Boom.

Explosions. Cool.

Big explosions always tend to fascinate people, but it’s the history behind ‘Tallboy’, the bomb that exploded on Tuesday afternoon in a canal near the Polish port city of Swinoujscie, that makes this one interesting.

The Tallboy, also known as an ‘earthquake bomb’, was dropped by Britain during the Second World War, and would have weighed a cool 12 000 pounds (5 443 kilograms) at the time it was dropped by the Royal Air Force as the war drew to a close.

More from CNN:

The Polish navy attempted to defuse it Tuesday by deflagration, a method that involves heating an explosive until it burns, rather than detonating it, a spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Defense told CNN.

But the bomb exploded in the canal, sending up a huge plume of water…

The ministry spokesperson told CNN that no injuries or damages were reported, adding: “Every step of operation was under control.”

Thankfully for those who enjoy a good explosion, cameras were on hand to capture the moment from multiple angles:

You can see some additional footage here:

#Tallboy, the largest unexploded #WWII bomb detonated💣
–
Lt Cmdr G.Lewandowski, 8th Coastal Defence Flotilla: The deflagration process turned into detonation. The object can be considered neutralised, it will not pose any more threat to the Szczecin-Swinoujscie shipping channel. pic.twitter.com/xHkRzAaONn

— Poland MOD 🇵🇱 (@Poland_MOD) October 14, 2020

Yes, Lt Cmdr G.Lewandowski, I agree – the object is now “neutralised”.

A touch more background before we part ways:

Nazi-occupied Poland suffered repeated bombing from Allied planes throughout World War II, leaving many cities devastated.

The RAF sent several Lancaster bombers from its so-called “Dambusters” squadron to drop 12 Tallboys on the Lützow in April 1945, but one failed to detonate.

That’s now been taken care of.

Good times.

[source:cnn]