Download or read book Bomb Disposal in World War Two written by Chris Ransted and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For this book, Chris Ransted has researched some of the lesser known events and personalities relating to the early years of Explosive Ordnance Disposal in the UK. Daring acts of cold blooded bravery, and ingenuity in the face of life threatening technical challenges, are recounted throughout the book.Included are numerous previously unpublished accounts and photographs that describe the disarming of German bombs, parachute mines, and even allied bombs found at aircraft crash sites. In addition, the book contains the most comprehensive account ever published of the Home Guards role with the Auxiliary Bomb Disposal Units, and details of conscientious objectors involvement with unexploded bombs.This is not only a valuable research tool for serious researchers already well read on the subject, but also a fascinating read for those with no previous knowledge of wartime bomb disposal at all, and of course a must read for anyone interested in the subject.
Download or read book The Civilian Bomb Disposing Earl written by Kerin Freeman and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles 'Jack' Henry George Howard, GC, 20th Earl of Suffolk & Berkshire, born into the noble formidable House of Howard, possessed extraordinary courage. Jack became an earl at the age of eleven after his father died in WWI in Mesopotamia. ??At age thirty-four, Jack's courageous spirit led him to execute a daring mission for the British government in 1940 in Paris. Under the noses of the advancing Germans he snatched top French scientists, millions of pounds worth of diamonds, armaments, heavy water (the only kind in the world), and secret documents. His trip back to England from Bordeaux was fraught with danger in mine and submarine infested waters. His mission remained Top Secret throughout the war years and beyond, even to his closest family. His adventure in Paris earned him the nickname of 'Mad Jack'. ??His next chosen mission was again of prime importance and extremely dangerous, a secret more closely guarded than radar. He began working in bomb disposal in close proximity with his secretary Beryl, and Fred his chauffeur, and the three became widely known as The Holy Trinity. Whenever an unexploded bomb was reported, it was quickly brought to the Earl's attention, especially if it was tricky. Thirty four bombs were successfully defuzed by The Holy Trinity and their loyal team of Royal Engineers. The thirty-fifth bomb blew them up.??The Holy Trinity were the only World War II civilian casualties working in Bomb Disposal. King George VI in 1941 awarded the 20th Earl the George Cross for his work for his country, the highest gallantry award for civilians, as well as for members of the armed forces, in actions for which purely military honours would not normally be granted.
Download or read book Danger UXB written by James Owen and published by Little Brown GBR. This book was released on 2010 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History.
Download or read book Captains of Bomb Disposal 1942 1946 written by T. Dennis Reece and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2005-04-28 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bomb disposal was the most technically demanding and dangerous job outside of combat during World War II. Fewer than five thousand men did it in the American armed forces. During the war their activities were shrouded in secrecy, so that the Axis would not know what techniques the Allies were using. When they came home the citizen soldiers and officers who had done the work preferred anonymity to publicity. Furthermore, the units they had served in, often squads of six enlisted men and one officer, had been too small and independent to attract much notice by American chroniclers, official or unofficial, of the biggest armed conflict in history. Captains of Bomb Disposal, 1942-1946 attempts to bring some long-overdue public attention to this small group of neglected heroes. It chronicles two of their two most significant achievements during the World War II era: the contributions of the thirty-three bomb disposal squads of the Ninth Air Force, and the top-secret intelligence mission code named Operation Hidden Documents. In 1944 the Ninth Air Force was the most powerful tactical air force the world had ever seen. In the European Theater of Operations (ETO) it controlled more bomb disposal personnel than any other high command. Part I of Captains of Bomb Disposal, 1942-1946 mainly describes training at the Bomb Disposal School at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and the support thirty-three bomb disposal squads gave the Ninth Air Force. Interwoven in the narrative covering events after D-Day is the wider context in which those squads, and all of the Ninth Air Force, operated, namely, air and ground forces pioneering a large-scale, close partnership which defeated the Germans in northwest Europe. Also discussed is how Ninth Air Force bomb disposal squads helped handle the problem after V-E Day of up to two million tons of surplus explosive ordnance in the theater. Most of the sources for Part I on bomb disposal operations are unpublished unit histories, Ninth and Eighth Air Force ordnance reports, theater-level reports, and related documents at either the National Archives at College Park, Maryland (NACP), or the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Part I is organized around, but definitely not limited to, the World War II experiences of Capt. Thomas R. Reece. Now deceased and the authors father, he was one of the four highest-ranking bomb disposal officers in the Ninth Air Force. Some of his official and personal papers are utilized. Background material on the course of the war in the ETO is taken mainly from published official histories, and for the Ninth Air Force, also from unpublished documents at AFHRA. One of the passages in Part I describes how two men in the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad, Sgt. Russell F. McCarthy and T/5 Walter V. Smith, in 1945 won the Soldiers Medal, Americas highest military award for bravery in action not against the enemy. They were not the only bomb disposal personnel to win that award during the World War II era. Part II revolves around Capt. Stephen M. Richards, who was commanding officer of the 123rd Bomb Disposal Squad, attached during the war to General Pattons Third Army. Captain Richards and two combat engineers won the award for disarming a cache of booby-trapped documents outside Stechovice, Czechoslovakia in February 1946, as part of Operation Hidden Documents. The trio was apprehended by Czechoslovak authorities while the other mission members took the documents to Germany, and was only released after the documents were returned. Meanwhile, a diplomatic crisis was ignited as Czechoslovakia officially protested the American infringement of its sovereignty. Moreover, the Czechoslovak Communist Party used the controversy for propaganda purposes shortly before the national elections of May 1946. Shortly before the trio was released, the operation received fairly extensive publicity, in
Download or read book Disarming Hitlers V Weapons written by Chris Ransted and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the “brave men of the bomb disposal units who died disarming the weapons that Hitler hoped would save the Nazis from defeat” (Dover Express/Folkestone Herald). In 1944 the V-1s and V-2s, Hitler’s “vengeance” weapons, were regarded by the Allied leaders in London as the single greatest threat they had faced. It was feared that these flying bombs and rockets might turn the tide of war once again in Germany’s favor. Yet, little more than half of these missiles hit their targets, some failing to explode. Their wreckage lay across the southern half of England or in Europe, with contents liable to sudden and deadly ignition. It was the job of specialist Bomb Disposal teams to render the V-weapons safe and uncover their secrets. This is their story. In this unique book Chris Ransted has investigated the work of these unsung heroes who risked their lives every time they were called into action and, in the course of his research he has located the sites of many of the unexploded V-weapons, revealed here for the first time. Ransted also details the methods used by the Bomb Disposal men and the equipment they used. The book is richly illustrated with 266 photographs and diagrams, many of which have never previously been published. In completing this, the most comprehensive study of its kind, the author describes the deeds of those gallant Bomb Disposal men that were awarded one of the highest honors which could have been bestowed upon them by their country—the George Medal. “A particularly thorough and enlightening book.”—Military Vehicle Trust
Download or read book Lonely War written by Eric Wakeling and published by . This book was released on 1998-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book You Only Blow Yourself Up Once written by J. Frank Durham and published by . This book was released on 2003-11 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy started a crash program, gathering information and educating personnel to deal with enemy bombs, land mines, and other explosive ordnance. Figuring "lawyers make the best cannon fodder," recent law school graduate J. Frank Durham was among early volunteers for this dangerous and highly-classified work. Graduating with a perfect grade from the navy's new Bomb Disposal School, he was retained on staff to help the operation expand, then dispatched to Guadalcanal, where Americans were fighting the pivotal battle of World War Two. While learning how to handle explosive devices, Durham endured bombing, shelling, and an unexpected encounter with the enemy, but tales of suspense and danger are balanced by a humorous perspective on everyday life as an enlisted man. He describes "unofficial" enterprises, manufacturing souvenirs from brass shells in the captured Japanese ammo dump, and making moonshine from anything available, to sell to the troops. Eleanor Roosevelt's visit to the field hospital inspired a pithy comment about a painful loss from a wounded marine, and a classic riposte from the First Lady. Excerpts from captured Japanese diaries provide rare insight into the other side of the conflict.
Download or read book The Lonely War written by Eric Wakeling and published by . This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Danger UXB written by James Owen and published by Abacus. This book was released on 2011 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autumn 1940: the Front Line is now Britain itself. Cities are blitzed night after night and even after the bombers have turned for home, a deadly menace remains: thousands upon thousands of UXBs. Buried underground, their clocks ticking remorselessly, unexploded bombs blocked supply routes, emptied hospitals and left families refugees. Dealing with this threat soon became Churchill's priority. This desperate struggle became a battle of wits that pitted German ingenuity against British resourcefulness, including such extradinary figures as Robert Davies GC, who saved St Paul's Cathedral, and John Hudson, the modest horticulturalist who mastered the V1.
Download or read book Danger UXB written by M. J. Jappy and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book UXB Malta Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal 1940 44 written by S A M Hudson and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Regia Aeronautica and the Luftwaffe unleashed their full might against the island of Malta, the civilian population was in the eye of the storm. Faced with the terror of the unexploded bomb, the Maltese people looked for help to the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Section, who dealt with all unexploded bombs, outside of airfields and the RN dockyard, across an area the size of Greater London. Based on official wartime records and personal memoirs, the extraordinary tale unfolds of the challenges they faced — as the enemy employed every possible weapon in a relentless bombing campaign: 3,000 raids in two years. Through violent winter storms and blazing summer heat, despite interrupted sleep and meagre rations, they battled to reach, excavate and render safe thousands of unexploded bombs. Day after day, and in 1942 hour after hour — through constant air raids — they approached live bomb after live bomb, mindful that it could explode at any moment. In the words of one of their number they were 'just doing a job'.
Download or read book Memories of a Bomb Disposal Man written by Winfield Firman and published by . This book was released on 2010-09 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 91-year-old World War II veteran describes his experience of working in bomb disposal in the Pacific theater from his first draft notice through his discharge and Easter egg hunt, home with his family.
Download or read book Time Stood Still In A Muddy Hole written by Pat Strickson and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chance finding of a watercolour began the author's journey of discovery leading to the remarkable and heroic acts by the artist AFJ Hannaford and his colleagues. The author enthusiastically pieced together his life story and was gripped by coincidences, stirred by the passionate heartache present in his many notes, also heard in his conversations filmed for a Channel 4 documentary and an interview for the Imperial War Museum. The search lead to dark and dangerous times and brave men blown up doing their job. It unearthed the secrecy surrounding their acts of courage and the often untimely end of their young lives from booby-trapped enemy bombs and, tragically, from our own mine clearance. Captain John Hannaford, Royal Engineer Bomb Disposal Officer WWII, was a leader of men at 24. He was told he would have only 10 weeks life expectancy in that job. But he died on Armistice Day, 2015, at the age of 98. He was one of the last surviving officers, never forgetting, still hearing the voices of those young men from the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal, 8 Section 16 Company, blown up on a beach in South Wales. The author hopes that this record will show that the officers and men who died should receive the recognition for their bravery and sacrifice, that John so longed for.
Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book BOMBS Bomb Disposal written by and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bomb and Mine Disposal written by John Reese and published by . This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young naval officer joins the Navy's belated efforts to retain special skills in bomb and mine disposal only to find his newly deployed ordnance disposal team confronted with extraordinarily hazardous situations while operating in the Marshall Islands. World War II had come to an end, sailors who had entered naval service for the duration of the war were being discharged. These citizen warriors were taking with them knowledge and critical skills hard earned during the war. One such skill was the safe handling and disposal of unexploded mines and bombs. The U.S. Navy was at risk of losing these skills and sent an ALNAV message to ships and stations requesting volunteers to enter a new Explosive Ordnance Disposal Training Program. The volunteers had hardly completed their training when situations and events demanded a disposal team be dispatched on an extended deployment. The author entered the U.S. NAVY'S V-12 Program in 1943 as an officer candidate. He received his commission as an Ensign in June 1945 and served twenty years on active duty in the U.S. Navy attaining the rank of Commander. While he served upon a battleship, aircraft carrier and two destroyers his duties ashore were strongly oriented to research, development, production and logistics of naval ordnance. He was intimately involved in the production of electric powered homing torpedoes and the modernization of a Naval Ordnance Plant. He is a recipient of the Secretary of the Navy Commendation Letter awarded, while serving on the staff of Commander Service Force Pacific, for independent study in the field of underwater sound transmission. As O-in-C of the Special Project Office, Sacramento, CA, he administered Navy contracts for the Polaris ICBM Propulsion System. The author is a BSEE graduate of the US Naval Post-Graduate School and was awarded an MS Industrial Engineering by Purdue University.
Download or read book Unexpected Bomb a History of Bomb Disposal written by Arthur Bamford Hartley and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Story of the British bomb disposal units in World War II.
