Known as ‘The Silent Killer’, the Germans dropped modified naval mines on Britain during the war, these huge weapons descending silently by parachute and had enough explosive power to level entire city blocks. Today, they are still being found and remain just as dangerous as when dropped eight decades ago.
Dr. Mark Felton FRHistS, FRSA, is a well-known British historian, the author of 22 non-fiction books, including bestsellers ‘Zero Night’ and ‘Castle of the Eagles’, both currently being developed into movies in Hollywood. In addition to writing, Mark also appears regularly in television documentaries around the world, including on The History Channel, Netflix, National Geographic, Quest, American Heroes Channel and RMC Decouverte. His books have formed the background to several TV and radio documentaries. More information about Mark can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Felton
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Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; Bundesarchiv; Mersea Seafood; Forces.net; Royal Navy; Ministry of Defence; HM Coastguard; SilkTork; Victoria Cross Online; Mark Milburn.
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I have massive respect for all the EOD workers worldwide doing such an incredibly risky job. I'm from the city of Hamburg, Germany, which got raided in Operation Gomorrha — it practically left the city flattened. Even 80 years later, there are still dozens, if not hundreds, of tons of unexploded bombs located in its soil. I can only imagine how it has to be in other countries with active bombings being carried out (e.g. in Ukraine for a year now).
EOD need more then medals . A bottle of their choice and a big wet one .
So Mark do live in Colchester or Norwich? Make your mind up!
As an American, how dare foreigners have "gifts that keep giving"!
Man, it seems like finding UXOs is commonplace for Europeans and Asians!
First killed in Britain, and British Empire, was J W Isbister in Orkney, after a raid on the naval base there, 16th March 1940.
These poor householders were first on the British main land
So one question
Are you the voice of the vids and lend your vocie to the AI voice overs.or the other way round
UXO in germany – when they dug a new arm of the Mittelland canal they did a bomb search before starting. Found quite a few. But missed so many that sank deep into the soft soil that by the time they where half way through digging the construction workers had found so many bombs they no longer phoned (using landlines in nearby farm houses like my uncles – no mobiles back then) in " found a bomb" but could give a very good description of size, type and condition
I was brought up in the Falmouth area and my parents told two tales of parachute mines. The first landed at the neighbouring town of Penryn in the middle of the night. It got tangled in some trees so didn't explode, but the townsfolk experienced a nighttime evacuation until it was dealt with.
The other was a daytime drop over Falmouth main shopping street. It would have been devastating if it had landed, but the wind caught it and blew it out into the harbour. Unfortunately the boat loaded with disposal experts who went out to deal with it were caught in the blast when it went up and were killed.
I enjoyed the beach at Maenporth many times when young. Didn't have a clue a live mine was lurking half a mile off shore.
So many broken windows
German efficiency is fascinating.
There was an object found on a Australian beach recently, it was in the news, it looks like a parachute mine
As I watched this bomb being blown up in the middle of the city I realized for the first time what sort of fear that must have been in the minds of all of the people 24/7 for all of those years as Hitler bombed England and other cities. This was just one bomb. I try to imagine the horror of many bombs exploding all around day after day.
Why did they bother with the parachutes when they could just drop them free fall like any other bomb?
My grandfather as a teenager was acting as a messenger for the ARP during the Cardiff Blitz.
He was one of first people of on the scene after one went off in the Grangetown area of Cardiff.
He never forgot what saw and 70 years later could describe in real detail what he saw. I wish I had had the foresight to record him talking about his wartime memories before he passed away
It would be interesting to see a similar video covering discovered bombs in Germany.
3:03 is the reason this is demonetized
In the late 70's early 80's a British TV series called "Danger, UXB" was broadcast here in the States. Anthony Edwards was the star of this WWII series about a bomb disposal unit. One episode was specifically about the team finding one of these Naval mines in London and needing to call in a Navy specialist to diffuse. Riveting TV. I will have to check my DVD storage boxes. I may have bought the series when it was available. Television at it's finest.
Very nice documentary investigating!!
Thanks for sharing with us Mark.
This comes from a U.S. Army veteran!!
Good work sir.
Keep up your work bud.
We love viewing what you bring to us!!
USA/Ukraine still dropping cluster bombs today
With a nice greeting from the Allied bomb duds that still lie under German cities today. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, 2,160 bombs had to be defused 75 years after the end of the war.
Love your vids I'm learning more and more keep the good work up
It was the phony war for EVERYONE, Mark, NOT just England!
Mark, just can say congrats for these amazing contents. BEST regards from southern Spain
Does the navy bills Germany for the cost of destruction?
Mark has the best wartime information its just grand !
The Nazis made some insidious weapons
since when did we have city blocks in the uk ?.
Is this where Syria got their idea for the barrel-bomb?
The last one is a quick way to make a man made lake.
My mother told me that when she was about 7 or 8 years old, a parachute mine came down in a field just outside the town in south Yorkshire where she lived. All the locals were warned not to go near it. A few days later, my mother and grandmother were shopping on the high street when the mine went off, the blast pushed them both through a shop window.
It's difficult to imagine just how big and powerful those mines, both A and B types really were. I guess you get some idea from the clips in this video, those things were brutal!
They heard that one clear down the road. That rattled the windows, shook the walls, & shivered the timbers. It dusted off the sidewalks. That made our ears ring like church bells. It was as loud as a elephant's sneeze.
EDITED TEXT
; Known as 'The Silent Killer' – the Germans dropped modified NAVAL
; mines on Britain during the war – these huge weapons descending
; silently by parachute and had enough explosive power to level
; entire city blocks
; Today – they are still being found and remain just as dangerous
; as when dropped eight decades ago.
Not surprising. There all sorts of unexploded WWII ordnance allover Europe and the world – British, American, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, etc.
This video really gives you an idea of how terrifying it would of bèen during the war ,and unfortunately there must be thousands more just lying in wait for some unsuspecting person or pèople to acedendly come opone one of these deadly weapons ,and like he says there just as deadly 80 years on ,
Was looking at a WW2 bomb at Kelham Island museum yesterday. It was dug up at Bramall Lane in 1985 🖖
It would have been very easy to implement a self-defuse function, simply by surrounding the squib with caustic material that would have done its job after, say, a few months or whatever you tuned in to. But they never did, for whatever reason.The British later dropped horrible time-delay bombs, the inside of which the detonators are still in near mint condition to this day. This is a primitive revenge on the second or third generation who were not even alive in wartime and could only have been concocted by devils and demons in boundless hatred.
One of my Grandmother's brothers was in Bomb Disposal in London during the war. He was dealing with one of these mines with an officer when it detonated. There was nothing left of either man to be buried.
Excellent and chilling .
That very last one is just amazing Look at all the sand bags Surrounding the bomb to damp the shockwave
A further update on the Bournemouth parachute bombs: This took place at c. 3:35am on November 16th 1940. The place where the French servicemen where billeted which was destroyed was the Alma Road School.
I have an EOD bronze hand drill, perfect
61 of those mines were dropped on Clydebank, 1941
I just returned from a trip to Vietnam where I visited their War Relics Museum. They have a photo display of the victims who have unwittingly detonated bomb and mines left undisturbed for over 50yrs from the Vietnam War. It's simply a very shocking graphic display – but it does make you thank God for the bravery of those bomb disposal teams who deal with these extremely volatile and dangerous explosives.
Well done, mark.. your ww2 documentary are awesome everytime. And you' are very good historian.