The end of a 5cm mortar bomb

[JERSEY 34]

Every now and again I am asked by a good friend if I would giving him a hand to dispose of ordnance that turns up here in Jersey every now and again. On the 17th of December we did the last disposal of the year fingers crossed. It was a WW.2 German 5cm mortar bomb which had be dug up by a metal detectorist who was out looking for cannon balls in the east of the Island on the beach. He found this 5cm at about 18 inch's deep, having failed to explode when fired. The most annoying thing about it is the chap has found a number of live ww.2 pieces of ordnance over the last year or so and still insists on taking home the odd bits and pieces he finds. The mortar bomb was encrusteted when he dug it up but gave it a clean at home. This chap is completely cuckoo. Why take home a piece of ordnance and proceed to re-discover it with a hammer.... complete madness. On a number of occasions he has been asked to leave what he finds where he finds it if its "dodgy" looking and call the local EOD team, but he still ignores sound advice.
Anyway as mentioned previously we took this one down the beach just over a week or so ago and disposed of it. It did actually look quite good although part of the nose fuse was missing and ultimately it was still as deadly as the day it was made.
I was able to retrieve the tail fin and a small section of the front of the bomb with the threads into which the nose fuse was screwed. The whole disposal took half an hour or so and was helped by the fact that the beach we blew it on was nearly deserted. I know there was the additional detonation charge attached to it when it went but it left a lovely neat hole in the sand.... something I would not like to have been near when it went off.
So thats one more piece disposed of, who knows how many are left to go.
All the best from Jersey,
D.

[guns ltd]

I see you have nut cases over there like we do here. Keeping live and possibly unstable stuff around the house. Looks like you had a Blast! No pun intended.
What's the largest Ordnance you have found on the Island???
Any Sea Mines wash up??
Just wondering...

John

[JERSEY 34]

I am sure there have been sea mines washed up around here but not for years that I recall. The largest I have helped with are a couple of German Roll mines...improvised mines made from WW.1 French artillery shells. These were deemed too dangerous to move at the end of the German Occupation so more or less buried where they were. When found today we are unable to leave them unattended, so they have to moved if possible and dealt with.
All the best,
D.

[guns ltd]

WOW!! bet that would leave a big hole in the sand.


John

[JERSEY 34]

It sure did. It was detonated at high tide with a hell of a run... and a wind pushing it along as well. Even after all that the resultant hole was around 15 feet across and some 8 or so feet deep. It was around 1 in the moring when the tide had receded enough for us to check our work and it was bloody cold but we did find a few nice pieces for souvenirs.
It was a 2 mile treck back to shore through water which was at times waist high and as cold as it could have been. That was one that took somewhat more effort than most would imagine, but it was disposed of very safely without incident. If you go onto youtube and type in Jersey roll mine you will see a short clip of it going off.
All the best,
D.