It had thousands of tonnes of explosives left over from the Second World War. So, 70 years ago this week, the Royal Navy enacted an elegant solution: Use the explosives to blow the island to hell. To the Brits’ chagrin, the Germans then proceeded to spend two world wars using Heligoland as a fortress from which to attack the U.K. The island was the site of the first naval battle of the First World War, and the first major aerial battle of the Second World War. The British weren’t the only ones using the newly won peace after the Second World War in order to bomb evacuated islands into smithereens.

Source: National Post April 21, 2017 13:18 UTC