CALL OUT: UXB!……

UXB? UXB?……….. ‘Whats a UXB ?’ I hear you ask . Well dear readers for those of you who are not Au Fait with the term UXB, it means unexploded bomb!

Now I know what you’re thinking, what the heck would a mountain rescue team have to do with UXB’s?  My thoughts exactly! Especially as I was sat here with those 3 letters displayed clearly on my pager, at the end of the message it said, “If you are available, contact Duncan”.  Duncan, it had to be  Duncan, I thought he might have something to do with this! (Duncan has a reputation for being at the right place at the right time) I was on my way back from dog training at Houndkirk Moor near Hathersage when the call came in, and I had to pass the rendezvous so I phoned in to let the Team Leader know I was en route.

So after about 15 to 20 minutes I arrived at the end of Dukes Drive, expecting to see blue lights, police tape and TV cameras, but no, nothing! No flags, whistles or bells, just Duncan’s 4×4, bit of an anti-climax I thought.

Boom, Boom, Boom !

I put my boots on and wondered out onto the bleak landscape that is the Dark Peak, and after 20 minutes of slow walking and a couple of phone calls from Edale members reciting Baldric’s War Poem (you know the one, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!) I found Duncan stood on the moor, we exchanged pleasantries and then I went to look at the bomb. There before me sat a  rusty object looking very much like a wine bottle, but with a few obvious differences, like the fuse at its front and the rifling marks to the rear!! IT’S A SHELL!!! Quick lets get some photos. No cordon, just a perfect excuse to get a few piccies.

I will let Duncan pick up the story from here:

Generally on a Sunday afternoon I go for a local walk, this particular Sunday I had decided to go along Dukes Drive & over to the shooting Cabin above Ewden. We had an exercise coming up in the area & thought I would do some “revision”.  As I pulled up to park my car, a police car was  parked in the same layby, with no one in. Setting off up the track wearing my team jacket I was accosted by 2 walkers who asked me “was I here to defuse the bomb?” what bomb! They explained there was a policeman further along the track waiting for assistance. Sure enough as I walked along the track a policeman was coming towards me.

A couple of mountain bikers had been riding off the track & one had ridden over a “bomb”. They had called the police, this officer had been trying to get assistance but the bomb disposal team were still hours away. I was asked if the team could guard the location until bomb disposal arrived. After getting an incident number I contacted our team leader who issued the call out pager message. I was left alone by the “bobby” who was cold hungry & wanted to go off duty.

Feeling  lonely…..

Left alone with the bomb I took a close look, leaving all electrical equipment well away. My limited experience confirmed it was an artillery or tank shell. I guessed it had come from the WWII range at North America near Langsett, but some gunner had missed the target by a wide margin. The ranges I understand were mainly used by the Americans practicing for D Day.  Many of these shells are blanks or smoke, so I retreated 50m & waited. The pager message lead to many team members phoning wondering what was going on, the response generally was “ walk along Dukes Drive for 30 minutes ‘till you see me we are baby sitting a bomb until the army arrive”.

Every new team member to arrive obviously wanted a look, but we maintained what we believed to be a safe distance & set up a perimeter cordon. Whilst the shell was some 30 m  (30ft) off Dukes Drive a small path cutting from the shooting cabin at Ewden to Dukes drive came with 10m of the shell.

Eventually our team 4×4 arrived complete with 2 police officers & army bomb disposal experts from the Royal Logistic Corps (RLC), and then it started to get interesting. The collected past experience was that they would blow it up in situ, this was not the case.

Chemical Alley…..

The army could not positively identify the shell, and from their file, which I was asked to cross check, the most closely resembling photograph was for a “chemical shell MkII” cica 1916 to 1950. There was no reason to fire chemical shells on this part of the Peak but all the team members gradually moved further away. The x-ray did not give a positive result; the soldiers even sent a photo of the shell taken by phone to HQ to try to identify it, no luck.

By now it was becoming dark, the army said they were going home to identify the shell, (were they really frightened of the dark?) after telling the police that public safety was a police not an army matter. The police had better things to do, so they asked, “Could Woodhead look after the shell overnight?” It had been alone on the moor for the last 60 years it will not get upset for one more night. Sense finally prevailed, 2 of us Tony Sturdy and myself stayed until after dark discretely marking the location, arranging for other team members to come back with the army at first light.

Back to Wayne:

Reveille……..NOT!

So after our ‘chemical’ or should it be comical 4 hours on the moor it was off home for tea and crumpets until morning. I had arranged to rendezvous with Ian (one of our trainees), the police, and the Army at first light the next day. Now then first light obviously doesn’t mean the same as it did when I was in the mob and the police and the army finally sauntered up about an hour later than planned!

Our little roadside RV had begun to create interest from passers by in cars and several accidents were narrowly avoided by people rubbernecking at the sight of 3 emergency vehicles, one with BOMB DISPOSAL written on the side parked on this quiet country backwater.

The RLC Sergeant made up his charge, of 4 coils of detonation cord, a remote detonator and an initiator (the box that makes it go bang) and we drove out onto the moor in mobile 2. I looked in the rear view mirror at the very nervous looking bobby sat in the back, he must have heard about my driving i thought. Really it was because he had the detonating charge sat in an ammo box between his feet, hence his nervous look.

We set up a cordon (with 3 people!) to ensure that no one could get within 300 metres of the shell, and waited for the RLC guys to do their thing. Shortly after the RLC Sergeant walked with his oppo about 100 metres from the shell waved a Hi Vis waistcoat, and Ian disappeared from view like a rat down a drainpipe (he had been told to duck though!) and then BANG !!!

BOOOOOOOOOM !!

From my vantage point about 200m away I could see the plume of smoke and a little upheaval of peat as the shell detonated as intended all those years ago, I also saw the bomb disposal guys duck too! Strange, I thought. On their return to our position though it became very obvious by their white faces, and nervous laughter that not all had gone according to plan and the reason they had ducked was that a large piece of shrapnel had whizzed over their heads at close range.

So alls well, that ends well?  So it would seem. Until time turns up the next shell!

All in all a very interesting break from the normal call out for a Rescue Team, certainly one befitting the ‘So Much More Than Mountains’ tag, and definately one of the memorable ones to tell the grand kids.