Bomb disposal experts may face ‘busiest year ever’

And every one of the 17 members of the team volunteered to join the unit.

“I think you’ve probably got to have one or two screws loose to want to come and do this,” said Brown.

“Everyone that’s here wants to be here, and that’s such a refreshing thing.

“It’s a real privilege to be their commanding officer because they are just well motivated and highly-driven individuals.”

In 2024, a 500kg bomb discovered in the back garden of a residential property in Plymouth, which prompted one of the largest evacuation operations since the end of the Second World War.

It was safely removed by bomb disposal experts from the British Army and Royal Navy, with about 30 of the Armed Forces’ most experienced bomb disposal specialists working around the clock.

In January this year, two German bombs were discovered on the same afternoon, with one dredged up in Exmouth Marina and the other found on a building site in the Millbay area of Plymouth.

About 2,500 properties in a 600m (1,312ft) cordon in Exmouth were affected, with people advised to leave their homes and both bombs disposed of at sea.

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