Usually as the weekend approaches, the streets, shops and pubs around Devonport, the largest naval dockyard in western Europe, hum with life.
But an eerie hush fell over the area on Friday after more than 10,000 people were evacuated from homes and workplaces so a second-world-war bomb dropped on Plymouth by the Luftwaffe could be extracted from a back garden.
Police cleared parks, ferries stopped running, trains were halted, schools shut and there was a collective holding of breath as a military convoy transported the 500kg bomb very slowly through the terraced streets that tumble down to a slipway leading to the River Tamar.
From there, it was floated out into Plymouth Sound, past Drake’s Island and the breakwater, accompanied by two navy bomb disposal divers, to be detonated far away from the city’s streets. The munition was detonated at sea on Friday night.
Lt Col Rob Swan, of the 11 Ordnance and Search regiment, said the bomb would be lowered 14 metres below the surface and the detonation “wouldn’t be as Hollywood as some people would like to imagine” – perhaps a modest “splash”.
It was a satisfactory conclusion to a difficult few days for the people who live near the property in the neighbourhood of Keyham where the bomb was discovered.
“Funny old week really, wasn’t it?” said Cassie Dunton, who works in a motorcycle shop close to the dockyard. “Strange times. You wonder how many more of these bombs are out there waiting to be found. What’s been nice is that everyone has stuck together. It’s a great community here. We look after each other.”
The decision to move the bomb was communicated to everyone in the area via their mobile phones using the government’s severe alert system, believed to be the first time it has been used for a real emergency.
People poured out of their houses and into cars. Dockyard workers packed up and left. “It feels a bit like one of those evacuations you see in a disaster movie,” said Steve Jones as he left the shop where he worked. “Only without the disaster, as long as they don’t hit one of those big potholes.”
The Ministry of Defence said it had been one of the largest evacuations of civilians in the UK since, appropriately, the end of the second world war. And that 30 of the armed forces’ most experienced bomb disposal experts have “worked around the clock” since Tuesday on the operation.
The MoD added the munition had been been towed behind a Navy vessel and submerged to a “safe depth” at sea.
The drama – not disaster – began when a builder hit something solid with a spade on St Michael Avenue. At first he thought it was just a rusty piece of metal. On closer inspection the size and shape gave him pause and the police were called.
Plymouth city council declared a major incident on Tuesday and everyone who lived within 200 metres – about 1,200 people – was asked to leave.
As the residents departed, police officers, firefighters, more than 100 military personnel – including the Royal Navy’s explosive ordnance disposal team – search and rescue experts and emergency response charities arrived. In all, about 1,000 professionals were involved.
Between July 1940 and April 1944, the people of Plymouth experienced 602 alerts and 59 bombing raids, resulting in the deaths of 1,174 civilians. More than 4,000 properties were destroyed and 18,000 were damaged.
This bomb was a big one, and its position – wedged under fragmented concrete close to homes – made it hard to deal with.
The cordon was extended on Thursday, to precisely 309 metres, taking in 1,219 properties and about 3,250 people. The council advised residents to take any household documents with them, open windows – to reduce the chance of them breaking if there was a blast – and remove cars.
A rest centre was opened at the Life Centre leisure complex, and the Red Cross arrived to help.
People fretted about left-behind pets and photo albums and worried that their insurance would not cover an “act of war”. Jordan Brett, who was staying in a hotel, said he was concerned about his rabbits. “If there’s a controlled explosion there, we’ll definitely have to get our two rabbits before that,” he said.
Most were prepared to wait patiently, recapturing a bit of the Blitz spirit that Plymouth showed 80 years ago. “You need to sit tight,” the delivery driver Matt Wake told a BBC Radio Devon phone-in. “Be the best British people you can be. Put the kettle on.”
The streets cordoned off included some of those where Jake Davison shot dead five people in August 2021. Some mentioned the tragedy, others said the situation reminded them of the streets in Covid times.
People were relieved when the decision was made to remove the bomb, which led to thousands more evacuations and a third cordon being set up along the proposed route of the convoy. It meant a total of 4,300 properties and 10,320 people were affected. “People just want it sorted,” said a corner shop owner, Ronny Christian. “It’s been scary.”
Olivia Elliott, whose dining room was just a metre away from where the bomb was found, said her family had to “totally gut” their home to prepare for an explosion.
She wrote on Facebook: “Words can’t even begin to describe the rollercoaster of emotions and turmoil we have been through these past few days.”
She said they had prepared for the worst and, helped by service personnel, loaded all their possessions into removal vans.
“The house looks like it’s been ransacked, with windows left open and sand bags piled inside for protection, but we will take this over having no house left at all,” she said. “Our street as a whole has been through hell the last few nights with no sleep and endless calls to see if we would be insured.”
Andrew Barr, a research fellow at the University of Sheffield who specialises in blast and impact dynamics, said the bomb was capable of destroying houses in the surrounding streets and severely damaging water and gas mains. Fragmentation of the steel casing could cause widespread damage and injury.
Moving the bomb was not without danger, Barr said. “There are certainly risks involved in handling the bomb and transporting it through densely populated parts of the city for disposal at sea. The decision to do so won’t have been taken lightly,” he said.
The resolution was a relief for Gill Sibley, 83, who spent Friday at the Life Centre with her granddaughter, Mel, and two great-grandchildren, Poppy and Gracie-May. “Police told us it would be a very big bang if it went off,” she said.
“It’s been a bit inconvenient, but the main thing is that nobody has been hurt. We’ll be back to normal soon enough.”
Finally, at 5.30pm on Friday, Plymouth city council put out the message Keyham residents had been waiting for: they could return to their homes.
“We have been notified by the military that the operation has been a success and the bomb has been removed from the area,” the council said.
Plymouth’s city council leader, Tudor Evans, thanked everyone involved and said it had brought out a “war-like spirit” in the city.
“I think it is fair to say that the last few days will go down in history for Plymouth. This wartime bomb has really brought out wartime spirit, people coming together to really support each other, and whilst it has been really tough – we got through it.”
