Plymouth bomb: device to be detonated tonight or tomorrow, say police – as it happened

Second world war bomb now in the water by Plymouth after its removal from a garden

The large Naval Dockyard at Devonport and the presence of the Air Force and Army in the city made it a prime target for Hitler's Luftwaffe. The people of Plymouth experienced their first air raid alert at 12.45am on 30 June 1940.

Between July 1940 and April 1944, the people of Plymouth experienced 602 alerts and 59 bombing raids, resulting in the deaths of 1174 civilians. More than 4,000 properties were destroyed with a further 18,000 damaged.