| Unexploded bombs at Ingleby Greenhow
Then in 1965 - Victoria Willans paused for a breather whilst climbing the Cleveland Hills above Ingleby Greenhow. She was out training for the Lyke Wake Walk, and the going was tough. Suddenly she froze. For there at her feet was the menacing form of a bomb. Slowly she moved away, then after marking the spot with pebbles, she dashed home and reported it to the police.
Meanwhile at an isolated farm above Ingleby Greenhow, Bill Grimston was reading about young boys who had discovered Molotov Cocktails on the beach at Seaton
Carew.
He remembered that whilst serving with the Home Guard, he had once buried a crate of 24 such bombs at the entrance to Ingelby Manor where a look out post had been established.
It was these two separate incidents that sparked off an intensive search at Ingleby Greenhow by the bomb disposal unit of the RAOC from
Catterick.
Under the command of Major Ray Woodyear and Capt. Bob
Fitzimmons, they dealt with the bomb discovered by Victoria, which turned out to be an expended smoke bomb. But Victoria received praise for her action. “She showed excellent initiative,” said Capt.
Fitzimmons. “I only wish everyone reacted to situations like this in this manner.” Victoria, a pupil of Yarm Grammar School, admitted she was scared when she saw the 12 inch bomb just lying there. “Anyone could have stood on it.”
The RAOC’s second task was much harder. Despite the assistance of a mine detector and on the spot supervision by Mr
Grimston, the four man team representing the disposal unit carried out an extensive search but failed to find Mr Grimston’s cache.
“I am sure they are here somewhere,” he said. “It is a long time ago but I remember burying them near a hazel tree.”
Capt. Fitzimmons said that if a mine detector failed to discover them 18 inches underground, it could be assumed that they were well and truly buried and therefore safe.
But with bombs coming to light almost every day, just how safe are our fields and moorlands?
An army spokesman revealed that on average, bomb disposal units were called out twice a day. The most popular finds are mortars and hand grenades, often a legacy of Home Guard days, and left overs from billeted soldiers. One of the reasons for the high discovery rate, is the amount of new building going on at present.
The RAOC bomb disposal units provide a 24-hour, seven-day week standby service, and don’t mind being called out on false alarms. Their main problem is in persuading people to leave unidentified objects alone, and NOT to take them into police stations.
It seems there are three fallacies about unexploded bombs. One, is that water makes them safer, it only corrodes their intricate mechanism and makes them more difficult to render harmless. Secondly, old age doesn’t make them any safer, and thirdly it doesn’t mean that once a bomb has been moved, it is
safe to move it again.
To illustrate this, there is the story of a motorist who used what he thought to be an old safe mortar a chock for his car for two years. Then one day it exploded killing his young son. The moral is if you see something resembling a bomb, leave it alone and call the experts. It is easy advice to follow. Ask Victoria
Willans.
This article originally appeared in the June 1999 issue of Now
& Then Magazine
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