The Paratrooper Bomb Disposal Experts of the 8th "Folgore" Sappers Neutralize a 500-Pound Bomb in Legnago

A 500-pound aerial bomb, approximately 225 kg of explosives dating back to the Second World War, was neutralized yesterday in Legnago (VR) by the bomb disposal experts of the 8th Paratrooper Sappers Regiment of the "Folgore" Brigade. The operation, concluded in the early afternoon, is part of the land reclamation activities coordinated by the Prefecture of Verona to ensure the safety of the population.

During the morning, the Chief of Staff of the Army, General of the Army Corps Carmine Masiello, met with the soldiers engaged in the delicate procedures of securing the device. His presence on site aimed to emphasize the strategic value of these activities for national security and the concrete closeness of the Armed Forces to the men and women who operate daily in high-risk contexts.

The specialists of the 8th Regiment, under the direction of the Northern Territorial Command of Padua and in close coordination with the Prefecture of Verona and local authorities, first secured the bomb and then proceeded to remove the two fuses, nose and tail. Once this phase, one of the most critical of the intervention, was completed, the device was transferred to a quarry in the Municipality of Albaredo d'Adige (VR), where it was detonated according to the prescribed procedures.

To ensure the safe conduct of the operations, extraordinary precautionary measures were adopted: about 800 residents in the surrounding area were temporarily evacuated, and road traffic on the ordinary road network was suspended until the completion of the activities. To reduce the extent of the risk area, a containment structure, the so-called "expansion chamber," was built, which allowed minimizing the inconvenience for the population and local activities.

The intervention in Legnago is part of a particularly intense operational framework for the paratrooper bomb disposal experts of the 8th. In 2025 alone, the Regiment conducted about 450 reclamation operations, with over 900 war devices of various types and calibers destroyed in the provinces under its jurisdiction. In the Province of Verona alone, approximately 350 devices were neutralized, including four aerial bombs similar to the one found in recent hours.

The work of the bomb disposal experts of the 8th Paratrooper Sappers Regiment represents one of the less visible but most concrete faces of the Italian Army: a silent, highly specialized commitment that continues to remove the still dangerous traces of past conflicts, transforming each reclamation into a direct investment in the safety of local communities and the future of the territory.