Discovery of WWII Bomb Sparks Mass Evacuation

[sce56]

Run time: 00:52 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28Lvh7E6q8   Posted on YouTube: December 03, 2011 By YouTube Member: AssociatedPress Views on YouTube: 10126   Posted on DU: December 04, 2011 By DU Member: sce56 Views on DU: 1751

 
Officials in the western German city of Koblenz were preparing to evacuate almost half of the city's residents following the discovery of a bomb left over from World War II at the bottom of the Rhine. They plan to detonate it sunday morning should be an interesting video to see. The bomb, weighing 4,000 pounds, and "packed with more than 3,000 pounds of explosives", was found in the Rhine River along with other unexploded ordnance, including a 275-pound American bomb and a German smoke grenade.


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/111203/wwii-bomb-be-detonated-koblenz-evacuates
A 10-foot WWII bomb discovered in the Rhine is set to be detonated on Sunday, causing about 45,000 citizens of Koblenz to evacuate the German city, BBC reported. The bomb, which was dropped by the RAF during the Second World War, was revealed after the water levels of the Rhine fell to an all-time low due to a November dry spell. The evacuation is the largest in Germany's post-war history, and includes seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison. Almost half of Koblenz's population (around 120,000 people) is being evacuated to a safe zone a mile away from the bomb, which is capable of destroying an entire city block, The Daily Mail reported.

The area has been blocked off by hundreds of sandbags, and the remainder of the water will be pumped out Sunday morning. It is expected to take several hours to make the bomb safe. The low water levels have already revealed four other unexploded bombs. An aerial bomb was found a few kilometers down river in Neuwie, which required around 1,000 people to evacuate, The Daily Mail reported. A smaller US bomb that was discovered is also expected to be detonated on Sunday, BBC reported.

[sce56]

1. What it looked like when a smaller one was detonated last year near Potsdam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfxFxKWbQpo

[AtheistCrusader]

4. I'm guessing every fish for a half mile in that river, just died.

[Mnemosyne]

2. War; the gift that keeps on giving. Imagine what 'leftovers' will be found sixty

years from now in Iraq, Afghanistan...

K&R

[burrowowl]

3. I guess it must be a

block buster. You are right, bombs, cluster bombs, etc. just keep giving and giving and giving ................!

[Mnemosyne]

6. Heartbreaking. n/t

[Enthusiast]

5. Cool!

I kid.

[sce56]

7. Bomb squads in Germany successfully defused on Sunday two bombs and disposed of an additional device

that had caused an evacuation of historic proportions in a city in the country's west. The 45,000 evacuated residents of the city of Koblenz, situated on the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, were allowed to return home. Workers rendered inert the two bombs, one 4,000-pound "air mine" and a smaller high-density explosive bomb. Then they destroyed a third non-explosive device by way of a controlled detonation, according to the Koblenz fire department.

The fire brigade had pre-warned the population about the controlled detonation to allay possible fears that one of the powerful bombs may have exploded. Life had come to a standstill in the western German city of Koblenz, where 45,000 people -- nearly half of the city´s population -- had been evacuated after the discovery of several dangerous World War II bombs.

"It's the largest German evacuation since the end of the war," fire brigade spokesman Ronald Eppelsheim said Sunday.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/04/world/europe/germany-city-evacuation/index.html?hpt=hp_t3