What an army bomb disposal officer described as “two tons of sudden death” was dumped near a Chorleywood road on Tuesday night.

At first the objects – two large cylinders with pointed noses – were believed to be bombs, but the experts recognised them as naval shells, one 16 inches, the other 13.5 inches. They were “alive”.

A bomb disposal unit from Hounslow, helped by Rickmansworth police officers, loaded the shells by crane on to a lorry and took them away.

Gareth Evans, who found the shells, told the Observer: “I was going to work at about 8 o’clock on Wednesday and I saw these objects on the verge of the new road on the estate. They must have dumped them there during the night because I am sure they were not there at 5 o’clock the previous evening.

“What I don’t understand is how I didn’t hear them being dumped. I notified the police, who sent in the bomb men.”

The shells will now be disposed of. “The riddle is where did they come from and who dumped them on a Chorleywood roadside,” said an officer.

[From the Watford Observer of September 17, 1965]

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