A wartime bomb unearthed in Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay neighbourhood was “very likely” to have been dropped by the US military on April 2, 1945, with its explosive power “practically intact” because of high production standards, experts have said.
The 1,000lb (454kg) bomb that included 227kg of TNT explosives was found on Friday at a construction site, resulting in the evacuation of 6,000 residents overnight. The bomb was successfully defused on Saturday morning after a nine-hour effort.
Professor Kwong Chi-man, a military historian at Baptist University, said records showed that the US Army Air Forces dispatched 24 bomber planes on a raid targeting Taikoo Dockyard on April 2, 1945, each carrying six 1,000lb bombs.
“Using ArcGIS to georeference photographs taken during the mission by the 531st Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) of the 380th Group, the analysis shows that this squadron’s bombs were dropped exactly over the Pan Hoi Street area, which at the time was the Taikoo Sugar Refinery,” Kwong said.
“Therefore, the bomb discovered is very likely a 1,000lb M65 bomb dropped by the 531st Squadron.”
ArcGIS is a geospatial platform for mapping and analysis.
