Early on Friday 7th March 2025, a large unexploded WWII bomb was found near railway tracks in the Saint-Denis area of Paris, just 2.5km north of the Gare du Nord station.
The bomb was reportedly found two metres down at a building site where rail workers were constructing a new bridge over the railway lines. The ordnance discovered was reported to be a British 1,000lb (453kg) high explosive (HE) bomb.
Image source: @prefpolice
SNCF driver Fabie Villedieu shared an image of the bomb on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
All rail movement was suspended, including all 32 Eurostar services between London and Paris. Homes within a 500m radius of the bomb were evacuated, and several major roads were closed – resulting in traffic jams on 218km of roads in the Paris region.
It is not unusual to discover unexploded wartime bombs in areas like this. British and American bombers regularly targeted railyards in Paris and other cities to disrupt the German war effort.
Matthieu Chabanel, head of rail infrastructure management unit SNCF Reseau, told Agence France-Presse that the bomb’s size was ‘really quite exceptional’.
“We know that during WWII, the rail network was heavily bombed, especially here north of Paris where there were also many factories.” he said.
In April 1944, the railways of Saint Denis and Saint Ouen were targeted. It is reported that more than 2,000 bombs were dropped on Paris, notably the southern part of La Plaine Saint-Denis. The raid saw 670 people killed and 377 wounded. It was carried out by 270 RAF Arvo Lancaster and 22 Mosquito bombers.
Locations of bomb impacts in Paris established by the management of the technical services of the city’s roads, April 1944. Image source: Paris Archives, 50W 990
The unexploded bomb was reportedly moved into a hole by bomb disposal experts as part of the operation to defuse it. Once it was made safe, it was removed from site for disposal. The operation took 12 hours, and roads and rail services were resumed in the afternoon. Almost 500 trains had been cancelled by this time, impacting an estimate 600,000 people.
According to Christophe Pezron, who heads the Paris police laboratory that includes bomb disposal services – this is the fourth bomb that has been found in this area since 2019. The French Interior Ministry says that since the end of WWII, disposal teams have defused 700,000 air-dropped bombs and made safe nearly 50 million mines, shells and other explosive devices.
- February 2011 – Thousands evacuated from Paris suburb for disposal of WWII bomb: https://www.france24.com/en/20110206-paris-suburb-evacuated-disposal-world-war-ii-bomb-france-renault-factory-nazi-occupied
- February 2019 – WWII bomb causes Eurostar Paris disruption: https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2019/02/15/world-war-two-bomb-causes-eurostar-paris-disruption/
History of Allied Strategic Bombing in France and Paris
The vast majority of Allied bombing focus during WWII was on Germany – and German cities, towns, ports and industry bore the brunt of British and American attacks. Yet over one in every five bombs dropped by the Allies on continental Europe during WWII fell on France.
Although most of the raids were linked, directly or indirectly, to the Normandy landings – the Allies continuously bombed France from June 1940 till April 1945 – dropping some 600,000 tons of bombs on the country in total.
The Allied bombing of Paris was generally not well recorded/documented, especially when compared to the German Luftwaffe attacks of 1940. Most of the Allied bombing over the city occurred during 1943 and 1944. Before that there were only two major air raids over Paris: one on a factory in Chatou (a western suburb) in June 1940, and the other in March 1942 on the Renault plant on the Ile Séguin in the Seine. But in the following two years, the city was bombed repeatedly.
The city did not incur nearly as much damage as London during the Blitz, and by comparison was ‘spared’. Most of the bombing happened in the poorer districts to the north and east of the city, rather than in the more prosperous west. Much of the bombing was targeted at specific industrial or transport infrastructure, in order to hamper the German war effort. The aerial photograph below shows an example of a daylight bombing attack by American forces in the Courbevoire area of the city.
Aerial photograph taken from Fortresses of the 8th AAF Bomber command, December 31st, 1943. Depicts attack on CAM ball bearing plant in Paris. Image source: Imperial War Museum.
Details about the British 1,000lb HE Bomb
The bomb reported to have been found in Paris was a 1,000lb British high explosive (approx. 450kg). During WWII, the British utilised both General Purpose (GP) and Medium Capacity (MC) aircraft bombs. The 1,000lb MC was developed in 1942, replacing the existing 1,000lb GP. The MC has a different tail design, and was built with a half inch thick wall. Both were made of cast steel. The MC variant measured approx. 184cm total length, with a bomb length of 133cm and body diameter of 45cm. Over 17,000 of these bombs were produced in 1943, increasing to 203,000 in 1944.
The explosive weight of the 1,000lb bomb was around 480lbs and the photograph below gives an indication of the size of the bomb (bottom left of image).
Armourers stand with British bombs for a comparison in size at the bomb stores at Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire – 1,000lb MC bomb shown to lower left. Image source: Imperial War Museum.
The British 1,000lb HE bomb had parallel sides with an ogival nose and a slight rear taper, similar in construction to US General Purpose bombs – see diagram below. This bomb was normally painted dark green with a red band around the nose and a light green band around the ogive of the base. They were often used against industrial and transportation targets, as well as military facilities. It is not therefore surprising that one was found on rail infrastructure close to one of Paris’s main stations.
Schematic diagram of a British 1,000lb High Explosive Bomb. Image source: Internal resource.
Research sources
- BBC News
- Sky News
- The Standard
- Imperial War Museum
- Royal Historical Society
- Parisianfields.com
