Cookie found in Dortmund

Ah that’s better. What better way to start the day off with a bang, a nice juicy UXB Story over breakfast. Any more stories guys? Anything from SD2’s to Satan’s and magnetic mines will do. Wouldn’t mind betting there could be some of these in Plymouth sound. Oh plus type 17 fuses with Zus 40 and Crabtree fuse dischargers. Yum. :eagerness:

For those from Plymouth,if you have stood on the jetty at “Devils Point”then you are a few yards from an UXB !!I used to dive from there and now if the tide has not moved it it is no more than 30/40 metres from where you stand!!!

Bombgone hits the nail on the head, it never fails to amaze me that a lot of this type ordnance still exists because of how the things were made and the technology of the time that didnt make it go BANG.

The ‘cookie’ in question didnt look too far down in the ground to start with. We get to here of these being found but rarely get to see or hear about how they were disposed of. Do they steam them out, and if so who gets to keep the casing, or are they scrapped?

There was a cookie found in a river in Germany some months ago, I have not found out how that was dealt with and how, and that for me is the fascinating point to these tales!

No offence taken, it’s a pity about the drift in the first place.

I apologise for my rather sharp reply.

No not a Moderator. I see your point, trouble is you see a new post thinking its to do with the subject, only to be disappointed. No offence meant of course. 🙂

So sorry, I didn’t realise you are a moderator.

Off topic maybe, but when posts like that are made a response is needed.

Drifting off topic AGAIN are we. Doesn’t matter who’s at fault. The topic is a WW2 Bomb that has been dealt with. No doubt there will be more as the years go by. I find as with all my WW2 Interest, and maybe most here as well, its the mechanical engineering aspect of it, and the difference between ours and theirs. The politics don’t interest me in the slightest.

Please keep on Topic.

Please, will it happen again with Germany in a word, no. Just because a certain Austrian became Chancellor in ’33 (80 years ago) doesn’t mean it will happen again. Reality check is needed me thinks.

I was answering posts 16,and 28, and as for post 31! how can you say it does, not now matter who started them, if we do not remember who did, it could happen for a 3rd time.
It was allowed to happen in 1933…

The problem is we have had 2 wars with Germany. It doesn’t now matter who started them, as stated the last one ended 68 years ago! How long will people like you continue with ‘well it’s there fault’ attitude? I dispair.

The picture of the bombs in one of the replies shows drainpipe sized bombs.
Are these photo flashes?

Are Allied bombs more dangerous than German. I don’t recall a British person being killed by an old wartime one?

it,s simply if we had,nt had the 2 world wars then these UXB,s would not now be causing problems…

So the digger driver was at fault because he was German and proberbly not even born until after the war had ended?

I’m sorry, but I fail to understand your logic.
Yes two generations died, yes the veterans of the Second world War, and indeed every other war, campaign, skirmish since carries the suffering. The Jewish holocaust, the huge Russian losses and German & British civilian losses are all victims of someones aggression.
Just dont forget our own colourful history of the art of war through the centuries, for we have been aggressors too!

Would you like to explain this to the family of the young Caterpillar driver who was killed in Germany a few years ago when he dug into an unknown, unexploded bomb at a road works site?

Or to the bomb disposal squads who put their lives at stake every time one of these devices is found (and sometimes on top receive a lot of public criticism, as in the case of the recent Munich bomb)?

This is a very real and very dangerous problem for very real people, many, many of whom were not even born in WW2. Which incidentally ended some 68 years ago, so maybe it’s time to look forward now?[/QUOTE]

hi,
with acknowledgement to Bruce post 17,i would still like to reply,

No I would hate to have to but what off the others who have died in France, Holland, Belgium, since 1914 solely due to Germany starting 2 wars…
the BD Squads have my deepest admiration, and credit to them for the danger they endure, I would/could not do it, but the base cause of this danger is again German aggression.
Yes it did end 68yrs ago, and as you say lets look forward, but we must never forget Europe lost 2 generations to war, and people are still suffering as a result. Ask the vet,s and their families also the Jewish people…
So I still stand by my statement if Germany had not started the wars- people would not be dying now from armaments used…

That’s nothing I have found a Cookie on my Computer

Thank you ! That made me laugh.

I remember it well 🙂

Just in case you may be interested there was a TV Series made for television in the late 1970’s “Danger UXB” Very authentic showing defusing German bombs and the new gadgets used. 13 episodes in all. Well worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=danger+uxb+episode+2&oq=danger+uxb&gs_l=youtube.1.2.0l10.2582.7479.0.17597.10.8.0.2.2.0.98.683.8.8.0…0.0…1ac.1.11.youtube.B1kqknRwy6c

Also there is an original black and white 1940’s training film on defusing UXB’s DVD. Available from Amazon.

It’s probably something which is nigh on impossible to calculate, but I wonder what percentage of bombs
failed to explode on impact ?

It still pales into insignificance when you compare it to the death and injuries still caused by UXBs from WWI.

Same in The Netherlands. The Army and 5 private companies together are estimated to clear about 4,000 sites a year. That’s anything ranging from grenades to sea mines and aircraft bombs.

In 2005 three Dutch fishermen were killed when a aircraft bomb they had accidently caught in their nets went up on the deck. In 1978 a gentlemen was killed in a digger accident by a UXB. In the late 1980s a fishing vessel was nearly sunk when a bomb blew up just under it when hauling in the nets. And that’s not even going through the stories of people still losing hands to WW2 handgrenades being found on beaches, in fields, etc.

I was at Eindhoven airfield when they were clearing just one area of UXB’s to build houses there ten years ago. Hundreds of UXB’s turned up, ranging from shells to 2,000 pounders.

This old explosives stuff is still a very real problem in a lot of countries.