A Short History of EOD 

 

Among the many developments to come out of the World War II experience, the establishment of a bomb disposal organization is one of the more interesting. Until then, the Army had no bomb disposal apparatus. The seeds of Army bomb disposal were planted out of the necessity of World War II and grew into an organization that lasts until this day.
     As Europe was engulfed in war, the United States watched and planned for the inevitable day when it too would be dragged into the carnage. The handling of unexploded bombs, known at the time as UXB, was one of the most challenging problems. Before the war there was no method or organization to deal with UXB. It was a small problem usually handled by engineer squads that detonated UXB where found. Pre-World War II ordnance was simplistic in design and posed little hazard to people when it failed to detonate. As modern technology was applied to ordnance design, the task took on a higher level of hazard. Delay and anti-tamper fuzing added new complications that could only be handled by a dedicated organization specially trained in the mission of bomb disposal.
     The birth of modern bomb disposal dates to the Battle of Britain in 1940. As the German Luftwaffe blitzed English cities, citizens were killed and wounded in increasing numbers by UXB. Some of these UXB were duds but many had delay fuzing designed to detonate hours later, creating the effect of a twenty-four hour bombing campaign. At first, untrained British engineers took on the task of bomb disposal. The casualty rate was high and the need for specialized training soon became obvious.