A massive World War II bomb, nicknamed “Tallboy” with five-tonne device exploded in a channel near the Baltic Sea in Poland.
The World War II bomb, nicknamed “Tallboy” and also known as an “earthquake bomb” was dropped in Poland by the Royal Air Force in an attack on a Nazi warship in 1945.
The bomb was discovered last year embedded at a depth of 12 metres with just its nose sticking out during dredging close to the port city of Swinoujscie in northwest Poland.
The bomb, more than six metres long, was laden with 2.4 tonnes of explosives, equivalent to around 3.6 tons of TNT.
The navy had said earlier it had ruled out the traditional option of a controlled explosion for fear of destroying a bridge located some 500 metres away.
Instead, it had planned to use a technique known as deflagration to burn the explosive charge without causing a detonation, using a remotely controlled device to pierce through the shell to begin combustion.
During World War II, Swinoujscie, at the time Swinemuende, a part of Germany was home to one of the German navy’s most important Baltic bases and was subjected to massive bombardments.
Tallboys were designed to explode underground next to a target, triggering shock waves that would cause destruction.