WW2 German bomb exploded in English town

[Silly Moustache]

A 100kg bomb - referred to as a "Herman" bomb was uncovered during excavation of some land close to Exeter University and many private homes yesterday.



https://youtu.be/qeRMlEHs8uU

There are still frequent occurrences of un-exploded bombs turning up in the UK, especially during excavating farmland for building ever more housing developments.

Many were covered over in the fifties and sixties, and many exploded when bulldozers cleared bombsites in and around many of our towns and cities.

After a while it was thought to be "bad news" so the explosions weer often called "gas explosions, so as not to discourage people from moving back into formerly bombed areas.

When I was a child "UXB"s (or gas explosions) were a common news item -monthly if not weekly.

They rarely make he news nowadays and the last one was in December when a trawler hooked one and destroyed the boats causing "life changing" injuries to some of the crew.

[Nimiety]

At least it was a controlled detonation!

Hard to imagine that there are still "live" WW2 bombs kicking around - yet we've learned so little in the intervening years about peace.

[buddyhu]

Wow. Bombs older than I am being found and exploded.

[David Eastwood]

I've been watching Danger UXB, a 1979 British TV series, about the brave folks whose job it was to disarm these lurking hazards during the war.

It's a bit dated, but captures the extraordinary job these people did.

For those here in the US, it's on Acorn TV if you'd care to have a gander.

[Fishermike]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

I've been watching Danger UXB, a 1979 British TV series, about the brave folks whose job it was to disarm these lurking hazards during the war.

It's a bit dated, but captures the extraordinary job these people did.

For those here in the US, it's on Acorn TV if you'd care to have a gander.

My family watched that together on PBS back during its original US run. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the subject of the post. We really enjoyed the show at the time.

While the bomb that SM referred to was a biggie, it’s an unfortunate fact that there is a huge amount of undetonated ordinance out there waiting to ruin or end lives, especially in Southeast Asia. War is a tragedy that never completely ends.

[Bob Womack]

I live a few miles downriver from a large former WWII Naval weapons station, the place where they stored the shells, etc., from Navy ships while the ships were in port. This was the place that stored the powder and rounds for 16" battleship rounds that weighed as much as a Volkswagen Beetle and could be fired twenty miles. In the 1980s the site was converted to a university campus. My wife went there for a portion of her nursing studies and walked all over campus. After she left, the campus had to be shut down for a while because a large dump was discovered where huge amounts of ordnance had been dumped in a shallow defile and a small amount of dirt was tossed over it.

Bob

[gfirob]

I was working on a project in Israel once and we were filming what had once been an Arab village before the 1948 war. There was a beautiful olive grove in the village that had not been harvested and so we went to shoot some of these very old trees with the weathered Arab stone buildings in the background. We noticed that our usually very attentive Israeli fixer did not follow us into the olive grove and when we called out to him and asked him why, he said “Oh, that is a mine field from 1948”. We stood very still and then minced out way out carefully…

There are unexploded ordinance all over the world and it is often children who trip them off. WWII has left a lot in the UK and Germany and all over the old Soviet Union. Best to just stay home…

[KenL]

I just finished a book about Winston Churchill during the Blitz. I was astounded at the number of tons of bombs dumped on London and the rest of England during that time.

An interesting point was made in the book that Hitler made London "off limits" to bombing in the beginning, as he expected that the British would retaliate by bombing Berlin. Eventually nothing was off limits and both cities were hammered by the other side.

I love London, and believe that it is the greatest city in the world. To see the pictures of the damage the city and its people sustained during the war is heartbreaking.

[Jim Owen]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

I've been watching Danger UXB, a 1979 British TV series, about the brave folks whose job it was to disarm these lurking hazards during the war.

It's a bit dated, but captures the extraordinary job these people did.

For those here in the US, it's on Acorn TV if you'd care to have a gander.

And well worth the watch. It’s the first thing I thought of when I saw Andrew’s post.

[Silly Moustache]

It is a truism that there are inevitably still unexplored ordnance in the UK, and in particular in Germany where the RAF and USAAF carpet bombed so much.
all countries involved in WW2 are similarly affected.

However in France and Belgium farmers are still digging up , or accidentally revealing ordnance and remains of the trench warfare from WW1.

Incidentally, a while ago - I did some research on my paternal grandfather (an illegal immigrant from Sweden), who according to his death certificate was "decapitated" due to bombs dropped by enemy airman" in June 1917 - in central London.

It was the first air raid on London by aeroplanes (Gotha bombers) rather than Zeppelins.
My then five year old father was across the street with his mother when the bomb dropped through the office roof sending body parts showering down from his father's office.

Never once in my life would my father mention his father.

The small city where I live whlst very close to many fighter airfields suffered little war damage although one bombing raid bombed a junior school acting on incorrect information that it was a secret communications centre, and literally up the road from us is a new developement called "Liberator" Place which marks where a USAAF B-24 Liberator in May 1944 with three 1000lb bombs It killed three people and injured 36, and damaged hundreds of houses and other buildings.

Where I grow my fruit and veg, (and where my house is built was once an open mine and then a lake.

I've heard lots of stories from older folk who say that During the battle of Britain, many damaged fighters were dumped in the lake and prior to D day the Canadian army dumped whole trucks loaded with various "materiel" that they decided they couldn't take to France.

One day, it may be excavated but presently we are still digging up Anglo-Saxon and Roman remains.

Ah well, time to dig over my plots for my veggies! Who knows what I'll dig up this year?

[Silly Moustache]

This Stuka crashed somewhere kept (kinda) secret. because it is still there and houses have been built over the site.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Fishermike

My family watched that together on PBS back during its original US run. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the subject of the post. We really enjoyed the show at the time.

Ours did the same. Anthony Andrews was always excellent.

[Grizzly Adams]

It is surprising how long ordinance can remain volatile. I recall reading about a American Civil War collector you was killed while "cleaning up" a shell found on an old battledfield. Took him out, along with his house and the neighbors home.