Bombs!!

[Hunhunter]

Yep, our building was just shaken by a couple of WWII 1000lb bombs!! There is a new housing development being built a few miles down the road which is on the edge of the old wartime bomber base of RAF Oakington. One of the builders was digging and found an unexploded 1000lb bomb left over from the war Whilst the bomb disposal guys were clearing the area, they found another one!!

About an hour ago, the Army guys set off both bombs and even though we are in a building about two miles away, the floors and windows shook!! Now they are concerned because they suspect there are more. The local village was evacuated this morning too.....its just like being back in the 1940's!!

[Aero_Shodanjo]

Fortunately, especially considering that you have a Lanc (?) in your sig, those weren't a couple of Grandslam bombs

When I was a kid, there was an ammo dump explosions only a few miles from my home. I couldnt recall any further details now, but it was quite frightening that time.

[Hunhunter]

Well, all known bombs have been succesfully cleared. Thats four so far this week Link to the news article is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/c...re/4318510.stm

[Serval]

Sounds scary.
But also interesting

Overhere they found a heavy bomb also, close to Schiphol airport. It was 'sharp' (hope I say it right) and one that could ignite when a person comes close (some kind of protection they say). I'wasn't stable, so one runway was closed for a couple of days and together with the fog that made a complete mess of the schedules this week.

A niece of me lived in a house and some vife years ago someone visiting the town again remembered that he saw a bomb falling through the roof, but not exploding. Archives did not show proof that the bomb was removed. So, they gave big alert and they had to move out of their house for a few months. It appeared that it was removed. They only found traces that it fell some 5 meters into the ground.

I found the archive pieces they had interesting. It showed what damage droptanks did. They quite often fell on houses and sometimes caused fire. That also happened a couple of houses away from where my parents now live.

[adlabs6]

Wow, scary stuff. I suppose many that fell on dirt could have buried themselves and been forgotten? Were there post war metal detecting searches for unexploded bombs?

[Serval]

As the archives from the town I lived show, at least some cities kept records of where bombs and droptanks fell and what the damage or results were.

I think that was used to remove a lot shortly after the war. But especially arund trainstations and railways it still happens that bombs are found during building and digging activities. That's about a few times a year.
It appears that around 10% of the bombs and grenades simply did not explode

Then people still find grenades and other ammunition from old storages or left on battlefields. Some areas are still known to be dangerous. A few years back someone kicked to something sticking out of the ground in a park. It was a handgrenade and it exploded. He asked for aid from a victim of war fund. They denied it since according to officials 'everyone could know that stuff found there can be dangerous'. Well, nowadays many people hardly know where the hard fighting was and sure not the exact locations.

[Aero_Shodanjo]

There was a news in here about a family in one village... They got killed by a WWII bomb. The story goes like: The bomb was buried near the family's kitchen. Somehow, the heat from the stove made it goes boom and killed most, if not all - I can't recall - of the family members.
(there are still many villages here that the houses only have dirt floor...)

More recently, under a river in Surabaya some fisherman caught a Japanese torpedo on their net. Whew... What a big catch

[Serval]

Ah, yes... That also happens a lot.
Many bombers crashed just off the cost or let their bombs go above the sea in an attempt to make it back home.

Until a few years ago, the fishermen got paid to cover the damage for not fishing for some time if they found a bomb in their nets.
When this payment stopped, the fishermen started to throw the bombs back into the sea. Last year a bomb detonated when it dropped on the deck with the fish. After that suddenly multiple bombs found were reported again in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure, but there were plans to pay for reporting bombs again, since the situation is quite dangerous. Especially when a bomb gets fished up multiple times that won't help to make it safer.

[Hot Space]

I saw this on the Local News here last week. Made one hell of a bang when they went off

Hot Space