A father and son’s day out at the beach took an unusual turn when they uncovered a bomb.
James Crouch was with five-year-old Freddie in Reculver, near Minnis Bay, Kent when they came across the wartime Dambuster bouncing ‘bomb’.
The prototype barrel-shaped Vickers type 464 bomb – code named Upkeep – is believed to have been dropped by an RAF Lancaster plane.
It is believed it was dropped in the weeks before the epic 1943 night time raid in the heart of Nazi Germany on May 16 and 17.
The test runs were carried out by Guy Gibson and his 617 Squadron crews.
The Dambusters bomb found by Jams Crouch and son Freddie, four, in Minnis Bay, Kent
It is believed to have been dropped by Guy Gibson’s 617 Squadron on a test run for their famous 1943 mission
A ‘bouncing bomb’: The huge concrete filled bombs were used to destroy Hitler’s dams
This footage shows one of the test runs over Reculver in 1943, when aircrew tested the revolutionary weapons
Four-tonne ‘bombs’ such as the one found on the beach were filled with concrete and dropped during top-secret test runs in locations across Britain.
They landed in places including Wales, the Lake District and Kent, ahead of the Operation Chastise bombing mission by 19 Allied planes and 133 crew.
Dambusters: Only eleven of nineteen Lancaster bombers returned after operations against Nazi Germany (Pictured above, one of the heroic crews)
Mr Crouch said: ‘We went down there late this afternoon at about 5pm on the beach next to Reculver Drive.
‘We walked down there to do some crabbing, but we spotted this cylindrical shape that stood out among the small rocks.
‘It was mechanical and had obviously been there a long time because there were barnacles on it. We looked at it and thought it could be a bomb.
‘We went to speak to the Herne Bay Coastguard and the person we spoke to said he’d call someone to find out what it was.
‘By the time we left it had been covered up by the tide; so who knows what’s going to happen to it.
‘To me, it looked like a bomb, but I’m no expert. We went to a Dambusters exhibition at Herne Bay Museum this year and they had a replica.
‘So when we saw it we thought it could be a Dambusters bomb.
‘It’s amazing. It is great to find such a piece of history when you are out looking for crabs. It’s exciting.’
Coastguard officials were called after the father and son made the discovery in Reculver.
The bomb would have been dropped about 500 metres off the Kent coast as the crews honed their skills before launching their attack on Adolf Hitler’s dams in the Ruhr Valley.
Only 11 of the 19 bombers that flew off to attack the Möhne, Edersee and Sorpe dams returned back to base.
Dambusters expert Dr Hugh Hunt, a Reader in Engineering Dynamics & Vibration at the University of Cambridge hailed the discovery as ‘a piece of good British war history’.
The bomb was found by a father and son who were walking along the beach at Reculver near Minnis Bay
Dr Hunt said: ‘They did lots of testing around the county with these bombs filled with concrete because they could not use explosives.
‘If you go to the Imperial War Museum collection you will find things like that look like that but they still have the steel casing around the outside.
‘What has happened here is the steel has rusted away and you are left with the concrete.
‘Some would have been recovered immediately after the tests they did as they did not want anybody to find out about the mission.
‘In the years after the war it would have been hushed up. They did not do testing in places for very long because they did not want to spoil the surprise. They tested at night.
‘The idea was to test if they would bounce – they would bounce them towards the coast to make it easy to recover. It was all very top secret.
‘The tests done in the immediate weeks before May 16 were with Lancasters, so almost certainly this one was dropped by a Lancaster.
‘This is quite an important find. I hope it goes somewhere useful.’
A similar prototype Dambusters bomb sits outside the Petwood Hotel in Lincolnshire, which was once home to the of the legendary RAF 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron.
A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman said: ‘HM Coastguard is currently investigating reports of ordnance found at Reculver, Herne Bay.
At the moment the ordnance is covered by water but a Coastguard Rescue Team will be sent to investigate at the next low water, which is currently expected to be around 5pm today.’
The Dambusters: How bouncing bombs – and incredible flying by RAF pilots – flooded the Ruhr valley and delivered a crucial blow to the Nazi war machine
On May 16, 1943, 19 Lancaster bomber crews gathered at a remote RAF station in Lincolnshire for a mission of extraordinary daring – a night-time raid on three heavily defended dams deep in Germany’s industrial heartland.
The dams were heavily fortified and needed the innovative bouncing bomb – which bounced on the water over torpedo nets and sank before detonating.
To succeed, the raiders would have to fly across occupied Europe under heavy fire and then drop their bombs with awesome precision from a mere 60ft above the water.
19 Lancaster Bomber crews armed with Bouncing Bombs set off to attack several dams in Germany on May 16, 1943
The Eder Dam, pictured, was destroyed as part of Operation Chastise on the early hours of the morning on May 17, 1943
The Mohne and Eder Dams in the industrial heart of Germany were attacked and breached by mines dropped from specially modified Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron.
The Sorpe dam was was also attacked by by two aircraft and damaged.
A fourth dam, the Ennepe was reported as being attacked by a single aircraft (O-Orange), but with no damage.
Up to 1,600 people were estimated to have been killed by floodwaters and eight of the 19 aircraft dispatched failed to return with the loss of 53 aircrew and 3 taken prisoner of war.
Wg Cdr Guy Gibson, Officer Commanding No. 617 Sqn, is awarded the VC for his part in leading the attack.
The raid, orchestrated by Guy Gibson and the RAF’s 617 ‘Dambuster’ Squadron, was seen as a major victory for the British, and Wing Commander Gibson is recognised as one of the war’s most revered heroes.
Their success was immortalised in the classic 1955 film The Dambusters, its thrilling theme tune and gung-ho script evoking the best of British derring-do.
Eight of the bomber crews were lost while a further three were forced to turn back. Of the 133 men sent out, 53 were killed and three were taken prisoner by the Nazis
The astonishing interactive map that shows EVERY German bomb dropped on London during WW2 Blitz
If you’ve ever wondered how close London’s landmarks came to being blown up in the Blitz, a new interactive map has the answer.
The Bomb Sight project allows people to zoom in on a map of the capital to see the damage inflicted during the heaviest period of bombing by German planes.
It was created by a collaboration between Dr Catherine Jones of the University of Portsmouth and the The National Archives, and funded by the charity JISC.
Try the interactive map below
The site can tell people exactly when their area was hit, and even show photos from the period.
‘The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941,’ the team say on their site.
‘Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students wanting to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.
‘We have combined the location of each of the falling bombs over an 8 month period of the London Blitz together with geo-located photographs from the Imperial War Museum and Geo-located Memories from the BBC WW2 People’s war archive.
The Bomb Sight is using the Bomb Census Map.
The maps are part of an extensive array of material collected during the Bomb Census Survey 1940 to 1945, organised by the Ministry of Home Security, and are held in The National Archive.
Users can manipulate the statistics and see different data, ranging from the entire census to only those bombs dropped.
‘You can explore statistics for different areas and see how many bombs fell in different wards and boroughs in London as well as read memories of Londoners contributed to the BBC WW2 People’s War and images from the Imperial War Museum to allow you to visualise what it was like in London at such a difficult time.’
The team has also created a mobile phone version that overlays bomb information onto a live video feed taken from the phone’s camera, and using GPS to pinpoint the location.
‘The augmented reality view shows you markers hovering over where bombs fell, scaled to show closer locations with larger markers and smaller ones for those further away,’ the developers say.