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World War II: Bombs

Volume 459: debated on Tuesday 17 April 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of unexploded devices from World War II remaining in (a) Wales and (b) Pembrokeshire; and what assessment he has made of the risks posed to members of the public. (127443)

Numerous reports of unexploded bombs (UXB) were investigated during and shortly after WWII; in most cases the UXB were located and cleared by military bomb disposal teams. There were, however, instances where a device could not be found. In these instances, it was concluded the UXB had either travelled underground to a depth and position where it could not be reached, it had broken up on impact, leaving only fragments, or the report was mistaken and no UXB existed. It was decided that such UXB sites did not represent an immediate danger to the public, and they were added to the Abandoned Bomb Register. These sites would only be further investigated if new evidence arose or a device was unearthed. There are 26 possible UXB sites on the Abandoned Bomb Register for Wales; none of these is in Pembrokeshire.