WW2 British bomb found in Koblenz causes 45000 people evacuation

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

Do they retroactively add that to the USAAF's casualty numbers?

now that's a tasteful comment

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

Do they retroactively add that to the USAAF's casualty numbers?

No why should they?
The more important question imho is why wasnt a proper search for unexploded Bombs performed by the Bavarian authorities?
Knowing that the Aera was heavily bombed and it also was scene of heavy ground battles lasting several days, between the (iirc) 45th US Inf Div and the Wehrmacht a proper analysis of the USAAF and RAF Aerial Pictures made after Bombing Raids would have easily prevented the explosion.
Those Aerial Pictures are available to german authorities since years.

btw, its not possible to say who dropped the Bomb, it also could have been a Bomb dropped by the RAF in the November 1944 Raid on Aschaffenburg.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by Kongo-Otto

No why should they?
The more important question imho is why wasnt a proper search for unexploded Bombs performed by the Bavarian authorities?
Knowing that the Aera was heavily bombed and it also was scene of heavy ground battles lasting several days, between the (iirc) 45th US Inf Div and the Wehrmacht a proper analysis of the USAAF and RAF Aerial Pictures made after Bombing Raids would have easily prevented the explosion.
Those Aerial Pictures are available to german authorities since years.

btw, its not possible to say who dropped the Bomb, it also could have been a Bomb dropped by the RAF in the November 1944 Raid on Aschaffenburg.

It's virtually impossible man. Sometimes bombs get 15, 20 metres deep, there's no way of finding them. It's a sad testament of those dark years, but thinking about finding them all and neutralising them is too much of a prohibitive thing to do in terms of costs.

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

It's virtually impossible man. Sometimes bombs get 15, 20 metres deep, there's no way of finding them. It's a sad testament of those dark years, but thinking about finding them all and neutralising them is too much of a prohibitive thing to do in terms of costs.

That's indeed a problem. Ground in Germany and especially rivers are so full of metal that any focused search for bombs is an excercise in futility. You just have to go by what is obvious.

[TomcatViP]

Damn we can found oil mixed in sand at 1km beneath ground level. There isn't any good excuse not to find a metallic 250lb+ bomb (I am not talking abt hand grenades here )

A small team, a mini-drone, a truck and hundreds of km² can be done in a day.

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by TomcatViP

Damn we can found oil mixed in sand at 1km beneath ground level. There isn't any good excuse not to find a metallic 250lb+ bomb (I am not talking abt hand grenades here )

A small team, a mini-drone, a truck and hundreds of km² can be done in a day.

Not if the ground is so cluttered with other kinds of metals that you have to stop every few meters to dig out a bike, a pot or all kinds of other stuff from 5 meters depths. It's not like those bombs are lying out in the open, usually they are only appearing when doing contruction work or in this case, when rivers are so low that their beds are readily accessible. They are also not in the vast wilderness of unihabitated lands but usually right in the middle of urban centers which you just cant shut down to get a search team do their work. The costs are simply not maintainable.

[Sternjaeger II]

yep, I think that what most fail to understand is the sheer size of the bombed areas in mainland Europe.

[Sven]

They have found a ton of ammunition some years ago beneath one railway close to where I live. Mostly German 88 rounds, grenades and rifle ammunition.
Not very dangerous but a lot of drama of course.

[TomcatViP]

Originally Posted by Bewolf

Not if the ground is so cluttered with other kinds of metals that you have to stop every few meters to dig out a bike, a pot or all kinds of other stuff from 5 meters depths. It's not like those bombs are lying out in the open, usually they are only appearing when doing contruction work or in this case, when rivers are so low that their beds are readily accessible. They are also not in the vast wilderness of unihabitated lands but usually right in the middle of urban centers which you just cant shut down to get a search team do their work. The costs are simply not maintainable.

Ok Ok... overoptimistic mode was ON.

But still, this could work out of urban area. Hve a look at all the counter-IED work. And still they contains (for this very specific fact) few metal parts

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by TomcatViP

Ok Ok... overoptimistic mode was ON.

But still, this could work out of urban area. Hve a look at all the counter-IED work. And still they contains (for this very specific fact) few metal parts

Well, the problem is not a lack of metal, but too much of it. If you go into the city with a metal detector you probably get a flatline beep because there is so much of it. Bombs just vanish in this clutter. To find those bombs you actually would have to dig up every square meter and check for yourself, that is what makes it so tedious and unviable. Remember, those bombs are located underground, when they came down they sometimes buried themselves a dozen meters into the earth. Believe me, if Germany had a realistic working method to get rid of those things this country already would have done that.

In the coming years lots of those bomb fuzes will reach the end of their lifetime, and then things will become really interesting.