How "stable" are 63 year old bombs?

Was anybody tempted to go up behind the photographer with a blown up crisp packet ?

Evil, Mr. Hindenburg, just evil! :D:D:D

Was anybody tempted to go up behind the photographer with a blown up crisp packet ?

The Mosquito ones yesterday were removed from the site, and will be exploded by the Navy in the Northsea. They were rather big.BW Roger

Tesco’s on Commercial Rd (opposite the old hospital next to the tax office) in Pompey used a live 6in naval shell as a door stop for years. One day some matelot from the UXB squad walked in there to do some shopping noticed it. Evacuations were started etc & then some bloke carted it away to detonate someplace else (unfortunately not under the tax office)..

In a few hours time, around 06.00hrs lt, half of the village will be evacuated. Then, between 11.00 and 16.00 the 2 bombs will be made safe. Hope to have pics around this time on Sunday. In the dig, lots of amunition was found, aswell as the 2 500 pounders, one at a depth of 1 1/2 meters, the other at 2.5 meters at a distance of the houses of 10 meters (I was told).

BW Roger

Keep us posted pictures would be good, sounds interesting, we hope to hear from you again, not sure I would be too close with my luck, all the best.

Monday, a start was made to salvage the Mosquito. Today they found the first 500 punder, intact at a depth of 1.5 meters / 5 ft. So we were right. There were explosives. The search continius for the 2nd one. BW Roger

I wonder what can happen when a lightning strucks the field?

BW Roger

I would have thought it more likely to be an F104 🙂

The bit about conkers and 1000 lbs of explosive sounds about right for government mishandling in any country. H&SE are very good at over regulating things that don’t need regulating yet at the same time failing to regualted things that really do need it. I guess politicians are much the same in any country.

re

In this health and safety obsessed age it is hard to believe that kids are not allowed to play conkers but paid people who are supposed to act in the interest of the public can ignore 1000lb of explosive.

I have never heard of bombs being washed up and going off allthough living near the coast there are examples often detonated by BD teams. About 10 years ago a couple of goons from my school informed their father they had found a bomb on the beach. Where is it he asked. They had carried it through Chapel St Leonards and put it in the garage. 🙁

Mind you the same one had an air pistol stuck in his face and asked me if it was a toy…

😀

Both Airforce Salvage Unit and EOC are fully aware of the situation. The Municipality has decided however that there is minimal danger if the site is left undisturbed.
They have sought expert advice elswhere to justify this decision. Unfortunately they are ( up to now) reluctant to disclose the source of the above mentioned expertise.

Edward

Problably some local councillor got the information from his grandmother’s cat minder. In political circles that counts for expert advice:D We all know what an expert is, don’t we?
Ex= was, has been, used to be
Spurt= drip under pressure.
Sorry, just me being facetious again.

Earth movement

Something this ‘wonder’ council does not appear to have taken into account is natural movement of the earth. I live in Limburg and have found bits of spent munitions from WWll which have come to the surface over the years. I can imagine the instant panic if this Mosquito breaks through the surface one day.
I used to work at Schiphol Airport and remember when excavation was being done for a new hangar. If I recall correctly, several uxbs were found. The clearance included on-site detonations, which required all personnel being sent away for some time whilst the Bomb Disposal Team did the business. Made a lot of people in the other hangars think when they dropped tools.
Also, with regard to the break down of old munitions. Some years ago I met a Royal Navy mine disposal officer, who told me he had been called to a mine snagged in a fisherman’s net. It had been placed by the Germans during the war and some forty years later, the six month life battery showed itself to be at peak capacity. So much for natural decaying.
I wouldn’t be very happy living in the houses shown in the picture and we can all guess who those residents will be voting for at the next local elections.
Good luck with the campaign BW Roger
JamesA

Thanks everybody so far. Yes, the situation is a lunatic one. This morning, we managed to get 2 pages in a nationwide paper, so that is the first move. This morning I was called by the radio/tv here, and they are also going to give attention to the situation. So, I think the cityhall is not going to like it at all. Getting al the publicity one can is the only way to handle these stupid politicians in my opinion. I don’t understand why they are gambling with the situation. If the wreck is raised (and it is near the surface as at 4 meters rock hard sand is preventing any penetration), and if ammunition is found the salvage operation will be paid for by the governement, not the cityhall, so what is the deal. With 2 500 pounders, and 4 machineguns in the nose, there will always be found explosives.

BW Roger

Don’t understand why they are gambling with this situation. Simple answer to that my friend, they are not going to be near enough to be injured/killed if the bombs explode. As far as politicians are concerned the voting public don’t count.
Someone mentioned in an earlier post that the behaviour of explosives varies with the surroundings and this is very true. In the army we were always told that the lowly hand grenade had a blast radius of 5-10 metres on soft sand but 50-75 metres on concrete. The advice was if it would land on a hard surface and you could’t get behind cover don’t throw one because you can’t be sure that you can throw it that far.

How stable is WW2 ordnance?
ask these guys who found some in Russia:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70dG455RFCs

Well, all the publicity and our actions has backired into the council hall members, as it now has decided that the wreck is dangerous and shall be salvaged (most probably) next year BW Roger

Highly improbable, and probably not dangerous (says he who lives safely many hundreds of miles distant.)

Your local officials do seem a bit complacent.

Moggy

The chances are astronomical, but it has happened… one of the mines under Messines Ridge near Ypres didn’t go off in 1917 when it was supposed to but exploded in 1955, allegedly touched off by a lightning strike….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/12/wbomb12.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/12/ixnewstop.html

And there are 5 others _still_ sitting there, with something like 100 tons of 90 year old, unexploded HE between them….

I wonder what can happen when a lightning strucks the field?

BW Roger

Highly improbable, and probably not dangerous (says he who lives safely many hundreds of miles distant.)

Your local officials do seem a bit complacent.

Moggy

To “explain”the situation a bit better, here is a pic. The farmer and the cameraman are standong ON the wreck ( below between 0,5 and 4 meters) while the people from the houses ( 150 meters according to the cityhall) are watching what is going on. The citycouncel also stated that the bombs are safe as long as they are at least 0,5 meters in the ground.

I wonder what can happen when a lightning strucks the field?

BW Roger

Didn’t 20%-30% of RAF bombs (excluding HC types) that were dropped fail to explode anyway. If that is the case there must be thousands buried beneath cities all over Europe.

How many of these have suddenly exploded since the war?

I know explosives tend to deteriorate with time but the evidence would suggest that the risk is low (at the current time) if left undisturbed.

Not much comfort if they are 25 metres from your house but it may explain the attitude of the local government.

If they do move them or try to disarm them in situ there would be considerably more risk. On examination they may decide there is no option but to detonate them in situ.

Obviously the Air Force Salvage Unit or EOCKL think the risks are worth while.

Just my two cents.

The problem is that just because they haven’t yet doesn’t mean that they won’t. There is no certainty unless they have been completely rendered inert.

Personally I would not like to be knowingly living on top of one of these.

Didn’t 20%-30% of RAF bombs (excluding HC types) that were dropped fail to explode anyway. If that is the case there must be thousands buried beneath cities all over Europe.

How many of these have suddenly exploded since the war?

I know explosives tend to deteriorate with time but the evidence would suggest that the risk is low (at the current time) if left undisturbed.

Not much comfort if they are 25 metres from your house but it may explain the attitude of the local government.

If they do move them or try to disarm them in situ there would be considerably more risk. On examination they may decide there is no option but to detonate them in situ.

Obviously the Air Force Salvage Unit or EOCKL think the risks are worth while.

Just my two cents.