Text 23394, 46 rader
Skriven 2011-12-10 08:22:54 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 23377 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
Ärende: Today's date
====================
Janis Kracht wrote to Herman Neut on Friday December 09 2011 at 14:36:

JK> I saw in the news recently that a few WWII bombs surfaced in Koblenz
JK> Germany...

Actually, this is a fairly common occurrence here in Germany. The only thing
unusual in Koblenz was the size of the bomb.

We've had several bombs defused here in Datteln, too. In one case, the street
where my son works was blocked off for a couple of hours to allow removal of a
bomb that had been discovered near it.

Before you build anything in areas that were bombed during the war, you have to
have the site investigated and declared safe by the government bomb removal
service ("Kampfmittelraeumungsdienst").

These people have details of all the bombing raids during the war, pictures of
the bombings and of the results afterwards, and can pinpoint where unexploded
bombs can still be present. Then they go in with metal detectors and drills to
locate the bomb, excavate it (they can be located as deep as 15-30 feet below
the surface), and send in an expert to defuse it before removing it to an
arsenal for disposal. These experts are quite good, and there are very few
accidents when defusing the bombs - over the last decades, I've only read about
one.

But there's always a danger in Germany when you excavate anywhere with
machines. Around ten years ago, they were widening an Autobahn and an excavator
hit a bomb buried in the earth. It exploded, killed the operator and threw
several passing cars off the road. The area had not been examined for duds
beforehand, as it wasn't in a built-up area. Probably the bomb was simply
jettisoned after a raid when the plane was heading for home.

JK> My husband and I saw that report and first thought how bad it would be
JK> if there wasn't anyone alive who still would be an "expert" at
JK> diffusing those old bombs.. not something you'd want someone doing who
JK> was not experienced, if you know what I mean <grin>  But the fellow
JK> who was in charge seemed quite the expert :)

They are. They do this kind of thing every day, and know the types of bombs
that were used inside out. Occasionally they talk about their work on TV - very
interesting stories.

Cheers, Bob

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