When a bomb washes up on the beach…

Audio and photos by Elizabeth Wheless

Motion graphic by Amelia Locklear

ANCHOR LEAD: The Outer Banks is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S. over the summer, but many tourists don’t know the storied history of the Outer Banks, including its past with bombs and bomb testing sites. Elizabeth Wheless reports.

ELIZABETH WHELESS: The Outer Banks of North Carolina has been used as a bombing test site for over 100 years. During World Wars I and II, practice bombs were dropped from planes in designated areas near Manns Harbor and Duck, North Carolina, to test a pilot’s accuracy and training.

Archivist Stuart Parks with the Outer Banks History Center says that evidence of such training is often found on the coast. 

STUART PARKS: “There’s a lot of ammunition that is flown around out here. And of course, everything lands in the ocean, that—that tends to stay there; nobody cleans it up. So every once in a while one of these things tends to wash up on shore.”

WHELESS: Dave Hallac is the Superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina. He says that in 1942, German U-boats destroyed over 400 freighters off the coast of the Outer Banks. This part of the ocean is now known to locals as “Torpedo Junction.”

DAVE HALLAC: “It’s not surprising because of that–with maybe torpedoes or other bombs that were either unexploded or in some cases used for training–that these things either wash up onto the beach or become uncovered because they were covered up by sand as the sand moves around.”

WHELESS: Hallac knows stories of unexploded ordnances and live bombs washing ashore. These objects are sometimes considered dangerous and need immediate attention. The most recent case of this was in October 2020 when visitors of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore discovered a bomb on the beach and called for help.

HALLAC: “The Navy determined because there was so much explosive likely in this bomb and because it was so old and sensitive to explosion, that they–that the safest way to deal with it was to detonate the bomb on site.”

WHELESS: Not all bombs are treated this way. Some found by locals are used as door stops or ash trays or even played around with. Parks says a couple came to the History Center with a live bomb and asked what to do with it.

PARKS: “I informed them as I carefully handed it back that it was a live round and they should take it to the police immediately to have it disposed of and they just laughed like ‘No it’s not gonna go up. We hit it with a hammer.’”

WHELESS: OBX local Stanley Beacham says that in his youth, he and his friends thought finding bombs was a sort of game. This excerpt is from an oral history provided by Parks.

STANLEY BEACHAM: “We would climb that Army tower after it was abandoned at night and drop these things and let them explode on the concrete.” 

WHELESS: Beacham quickly found out that playing with bombs was not a good idea.

BEACHAM: “You could throw it on the concrete, and it would bounce. My brother did that and set the Kitty Hawk Woods on fire. And I had a friend, one of them blew off, got two of his fingers. And I quit going up there. ”

WHELESS: Parks warns anyone, local or not, who finds a bomb or ordnance to immediately call the police.

PARKS: “​​If you find some ordnances best thing to do is keep yourself away from it; keep everybody away from it, call the authorities and they’ll handle it. They will disarm it or take it away somewhere that they can dispose of it properly.”

WHELESS: It is unknown how many bombs and ordnances are left on the Outer Banks. Parks says it’s one of the enduring mysteries of the area. For UNC Media Hub, I’m Elizabeth Wheless.