24 Self-Igniting Phosphorus Grenades Found in Suffolk Field
A cache of 24No. Self-Igniting Phosphorus (SIP) Grenades found in a field at Sibton in Suffolk has been destroyed in a controlled explosion by an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team.
The devices, a favoured weapon of the Home Guard during WWII, are glass bottles filled with a crude mixture of white phosphorus and benzene, a filling extremely sensitive when exposed to air. They were designed to be deployed as an emergency anti-tank device when the threat of a German invasion loomed large early in the war.
They are invariably found by the dozen and often in seemingly random locations, with the Home Guard notoriously liberal in their storage and disposal of such items.
A 2ft deep trench was constructed by the EOD team into which the grenades were placed before being safely destroyed.
