UXO City Guides

Explore the risk of encountering UXO across a range of UK cities and towns

All of the projects that 1st Line Defence work on start with a UXO Risk Assessment, and it is essential that the risk is always properly investigated and fully qualified.

Within the UK, UXO contamination broadly derives from two main sources – air-delivered bombs dropped by the German military during WWI and WWII, and items such as land service ammunition (LSA) which have ended up buried as a result of our own military activity (on airfields, training ranges, ordnance manufacturing sites, army camps etc.).

Much of the German bombing was focused on the UK’s towns and cities, and few escaped entirely unaffected. We have put together a number of WWII histories/guides for some of our most heavily bombed urban areas.

The guides include statistics on the amount of ordnance dropped, they investigate the main targets and the heaviest raids, present interesting photographs, maps and plans showing bombing and bomb damage – and provide some examples of recent UXO discoveries.

They demonstrate the type of information that we consider in our Preliminary UXO Risk Assessments and Detailed UXO Risk Assessments, and provide useful background information for clients considering projects in new areas. If you require more information or would like to see other cities covered, contact us and we will try our best to help.

You can use the map to browse the guides, or scroll through the links below.