Posted on 08/28/2025 2:22:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A wildfire that broke out at Britain’s North York Moors National Park has burned for weeks, reaching a ground layer containing unexploded ordnance from World War II.
The Langdale Moor fire started on Aug. 11, the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said. Crews from the North Yorkshire service and other local firefighting departments were still fighting the blaze Thursday.
The fire is affecting an area of almost 10 square miles according to the BBC, and is fueled by wind, vegetation and now peat. The peat layer also contains decades-old unexploded bombs and other ordnance from World War II.
“As the peat continues to burn down, it is finding the World War II ordnance and therefore exploding and we have now experienced over 18 ordnance explosions within key areas,” North Yorkshire Fire Chief Jonathan Dyson told the BBC.
The British military used the Langdale Moor area as a tank training ground during the war, and the possibility of more bombs has forced firefighters to adopt a defensive strategy in containing the wildfire.
The wildfire is far from the first time old ordnance has posed issues for modern-day Britain. A playground in Wooler was delayed for months after workers uncovered a cache of practice bombs. The playground finally opened earlier this month.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
That’s one way to clear un-exploded bombs, I suppose.
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Lazy shits! They had 80 years to take care of that.
World War II Bomb Tonnage
The total tonnage of bombs dropped during World War II is estimated at 2.7 million tonnes by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces on Europe.
This figure encompasses all theaters of the war. Specific contributions include 393,548 tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany by the U.S. Army Air Force alone, and the Luftwaffe dropped over 12,000 tonnes of bombs on London during the Blitz.
The combined tonnage of bombs dropped by all sides in the conflict is also cited as 2,057,244 tons across all theaters.
[Brave AI results]
https://search.brave.com/search?q=how+many+tons+of+bombs+were+dropped+in+world+war+ii
(IOW, between 2 and 2.7 million tons of bombs, kind of a lot, really)
I live near Aberdeen proving grounds. They’ve been building and testing munitions there since pre-WWI.
There’s tons of unexplored munitions in some areas, including very well marked coastlines on the Chesapeake Bay.
I’ve heard that they frequently start wildfires when they blow stuff up. If they can’t extinguish it with a water cannon they use helicopters. No one ever steps foot in those areas.
From the people who brought you the EPA.
I lived in Monterey, Ca for a year. Fort Ord was just a mile or two East. The old fort had an artillery firing range. I would hear them firing, and shells exploding, now and again.
There is a range of sand dunes in back of the beach on the fort. During WW2 the beach was used as an aerial torpedo range, and the other side of the dunes was used as a firing range for small arms and who know what else.
When the fort closed, long after I left the area, I read that the various ranges would be off limits for decades. There is too much unexploded ordinance to even consider clearing it.
I suppose these bombs are too big for the flail tanks they used to explode mined areas during WWII.
Either something is lacking in this reporting, or leftist journalists are so ignorant of basic military terms that they don't understand the different between a tank's cannon round and a bomb (which most people today would understand to be an explosive dropped from a bomber in the context of WWII.
I recall a rather breathless British article reporting on the discovery of unexploded ordinance found outside a shop some years ago. It was a .22 round. You'd have thought it was a 155 mm. artillery shell from the way the article (and yes, they actually wrote an article about it) went on. I kept thinking it was satire but it was apparently real.
They blow stuff up around here frequently.
When you’re standing on the part of the ladder with the warning sign telling you not to stand on it and then you get the shock wave. Well, it gets your attention.
There is no "s" in Aberdeen Proving Ground. Yeah, I worked there. Our public affairs folks taught me that saying. They'd use it on the media.
I probably knew that. I never call it grounds. Probably an auto spell deficiency.
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