11/10/2025
For the Brits and this is FROM HM Coastguard Southend On Sea: As we are now moving into winter months where we will encounter regular weather events in terms of strong winds / storms it is a timely reminder that we have moved into a season where ‘ordnance’ incidents can become more frequent for our HM Coastguard Southend team.
Ordnance can get washed up or uncovered in our local area offshore or close to beaches due to such weather stirring up the seabed.
The Southend and Thames Estuary area was often used by bomber aircraft in WWII as a dumping ground for their bomb loads during the war if their primary target was not possible to hit on the way to/back from London with the Thames Estuary used as a navigation waypoint up into London City / London Docks.
Anti aircraft sites were also dotted along our coastline, so anti aircraft shells are quite common. Also, coupled with a MOD base and testing range that has been based at Shoeburyness and Foulness for over 150 years, all types of unexploded military ordnance can and does wash up on the shore/offshore – it comes in different shapes and sizes and isn’t always easy to spot.
Southend Coastguard has dealt with 100s of such items down the years items of various types of ordnance, some which needed to be detonated by our Army / Navy EOD teams in situ, some stable enough to be taken away for destruction and some which were now deemed harmless. Many were also not ordnance at all and even those trained to spot the tell tale signs are not always able to confirm and that’s when we call our Army and Navy EODs colleagues in to investigate.
Because these items can be so dangerous, if you ever see something suspicious or out of the ordinary on the beach or in the sea, do not touch it, move it or take it home.
Note: The picture attached to this post is just an ‘example’ of what you might find across our UK coastline.
