Discussion
There's been a few high profile cases of roads closed and residential areas evacuated recently (see Aston Expressway today). Has an unexploded bomb ever gone off - for instance someone digging foundations...?
This article seems to indicate death is rare, and the bombs are probably benign: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33861431
This article seems to indicate death is rare, and the bombs are probably benign: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33861431
1 in 10 bombs don't go off when they have been dropped, there are thousands waiting to be discovered up and down the country. Areas such as docks and industrial zones have a lot of them. The Sky TV studios in London has problems with UXBs when they carry out building work that breaks the ground.
Bomb detection companies make a fortune out of this.
Bomb detection companies make a fortune out of this.
Couple of examples in Germany (in German)
http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/panorama/toedliche-bom...
http://www.maz-online.de/Lokales/Potsdam/Blindgaen...
http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/panorama/toedliche-bom...
http://www.maz-online.de/Lokales/Potsdam/Blindgaen...
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Why do they call them unexploded bombs? Surely all bombs are unexploded. Once they've exploded, they aren't a bomb any more.
A bit like duck billed platypus. They've all got duck bills, so why mention it. We don't say "a long necked" giraffe!
Quite so! No such thing as an exploded bomb, obviously!A bit like duck billed platypus. They've all got duck bills, so why mention it. We don't say "a long necked" giraffe!
It is unexploded when it has been used as designed, yet has failed to function.
There are chaps in the forests of Poland and the Czech republic, and presumably other east Europe nations recovering items, steaming out the HE and then selling the remnants. From time to time they accidentally function something and turn themselves inside out.
There are chaps in the forests of Poland and the Czech republic, and presumably other east Europe nations recovering items, steaming out the HE and then selling the remnants. From time to time they accidentally function something and turn themselves inside out.
Not quite true, some have not gone off through error, fuse hear failures etc, but in the case of those in the UK, dropped by the Luftwaffe, some did not go off by design. As they tied up resouces during the war quite effectively.
The danger of time and its impacts on the second bunch is not be underestimated once they've been disturbed. Trembler switches and the like all very interesting.
Ubique.
The danger of time and its impacts on the second bunch is not be underestimated once they've been disturbed. Trembler switches and the like all very interesting.
Ubique.
Then there's the "Iron Harvest" on the Somme - hundreds of people killed since WW1 ended, and a load more injured, and the numbers continue to rise - with a hell of a lot of munitions still being ploughed up every single year. Hundreds and hundreds of tons per year.
Two dead, two injured in Ypres, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26654314
Sure, the chances of any particular one going off are low, but the consequences are high if it does. Do you want to be the one to give it the OK to just yank it out with a JCB and lob it in a skip?
Two dead, two injured in Ypres, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26654314
Sure, the chances of any particular one going off are low, but the consequences are high if it does. Do you want to be the one to give it the OK to just yank it out with a JCB and lob it in a skip?
ellroy said:
Not quite true, some have not gone off through error, fuse hear failures etc, but in the case of those in the UK, dropped by the Luftwaffe, some did not go off by design. As they tied up resouces during the war quite effectively.
The danger of time and its impacts on the second bunch is not be underestimated once they've been disturbed. Trembler switches and the like all very interesting.
Ubique.
Yep, ze Germans used various delay fuzes and anti-tamper devices. To the best of my knowledge (and I haven't done much air-dropped, besides the 1kg incendiaries), nothing was designed to never function - that would be pretty much the definition of pointless.The danger of time and its impacts on the second bunch is not be underestimated once they've been disturbed. Trembler switches and the like all very interesting.
Ubique.
So, a bomb with a delay fuze that did not function at the end of the delay becomes UXO. A bomb with delay running is a bomb.
my father, as a child was a refugee in Dresden, during the war. whilst playing in the rubble, he heard the whistling of a bomb falling towards him, thus he started running. he didn't out run it as such- it dropped very close I understand.
Obviously- the 5000 lb ? British dropped bomb failed to go off: otherwise I wouldn't be telling you my amusing tale.
we think we have it hard now- eg look at the snowflake complaining about being called a poof in Tesco with a pink carrier bag, yesterday.
My father fled his home in Latvia, from the Russian's at gunpoint. End's up in bloody Dresden where the British are demolishing it !!
Obviously- the 5000 lb ? British dropped bomb failed to go off: otherwise I wouldn't be telling you my amusing tale.
we think we have it hard now- eg look at the snowflake complaining about being called a poof in Tesco with a pink carrier bag, yesterday.
My father fled his home in Latvia, from the Russian's at gunpoint. End's up in bloody Dresden where the British are demolishing it !!
austinsmirk said:
my father, as a child was a refugee in Dresden, during the war. whilst playing in the rubble, he heard the whistling of a bomb falling towards him, thus he started running. he didn't out run it as such- it dropped very close I understand.
Obviously- the 5000 lb ? British dropped bomb failed to go off: otherwise I wouldn't be telling you my amusing tale.
we think we have it hard now- eg look at the snowflake complaining about being called a poof in Tesco with a pink carrier bag, yesterday.
My father fled his home in Latvia, from the Russian's at gunpoint. End's up in bloody Dresden where the British are demolishing it !!
The RAF only visited Dresden once - 14th Feb 1945. The five other raids were by the US 8th Air Force and targetted the marshalling yards. So almost certainly a Yank dropped bomb that failed to go off. Shoddy workmanship...Obviously- the 5000 lb ? British dropped bomb failed to go off: otherwise I wouldn't be telling you my amusing tale.
we think we have it hard now- eg look at the snowflake complaining about being called a poof in Tesco with a pink carrier bag, yesterday.
My father fled his home in Latvia, from the Russian's at gunpoint. End's up in bloody Dresden where the British are demolishing it !!
TwigtheWonderkid said:
motco said:
blindspot said:
It is unexploded when it has been used as designed, yet has failed to function.
It is not, and never was a bomb then. It was a waste of money! 
TwigtheWonderkid said:
austinsmirk said:
My father fled his home in Latvia, from the Russian's at gunpoint. End's up in bloody Dresden where the British are demolishing it !!
He could have fled to any city in Europe, and he picks Dresden...1945!I live on the North East coast and trawlers catching sea mines is not at all uncommon.
So much so that just north of me there is a designated UXO buoy that trawlers get sent to and if they can they lower the device to the sea bed.
We had a WW2 shell detonated on our beach a year or so back. I think it was British. Found by a dredger at a former shipyard jetty. Probably dropped into the oggin by a careless crane driver arming a warship long long ago.
My late Dad was a kid in WW2. When I was a journalist I covered a story about a UXB found by builders in what was his home town. It wasn't far from where my Dad had lived and when I told him about the bomb he had a triumphant look on his face. Apparently during a raid they had heard the bombs coming down (He said they sounded like express trains rather than whistling) and exploding. Except he heard one come down but no bang. No-one believed him until those builders unearthed 'his' bomb near his old house 50-odd years later.
There is an ex-Warsaw Pact naval base in somewhere like Latvia or Estonia that I was told British EOD teams regularly visit as part on an on-going clearance operation. Apparently the sea bed is littered with misfired ordnance from the war right up to the late 1980s.
Then there's that semi-sunken ship in the Thames Estuary that's packed with munitions. Apparently if that goes up so does a lot of Kent.
So much so that just north of me there is a designated UXO buoy that trawlers get sent to and if they can they lower the device to the sea bed.
We had a WW2 shell detonated on our beach a year or so back. I think it was British. Found by a dredger at a former shipyard jetty. Probably dropped into the oggin by a careless crane driver arming a warship long long ago.
My late Dad was a kid in WW2. When I was a journalist I covered a story about a UXB found by builders in what was his home town. It wasn't far from where my Dad had lived and when I told him about the bomb he had a triumphant look on his face. Apparently during a raid they had heard the bombs coming down (He said they sounded like express trains rather than whistling) and exploding. Except he heard one come down but no bang. No-one believed him until those builders unearthed 'his' bomb near his old house 50-odd years later.
There is an ex-Warsaw Pact naval base in somewhere like Latvia or Estonia that I was told British EOD teams regularly visit as part on an on-going clearance operation. Apparently the sea bed is littered with misfired ordnance from the war right up to the late 1980s.
Then there's that semi-sunken ship in the Thames Estuary that's packed with munitions. Apparently if that goes up so does a lot of Kent.
Edited by wildcat45 on Wednesday 17th May 14:32
TwigtheWonderkid said:
austinsmirk said:
My father fled his home in Latvia, from the Russian's at gunpoint. End's up in bloody Dresden where the British are demolishing it !!
He could have fled to any city in Europe, and he picks Dresden...1945!think von ryan's express !! guess they kept going ?? But 10,000's of people became DP's in these areas.
they were stuck there for some time: oddly enough one thing I do have, is an American zippo, US army stamped lighter, given to him by a US soldier, after the war- maybe 47 I think.
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