Emily Chan
In 2019, workers in a potato chip factory in Hong Kong discovered that a shipment of potatoes from France contained a German hand grenade that dated back to World War I.
The object was about the same size and shape as a potato, so it easily blended in with the rest of the muddy vegetables.
The hand grenade was detected in potato-processing machines at the Calbee Four Seas Company factory in Hong Kong, China. It was about three inches wide, weighed around two pounds, and was thought to be in a potentially unstable condition.
“We identified it as a German-made weapon believed to have been used during the First World War,” said Wong Ho-hon, the assistant district commander from the Hong Kong Police Force.
“It was likely to have been shipped in from France with the batches of potatoes because we found it covered in mud and dirt.”
The bomb was likely buried on a French battlefield that later became a potato farm. Officers with the Hong Kong Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau detonated the grenade outdoors at the factory site. They put it into a hole in the road and sprayed it with a high-pressure water jet to safely trigger an explosion.
According to the United States Navy, using strong water jets to set off bombs from a distance is a method that demolition experts have employed since the 1990s.
To detonate a bomb without triggering an explosion, powerful water jets are shot at exposed wires to break a critical circuit and render it inactive.
During World War I, infantry soldiers used many types of grenades. The spherical Hong Kong grenade appeared to have originated from Germany, even though German soldiers usually opted for the stick grenade at the time.
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