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65 years later they're still dying from ww2 ordinance

There are tons and tons and more tons of unexploded ordinance left over from WW1 and WW2 through out Europe and the Pacific Islands. This was not the first casualties caused by unexploded ordinance, and. .unfortunately...it won't be the last.

OBIO
 
Unfortunately, the longer they go unfound, the more dangerous they get as the TNT destabilizes. It reverts back to volitility similar to raw nitro glycerine.

Ken
 
Well, the detonator just did what he should:

It's said that it was a US 1000 lbs. bomb with a celluloid-acetone ignitor ("chemischer Langzeitzünder", dunno how to translate this...).
So it wasn't a blind shell - it just took a little longer to blow up...

Wikipedia tells those long-term ignitors spontaneously go off about once a year:

26. Juni 1999 Nidda-Harb
28. September 2000 Burbach
10. Mai 2001 Bodman-Ludwigshafen
31. Dezember 2002 Stadtlohn
17. März 2003 Salzburg (Österreich, bei der Vorbereitung zur Entschärfung)
7. Oktober 2004 Linz (Österreich, bei Bauarbeiten oberhalb der Bombe)
3. Februar 2005 in Offenbach
5. April 2007 in Kassel
19. September 2008 in Wien (Österreich)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langzeitzünder

Still enough left...
 
They still find this stuff all the time. It's a miracle only so few deaths are claimed by these bombs.
 
Unexploded ordnance from WWII can be found in the US, literally in a persons backyard. A number of years in San Diego County several school children found an unexploded mortar round. Some of those kids were tragically killed when the round went off. It seems that the housing tract they lived in had once been a weapons range during the forties. The Association of Aviation Ordnancemen began giving lectures at schools to teach the kids the hazards and deadly consequences of playing with UXB's. Not sure if they still are doing it but it has saved countless lives in the San Diego area.

As a retired Aviation Ordnanceman I implore anyone who has a souvenir piece of ordnance from a small arms cartridge to things larger to have them removed from you residence. That "safe" dud can and will detonate after a while. As Ken Stallings states, dud and unfired ordnance will degrade to highly unstable compounds that are shock, heat and electro-magnetic sensitive. Here in Kern County California the Sheriffs Office bomb squad will pick up your grandads souvenirs with few or no questions.
 
The creepy bit is: there was a place of wasteland were I always went with the dog at my former place of residence. When I moved they decided to build a school there and guess what? They found several bombs there. At any building sites here you can expect one or a few of them to be disharmed. Only this time it was very bad luck for the professionals. Not a job I´d like to do! Feel sorry for them and the families, they do a great job! Fortunately it works out most of the time and accidents like these don´t happen often.

Alex
 
UXB is an older term for UneXploded Bomb. Same as UXO but more easily understood by the general population.
 
Those bomb disposal guys are heroes of our nation. I am touched some Americans here have the decency to say something nice about them, and I want to thank them.
 
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