A NAVY officer from Malvern who sat astride an unexploded Nazi bomb for three hours while he worked to defuse it has been given a Queen’s Commendation for his bravery.

Lieutenant Commander Richard Talbot was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for his courage and calm-headedness in neutralising two German Second World War bombs discovered in a busy city centre.

The 33-year-old Royal Navy Officer was called into action on two separate occasions when the potentially deadly devices were uncovered by workmen on a building site in Plymouth.

The explosives disposal expert, who is based at the Devonport Naval Base in the city, was first called upon on November 11 – Armistice Day – 2010 to defuse a three-foot long Nazi SD70 bomb weighing some 70kg and packed with enough power to level a detached house.

As emergency services evacuated hundreds of people from homes and businesses in the area, Lt Comm Talbot had to straddle the bomb and spend three painstaking hours using a hand drill to pierce its metal casing and “immunise”

its fuse.

With the bomb stabilised, Lt Comm Talbot and his team were then able to move it to the coast under police escort, and it was then taken to a disposal site beyond the Plymouth Breakwater and detonated safely underwater.

He was called into action again on February 23, 2011 when a similar unexploded bomb was discovered on the same site, by the same digger driver.

He again carried out the fuse immunisation procedure, allowing the bomb to be safely detonated at sea.

Lt Comm Talbot’s citation for the commendation states: “In both instances his courage and professionalism have been of the highest order, in a display of skill, gallantry and consummate professionalism.”

The former Dyson Perrins student admitted the hands-on work presented an element of danger, but said his team’s training meant they were well-equipped to deal with the situations.

He added: “Walking down to it and knowing you have to do that procedure is when you hope everything goes to plan.”