Tens of thousands evacuated after huge wartime bomb found in German city

BNO News ^ | Oct. 27, 2011

[Free ThinkerNY]

BERLIN (BNO NEWS) -- German authorities on Thursday evacuated more than 20,000 people after an unexploded World War II bomb was discovered in the city of Halle, officials said.

The unexploded 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) wartime bomb was discovered by a man digging a ditch. At least 20,000 people, including all 500 patients at a local hospital, were forced to evacuate the area, the German dpa news agency reported.

Local police chief Bernd Wiegand said everyone within a radius of 800 meters (0.5 mile) was ordered to evacuate. Six schools and the city's hospital had to close as a result.

[Doogle]

Does sitting for so long in the rain and dirt, etc., make it less stable

...since it's a GP Bomb the explosive over time does become less stable, depends on how much may have exuded, ..might even be a delay type fuse was used....and that fuse was defective..it would get a good looking over before they get it removed, I'm sure these guys have seen it before

[Fantasywriter]

USNV, that is an amazing stat. Is there a theory on why so many bombs missed the target? Was it nascent technology, or maneuvering by the pilot to try to keep from getting shot?

Thanks Doogle, for the excellent information. Now I’m praying for the safety of the defusers, if that’s the right word. Sounds like a VERY dangerous situation.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Honestly, my first reaction was a Bart Simpson-esque: “Cooool!”

[Atlas Sneezed]

It’s a miracle more of it doesn’t result in casualties (unless it does, and I just haven’t heard about it).

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As a rule, if being dropped from a plane won’t make it explode, 50 years sitting around won’t make it more likely. But there are exceptions, and I wouldn’t bet my life.

[coolbreeze]

all kinds of ordinance was droppedin Delaware Bay after the war...alot of it is not mapped. they find some interesting things dredging. One guy in Delaware had a contractor order a load of gravel for his driveway, ended up with a front yard full of hand grenades.

[JackOfVA]

There are a lot of unexploded bombs from World War II in all of the theaters. They still find them in England, Japan, mainland Europe, Russia. Hell, we still find unexploded ordnance here in the US from WWII.

A Richmond VA Civil War relic collector was killed a few years ago by one of his finds -- a civil war cannon shell loaded with black powder.

Jack

[coolbreeze]

all kinds of ordinance was droppedin Delaware Bay after the war...alot of it is not mapped. they find some interesting things dredging. One guy in Delaware had a contractor order a load of gravel for his driveway, ended up with a front yard full of hand grenades.

[txhurl]

A Richmond VA Civil War relic collector was killed a few years ago by one of his finds — a civil war cannon shell loaded with black powder.

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We had a thread or two on that.

[Calvin Locke]

I think it was just last year that a guy was washing off a Civil War
shell he dug up exploded. And that was probably black powder.

[Oatka]

Will Lt. Brian Ash please pick up the red courtesy phone?

Or perhaps Col. Breen: Five Million Years to Earth

[Fantasywriter]

“I wouldn’t bet my life.”

That makes two of us! Hats off to the people who are retrieving this bomb—may their mission end safely and successfully.

[ErnBatavia]

"Just wonderin'....will this sh*t never end??"

[Fantasywriter]

Sobering. You don’t get up one day and imagine a Civil War era cannonball will do you in. I hope he had his spiritual house in order.

[fso301]

I hope this isn’t a stupid question, but why didn’t it go off when it was dropped? If it managed to hit the ground from a plane w’out exploding, is that any indication it could be a dud?

TNT is a stable explosive. No indication what the explosive was in this bomb but all explosives in the TNT class are stable and are intended to not explode just because of sudden deceleration.

The fuze is what makes the bomb go boom and for whatever reason, the fuze failed to function. So yes, the bomb was a dud.

I wonder what the intended target was of such a large bomb?

Three of four years ago, there was a thread here on FR about someone in Virginia area who was killed by a civil war shell that exploded.

[fso301]

Thanks, af; I had no idea there was that much unexploded ordinance. It’s a miracle more of it doesn’t result in casualties (unless it does, and I just haven’t heard about it).

UXO is hard on European farmers.

Large sections of WWI battlefield such as Verdun are cordoned off due to so much UXO laying about.

[FreedomPoster]

Here’s a good one.

[Doogle]

...the numbers quoted before are accurate.....the percentage of bombs actually hitting the target were very small compared to today’s “smart” bombs. A lot of time it was due to weather and other times due to navigational “errors”....even guessing...once you loaded back then, you never wanted to bring them back....running the gauntlet of German fighters loaded was a one way deal...when you got there...you let em go...specific targets were usually covered by massive bombing raids to insure a better percentage of hits....
Pilot maneuvering was getting them there with straight approach ...the bombing run was done by the bombardier. The pilots of the planes back then along with the crews were a special breed indeed
You might find this site interesting loads of good stuff here:

http://www.b24.net/stories/annette.htm

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

A couple of the 22 mines the British dug under the German trenches at Messines and packed with almost 500 tons of explosives didn't go off on schedule in 1916. Lightning set off one of them in 1955. Fortunately the only casualty was a cow.

The other one is still down there someplace.

[Travis McGee]

Interesting case.

[Fantasywriter]

More great info; thanks. I love educational threads. I hope there’s a follow-up, letting us know they got the bomb out of there intact.