Seems like a scary river to swim in if they are still finding these.City evacuates 45,000 to defuse massive WWII bomb
BERLIN (AP) Officials in Germany's western city of Koblenz say some 45,000 residents have to be evacuated as officials try to defuse a World War II era bomb discovered in the Rhine river.
City officials said Saturday the massive British 1.8 ton bomb will be defused early Sunday, requiring all residents within a radius of about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the bomb site to leave their homes for the day.
Officials say seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison are also being evacuated. Train and road traffic in the area, some 130 kilometers northwest of Frankfurt, will come to a halt.
The British bomb was found last week alongside a 275 pound bomb dropped there by U.S. forces during WWII, after Rhine's water level fell due to lack of rain.
DISARMING INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Drain surrounding water from around bomb.
2) Expose tip of bomb by carefully removing surrounding mud.
3) Smack tip of bomb with large sledge hammer until bomb is disarmed.
Smack tip of bomb with large sledge hammer until bomb is disarmed.
Why not detonate the thing? Would be much more fun!
Why are they wasting money evacuating a prison?
The Rhine river strikes once again:
http://news.yahoo.com/city-evacuates-45-000-defuse-massive-wwii-bomb-121824087.html
Seems like a scary river to swim in if they are still finding these.
On a side note I did laugh at one of the comments:
no big deal, happens all the time. We still find tons of WW1 and W2 munition here every year (including nasty chemical stuff). There is so much stuff that the Belgian army build a special plant in the Ypres area to handle all this. Sometimes farmers hit big ammunition dumps, the latest one a few months was more then 3,5 ton of chemical ammo
^^ they used to make and drop bombs in so much quantity that its a wonder some didnt blow up before they were dropped.
That's a good point. Perhaps the mechanisms put in place to prevent premature detonation has a lot to do with why so many failed to detonate at all. Production was so massive as well that there was bound to be a certain percentage of defective units and I can't really imagine there being much in the way of quality control.
believe it or not, we have that issue here where I live. The old military base here CFB London (formally Wolsely Barracks) needed cleaning up of old ordinance.Doesn't only happen in Europe.
Home developers who buy up military bases find a lot of unexploded munitions.
(And sometimes the home owner.)
Human error might have had a hand in it as well, if they fail to arm the bomb properly, it should not go off.
This is horrible! Those poor Germans, the British should have to pay reparations, the RAF was so cruel and inhuman to use such a bomb!
Sigh, if this was an American bomb in Japan, the media would have a field day...
Really? http://english.ryukyushimpo.jp/2011/09/13/2876/This is horrible! Those poor Germans, the British should have to pay reparations, the RAF was so cruel and inhuman to use such a bomb!
Sigh, if this was an American bomb in Japan, the media would have a field day...
which bomb was it? wikipedia seems to be fail at this.
blast radius can't be 45000 people worth, thats a-bomb level right?
Schadenfroh likes to go on ignorant wingnut rants all the time.