Any ex Army/bomb disposal types here?
Discussion
Possibly the dumbest thing that I have ever done but I didn't think, I just acted. With hindsight I was possibly very lucky?
I was cycling round the woods on the old German front line in Belgium when I came across this
I thought it was too close to where the public had access and a children's field trip had passed by earlier so I thought it's not gone off for 100years, the detonator must have corroded? so I decided to move it to where it could be located quickly when it was reported in.
Was i lucky? I.e are these unstable? It was quite heavy, about 5lb+ and looked like it had a cap exposed on the end.
Hopefully not a gas shell?
Yes I won't do it again.
I was cycling round the woods on the old German front line in Belgium when I came across this
I thought it was too close to where the public had access and a children's field trip had passed by earlier so I thought it's not gone off for 100years, the detonator must have corroded? so I decided to move it to where it could be located quickly when it was reported in.
Was i lucky? I.e are these unstable? It was quite heavy, about 5lb+ and looked like it had a cap exposed on the end.
Hopefully not a gas shell?
Yes I won't do it again.
I do hope that isn’t photoshopped. A group of my friends and I were walking on Drigg beach in Cumbria (in 1989/90) and found some old mortars shells exposed by the tide. Being upstanding citizens we stopped at Egremont police station to report it.
I walked into the cop shop and up to the desk and announced that we'd found unexploded mortars on the beach. The guy at the desk turned white and backed away slightly. He said "You didn't bring them with you did you?", "Umm, no" I said. "Thank God", he said, "last time the fella brought them in here with him."
This was apparently followed by an evacuation (of the station I assume although colons might have been involved too) and a long wait for bomb disposal to get there and make safe.
I walked into the cop shop and up to the desk and announced that we'd found unexploded mortars on the beach. The guy at the desk turned white and backed away slightly. He said "You didn't bring them with you did you?", "Umm, no" I said. "Thank God", he said, "last time the fella brought them in here with him."
This was apparently followed by an evacuation (of the station I assume although colons might have been involved too) and a long wait for bomb disposal to get there and make safe.
Fortunately I have never come anywhere near abandoned high explosives!
Years ago I was on a train back to uni from a weekend away. I ended up sat opposite a well spoken chap who was obviously truly bladdered(but apologetic with it) . As per normal, the train heating was set to gas mark 4.
I took out some water, and the drunk chap asked if he could have a swig........ being prepared for a long journey I had two bottles, so one was duly passed over.
Turned out he had just returned to the UK from Afghanistan and was in EOD - was quite glad I had the second bottle.
Ayahuasca said:
Looks like a bit of old fence post filled with concrete to me. A shell would be hollow. The way to test it is to get a hammer and give it a whack to see if it sounds hollow.
The base (below the white band) was metal and the top where it reaches the point/cap? Was the same/similar marterial to the sides. Think I've got another pic which may help but it makes me look a burk as I took a pic holding it incase anyone wanted to identify it as gas etc. Naive fool here as of course they harvest huge amounts yearly from there.
McVities said:
Fortunately I have never come anywhere near abandoned high explosives!
Years ago I was on a train back to uni from a weekend away. I ended up sat opposite a well spoken chap who was obviously truly bladdered(but apologetic with it) . As per normal, the train heating was set to gas mark 4.
I took out some water, and the drunk chap asked if he could have a swig........ being prepared for a long journey I had two bottles, so one was duly passed over.
Turned out he had just returned to the UK from Afghanistan and was in EOD - was quite glad I had the second bottle.
Few of my mates from school were EODs, Nutters the lot of them!Years ago I was on a train back to uni from a weekend away. I ended up sat opposite a well spoken chap who was obviously truly bladdered(but apologetic with it) . As per normal, the train heating was set to gas mark 4.
I took out some water, and the drunk chap asked if he could have a swig........ being prepared for a long journey I had two bottles, so one was duly passed over.
Turned out he had just returned to the UK from Afghanistan and was in EOD - was quite glad I had the second bottle.
Dr John Pimlott, one of the academic staff at Sandhurst a few years ago now, picked up a couple of WW2 hand grenades on a battlefield tour and brought them back to the UK with him (insanity).
Whilst handling them in his study one afternoon, one of them exploded in his face and killed him
Obit
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0959231...
Whilst handling them in his study one afternoon, one of them exploded in his face and killed him
Obit
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0959231...
Joey Ramone said:
Whilst handling them in his study one afternoon, one of them exploded in his face and killed him
It was worse than that actually. It blew his hands off, rendering him unable to get out of the room and he bled to death. Lovely chap, and a great tragedy.To the OP - you shouldn't have touched it but the 1WW stuff rarely explodes when handled 'sensibly' (acknowledging the oxymoron). Don't do it again. As has been mentioned, tonnes of this s
t is collected every year. The good news is that it doesn't appear to be a chemical (ie gas) shell.
The bad news is that it does appear to be a High Explosive shell.
The other good news is that it doesn't appear to have been fired, which means that the fuze isn't armed.
More bad news is that the fuze appears to have corroded away to such an extent that any safety restraints in it may no longer be effective. It could be worse than armed.
More good news is that French and Belgian EOD handle hundreds, if not thousands, of these every year without incident.
Less good is that every few years or so one of these functions while being handled and everyone is horribly killed to death.
If I came across that in a professional capacity I would destroy it in situ. Its the quickest, easiest and safest thing to do.
Plus, blowing things up is a bit of a laugh.
The bad news is that it does appear to be a High Explosive shell.
The other good news is that it doesn't appear to have been fired, which means that the fuze isn't armed.
More bad news is that the fuze appears to have corroded away to such an extent that any safety restraints in it may no longer be effective. It could be worse than armed.
More good news is that French and Belgian EOD handle hundreds, if not thousands, of these every year without incident.
Less good is that every few years or so one of these functions while being handled and everyone is horribly killed to death.
If I came across that in a professional capacity I would destroy it in situ. Its the quickest, easiest and safest thing to do.
Plus, blowing things up is a bit of a laugh.
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