Wartime 'practice' bomb from plane blew crater more than 1m deep in Herne Bay, Auckland street

Small "practice" bombs were dropped, seemingly by accident, on two Auckland suburbs in 1943. Photo / Herald file

Aucklanders were alarmed in the middle of World War II when "small" bombs fell from a plane on a summer Saturday afternoon.

Two suburbs, Birkenhead and Herne Bay, on opposite sides of the Waitematā Harbour, were hit by the seemingly accidental bombing in quick succession about 3pm on December 11, 1943.

No one was injured by the so-called "practice" bombs. Homes were narrowly missed but none was damaged. However, the bombs, which fell on to roadways, blew craters through the surface and threw debris into the air.

Witnesses likened the explosion they heard to the sound of a car backfiring.

Smoke hung in the air for some time afterwards.

At Argyle St in Herne Bay the hole was more than a metre deep.

The Air Force said the bomb from a plane which blew a crater more than a metre deep in Argyle St, Herne Bay, Auckland in 1943 was a practice bomb. Photo / Google

Some residents of the street were unaware of the incident, but one described hearing a screeching sound as the bomb fell.

"It came slanting in over the house opposite mine and startled that family quite a bit. They were sitting on the front lawn," the man told the Herald.

He said it was fortunate the bomb fell on the road and not on to a house or someone's garden.

Royal New Zealand Air Force staff filled in the hole and removed pieces of the bomb's casing the day after it fell.

In Birkenhead, a bus was stopped until the smoke cleared from where the bomb hit Hauraki St. A piece of the bomb casing was handed to the police.

The Air Force said they were practice bombs. They contained a light explosive charge, designed mainly to release smoke and mark the fall of the bombs.

Herald article on the Herne Bay practice bomb