[jolepp]

Bomb disposal experts in the German city of Koblenz have successfully defused two bombs from World War II found in the riverbed of the Rhine.
They were discovered when water levels fell because of a prolonged dry spell.
The bigger of the two bombs weighed 1.8 tonnes and was dropped by the Royal Air Force between 1943 and 1945.
Nearly half the city's population - 45,000 - has been evacuated, including the inhabitants of two hospitals, seven nursing homes and a prison.
It is the biggest bomb disposal operation in Germany since 1945.
...

BBC News - WWII bomb in Rhine near Koblenz successfully defused

edit: some pics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-16023678

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Last edited by jolepp; 12-04-2011 at 09:57 AM. Reason: + link to pics

[JohnBecker]

The latest word is that the bombs have been defused safely and that people are returning to their homes.

[jolepp]

Yup, the defusing thankfully went fine.

[Mike Cash]

Doesn't a small amount of WWI ordnance turn up each year in some parts of Europe? Or is that pretty much gone by now?

I remember reading about a major sapping operation in which tunnels were dug over to the German lines, absolutely humongous amounts of explosives placed in several locations along the line, and exploded in conjunction with an infantry assault. Reportedly, one of the caches of explosives failed to detonate and nobody is sure exactly where it is.

[jolepp]

Yup, even some WWI ordnance still turns up (e.g. farmers discover poison gas shells plowing their fields).

edit:

LEPERSTRAAT, BELGIUM –Luk Delva flinches each time he hears an unusual metallic noise as he's harvesting or plowing fields here in Western Europe. More often than not, that noise is an unexploded WWI shell jamming his equipment.

Thanks to the natural shifting of the soil, armaments from the Great War (1914-1918) keep surfacing long after the armistice was signed. More than 40 million shells were fired during the war; about a third never detonated. Some 10,000 shells turn up each year.

"Sometimes when I hear a big bang in the machine and nothing happens I say, 'I'm lucky,'" says Delva (left, with artillery shell), who raises feeder pigs and about 300 acres of sugar beets and potatoes.

Delva and countless Belgian farmers like him still unearth mustard gas containers, artillery shells, rifles, unexploded grenades and shrapnel from one of the most brutal conflicts in human history. Over 15 million people died and most of the conflict took place along a narrow 50 by 20 mile strip of land here.
...
According to Belgian law, when a farmer finds a bomb he must stop his machines, carefully place the ordnance at the side of his field and call a special bomb disposal squad. This squad retrieves the material, and daily detonates or destroys them. Last year they collected 550,000 pounds of unexploded munitions and shrapnel says Johan Vandewalle, who co-wrote an exceptional expose on the lives of WWI soldiers in a book called Beneath Flanders Fields.

http://www.farmfutures.com/blogs.aspx/printversion/the-bombs-below-flanders-fields-1286 (from 2010).

[jolepp]

Related piece from 2001: BBC News | EUROPE | Deadly gas shell evacuation ends

A week after being evacuated over fears of a toxic gas leak from World War I shells, more than 12,000 inhabitants of the town of Vimy in northern France are returning to their homes.
In their absence, bomb disposal experts removed 55 tonnes of shells containing potentially hazardous substances such as mustard gas.

...
An estimated 250 tonnes of shells from World War I are discovered every year in France.

[8540tomg]

Doesn't a small amount of WWI ordnance turn up each year in some parts of Europe? Or is that pretty much gone by now?

I remember reading about a major sapping operation in which tunnels were dug over to the German lines, absolutely humongous amounts of explosives placed in several locations along the line, and exploded in conjunction with an infantry assault. Reportedly, one of the caches of explosives failed to detonate and nobody is sure exactly where it is.

Mike,

I think you may be referring mines laid by the British prior to the Battle of Messines (1917) near the village of Messen in West Flanders Belgium. Vast amounts of ammonal explosive (455 tonnes) were buried under the German trenches.
Seems the detonation of the mines was disastrous for the Germans. The explosion dramatically altered the geography of the ridge. More importantly "with approximately 10,000 killed, the Messines detonation is history's deadliest non-nuclear man-made explosion."


It appears all but 2 of the 21 mines detonated with one exploding in 1955. Fortunately, only a cow was killed at that time. According to the Wikipedia article "The 21st mine—the mine abandoned as a result of its discovery by German counter-miners—is believed to have been found but no attempt has been made to remove it."

Let's hope this final mine has lost its ginger after almost 100 years

Tom G