Danish bomb disposal officer writes farewell letter to her three-year-old son

Denmark’s only female bomb disposal technician, 32-year-old Hanne, has drafted a letter to her son in case she dies in the line of duty, she reveals in the DR documentary series Bomberydderne (The Bomb Disposers).

“Why is my self-fulfillment so important that my son might never know his mother?” Hanne asks in the series, grappling with the weight of her high-risk profession. While she finds it straightforward to address such a scenario with her husband—a fellow former soldier—she struggles to put her thoughts into words for their three-year-old, Erik.

As one of the country’s roughly 30 bomb disposal experts, Hanne is on 24/7 call to neutralise explosive threats across Denmark, from unstable chemicals at recycling centres to homemade bombs and wartime ammunition. The role demands precision under pressure, with errors carrying fatal consequences.

Hanne, the sole woman in the unit and only the second in Danish history, initially joined the military as a conscript before training as a sergeant. Inspired by an instructor’s stories of bomb disposal work, she pursued the 18-month ammunition clearance course—a programme with rigorous technical, safety, and psychological exams. She failed her first attempt, citing critical safety errors, but passed on her second try. “I would have kept going as long as there were instructors who saw potential in me,” she said.

Practical adjustments mark her daily work: the team added gender-segregated changing rooms at their Skive Barracks base, and Hanne had to figure out how to secure her hair inside the bulky bomb suit helmet. Yet she insists gender plays little role in the job. “The more specialised I’ve become, the less it matters that I’m a woman,” she said, though she acknowledges bringing a “softer, more sensitive” tone to the team.

Among her most demanding assignments was responding to a suspected homemade bomb in Odense, her first major callout with full emergency support from fire, police, and forensic units. “That’s when I thought: now I’m using everything I’ve learned,” she recalled. Each operation requires piecing together fragmented information—“like solving a puzzle”—with no standard procedure.

Now on maternity leave with her second child, Hanne plans to return to bomb disposal work, dismissing concerns about risk. “I know what I’m doing,” she said. She frames her role as a necessity for public safety, comparing it to firefighters extinguishing a blaze in her own home. Though she resists the term, she hopes to set an example for her children: “You should always pursue what you want. Don’t let fear hold you back.”