‘They came, they saw, they blew up, they left’

The bombs went off in Watson Lake this week, when staff from the Department of National Defence arrived in the town on the B.C./Yukon border to inspect a pair of Second World War explosive devices.

The bombs went off in Watson Lake this week, when staff from the Department of National Defence arrived in the town on the B.C./Yukon border to inspect a pair of Second World War explosive devices. The unexploded bombs were found last week during an excavation near the Watson Lake airport.

Contractors found the American bombs while digging up dirt to be used for infill at another site. 

The bombs were seized by the RCMP, who then contacted the Department of National Defence (DND). Their staff arrived earlier this week.

“They came, they saw, they blew up, they left,” said Cpl. Tom Howell of the Watson Lake detachment.

But blowing them up was harder than expected because the dummy bombs didn’t actually contain any explosives, Howell explained.

The defence staff told the corporal the bombs were likely used for testing and during training exercises for American Armed Forces posted through the North during the war.

Once staff from DND had determined there was no way the test bombs would blow up on their own, they wrapped the dummies in charge cords in order to crack them open and show they were not live devices.

The fractured bombs went back to Cold Lake with the Defence staff, Howell said.

Now staff are expected from the Legacy Sites Program, an office within the DND which surveys sites where unexploded devices have been found. They will determine if the site can be safely used by the public or if it must be deemed a “legacy site.”

Howell said the legacy team is expected by next week.

“The U.S. Army was infamous for just leaving stuff behind,” Howell said of the find.

Coincidentally, a wrecked B-26 Marauder was also found in Watson Lake recently. It came to the town’s attention when an Alberta family arrived and began pulling the plane from the lake, where it rested since crash-landing in the early 1940s.

The Jasman family only got as far as getting the fuselage out of the water before the RCMP arrived on the scene and ordered them to stop.

The wreckage is protected by the Yukon Heritage Resources Act, and as such cannot be touched without permission from the Department of Tourism and Culture.

The two Jasman brothers have been ordered to return to Watson Lake to appear in court on July 14, but no formal charges have been laid against them.