UXB: Unexploded Bombs On The British Home Front 1941 & 1944, DVD

A collection of three original wartime instructional films about the hazards faced - and the methods employed - in the identification, reporting and defusing of a whole range of German unexploded bombs in a variety of challenging locations on the British Home Front. The stakes were high - civilians feared for their lives and their homes and one false move by the bomb disposal men could result in instant death and widespread destruction.

UXB (1941, 58 minutes) An investigation into the complexities of the tasks facing ARP wardens and wartime bomb disposal squads in their reconnaissance, reporting, prioritising and categorising of home front UXB incidents. How they look for traces of blast and examine the bomb's crater to discern whether it is a UXB scenario. We see the variety of German bombs extant in 1941 and how to
identify them by the parts that might be found at a bomb site - tail fins, tail drums, cones, kopf rings, carrying bands and lugs. The further complications of the variety of fuses - impact, instant, delay action, booby trap, anti-handling - are also investigated in the context of defusing them with due regard to the civilian populations of the cities of wartime Britain.

Techniques  Of Bomb Disposal (1942, 108 minutes) A previously unrelased feature length dramatised documentary in which a bomb disposal squad headed by "Mr Ambrose" tackle a number of UXB scenarios in differing London locations - a 1000Kg bomb in Victoria Park, a 50Kg bomb in Richmond Park and a very delicate operation defusing a bomb lodged near the foundations of a factory crucial to the war effort. The intricacies of shaft and trench construction are shown and there's a fascinating look at the tools of fuse neutralisation by means of the 'clockstopper' - a heavy duty electromagnet and the 'steriliser' - a steam generator that melts out the main charge.

Butterfly Bomb (1944, 2 minutes) A recognition film about the anti-personnel 'butterfly bomb' explaining how to idenitfy them with or without their wings and the procedures to follow on discovering them including the sandbagging technique.