HMS Grimsby Clears D-Day Ordnance Off French Coast

The Royal Navy's HMS Grimsby has helped clear unexploded D-Day bombs and mines off the coast of France.

The Faslane-based minehunter joined NATO allies in the Seine Bay, off the coast of Le Havre in northern France, the Navy said.

Five thousand Allied warships mustered between the Cherbourg Peninsula and Le Havre in June 1944 to liberate France from the control of Nazi Germany.

The waters were heavily mined and bombed by both sides during the six years of conflict between 1939 and 1945, and wartime ordnance continues to be found.

HMS Grimsby and the NATO force located "several munitions" which were all detonated.

WATCH: HMS Grimsby detonates a piece of ordnance.

Lieutenant Commander Tom Gell, HMS Grimsby’s Commanding Officer, said: "The group is a potent minehunting force, at very high readiness to respond to any incident or threat that could emerge.

"This is being maintained even in the face of the [coronavirus] pandemic."

Earlier this month, HMS Grimsby helped locate 18 British wartime bombs and mines off the Norwegian coast.

The Navy said roughly one in three mines laid during World War Two remain unaccounted for.

Cover image: HMS Grimsby detonates an ordnance (Picture: Royal Navy).