Story!

2 ton RAF Blockbuster bomb found in the Rhine River, caused disposal teams to evacuate 45,000.

Guess you could say that is a Military Surplus...

I was stationed approximately 60 kilometers from Koblenz in Oppenheim/Dexheim from mid 71 to late 73, and these things have continuously been found ever since the end of the war...


Phil

I agree it must be different growing up like that. I was staying in Coventry England a few years ago and someone was doing some backhoe work and hit a german 1000 pounder which got the adjoining several blocks evacuated for a while.

IIRC, they used steam to remove the explosive and they finished about midnight then let everyone come back.

I don't know if they are still there, but in the mid 80's driving some back roads around Normandy there were road signs warning about unexploded ordnance.

Some time back there was an article in the Smithsonian about EOD crews in France that are still digging up and disposing of unexploded ordinance going back to WW1.

Seems to me that once a year, or so, there would be short article on some French farmer detonating an old shell while plowing his field.

Jim

quote:

Seems to me that once a year, or so, there would be short article on some French farmer detonating an old shell while plowing his field.

Not just the "once fired" stuff that causes the problems! When WWI ended us Brits often just covered over the stacks of unfired ordnance with earth and left it in situ!

In fact just two or three years ago the French had to close their A1 or A26 motorway for two days after finding such an old British dump of un-fired gas shells.

There's got to be a lot of it in Vietnam.

Remember a story from Germany. Some picnicers were out in the woods and built a camp fire. KABOOM. Son's friend was teaching in Korea. One of the hazards of hiking there is landmines from the Korean conflict. As a kid, in Bremerhaven, I heard a loud bang. Word was it was an old mine in the harbour exploding.

Grizz

We had the same issue in Japan. While building a new hospital on base, the discovery of a 750lb WWII bomb causes most of the base to be evacuated until it was disposed of.

On another base they found 3 at the same time while building new quarters. I'm not sure what those were, other then being WWII ordinace.