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Bomb hero soldier is honoured by Queen
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard03.07.08
A soldier who risked his life to defuse a bomb which could have destroyed part of the East End is being honoured by the Queen at Buckingham Palace today.
Staff Sergeant Douglas Leak is being presented with the Queen's Gallantry Medal for dismantling the unstable 250kg German bomb on a building site in Bethnal Green.
The citation also commends the young father, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, for neutralising a record six bombs in a year, including one by the Dartford Crossing and one in Docklands, risking his life each time.
More than 100 residents had to be evacuated when the Second World War bomb was discovered by workmen building flats just off Roman Road last May.
Sgt Leak, later promoted to Staff Sgt, rushed to the scene from the Saffron Walden HQ of 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) and spent the next four days there, snatching just a few hours' sleep at a fire station.
After identifying the type of bomb and fuse, he spent nearly two days building banks of earth to protect surrounding homes, offices and a railway line in case it exploded.
Then, although the slightest friction could have detonated the bomb, he spent two hours drilling a hole in the fuse by hand and injecting a saline solution to jam the mechanism. Only then did he retreat 200 metres behind the defensive walls and direct a colleague with a remotecontrol robot to make cuts in the bomb casing so the explosive could be steamed out.
But Sgt Leak was forced to approach the bomb again. "I noticed the explosive inside had started to heat up to the point where it was frying," he said. "That's dangerous. You don't know if it's going to get hot enough to detonate. I decided to leave it for 20 minutes and go back.
" That was the long walk. You have to really have a word with yourself.
"There was a 66 per cent chance of it going off and if it had there wouldn't have been much of me to bury. It would have caused horrendous destruction across 3km."
But the operation was a success and by 4am on day four the device had been disabled and Sgt Leak could go home to his wife Danielle and their 18-month-old twin sons Freddie and Albert in Bishop's Stortford.
The medal citation says Sgt Leak's "display of leadership and courage was of the highest order".
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I served with Douglas many years ago and am proud to have known him.
Well done Douglas and family
- Karen Jeffrey, Kilwinning, Scotland
