45,000 evacuated in Germany - Unexploded 1.8 Ton WW2 British Bomb!

So WWII bombs are found fairly often. Presumably, for every one that's found, many more remain unfound. How often do they actually blow up? How viable are they after over 60 years? Is there only something like a 1% chance of the explosives actually being viable, but better safe than sorry?
 
Maybe it should serve as reminder and a form of pressure for them to bail out the eurozone......or else


:p
 
clv101 said:
So WWII bombs are found fairly often. Presumably, for every one that's found, many more remain unfound. How often do they actually blow up? How viable are they after over 60 years? Is there only something like a 1% chance of the explosives actually being viable, but better safe than sorry?
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It's British made, no fear of it working now :)
 
clv101 said:
So WWII bombs are found fairly often. Presumably, for every one that's found, many more remain unfound. How often do they actually blow up? How viable are they after over 60 years? Is there only something like a 1% chance of the explosives actually being viable, but better safe than sorry?
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If I remember correctly French farmers find tons of them every year, some do detonate in the machinery sometimes cause death of the farmer. I watched a documentary about this but cant remember what it was called.
 
my flat mate reckons that perticular size bomb was nicknamed a cookie, it wouldnt create much of a crater but it'l blow windows out and roofs off for a fair old distance around it
 
neil_g said:
well the shockwave will be 2km, the actual blast radius i imagine will be much more localised.
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shrapnel, etc.

would you really want to chance it? why dont you go and play with one, and report back and see if it does much damage :o

think about the **** storm the media would create if they never evacuated and it went off
 
setter said:
I remember watching the bbc series coast. In one episode they featured the cargo ship uss richard montgomery, the ship sank in the thames estuary with 1400 tons of munitions onboard. Although the chances of detonation are remote, it'd be one hell of a bang if it did go off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery
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286 × 2,000 lb (910 kg) bombs
4,439 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs of various types
1,925 × 500 lb (230 kg) bombs
2,815 fragmentation bombs and bomb clusters
Various explosive booster charges
Various smoke bombs, including white phosphorus bombs
Various pyrotechnic signals



omg, why dont they just fire a missile into it? surely having that much explosive just sitting there off the coast of the UK, is a stupid idea, just think of the muslims.
 
I watched a trawler off the coast which dragged up a large bomb. Watched the bomb squad remove, sink and detonate it underwater. Was an awesome sight
 
Craig1981 said:
They evacuated 45,000 people for one bomb? If it exploded, how much damage could it actually do?
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Robert1986 said:
A radius of 2km. Thats kinda a lot of damage.
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I don't think it could do much damage past the river, especially now they've got it surrounded with a barricade. I guess it could affect the buildings along the riverfront and they don't want people near the river hence the evacuation. And shrapnel could probably travel quite far.
 
Craig1981 said:
They evacuated 45,000 people for one bomb? If it exploded, how much damage could it actually do?
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Fair point - tis a health and safety thing ... some debris from a potential explosion might get that far... in reality only people in the immediate area are at any real risk.
 
if memory serves in some bombs of that era not only were there long delay timers to make sure the bomb went off after everyone was back from the evacuation, but there were also devices in place to make sure the bomb went off if someone attempted to disarm it.

as you can imagine, these devices were built to last quite a while, because they had to survive the impact, and sit in the ground for potentially several years while the war was still going on, so it might still be working today.

also, reading about the SS richard montgomery is scary stuff
 
Psycho Sonny said:
omg, why dont they just fire a missile into it? surely having that much explosive just sitting there off the coast of the UK, is a stupid idea, just think of the muslims.
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Maybe not such a good idea...

According to a BBC news report in 1970,[8] it was determined that if the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery exploded, it would throw a 1,000-foot (300 m) wide column of water and debris nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the air and generate a wave 16 feet (5 m) high. Almost every window in Sheerness (pop. c20,000) would be broken and buildings would be damaged by the blast.
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