Berlin's Tegel airport littered with unexploded WWII bombs

[Robbien]

Source: The Daily Telegraph



GERMAN authorities are preparing to clear hundreds bombs left from World War II that are strewn under Berlin's busiest airport.

There are so many explosives - bombs and grenades - that litter the ground around Tegel airport that more than 500 sites will be excavated to finally make it safe for passenger jets if they stray off the tarmac.

. . .

However, Spiegel Online has reported that, "an officially commissioned report cited in the press earlier this year described ‘live munitions near the ground surface’ that could be detonated by vehicles, airplanes or ‘mowing and landscape work that digs into the earth.’ It called Tegel an 'objectively dangerous situation’.”

The German magazine continued, saying: “Within Germany, the problem of unexploded bombs is far from rare.

“The country is still contaminated with bombs - just a fraction of the more than 2.7 million tons of explosives dropped by Allied forces over Germany during the Second World War.

“Experts warn the hazardous relics are becoming increasingly unstable with age. “


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24960927-5013605,00.html

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Sixty years from now Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia along with Lebanon and Gaza will be finding unexploded bombs inscribed with the Made In USA label.

[Taverner]

1. Well at least something is still Made in the USA

So that means we're number 1 in death and destruction

U
S
A
!


U
S
A
!

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. Wonder how many German munitions are underground in, oh, most of Europe

Probably not many, since they were mostly delivering flowers to their neighbors. :sarcasm:

[Taverner]

4. Yeah I remember somewhere reading that most of the unexploded ordinances are German

And we're talking a difference of 4 to 1 for everyone else's.

[Alcibiades]

9. Not in Berlin

Very heavily bombed by the British and Americans, so most of the bombs there are from the allies. I spent a number of years in Berlin back when it was still an occupied city. These "there are still bombs in Berlin" stories happen regularly, though there's been a bit of a surge in these stories since reunification, thanks to the building boom. It should be bigger news when there are no bombs left in Berlin.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. O-R-D-N-A-N-C-E

please?

[uppityperson]

12. Story from Normandy for you...

family drove by a neighboring farmer's farmyard and went back to take a look at the pile of "what was that?" by his barn. It was a pile of (I don't have the right terms but 2 -3 ft long bombs, exploding things) that they had dug up in their farmyard. They ended up calling someone to come in and take a look, they called the larger French bomb squad to come make it safe for people to be anywhere near there again. Oh yes, this was in the last couple yrs.

They said people are always finding stuff, they have schrapnel in their shutters, but this was a pretty good pile of stuff that could go "boom".

[Thothmes]

5. It is to bad that the damn things didnt go off in 1944.

[naaman fletcher]

16. did u read the article?

These were made in ww2, and we dropped them on the nazis. You have a problem with that?

[Duckhunter935]

2. or USSR, Great Britain, Germany

They have been finding munitions since the war over there. They dropped many times the amount that is done now and they also had a higher failure rate back then

[Thothmes]

6. They still find munitions from WWI all over the old Western Front.

[fedsron2us]

8. If you visit the old Somme battlefields or Vimmy ridge

there are signs warning you not to wander off the paths because some of the woods are full of unexploded ordnance. In Belgium some villages are close to massive underground British mines that failed to detonate during the battles of 1917.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Battle-of-Messines

[Thothmes]

14. I remember those signs. I have been there and Verdun

[Hangingon]

7. France is still digging up UXO from WW1

[david13]

10. What I can't

understand is why they are in such a big hurry to clean these things up. I mean, it's only been 60 years. Aren't they supposed to wait 100 or 200 years or something like that?
dc

[Hangingon]

15. corroded as hell on the outside...

still clean as a watch inside.

[NBachers]

13. A guy got killed last year trying to disarm Civil War ordnance

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?p=227444

More info on Civil War UXB's:

http://www.powhatantoday.com/index.php/news/article/bos-may-create-rules-for-civil-war-ordnance/11330/