WW2 British bomb found in Koblenz causes 45000 people evacuation

[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