AFTER 25 YEARS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 12

AFTER 25 YEARS

The City of today—still in building—is the fruit of years of hard work and investment. And what happened recently? A German incendiary bomb —probably dating from 1940 —was unearthed on a building site in Queen Victoria street, next to St. Paul’s Cathedral. That bomb brought chaos to the traffic—not just in the square mile of the City, but also for miles around—for five hours. And then bomb disposal experts found that the bomb could not explode. Rush-hour traffic was

diverted, two underground railways partly closed, and buildings evacuated, after a mechanical shovel clipped the tail off the bomb. Said the driver of the shovel, Mr John Aldous: “1 thought it was a cable. Then it began to smoke. . . .” Flames and smoke shot up from the 28-inch-long steel casing as it lay in the excavation. Police surrounded the area, and traffic was brought to a’ standstill, while firemen played water on the bomb. As the Army bomb disposal team rushed from Horsham — 25 miles away—businessmen

and typists jostled to watch the bomb. Four hours later, Lieuten-ant-Co>lonel Anthony Crouch and three of Ms men arrived, and made a five-minute examination of the 1121 b bomb. They found it was a phosphorous fire-bomb, which could not explode. “The explosive charge is missing. It may have gone off when the bomb was dropped. The casing is split, however, and when the mechanical sihovel touched it, some of the phosphorous ignited as it became exposed to the dry air,” said Colonel Crouch.

A small black-and-white dog sniffed round the bomb. “The dog, Sooner, belongs to one of the chaps,” said Colonel Crouch, “and often accompanies us on this type of job. We wouldn’t let it get so close, if we thought it was in danger.” Ropes were tied round the bomb, and gingerly, it was lifted into a water-filled tank on a truck. A tarpaulin was tied over the tank. Sooner the dog sat on top. And, with a police-car escort, the bomb was driven to Lydd, in Kent to be set alight harmlessly.