Cluster Bomb / Submunition event in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Kołobrzeg area, Poland on Mon 9th May 2022

At the beach in the eastern part of the Polish seaside town of Kołobrzeg (the so-called Podczelu), an action of divers-miners from the 12th Tarłowców Squadron took place recently. Together with the sappers from the 8th Battalion of Engineers from Dziwnów, they took care of the safety of sunbathers by catching and neutralizing cluster bombs at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. They have been in this area since before the Second World War. Modern armed conflicts leave behind traumas, human tragedies, and destruction. There are also a lot of misfires. Fortunately, they are more often neutralized rather than fought with their consequences. We know this because Poland is in the middle of the continent. Larger conflicts leave an imprint on us. The Second World War was undoubtedly the most destructive. We will never forget what the Nazis did to us, as well as the Soviet Union soldiers. These “reminders” only serve to confirm this. They still threaten us, even though many decades have passed since the most enduring armed conflict in modern times. Our sea zone is being ‘cleaned’ but the most recent action is almost unprecedented. Soldiers rescued as many as 560 hazardous post-war items from water during the two-day operation that took place in the second week. Apart from several hundred pieces shooting ammunition, soldiers also recovered 237 SD-1 cluster bombs as well as 37 PA type cluster bombs. Also, 30 AO-25 bombs. They were then moved to a training base to neutralize the unexploded bombs. We can only imagine the terrible consequences of Russia’s current actions.