I’ve read that up to 25% of all the bombs were duds. Just dug themselves into the mud.
A couple of years ago I was going by bike to pick up my son. Saw a lot of police, including the riot police. I stopped and they explained that I needed to cross the street to continue my journey. Being an American I, of course, asked Why?
After they explained that a BIG American bomb had been dug up I decided to cross the street and take another way home.
Sounds plausible. How do they know it was an American Bomb? The Brits dropped a lot of tonnage and were a lot more indiscriminate about where.
I still like the delayed fuse idea. If 25% fail to detonate, they still serve a temporary area denial function while they try to figure out what to do with them. Also makes recruiting bomb disposers a lot harder. Cruel, maybe, but war isn’t beanball. Ask your German neighbors’ grandparents.
Are they diverting to Schoenefeld?