Biggest World War II Bomb Ever Explodes As Divers Try To Defuse It

Check out this incredible footage capturing the moment a massive World War Two bomb went off underwater.

Navy bomb squads were on a mission to disarm this huge piece of ordnance, but things took a turn for the explosive.

Dubbed the 'Tallboy' bomb, this beast weighed in at a hefty 5.4 tons.

Back in September 2019, it was discovered in a channel leading to the port of Szczecin in northwest Poland.

Decades after World War II wrapped up, Eastern Europe is still uncovering unexploded bombs left over from the titanic clashes between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

This conflict involved an immense number of shells exchanged and bombs dropped from the skies.

The Eastern Front showcased the horrifying power of military forces, and we're still dealing with the aftermath all these years later.

On Tuesday, October 14, 2020, Navy demolition experts set out to safely disarm the bomb.

However, the bomb, packed with about 2,400kg of explosives, unexpectedly blew up in a colossal explosion.

Miraculously, the situation didn't escalate to something worse.

Navy spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Grzegorz Lewandowski confirmed that no one was injured.

Divers were using a technique called remote deflagration to try and disarm the bomb from a safe distance.

Credit: X/ MON_GOV_PL

This method involves burning the explosive charge to prevent an actual explosion – that was the plan, at least.

The operation prompted the evacuation of over 750 people from the vicinity of the Piast Canal, near the town of Swinoujscie, with a 2.4-kilometre exclusion zone established around the bomb site.

Lt. Cmdr. Lewandowski remarked: "The deflagration process turned into detonation."

"The object can be considered neutralised, it will not pose any more threat to the Szczecin-Swinoujscie shipping channel."

"All divers were outside the danger zone."

Credit: LUKASZ SZELEMEJ/AFP via Getty Images

Even folks in Swinoujscie felt the blast, a town that was under Germany's banner when the RAF dropped the bomb back in 1945, during a raid that sank the Lützow warship.

Before they attempted to neutralize the bomb, Lt. Cmdr. Lewandowski described the mission as a 'world first' at a press conference.

He explained: "Only its nose is sticking out. It's a world first."

"Nobody has ever defused a Tallboy that is so well preserved and underwater. The bomb is dangerous because it contains a lot of explosives."

"The chemical processes that have been taking place in the bomb over time means that any impact, any vibration, any change of pressure caused by moving it could cause it to explode."

Well, his caution was spot on, wasn’t it?