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60,000 Germans Evacuate While Officials Try To Defuse a WWII Bomb (abc.net.au)
More than 70 years ago the UK's Royal Air Force dropped an 1,100-pound bomb on Germany. They just found it. An anonymous reader quotes ABC:
Residents in two German cities are evacuating their homes as authorities prepare to dispose of World War II-era bombs found during construction work this week. About 21,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes and workplaces in the western city of Koblenz as a precaution before specialists attempt to defuse the 500-kilogram bomb on Saturday afternoon (local time). Among those moved to safety are prison inmates and hospital patients. Officials in the financial capital Frankfurt, meanwhile, are carrying out what is described as Germany's biggest evacuation. Frankfurt city officials have said more than 60,000 residents will have to leave their homes for at least 12 hours.
Failure to defuse the bomb could cause a big enough explosion to flatten a city block, a fire department official said. "This bomb has more than 1.4 tonnes of explosives," Frankfurt fire chief Reinhard Ries said. "It's not just fragments that are the problem, but also the pressure that it creates that would dismantle all the buildings in a 100-metre radius"... Police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb.
Reuters notes that every year Germany discovers more than 2,000 tons of live bombs and munitions, adding "In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys."
Failure to defuse the bomb could cause a big enough explosion to flatten a city block, a fire department official said. "This bomb has more than 1.4 tonnes of explosives," Frankfurt fire chief Reinhard Ries said. "It's not just fragments that are the problem, but also the pressure that it creates that would dismantle all the buildings in a 100-metre radius"... Police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb.
Reuters notes that every year Germany discovers more than 2,000 tons of live bombs and munitions, adding "In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys."
There are two bombs. One in each of two cities.
one 500kg bomb in Koblenz, and a second 1.4 ton bomb in Frankfurt. (Bad title by editor... saying one bomb.)
"In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys."
When I was a kid in the 1970's California, we had to build our own pipe bombs.
Looks like it isn't just Hollywood trying to turn old franchises into blockbusters this year.
"Police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb."
I hope it is defused and not diffused
Twinstiq, game news
The bomb is a British Blockbuster - so called because one could flatten an entire city block.The bombs are the origin of the term..
They were giant cylinders filled with explosive,with no streamling and no tailfins. When dropped they tumbled randomly through the air so there was no kind of accuracy with them. Dropping one on anything smaller than a city was pointless. Essentially they're weapons that were purpose-designed to be dropped on cities and to kill civilians.
There are two bombs.
Are you sure about that, captain Picard?
Ezekiel 23:20
Back in the 1980's, a local WW2 vet passed away and his relatives found sweating dynamite in attic of a detached garage. Since the bomb squad couldn't get to the dynamite, they set the garage on fire and let the whole thing burn to the ground. The fire department sprayed water on the smoldering foundations.
Defusing it would be preferable.
"Police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb."
If they are not careful, they will indeed diffuse the bomb. I hope that they defuse it instead.
-- Insert witty one-liner here. --
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
All 1800Kg unexploded Blockbusters so far:
This is a stupid question, but is there something you could do to scan for these? e.g. use something like a hand-held metal detector, but bigger?
You could always try a jackhammer.
The practice is indefensible, regardless of what you think of the point of view of the people you are dropping the bombs on. What you are engaged in is justifying an immoral act by saying the other guy is worse. You're still immoral for defending the practice. Blowing up little children because their parents might be Nazis is bullshit and I hope that in your heart of hearts you know that.
We have the same problem here in Canada from WWI and WWII. There's large stretches outside of bombing ranges where they still find munitions and such. Then you run into problems in places where they had munitions factories, Ingersoll, Ontario had one for WWI and WWII. The town itself was also used in training for house-to-house searches, when they were training people for D-day. So every once and awhile, in the older parts of town people will find booby traps in the walls(non-functional) and so on, when they do renovations, along with training landmines in their backyards and so on.
Funny thing, was Ingersoll had a better layout compared to a european city then say Woodstock at the time, which is why the canuck military liked using it. Plus there were multiple rivers, streams, creeks, park areas, that all emulated european cities because the population had a lot of people who'd come over after WWI.
Om, nomnomnom...