OT: One tonne German bomb detonated in Exeter

couldn't have put the massive amount of sand around it then ....

I guess it depends how rusted it was - perhaps the Plus-Gas didn't work!

I remember when they screened the drama series "Danger UXB" the first time. Some episodes would introduce a new type of munition, and the following day there would be a flurry of calls to EOD teams around the country as people found that the interesting bit of WWII memorabilia they had stashed in a drawer was actually a live anti personnel mine or an incendiary device.

On two occasions when I was a kid in the 1950's I found what appeared to be clips of live 303 ammunition, one clip in the leaf-litter in some woodland, the other in an old barn, although the latter had wooden bullets IIRC, so I assume it was a practice round or even just a dummy. Brass casings, so I imagine there are still plenty of them waiting to be found.

The bomb at Bromley-by-Bow in 2008 was local to me so I recall it well. And my recollection is that the work was nothing like so simple. The controlled explosion was certainly more than the usual pop.

Picture here:

My Dad made some pocket money after the war (in rural Italy) collecting used and live bullets, shells, mortars that the US had left behind.

No. Too dangerous. For todays generation anyway

I'm sure our bomb disposal people have good records of the types of anti-handling device. ISTR that, with typical thoroughness, the Germans used to label their bombs and fuses well. Like us, they dropped a proportion with delay timers to target rescuers and bomb disposal experts.

That link gives the American spelling, "fuse" is correct in the UK

The "controlled explosion" was done after the area around it had been prepared and significant efforts made to contain the blast. Had they have tried moving it and accidentally detonated it without the containment, the bang would have been *significantly* more destructive.

Any generation would be foolhardy to move an ancient 1 tonne bomb through the streets.

On 01/03/2021 11:15, Chris Hogg wrote: ...

Wooden bullets were used as practice rounds in automatic weapons and machine guns. They provided enough resistance to operate the mechanism, but disintegrated shortly after leaving the muzzle.

I thought unscrewed the plug on the side and steamed the explsove out and then just burnt it ?.

It's a bit more compicated than that.

wwooossshhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ideally, yes, but apparently the fuse was in a poor state and they weren't prepared to risk either trying to unscrew it or go in any other way to melt out the explosive. Detonating it in situ and doing their best to direct the blast upwards was the favoured option.

Though strange to say that subtlety seems not to have made its way into the OED which AFAIC recognizes fuse or fuze as /verbs/ but when it comes to /nouns/ only has for fuze:

"Obsolete. rare. =FUSEE , also fuse-wheel"

Anyone have a spare retired colonel of artillery to address them?

Even to you?

Cheers, T i m

what?

Sory, but my two, now deceased, uncles were only majors,