45,000 to evacuate Koblenz, Germany, for defusing of WWII-era bomb

[Platapus]

EOD could either burn it in place or render it safe with an explosive tool.

If it has not gone off after almost 70 years of being affected by currents and other factors, it is unlikely to go off.

From the crappy description (lack of) in the article, the bomb may be the AN-M56 light case bomb. It is the only one with an explosive load near 3,000 pounds (assuming the reporter knew what he or she was talking about. The only information in the various articles is the weight of the bomb. But the "weight" can mean different things.

If if is an AN-M56, it is actually an American bomb used by the RAF so the technical information will be available to EOD. It may be equipped with both a nose fuze (M-102) and a base fuze (M-103), neither of which would give EOD much problem.

Woot! Finally a reason I saved my EOD manuals. I knew they would come in handy one of these days!

The problem seems to be that it appears from the article that German civilian EOD will be working on this instead of military EOD.

City officials said Wednesday they were still planning how to defuse the bomb.
Explosive ordnance disposal troops from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command in Grafenwoehr and Mannheim will be available to provide support if necessary, a 21st TSC spokeswoman said.

Don't know if that will be a good idea. If they were smart, they would contract with British EOD to come over and render it safe. Brit EOD are pretty damn good


What the need to do is find the people of the British Ordnance Collectors Network www.bocn.co.uk They would know if anyone would

[Kongo Otto]

Originally Posted by Platapus

The problem seems to be that it appears from the article that German civilian EOD will be working on this instead of military EOD.

Thats because of the federal structure of Germany and the Allied Occupation both established after WW2.
All the EX-Wehrmacht EOD teams had to be put somewhere, as there was no german Army after WW2.
Every German State has them, its called Kampfmittelräumdienst (iirc its called Bomb disposal unit in english) so they belong to the German Police force, also there are private Companies (mostly Ex Military EOD) in Bavaria which are on the behalf of the Bavarian Government and in Hamburg the Bomb disposal unit is part of the Fire department.

[merc4ulfate]

I saw a photo of the bomb partially out of the water ... the drop in the river that day made it easy to see ... it looked like one of the old dma busting bombs the English used during WW2

http://bdnpull.bangorpublishing.netd...01-600x399.jpg

[Oberon]

It was a Blockbuster bomb.



The 4000lb variety to be precise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_bomb

No wonder they evacuated so many people, those things are meant to take out city blocks, hence the name.

[Oberon]

Just discovered this on wiki whilst looking at the Grand Slam:

A live Grand Slam bomb was accidentally displayed as a gate guardian at RAF Scampton for over a decade before the mistake was realised. It was gingerly removed (by crane and low-loader) to the test range at Shoeburyness, where it was detonated.

[danasan]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Just discovered this on wiki whilst looking at the Grand Slam:

Thanks God it was only a Grand Slam...

Not too much damage one would cause...

[Jimbuna]

LOL