Herald reporter Rebecca Ricks joins Plymouth’s Royal Navy bomb disposal squad as they enter what promises to be another action-packed year

OLYMPIC fever will sweep the nation in just a matter of months and among those preparing for the huge security effort are Plymouth's Royal Navy clearance divers.

In June a team of the elite divers will be sent to Weymouth amid concerns for the safety of those competing in water-based and sailing events.

Usually, home for Southern Diving Unit One is Devonport Naval Base. The unit disposes of mines, unexploded bombs, hand grenades and many other explosive devices.

The team of 33 highly skilled clearance operatives are constantly on call 365-days-a-year 24-hours-a-day and the Olympics is likely to make their already difficult job harder.

"It is a big thing for us at the moment, in June we have 14 people going to Weymouth for the Olympic effort," explained Lieutenant Lee Beeching, Office in Charge of SDU1.

"They will be swimming the harbour regularly to ensure there's nothing untoward. It is a massive commitment for us and the team should be back in September."

Lt Beeching will be deploying to Afghanistan in September to support the war effort as a bomb disposal expert.

He said: "The guys on the ground are in more danger than me as they are the ones patrolling and searching for the bombs whereas when I'm working I know there is a bomb there."

He explained that when one of the divers are tasked with disposing of a device, whether it's on land or at sea, their minds are riddled with questions.

"We not only have to work out how to dispose of it, we have to ask who is the victim? Who is the perpetrator? And what do they want me to do? It's continuous, they change how they do it – so we have to change how we do it, it's a constant game of chess."

The Navy divers can be called out to deal with anything from an Improvised Explosive Device to a hand grenade or even old World War Two mines. Calls can come to the unit as often as twice-a-day but on average they attend two shouts a week.

Some of the devices they deal with seemed to be relatively harmless items such as safety flares and old Second World War incendiaries. But as I learnt appearances are deceptive.

"We always tell people not to touch anything that looks like it could be dangerous because we don't even know what we are dealing with until we get there," Lt Beeching explains.

"What we don't want is for people see an old World War II incendiary and pick it up thinking it's relatively harmless because their Grandad may have told them how the Germans dropped them on houses and they would burn down.

"When the Germans realised people were picking them up and throwing them away they began attaching a small explosive on the end which would result in people losing hands or arms when they picked them up – they really are dangerous."

In February this year the team were behind the controlled explosion of a 70-year-old unexploded bomb which brought chaos to Plymouth city centre. The Navy divers took the bomb out to sea where it was safely and successfully detonated.

Since last April the divers have attended almost 100 tasks. They must be dispatched for Counter Munitions Disposal (explosives such as mortars and flares) within 30 minutes and 10 minutes for IEDs.

They also provide Explosive Ordinance Device Fleet Protection for the Royal Navy's ships and must be ready to move within 24 hours.

SDU1, one of two Navy diving units, cover a vast area of the UK including down to Land's End, Swanage, Anglesey and Bristol including the Scilly Isles and Channel Islands.

While I was with SDU1 the team showed their range of capabilities as they were tasked to complete some engineering work on HMS Monmouth.

"They had a leak so we fitted some blanks (boards) so they could repair the leak internally, once they had done that we were able to remove them," explains PO diver Mac McPherson who has been a diver since 1993.

He added: "There are different sides to the job from removing blanks up to fitting connections on submarines.

"I like the diving side and the bomb disposal side of it. It's a challenge. We put that suit on and we go down that road to do something about it. It's making a difference."

The troubles in Northern Ireland taught the Royal Navy clearance experts a great deal on the disposal of devices.

Chief Diver, Mike Kasapi, who is due to leave the unit for a post training the future divers of SDU1, said: "We are probably the first or second best in the world and that's because we learnt so much in Northern Ireland.

"The difference now is in Ireland we were gathering forensic evidence for prosecutions but in Afghanistan we simply dispose of the bomb."

As I and everyone else in the City leave to head home each night, one officer and one junior rating remain on duty at all times simply waiting for their next shout.