Watch the dramatic moment the Royal Navy destroys a huge bomb found in the Solent near Portsmouth
and live on Freeview channel 276
The operation to destroy the historic piece of ordnance took place earlier this afternoon.
It came after a fishing vessel stumbled across the unexploded bomb, a 500kg SC500.
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Hide AdMunitions expert from the Portsmouth-based Southern Diving Unit 2 obliterated the deadly Nazi bomb during a controlled explosion.
The bomb had been dropped by the Nazi’s Luftwaffe force during the Blitz in the Second World War, which saw large parts of Portsmouth razed to the ground and destroyed.
Taking to Twitter to share new of the bomb’s disposal, the Fleet Diving Squadron said: ‘Portsmouth-based Southern Diving Unit 2 successfully disposed of a large WWII German bomb earlier today, which was found by a fishing vessel in the Solent (An SC500 for the spotters out there). Helping keep UK waters safe 24/7.’
During the war, Portsmouth officially suffered 67 air raids between July 1940 and May 1944, three of these categorised as major attacks.
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Hide AdThe three biggest raids took place on August 24 1940, January 10 1941 and March 10 1941.
During one of the heaviest bombardments, on January 10, approximately 300 German aircraft attacked the city dropping 350 tons of high explosives and 25,000 incendiaries. T
The assault claimed the lives of 171 people, wounded 430 and left about 3,000 homeless.
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