Ok...

[Dixon Cannon]

Two questions that I have been pondering for some time now. Let me run this up the flagpool and see who salutes!

Has anyone ever done a study to calculate how much lead was sprayed from Allied aircraft over Europe during WWII? When one considers, what goes up must come down, there must have been a tremendous amount of lead (bullets) falling from machine gun fire all over the continent. (Never mind the amount from ground fire - which is for another discussion.) It seems that there would have been quite a lot of collateral damage and injury from falling projectiles as well as debris, yet I read very little if anything which documents it. [We're all aware of "ramdom gun fire" laws in metropolitan areas - in Phoenix, a young girl was killed instantly by a falling bullet from the sky in her own backyard!]. Certainly there must have been similar deaths and injuries during the numerous battles of the air war.

Secondly, when one considers the amount of lead the has accumulated in the "flanders fields" of Europe, certainly all that lead in the soil must effect crops and livestock. Is there any mention anywhere what effects that lead accumulation has had on food production? (I know some rural lakes in hunting areas of the U.S. have been damatically effected by two century's lead shotgun pellet accumulation, impacting fish and fowl poplulations, for instance.)

Just one of those subjects that keeps coming up in my mind and thought some others may have opinions, anecdotes, or stories.

Commence rational discussion....now!

-dixon cannon

 

[dhermann1]

There was a documentary where they excavated a tiny strip of the WW I trenches, and found a staggering density of material just below the surface. The thing about that war, however, was that virtually all of the carnage and destruction was confined to the narrow ten mile strip which comprised the two front lines.
There must be some government statistics of the total number of rounds fired by at least the US. If you take comparable proportions for the other theaters of war, yoy might get a rough estimate. I'll bet Twitch will have an idea where to look.
Most rounds would have had steel jackets, right? I wonder how that would affect the process of the lead getting into the environment.

 

[Twitch]

In just the Schweinfurt raid between the hours of 1439-1457 the 228 B-17s dropped 450 1,000 lb. high explosive bombs, 663 500 lb. HE bombs 1,751 100 lb. incendiary bombs and expended 697,828 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition.

Most of the ball rounds had a steel jacket over the lead core but once fired the bottom of the lead is exposed from about a 1/2 inch recessed from the rim that was held by the cartridge case.

I don't think I've ever seen a total of rall ordnance expended throughout the entire war.

 

[Danny L]

Interesting.

I was stationed in Germany for eight years and toured a lot of WW2 and WW1 battlefields. It always amazed how many foxholes and trenches still exist in the Ardennes region. Just about everywhere off the side of the roads in forest, you can find foxholes. Found lots of boot soles, remains of wool blankets and tons of shrapnel and expended and unfired ammo. You occasionally find live arty and motor rounds too! :eusa_doh:

One thing that intrigued me was using a metal detector in my wifes family's backyard. They lived just north of Saarbrucken. Found a fired .50cal bullet under a few inches of earth. I looked all through books that I own and could not find any particular battle fought in that area, so I assume it came from the sky which makes more sense. I imagine there are tons of .50cal slugs all over Europe.

Here is some stuff I dug up while in Germany.

Mess tin.

Top of German grenade.

.50 cal slug

S-Mine or Bouncing Betty fuze.

Grouping of S-Mine fuzes I found in a forest near the base I was stationed at. There were tons more in the area that used to be a storage location. All the primers on these have been fired and completely safe.