Squadron Leader Ted Costick: Bomb disposal officer who was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for bravery

Making safe the 750lb bomb called for every ounce of Flight Lieutenant Ted Costick’s ability to improvise. There was precious little equipment – and this was not Britain’s or the RAF’s war. The American-made piece of explosive ordnance lay precariously straddling two beds in a room on the sixth floor of the Venus Beach Hotel at the tourist resort of Famagusta in Cyprus, 66 miles from where Costick was based at RAF Akrotiri as Officer in Charge of the Explosives Servicing Flight of the RAF’s Weapons Engineering Squadron. With him was Chief Technician Fred Knox, Akrotiri’s senior NCO in charge of bomb disposal.

It was 27 July 1974, and the two men and the teams they led suddenly had a whole island’s worth of newly-dropped UXBs to fix. This particular bomb, delivered by a Turkish Super Sabre or Starfighter jet, had been intended to explode in the Cypriot National Guard camp at the end of Famagusta’s seafront, and was the trickiest of them all.

The Guard, despite having seized control of the island on behalf of the military government in Athens, had not a man among them who knew how to make safe an unexploded bomb. With Turkish forces invading in retaliation for the Greek coup, and thousands of civilians fleeing, they turned to the Akrotiri base that Britain had retained permanently since Cyprus’s independence in 1960, and begged the RAF’s help.

The first week of Greek-Turkish hostilities – which would be followed by a second wave two weeks later, stranding Famagusta on the line that to this day divides Cyprus – had pockmarked the area with such items as a pod of 2.75in rockets, and another 750lb bomb, its case split, that had slammed into the ground beneath a church. Already, it was reckoned, the conflict had killed about 50 people, including tourists, in this part of the island.

As Costick worked, gunshots were still erupting, despite a United Nations ceasefire. The bomb was, the incident report says, “in a highly dangerous state”. Costick, “regardless of the risk to his life… began to extract the fuse. Although he is fully trained in Explosive Ordnance Disposal techniques he was not familiar with the type of fuse on this bomb. Nevertheless by skill and brilliant improvisation he safely extracted the fuse of the bomb in a calm and efficient manner and thus prevented considerable extra damage to property and danger to personnel.”

The fuse was, Costick’s colleagues, recalled, “susceptible to jarring. It was successfully defused by Flt Lt Ted Costick and Fred Knox using the fuse extractor MkV colloquially known as IGOL.”

That acronym stands for “I Go On Living.” In this case, in a confined space high off the ground, even the Mk V’s long wire that could spin the fuse out remotely would not have saved Costick and Knox had the bomb gone off. Once it was made safe, they lowered it by block and tackle from a window, to be dumped eventually at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Costick’s next task was to take a team 40 miles westwards to clear Nicosia international airport. In seven days with little rest, as battle around this important target still raged, he and his men disposed of two unexploded 750-pounders, 10 2.75in rockets, and many other explosive objects.

Conditions, it is officially noted, were “arduous and hazardous, often under the menace of the opposing guns of the Turkish Army and the National Guard”.

For his “devotion to duty and the exemplary manner in which he performed his hazardous duties”, bringing “great credit to the Service..in the finest traditions of the Royal Air Force” Costick was decorated with the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

His colleague Knox had meanwhile donned flippers to defuse a bomb 23 ft under water in the harbour at Paphos at the other end of the island. Knox, who was awarded the British Empire Medal, would later become chairman of the RAF Bomb Disposal Association, which at Eden Camp Museum, North Yorkshire has a memorial for members killed doing their duty.

Afterwards Costick was posted back to Britain and went on to be the RAF’s man in charge of telling the United States Air Force what it could and could not do while stationed on British soil. His time as Liaison Officer for Armament at the USAF’s Headquarters Third Air Force at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, between 1975 and 1983 encompassed the arrival and installation of cruise and Pershing II missiles, and he was promoted Squadron Leader.

His US air force munitions counterparts recalled: “Ted Costick was a familiar figure as he regularly visited USAF Ammo areas, units, and operations. Those working in storage in those days frequently called on him for advice ... All Ammo/EOD operations … had to comply with RAF/MoD guidance. Ted was the go-to and arbiter of all matters with regard to … facility siting and licensing, waivers, and application of explosive safety rules in the UK.”

The US Ammo Chiefs Association, which made Costick an honorary member, credits him with securing on its behalf 275 aircraft shelters, 1,500 Ammo storage structures, the renovation of RAF Welford in Berkshire, the bed-down of ground-launched cruise missiles, and the means, by re-licensing, to maximise US storage facilities in Britain. The US staff appreciated Costick’s commonsense approach: “ His studied guidance made life much easier for Ammo Chiefs in the UK.”

Costick, the son of RAF Wing Commander George Costick, was educated at Winchester College in Hampshire. He joined up in 1945 as an armament fitter in the 51st Entry of RAF Aircraft Apprentices, and in the service distinguished himself with his prowess at athletics, especially running.

He married in 1955, and he and his wife had two daughters. The family accompanied him on his postings, including Cyprus. After retirement he lived in Norfolk. His wife and daughters survive him.

Edward Harold Costick, bomb disposal officer: born Watford 5 October 1928; Queen’s Gallantry Medal (1975); married 1955 (two daughters); died Norfolk 16 August 2015.