iu6da7f wrote

If you want an absolutely fascinating podcast, check out the Fighting Through Podcast, episode 13, it is an episode dedicated to some Blitz bomb disposal memoirs.

“Imagine the shock when your pick clangs against steel. You wonder if you have started the clock ticking. On your knees, you use a trowel to carefully uncover the bomb." - Brian Moss, Platoon Sergeant in 233 Field Company, Royal Engineers.

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ctflora t1_iu658xl wrote

... and unsuccessfully tackling one.

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HUP t1_iu7gol2 wrote

Read the Bastard Brigade. Great book about the allied race to beat the Nazis to the bomb. Very entertaining.

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Parabellim t1_iu5tru3 wrote

He reminds me of Eggsy from the Kingsman series. What a legend.

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RobinsShaman t1_iu5x4x3 wrote

Nukes or regular bombs? But I guess both are equally deadly from one foot away.

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SteO153 OP t1_iu5y4ti wrote

There were only two nukes during WW2. Unexploded bombs during the Nazi bombing of London.

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sadetheruiner t1_iu5yv2b wrote

I find it odd that they knew the importance of heavy water at the time.

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InfiniteMothman t1_iu76pjo wrote

Nuclear research had been going on for decades by then, weapons research not as long(the idea of a neutron chain reaction was only about 10 years old) but preliminary R&D into nuclear weapons was taking place in several nations by 1940.

iirc there was a British commando raid to destroy a heavy water production facility in Norway in '41.

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sadetheruiner t1_iu8lvoh wrote

Decades would be an overstatement, nuclear fission was discovered in 1938. Heavy water was only relevant then to slow neutrons. When it first started being produced was 1932. 1934 was the first working reactor. 1939 had the first official document for atomic weapons. Put your decades in a sack.

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InfiniteMothman t1_iuad5f4 wrote

Wasn't what I meant. Didn't mean weapons research. Just the concepts of research into the atomic nucleus, first modernish theories of the nucleus etc.

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