Ground shakes as Army detonates two 220kg WWII bombs in Nadia

NADIA: Explosive material inside the two 220kg World War II-era bombs, which were found buried in the ground near Hanskhali on April 14, were detonated by Army engineers at Bhajanghat in Krishnaganj on Tuesday. The bombs were found when villagers were digging a ditch at Chhoto Chutria in Hanskhali.

It is suspected the two bombs were part of ordnance stored at an United States Army Air Force (USAAF) base near Kalyani for Over the Hump operations in 1942-45. At that time, Kalyani was a full-fledged US military base.

“We took some time as there was no immediate danger of them exploding. We also didn’t want to explode the bombs as they were as there may have been shrapnel flying in all directions. The two bomb shells may be preserved at a museum. The idea was to pour out the contents of the bomb and detonate them in a controlled situation,” a source in the Army said.

The site for the operation was a large government plot at Bhajanghat where a 20-feet deep pit was dug. The explosive material, suspected to be TNT, was then poured into the pit with electrical detonators attached. Soldiers then emptied nearly 220 sandbags into the pit and covered the explosives. A wire leading out from the electrical detonators were then attached to a generator kept at a distance. This led to a massive explosion even as hundreds of people stood and watched from a safe distance.

“The explosion was so massive the ground shook. Even those in houses felt tremors,” said Anjan Sukul, a local.