The LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier and the 1940 World’s Fair Bombing That Inspired It

DPW 5666: LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Conveyor, built by the Dept of Public Works for the Police Department Bomb Squad, September 1, 1942. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

July 4th, 1941 - Detective Joseph J. Lynch of the NYPD Bomb & Forgery Squad was at his Bronx home with his family, but on call, when the phone rang. A suspicious bag had been found at the World’s Fair. An electrician noticed it the previous day in a ventilation room of the British Pavilion and assumed it belonged to another worker. When he saw it again on the 4th he picked it up and brought it to his supervisor’s office. Hearing a ticking noise coming from it they alerted police officers assigned to the Fair. The officers picked up the bag and brought it to an empty area behind the Polish Pavillion.

NYPD_d_0807-01: Two views of bomb case similar to the one that exploded at the World’s Fair, 1941. #1-Inside of bomb case showing clock. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. Although this bomb is not the bomb that exploded at the World’s Fair, it is a replica constructed by Lt. James A. Pyke.

The lack of urgency is surprising, as an operator at the Pavilion had received a bomb threat earlier that week, but most bomb calls were hoaxes. Extra officers assigned to the Pavillion had done security sweeps but found nothing. Det. Lynch told his wife he would be back for dinner, borrowed his sister’s car and picked up his partner Det. Ferdinand A. Socha in Greenpoint on the way to Queens. The Bomb Squad attracted intelligent men, Lynch had graduated from Fordham University and had worked as a pharmacist but joined the NYPD for the job security. Freddie Socha had studied medicine before joining.

NYPD Emergency Service Unit 21 was first on the scene, and they had secured the area, a ring of officers standing at what they thought was a safe distance. Detectives Lynch and Socha approached the bag wearing nothing but their business suits, as protective clothing had not yet been invented. Kneeling on the ground Det. Socha cut a small opening into the case with a pen knife so Lynch could peer inside. What he saw would have been several sticks of dynamite attached to a clock. Lynch was heard to say, “It’s the business” and then the bomb detonated.

NYPD_es_1919b: Bomb explosion, Polish building at World’s Fair, July 4, 1940. Emergency Squad #21. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

NYPD_23139a: Bomb found in British Pavilion exploded at World’s Fair building killing Det. Lynch and Det. Socha of the Bomb Sqd., 110th Sqd., case #84 and Det. Wrage, Hom. Sqd. Photograph by Ahlstrom #1398, 5:40 p.m., July 4, 1940. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

The blast carved a huge hole in the ground and blew Lynch and Socha several yards backward. They must have died instantly, the medical examiner’s report describes gruesome injuries, their bodies torn apart by the blast. Detectives William Federer and Joseph Gallagher, who had approached closer to relay information, were severely injured in the blast along with Detective Martin Schuchman. Patrolman Emil Vyskocil had turned to tell bystanders to keep back and suffered serious injuries to his back and legs. The investigation concluded that there were no projectiles in the device, but that dirt and rocks, along with metal from the clock, acted as shrapnel. Another eight officers were injured in the explosion.

NYPD_d_496b: Detective Joseph Lynch, killed in World’s Fair bombing, July 4, 1940. Photos for 18th division. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

NYPD_d_496a: Detective Ferdinand Socha, killed in World’s Fair bombing, July 4, 1940. Photos for 18th division. NYPD Photo Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. 

Reward offered for information leading to the capture of the World’s Fair bomber, printed in the NYPD magazine Spring 3100, August 1940. NYC Municipal Library. 

The clouds of war were already hanging over the Fair. America had not yet entered World War II, as Pearl Harbor was still eighteen months away, but the US was sending Britain weapons for its fight against the Nazis. Timing the explosion for the 4th of July, in the British Pavillion, led investigators to immediately suspect a German sympathizer, possibly a member of the German-American Bund. The Bund had held a pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden a few months earlier. Communists, the Irish Republican Army and the extremist Christian Front were also possible suspects. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia rushed back from a holiday to visit the scene and reassure New Yorkers. He put 1,500 officers on the case, and the next day police raided the Bund’s offices and arrested former member Caesar Kroger. Despite some evidence that he was plotting attacks, police could not tie him to the case. Without solid leads, the City offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, a tremendous amount of money in 1940, and the Detectives’ Endowment Association added another $1,000.

Mayor LaGuardia was deeply disturbed by the incident. He was already worried about the war reaching New York, and death and injury of so many officers was unprecedented. He summoned Lt. James A. Pyke, Commanding Officer of the Bomb Squad, to City Hall and said that such a thing could never happen again. They discussed ways to safely transport bombs away from civilian areas to where they could be detonated in controlled explosions. Pyke set to work designing a bomb transporter.

DPW_2584: Department of Public Works workers weaving the basket for holding “infernal machines,” December 10, 1940. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

DPW_2612: Interior of Explosion Chamber of the LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, Brooklyn Bridge Mechanical Shop, December 19, 1940. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The first LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier (during testing the trucks were referred to as “Bomb Carriers” although later “Bomb Conveyors” was also used) was built by the Engineering Bureau of the Police Department from an old truck bed covered with a hut of blasting mats. Blasting mats had been in use in the mining industry and during the construction of the IRT subway—the NYPD wove theirs from steel elevator cable. It was like a wicker basket made of steel and an inner envelope of steel mats held the bombs. It was tested on September 30, 1940, in an ash dump near Avenue U and East 76th Street in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn. Three explosions of increasing size stress-tested it: 1) two half-pound sticks of dynamite, 2) ten half-pound sticks, and 3) twenty-five half-pound sticks. The blasts were contained to the NYPD’s satisfaction. Blast gases would dissipate out of gaps between the cables, but the full force of the blast and any shrapnel would be contained.

FHL_2017: The second test model of the LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, during field tests, 1941. Photograph by Det. Joseph Prefer, NYPD. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

FHL_2011: The second LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, nicknamed “Big Bertha,” during field tests, April 1941. Photograph by Det. Joseph Prefer, NYPD. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Proof of concept in hand, Pyke and the NYPD engineers with the Department of Public Works built the 2nd LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier. It used a steel framework and sat on a separate trailer. Pyke said it resembled “a ‘49 Pioneer covered wagon.” This model had a door in the rear and officers would place the bomb inside a smaller basket and suspend it inside the carrier. They dubbed this creation “Big Bertha” and on April 12, 1941, they tested it. Attending these tests were Mayor LaGuardia, and Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine, along with other NYPD and FDNY officials, representatives from the US Secret Service, the DOJ, US Naval and US Army Intelligence, Army Ordnance, US Coast Guard and a whole host of police departments. The tests: three sticks of dynamite, 6 sticks of dynamite, 12 sticks of dynamite in a case similar to the World’s Fair bomb, and finally a pipe bomb of 14 sticks of dynamite. The initial tests damaged the inner container, but the outer container held. However, shrapnel from the pipe bomb significantly damaged the outer shell. A final test of 24 sticks of dynamite split one of the welds on the frame but was deemed a success.

FHL_2025: Test explosion inside the Second LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, April 12, 1941. This photo was taken during the test of a replica of the World’s Fair bomb. Photograph by Det. Joseph Prefer, NYPD. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

FHL_2022: The LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, showing damage after field tests, April 12, 1941. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

A conference was held at City Hall on May 13th to review the results of the tests and suggest improvements. The committee decided on the following changes:

  • To eliminate the bomb cradle inside the carrier as its steel could act as shrapnel in a blast;

  • To add another layer of cable mats as an “air cushion”;

  • To add a winch system to carry the bomb so that detectives would not need to enter the blast chamber, (in the final design this was constructed of wooden gears to reduce steel shrapnel that might penetrate the shell);

  • And to make a self-closing and locking outer door.

Blueprint for New “La Guardia-Pyke” Bomb Carriers for the Police Department, 1941. Mayor LaGuardia collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

DPW_4425: Welding a new steel frame for the LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier, September 8, 1941. Department of Public Works collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

A LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Conveyor, still in use in the early 1970s. Spring 3100, Jan/Feb 1973. NYC Municipal Library.

The final design plan for the third LaGuardia-Pyke Bomb Carrier was approved June 6, 1941, and three were ordered built. By 1942 they were in use, with “Big Bertha” held in reserve. Pyke submitted two reports to Mayor LaGuardia and in 1943 Pyke published the full results of the tests and the final design in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. The design was so successful that other municipalities around the world copied it. Big Bertha’s sister carriers were used by the NYPD until the 1990s (in NYPD parlance they were all called “Big Bertha”) when new technologies replaced them. One of them was preserved at the Central Motor Depot and in 2022 it was restored by DSNY and the FDNY and returned to the Emergency Service Unit as a museum piece. It is the oldest active-duty vehicle in the NYPD fleet. The 1940 bombing that inspired its creation was never solved and the NYPD still considers it an open case.

In 1943, Lt. Pyke took a leave of absence to report for duty in the Navy as a munitions expert. He formally retired from the NYPD in 1944 but rejoined after the war as a Captain. In April 1941, Lord Halifax, the British Ambassador, presented silver plates to the widows of Det. Lynch and Socha “in recognition of the gallantry” of their husbands. Easter Lynch, widowed with five young children, sent a dismissive telegram to the King and Queen of England. Reports of its content vary, but a family friend recalled it saying:

“Thank you for your dish. If I had a house where I could use this for calling cards, it would be greatly appreciated. A basket of fruit to feed my children would be much better.”