Posted on 07/10/2019 8:10:22 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Full TITLE: "Teenage history fanatic, 18, discovers a First World War bomb near his home in France - only for it to blow up, leaving him without a finger and riddled with 50 pieces of shrapnel"
Treasure hunter Paul Aiden was hunting for coins in a forest near his home in Metz, France, earlier this month when his metal detector started going off.
Thinking he had struck gold, the 18-year-old began digging through the dense undergrowth before a massive explosion sent him flying backwards.
Woodworker Mr Aiden admitted that by the time he realised he had struck on a WWI era detonator it was already 'too late' - as it blew up despite being more than 100 years old.
Mr Aiden has since discovered the bomb he came across was a French Mle 1915 Impact detonator.
Police and bomb experts were later called to the scene and found a second detonator with a German phosphorus stick grenade.
Mr Aiden vowed to carry on with his hobby.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Fortunately for him, I’m guessing the soil it was buried in absorbed most of the blast and shrapnel.
Better watch out where you stick your fingers you have left
American bombs were still being dug up in central Japan into the mid-60s...
I knew some idiots who found an M79 round near Camp Williams in Utah. They put it in the campfire to see what would happen. They all survived but got various amounts of shrapnel and hearing loss. Darwin Award Runner-Ups.
There is still a fair amount of un-exploded ordinance from WW1 and WW2 in the fields of Europe.
It couldn’t have been too massive otherwise they would have picked him up with tweezers and tongs.
Danger UXB would be informative still.
PinGGG............Gendarmes, Graves and Grenades...............
His home near Metz made me think of something.
In a biography of Patton, that was the one place which held him up for a while.
“...massive explosion sent him flying backwards...”
He’s lucky to be in one or two pieces.
Metz has been historical a heavily fortified garrison town. Patton would have gone up against the modernized fortifications. The Prussians bottled up one of Napoleon’s III armies in Metz.
I remember this too and hopped on the evil Google to get more information
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/pattons-bloody-battle-at-fortress-metz/
good article and information of why Patton was slowed there...
When I was a USN HM3 on Camp Pendleton back in 1981, we had an emergency run at the north end of the base at around 1 AM... two Marines were drunk and had ventured out into the impact area of a range used for M79/M203 training. One of them found an unexploded 40mm fragmentation round and picked it up. It took his arm off just below the elbow, as well as peppered his face and chest with shrapnel. Missed his eyes, but he spent the next few months in and out of long, painful surgeries removing all those little bits of metal.
I have no doubt if I had found it as a kid, I would have tried with a screwdriver and hammer to take the front of the bomb off.
I was lucky I never found one...
Well you just have to tap it a few times with a hammer first.
Make sure it’s safe.
***I’m guessing the soil it was buried in absorbed most of the blast and shrapnel.***
Years ago I read of a relic hunter digging on private property OUTSIDE a Civil War battle ground,came upon several fired, but un-exploded civil war shells. One shell had exploded, but the mud had been so thick the fragments did not go anywhere.
He later laughed, thinking about the gunnery Sgt fretting over several shots fired at the same target but only one exploded.
“There is still a fair amount of un-exploded ordinance from WW1 and WW2 in the fields of Europe.”
Farmers till up munitions all the time in Europe, they carted out to the roadside and call the EOD and continue farming, the EOD comes picks up the ordnance and takes it off to dispose of properly. It’s known as the Iron Harvest
Investigation Discovery had a Joe Kenda episode where they responded to a report of a garage explosion. The place was in ruins, as was its owner. One officer finds a finger still wrapped around a steel ring.
The end result was that some idiot had just bought the house, investigated the garage, found a grenade and evidently pulled the pin to see what it did. He found out.
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