WW2 Era 550lb found in Munich.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

A quote from the news "
MAINZ, Germany -- Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich late Monday night after construction workers found an undetonated, 550-pound World War II bomb."

Read about it here http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/28/13523220-homes-evacuated-after-550-pound-wwii-bomb-found-in-munich?lite

[Herr-Berbunch]

:o

These things are always cropping up, always destroyed in a controlled explosion - does anybody know of one just going bang on its own accord? :hmmm:

[VipertheSniper]

These things are always cropping up, always destroyed in a controlled explosion - does anybody know of one just going bang on its own accord?

Just last week a bomb from WW2 exploded in the Danube in Vienna, I will post some links to articles when I get home from work. Thankfully no ships were around.

[Schroeder]

They find dud bombs here pretty much every day so it's not really a big deal. I once even had to leave work for three hours because they had found one at a construction site 50m away from my office.:-?

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

They find dud bombs here pretty much every day so it's not really a big deal. I once even had to leave work for three hours because they had found one at a construction site 50m away from my office.:-?

I would think that at times knowing that theres still duds in major urban areas might be a bit unnerving when there uncovered.

[Schroeder]

I would think that at times knowing that theres still duds in major urban areas might be a bit unnerving when there uncovered.
It wasn't even urban but used to be a field in those days. I work in the middle of nowhere. The next military or urban target is several kilometres away.:doh:
I guess they have either missed their target completely or it was an emergency release.

[Betonov]

Last week there was a forrest fire in a WW1 battlefield area. They counted over a dozen explosions. Mortar rounds mostly.
Gave the firefighters a hard time during a hard time

[Stealhead]

Our weapons of war are so effective they can kill you after sitting for nearly 100 years.I bet many unexplored bombs are ones that had been set with a delay fuse that failed to to trip.

At least in Europe there are laws that require the search of UXOs before any digging or construction is done in third world countries they have almost nothing.

I was reading some place that in Laos little kids try to find the bomblets from the many cluster bombs that where dropped over Laos in the 60's and early 70's.The reason they look for the bomb lets is because they want the ball bearings to use with sling shots and they make toys out of the metal.They lack the education to I guess to understand not to mess with the bomblets.To be fair they also mind a large number of un exploded RPG and B-40 rockets in Laos so the Communists are as harmful as the Capitalists.I understand that the cluster bombs used by the US Air Force back then had about an 80% functionality rating.That still means a lot of bomblets laying around there must be 100~150 in each canister.

[Oberon]

Makes me wonder if there's anything left under Messines Ridge, considering the size of the craters, it would be...not good...if there was still an unexploded mine...

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4034/5167199683_fc99cee363_z.jpg

[Kongo Otto]

Makes me wonder if there's anything left under Messines Ridge, considering the size of the craters, it would be...not good...if there was still an unexploded mine...

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4034/5167199683_fc99cee363_z.jpg

There is at least one (which the location is known) of the mines still in the Messines area.

[August]

It wasn't even urban but used to be a field in those days. I work in the middle of nowhere. The next military or urban target is several kilometres away.:doh:
I guess they have either missed their target completely or it was an emergency release.


Might have also just been a concentration of troops and equipment.

[Tribesman]

Makes me wonder if there's anything left under Messines Ridge, considering the size of the craters, it would be...not good...if there was still an unexploded mine...

Didn't Tony Robinson do some searches on lost/collapsed mines from WWI?

[Stealhead]

Just take into consideration all the small arms that would have been lost in battles when the person carrying them was killed or blown apart. the weapon itself and all of the rounds and any grenades would have been tossed about in the carnage and sometimes not found all that stuff is lying around out there somewhere as well.

There are likely millions of tons of explosives and ammo from the past 100 years or so of war that failed to go off or that got lost laying around waiting to be discovered.

I have seen on websites and on TV these groups of people in Russia and Ukraine that volunteer to go out into old battle fields and find the remains of soldiers they find lost weapons and explosives
all the time.

[kranz]

A 1500 kg mortar shell from this baby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Gerät) was found yesterday in Warsaw. (no photos yet)

[Kongo Otto]

It wasn't even urban but used to be a field in those days. I work in the middle of nowhere. The next military or urban target is several kilometres away.:doh:
I guess they have either missed their target completely or it was an emergency release.

Might have also just been a concentration of troops and equipment.

Maybe August is right, but otherwise there are so many locations today in Germany were you don't see any Traces anymore of their former use as e.g. Feldflugplatz, Flak emplacements or Military Supply Areas.

Normally when Bombs were emergency released they were not armed and just dumped out of the plane.

@Schroeder when you have the Grid for Google Earth available, there is a possibility to track a former military use of the area.

[Kongo Otto]

Didn't Tony Robinson do some searches on lost/collapsed mines from WWI?

I don't know, but there was another TV Documentary about the topic.

I just found the clips from the documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxG12ZYm3Q8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgknCbX3U4k

[HunterICX]

And it seems Schiphol (Netherlands) got one too

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/08/world_war_ii_bomb_closes_part.php

HunterICX

[Catfish]

There is a squad in Germany comparing aerial photos from bomb attacks with areas and looking for bombs, someone said they will be busy until the end of next century .. there were all kinds of triggers, some with acid some with clockwork-like devices and most with the good old contact detonator. Special air-mines, intended to burst the windows of buildings to feed oxygen to the fires and destroying the lungs of people in the open for a kilometer, had those delayed fuses intended to set off some hours after the attack, when firemen and people were in the streets again to remove the rubble.

Regarding the cluster bombs used all over the world from Kosovo to Afghanistan, when a US general was asked which percentage of cluster bombs would really explode, his answer was something like "the only sure thing is they will not stay in the air."
And lets not forget the more recently used 'depleted' uranium rounds being buried in populated areas and under crops.

From WW2 there are also still mines in the north african desert waiting .. and sunk ammunition, anthrax bombs .. all 'accidents' waiting to happen.

[kranz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A8pAHjmuIr0

[Schroeder]

@Schroeder when you have the Grid for Google Earth available, there is a possibility to track a former military use of the area.
Latitude =52° 11' 32.8" N
Longitude =10° 25' 38.9" E

There are some steelworks nearby which would make a good target but they are a couple of km away.

[Stealhead]

They are not "depleted" uranium rounds they are depleted uranium(DU) the rounds are made from used up as in depleted uranium fuel rods hence the term depleted.

And the US is very far from the only nation that leaves behind UXO and such the opposing side in Kosovo and everywhere else also leaves behind plenty of UXOs and plenty of innocent Afghans get killed by IEDs left by the Taliban many more innocents gets killed by those than by our mistakes.

Sorry Catfish but you seem to be picking on the US a bit unfairly when many other nations and armed groups are responsible for the problem and on a much larger scale.

This problem is a side effect of warfare not any one nation.

[Catfish]

I mentioned DU as another relict from wars fought, and still threatening the population.
The DU i mentioned is not only used by the US, and i did not say that in the post - true, up to now only the UK and the USA have officially acknowledged the use of depleted uranium, however we all know Russia has also used it - as have others.


OT:
The RAND corporation has found out that depleted uranium is not threatening anyone's health, so maybe deer hunters and sport shooters can also use it :yep:

[Kongo Otto]

Latitude =52° 11' 32.8" N
Longitude =10° 25' 38.9" E

There are some steelworks nearby which would make a good target but they are a couple of km away.

This steelworks are the former "Reichswerke Herman Göring" which have been attacked first on 8 Mai 1942 and last 29 March 1944.
The Braunschweig / Salzgitter Area was occupied by the 30th US Inf Divison 12 April 1945.
There was a total of 44 air raids flown against this Target. So the location of your bomb fits good in to a Bomb mission which was flown by night against the Reichswerke or Braunschweig (Bomber command did missions on the Reichswerke and on Braunschweig) but for a Daylight airraid performed by the 8th Air Force the Bomb is to far away from their assumed target.
There were also two Flak Batteries (one Reichsarbeitsdienst RAD and one from the Luftwaffe) around a town named Üfingen which were also attacked by USAAF Fighter Bombers in March 1945.
The nearby City of Braunschweig was also bombed 42 times (first raid 17th August 1940 and last raid 31st March 1945), so this makes the area to one of the most bombed in Germany.

From wikipedia:
On 17 June 1946, the rubble clearing officially began in Braunschweig. The job took 17 years, with the city only officially declaring the task accomplished in 1963. Actually, however, smaller messes were still being cleared up years after that.

[Oberon]

We're overdue to find another piece of munitions here...snag is, most of our UXBs were made in Britain or the US. :O:

[Kongo Otto]

We're overdue to find another piece of munitions here...snag is, most of our UXBs were made in Britain or the US. :O:

I would not dare to touch it, if i were you.
Specially those British Bombs with their Fuzes and Pistols are extremely dangerous, specially when they used a Tail Pistol with anti handling device. I wouldn't even dare to fart near one of those. No kidding!

[Skybird]

Munich was "krass". They tried to contain the shockwave with hay bales - and then the burning hay bales flew through the air and set the area ablaze. 17 Houes are severly damaged, temporarily 2 were assumed to collapse.

Here is a pic of the fuse mechanism. It is chemical-mechanical, and was meant to let bombs blow up not on impact, but hours after they impacted, to demoralise the population and to keep the firebrigades away.

http://www.welt.de/img/wissenschaft/origs108879865/1269722069-w900-h600/DWO-bombe-2-.jpg

Meanwhile, today another bomb was detonated in Oranienburg, and another one will follow later this day.

[Schroeder]

Thanks Otto, it was an American Bomb so it was most likely dropped in daylight. The former Reichswerke (now known as Salzgitter AG) are actually too far away to have been the target. But perhaps the papers got the story wrong and it was a British bomb.
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/54/1012554/1280_3539666333386236.jpg

No, that's not me in the picture.:O:

[Oberon]

Ouch, that's a bit of a fail there (Munich). Still, I defer to the professionals, and let's face it, German bomb disposal units must be professional because they're not exactly short of training material.

Here's some footage of the bomb being set off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9NwZeaMiTg

Gives you an idea of the sort of explosive force from these bombs, and that's just one...imagine a whole stick of them exploding. Makes you think of what our parents and grandparents went through in Europe during the war.

[Kongo Otto]

Munich was "krass". They tried to contain the shockwave with hayballs - and then the burning hayballs flew through the air and set the area ablaze. 17 Houes are severly damaged, temporarily 2 were assumed to collapse.

Here is a pic of the fuse mechanism. It is chemical-mechanical, and was meant to let bombs blow up not on impact, but hours after they impacted, to demoralise the population and to keep the firebrigades away.

http://www.welt.de/img/wissenschaft/origs108879865/1269722069-w900-h600/DWO-bombe-2-.jpg

Meanwhile, today another bomb was detonated in Oranienburg, and another one will follow later this day.

Your Picture shows a very simplified version of such Tail Pistols, but that's not the part of the problem, the real big issue is the anti handling device which was used in the No. 37 Pistol.

Such Bombs are not just blown up, you take a shaped charge and blew the Bomb shell open, the charge destroys the bomb without setting the Bomb explosives off.
The Munich Bomb was an US 500 lbs General Purpose with a UK No. 37 Long Delay Tail Fuze with anti handling device.
This Anti Handling Device made the No. 37 Tail Pistol one of the most dangerous Pistols of them all, because when you try to blew the Bomb shell open the shock of the shaped charge (150- 250 gramms C4) may be enough to set the No. 37 tail pistol off, which happenend in Munich.
So Munich to be correct was two explosions, the shaped charge and the Fuzes which set the bomb explosives off.
Munich:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9_2nD9Vj0
and that's how it normally works (only the shaped charge wents off but not the Original fuzes and the bomb explosives):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCm5WgtLtNs&feature=related

[Kongo Otto]

Thanks Otto, it was an American Bomb so it was most likely dropped in daylight. The former Reichswerke (now known as Salzgitter AG) are actually too far away to have been the target. But perhaps the papers got the story wrong and it was a British bomb.

(removed the pic)
No, that's not me in the picture.:O:

American M64 General Purpose were also used by Bomber Command and neither Braunschweig nor the steelworks are to far away.

I found this intersting Quote of a German Book:
Zur Störung der Leuchtzielmarkierungen ("Christbäume") der alliierten Pfadfindermaschinen hatte man eigene Leuchtmittel entwickelt und zum Einsatz gebracht. Indem man sie mehrere Kilometer vor dem Schutzobjekt in die Einflugschneise setzte, erhoffte man sich eine Ablenkung des nachfolgenden Bomberstroms.
Am 08. Mai 1944 griffen britische Bomber die Stadt Braunschweig und die Reichswerke im Salzgittergebiet an. Während im Raum Watenstedt - Immendorf 200 Sprengbomben von 500 bis 1000 kg und mehrere 100 Benzolkautschukkanister bis zu 45 kg abgeworfen wurden, wobei 26 Personen getötet und 13 verletzt worden sind, fielen 5 Bombenteppiche in der Gegend von Alvesse - Üfingen - Sauingen.
Ob dieser Fehlwurf auf den Einsatz von Scheinsignalraketen aus der Scheinanlage bei Bodenstedt zurückzuführen ist, muß offenbleiben...
(This would fit the Bomb location very well)


Picture of Braunschweig during a Night Bomb Raid:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/4/4b/Braunschweig15101944n.png

[Schroeder]

Am 08. Mai 1944 griffen britische Bomber die Stadt Braunschweig und die Reichswerke im Salzgittergebiet an. Während im Raum Watenstedt - Immendorf 200 Sprengbomben von 500 bis 1000 kg und mehrere 100 Benzolkautschukkanister bis zu 45 kg abgeworfen wurden, wobei 26 Personen getötet und 13 verletzt worden sind, fielen 5 Bombenteppiche in der Gegend von Alvesse - Üfingen - Sauingen.
Ob dieser Fehlwurf auf den Einsatz von Scheinsignalraketen aus der Scheinanlage bei Bodenstedt zurückzuführen ist, muß offenbleiben...
(This would fit the Bomb location very well)

That would make sense.:yeah: