WW2 British bomb found in Koblenz causes 45000 people evacuation

[fruitbat]

There's a liberty ship that sank off the coast of Sheerness, can see it at low tide.



Navy divers won't go near, its to unstable, some say sooner or later it will go bang, probably taking most of Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppy with it, some say it won't, who knows.

On board,

13,064 general purpose 250lb bombs
9,022 cases of fragmenting bombs
7,739 semi-armour piercing bombs
1,522 cases of fuses
1,429 cases of phosphorous bombs
1,427 cases of 100lb demolition bombs
817 cases of small arms ammunition

http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/i...montgomery.htm

Arguably, if you've ever been to the isle of Sheppy (the isle of 6 toes) this can be viewed with a positive spin.

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by fruitbat

There's a liberty ship that sank off the coast of Sheerness, can see it at low tide.



Navy divers won't go near, its to unstable, some say sooner or later it will go bang, probably taking most of Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppy with it, some say it won't, who knows.

On board,

13,064 general purpose 250lb bombs
9,022 cases of fragmenting bombs
7,739 semi-armour piercing bombs
1,522 cases of fuses
1,429 cases of phosphorous bombs
1,427 cases of 100lb demolition bombs
817 cases of small arms ammunition

http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/i...montgomery.htm

Arguably, if you've ever been to the isle of Sheppy (the isle of 6 toes) this can be viewed with a positive spin.

Doesn't even need to explode to be highly dangerous, when the casings erode and all the bad stuff goes out into the environment. But if there is a real danger of exploding the government will have to take action, everything else would be crass irresponsible.

That aside, I understand the need to get rid of all the ammo after WW2, but the kind of action taken reminds me of todays nuclear waste and other environmental harm, not a problem today, lets those in the future sort it out.

[Sternjaeger II]

yep, it seems to be in a very critical area

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=SS++...omery&t=h&z=13

I don't think there's a safe way to operate in the area, since there's no accurate mapping of the load and the conditions (water pollution, streams, conditions of explosives) would make it into a suicide mission..

I think that it's better left as it is, but I agree, if that set off, it would probably change the coastline!

[Al Schlageter]

Watch the program 'Trashopolis - Berlin'. Berlin has an active bomb finding crew which uses old after mission bomb photos and hand held ground scanners.

Back in May,

WWII bomb discovery causes massive evacuation in Berlin
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110526-35281.html

[csThor]

Every german federal state has a dedicated service to find, remove and get rid of unexploded bombs and any kind of other WW2 weapons junk. I guess it's one of the most crisis-proof jobs available ... There's so much to be done that the federal state of Brandenburg alone estimates it will take another six to seven generations to remove most of it.

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by Al Schlageter

Watch the program 'Trashopolis - Berlin'. Berlin has an active bomb finding crew which uses old after mission bomb photos and hand held ground scanners.

Back in May,

WWII bomb discovery causes massive evacuation in Berlin
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110526-35281.html

Interesting thanks for posting.
Every German State has them, its called Kampfmittelräumdienst (iirc its called Bomb disposal unit in english) it belongs to the German Police force, also there are private Companies in Bavaria which are on the behalf of the Bavarian Government and in Hamburg the Bomb disposal unit is part of the Fire department.

Here is a news article from Oktober 2011, which states that 117 unexploded WW2 Devices which includes Bombs and other kinds of ammo where found in Bavaria alone in 2010. Total weight of them was about 50 tons.
Bavaria spends 700.000 Euro per Year only for Bomb Disposal.
It says further that 117 Unexploded WW2 devices found means almost every third day something is found.
http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/...d17023476.html

June 2010: Explosion of 500lbs kills thre member of Bomb disposal crew:
http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/...id7928386.html

[csThor]

I for one wouldn't want to do that job - not for all the money in the world. I once helped a friend of our family dig out the fundaments of the house he'd bought and while digging I suddenly came face-to-detonator with an unexploded 120mm mortar round of german make. We had to call the Kampfmittelräumdienst and they dug out another mortar round, some decayed remnants of infantry weapons and ammunition, a few hand grenades and a Panzerfaust. Quite a sobering experience ...

[JMB]

Here are a couple of links to the RAF Fauld bomb dump explosion of 1944.

Wikipedia Link to Fauld Explosion

Tutbury History Site

Contemporary Aerial View of Fauld Crater

The moral of the story being don't tinker with bombs using incorrect tools. I'm guessing that much of the ordnance stored here wasn't fused, yet it still exploded after the incident with the initial fused bomb. Could this occur with the ordnance on the Sheerness Liberty Ship? An initial explosion (by whatever means - chemical degradation, lightning strike, diving activity etc) triggering the rest of the cargo.

JMB

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by fruitbat

There's a liberty ship that sank off the coast of Sheerness, can see it at low tide.

Navy divers won't go near, its to unstable, some say sooner or later it will go bang, probably taking most of Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppy with it, some say it won't, who knows.

On board,

13,064 general purpose 250lb bombs
9,022 cases of fragmenting bombs
7,739 semi-armour piercing bombs
1,522 cases of fuses
1,429 cases of phosphorous bombs
1,427 cases of 100lb demolition bombs
817 cases of small arms ammunition

http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/i...montgomery.htm

Arguably, if you've ever been to the isle of Sheppy (the isle of 6 toes) this can be viewed with a positive spin.

Ok if this was a Ammo Transport ship which i assume then the Bombs are not equipped with fuzes, so there is a little risk for an explosion, but there is an imminent risk for the enviroment if those stuff contaminates the water.

May i ask how the ship was sunk?
Accident, air raid or U-Boot?

[fruitbat]

Originally Posted by Kongo-Otto

Ok if this was a Ammo Transport ship which i assume then the Bombs are not equipped with fuzes, so there is a little risk for an explosion, but there is an imminent risk for the enviroment if those stuff contaminates the water.

May i ask how the ship was sunk?
Accident, air raid or U-Boot?

Accident,

Having crossed the Atlantic Ocean with the probability of attack by u-boat, she arrived in the Thames estuary on route to her final destination of Cherbourg. During the night of 20th August 1944 she swung around at her moorings and run aground on the Sheerness middle sand. Her plates quickly began to crack and buckle and her remaining crew abandoned ship.