Replies

My favorite UXB (Unexploded Bomb) story is RAF Scampton (Lincolnshire). The base had been the home of 617 Squadron "Dambusters" and as gate guards they had a Lancaster bomber and Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs.

In 1958 they were widening the road and needed to move things. They got a crane to move the Grand Slam bomb but couldn't budge what should have been an empty casing. They summoned the base Armaments Officer and he gingerly pried open a panel on the bomb and discovered...you guess it: all 9000 lbs of Torpex explosive.

They very gingerly moved the bomb to a "safe space" and blew it up and it did go BOOM!

A Grand Slam 22,000 lb bomb:

Gate guards at RAF Scampton:

58 posted on 04/02/2016 6:53:06 AM PDT by PLMerite (The Revolution...will not be kind.)

Holy smokes, look at the post after yours!

That’ll be hard to top, from a single item of UXO standpoint.

59 posted on 04/02/2016 7:56:19 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)

To: PLMerite; FreedomPoster

60 posted on 04/02/2016 8:07:06 AM PDT by Squantos ( Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet ...)

Found an article on that.

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/11/06/the-raf-discovered-that-a-15-year-old-gate-guard-grand-slam-bomb-was-actually-live/

Wait- La Rochelle still had their U-Boat pens, right? :-)

62 posted on 04/02/2016 4:10:27 PM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794