What qualities does it take to walk up to an unexploded bomb or mine, completely alone while everyone else has taken cover? The rise of terrorism in the 21st Century and the evolution of car bombs and other improvised explosive devices mean that bomb disposal officers are in high demand. This book looks at bomb disposal officer; a day in the life; training; types of device; the history of bomb disposal from WW1 to the present day in Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan.
Noel Cashford served for six years in the Royal Navy's Mine and Bomb Disposal Squad. During this time he made safe over 200 devices, 57 in a mere three days. Noel didn't intend to be a daring hero as poor eyesight had prevented him from joining the surface fleet. When the opportunity arose to do something more exciting than administration, he naturally went for it, little realising that he would end up defusing bombs and mines! This book is a collection of his memories of those days. It is a touching and humorous account of his dangerous job where, in the early days of the war, you could be lucky to last more than just a few months.
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.
A guide on procedures, administration, and equipment, Bombs, IEDs, and Explosives: Identification, Investigation, and Disposal Techniques introduces concepts, basic knowledge, and necessary skill sets for bomb technicians. It covers topics such as training resources, bomb threat and incident response, legal aspects of bomb disposal, explosives and
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.
Readers take a nerve-jangling ride into risky operations where a single mistake is paid for in blood, loss of limbs, or death. From savagely simplistic Vietnamese explosives to modern HEAT munitions in Kuwait, this book chronicles a history of heroic and horrific incidents. This is a fascinating salute to a special breed of men who handle death with an iron grip.
"[The author] tells the inside story of British explosive ordnance disposal (as it is now known) from its earliest days when no-one in authority knew who should accept responsibility, training for the task was often measured in hours, and experience was only gained -- or lives or limbs lost -- by actually doing the job itself. Beginning with an analysis of what makes a good bomb disposal operator, the author examines the challenge thrown against the officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces and the civilian scientists and technicians by German, Italian and Japanese bomb designers during the Second World War, and by other enemies from Korea to Northern Ireland and the Falklands in more recent years"--Jacket.
Written by a 24-year member of the bomb squad of the Metro Dade Police Department in Florida, this volume explains the procedures used in processing commercial or homemade explosives, military explosive ordnance, suspected packages infernal machines, bomb scares, explosions, bombings, and similar incidents. The text does not describe how to construct lethal devices. It provides examples to explain the reasons for the procedures for disposal and investigation of bombs. It also emphasizes that the construction of the bomb or the infernal machine and the conditions of the emergency situation are usually unique; no single procedure can be used in each case without deviation. The guidelines that although experienced handlers who use all the accepted precautionary methods can minimized the risk of untoward incidents, no absolutely safe method exists for handling many items. Individual chapters explain explosive and bomb disposal services and training, bomb carriers, equipment, the definition and characteristics of explosives, explosives and bomb laws, bomb search procedures, bomb disposal procedures, the search and disposal of bombs in motor vehicles, evidence of explosives, and principles of bomb protection.
