uxb

[MrBern]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4806036.stm



School's WWII bomb polished off

Generations of pupils unknowingly walked past a live World War II shell that had been the centrepiece of a display at a Devon secondary school.
The 3ft high, 111lb (50.3kg) German device had been regularly polished at St Peter's High School in Exeter.

It had been donated by an RAF Lancaster bomber crew member to the school's Combined Cadet Force in the 1960s.

But a bomb disposal team from Plymouth was called in when a military visitor realised the warhead was live.

The device, which contained 2lb (0.9kg) of explosive, was taken away to Sandy Bay firing range near Exmouth under police escort, and blown up.

The school declined to comment.

Acting Sergeant Mat Helm from Exmouth Police said: "It went off with quite a bang.

"I think the school are fortunate it didn't go off beforehand."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/devon/4806036.stm

Published: 2006/03/14 21:59:23 GMT

?Ǭ© BBC MMVI

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Pretty scary.

I read something a few years ago about how they are constantly finding very dangerous and extremely unstable unexploded shells from WW1 in Belgium. Giant sized shells with hundreds of pounds of high explosives in them that just buried themselves deep into the mud without going off. Large amounts of rainfall will sometimes wash away enough earth in the fields to expose a block buster!

 

[LaMedicine]

Well, here, we have news from time to time of discovery of bombs from air raids in WWII, from all over the country. They are often uncovered at construction sites, and sometimes buried under buildings that have just been demolished to build new ones.

Only a couple of weeks ago, there was news of such a bomb discovered while digging the foundations for an annex of the city office in the city right next to where I live, the border being only a 10 minute walk away. They city was planning to evacuate people within the radius of half a mile or so to excavate the bomb and remove it sometime this month.
I think I have heard there used to be a weapons factory and a military base in the particular area, so it was heavily bombed a number of times. As a result, the city office and its adjacent area, which is a very densely populated area now, right on the outer limits of central Tokyo, is sitting on numerous un-detonated bombs, and some people term the area "Bomb Ginza".

A rather scary legacy from over 60 years ago.

 

[MikeyB17]

It's a fairly regular occurence here in the UK too, UXB's are often being dug up on building sites and the like, especially in places which were heavily bombed-the nearest one to me is Plymouth, which took quite a heavy pounding from the Luftwaffe. Some of the guys in our diving club found a land mine underwater some years ago, and there are wrecks all over the place in these waters with explosives on board. It's not unusual to see the Landrovers of the Navy Bomb disposal boys down our way.

MB-17

 

[MrBern]

100 yr old ordinance?

kid finds explosive cannonball

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/14147806.htm