As you might know, Malta holds a very important place in the history of EOD. Between 1940 and 43 over 15,000 tonnes of bombs fell on an island merely 27 km long and 14km wide. At one point it was technically the 'most bombed place on earth'. It is said that about 15% of those bombs did not detonate. The EOD ('UXB') team on the island during the war disposed of more than 7,000 bombs in two years with a team never exceeding one or two officers and 16 NCOs and sappers.

Over the past few months, my reenactment group has been restoring and researching bomb disposal in Malta during the war, which is very interesting and has affected Royal Engineers' bomb disposal in general greatly. I will attach some pictures of the original equipment below as well as a link to an article we wrote for anyone that wants to know more!

https://battlefrontmalta.com/royal-engineers-bomb-disposal-malta/

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Malta EOD (UXB disposal) German 500kg bomb

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Typical German Fuze (type 25 'B')

Fuze extractor

https://preview.redd.it/z6li5pomanx81.jpg?width=1620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=181091ba6375831f4f830a647b9c111208cdb182

Stevens stopper (mk II)

BD fuze discharger

https://preview.redd.it/dy3innpmanx81.jpg?width=1620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=fd7f91013dd656a80147373108e7dc6a2d85d5d3

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Lt. Carroll and Malta bomb-disposal company, 1941