A World War II era bomb will be carefully removed Thursday from a pond outside of Yarmouth.
The vintage general purpose 500 pound air bomb was discovered in a pond in Chebogue after a call was made to RCMP following its discovery last November.
A Maritime Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team has stepped in to recover the bomb, which has been classified as an unexploded ordnance.
Lieutenant Frank MacLeod, who is leading the team, discussed how the bomb might have got there.
“Back at the general time, when it was RCAF Yarmouth as a work force, we know that it was considered an old bombing range at one point, but that was mostly off shore,” said MacLeod. “As to exactly how it got there, we aren’t entirely sure.”
Sailor First Class Leblanc-Lavalee steps into the pond to start the search, mark and investigate phase of the task. Photo taken 27 April 2021, By MCpl I Thompson.
MacLeod and his team have determined the bomb is unfused, a low threat to the public and safe to move.
“Because we were so short on people during that phase of the war, they were doing a lot of training down here,” said MacLeod. “I’m sure it was something that just dropped prematurely at the wrong time and they weren’t able to find it because normally when things drop like that they’ll just sink into the ground quite a bit.”
MacLeod added a search for it likely occurred shortly after which probably turned up nothing, saying something like this has the potential to make its way back to the surface only to be discovered years later.
The team has already drained and searched the entire pond in effort to find similar devices, but that search has so far turned up nothing additional.
MacLeod says that after the bomb is removed, it will be brought to a local quarry where it will be destroyed.
