The long tail of war
February 24, 2024 6:22 AM Subscribe
Yesterday, 'one of the largest UK peacetime evacuations' took place in Plymouth, Devon, after an unexploded World War 2 bomb was found in a residential garden.
After the discovery on Tuesday, the city was shut down and over 10,000 people were moved outside of a 200m (later extended to 300m) cordon so that the bomb could be dug out and driven (slowly) through the city before being taken out to sea and detonated. Amazingly, archivists have been able to pinpoint the date the bomb was dropped: 22/23 April 1941.
After the discovery on Tuesday, the city was shut down and over 10,000 people were moved outside of a 200m (later extended to 300m) cordon so that the bomb could be dug out and driven (slowly) through the city before being taken out to sea and detonated. Amazingly, archivists have been able to pinpoint the date the bomb was dropped: 22/23 April 1941.
Dredging works dug up a 5.4 tonne bomb in Świnoujście a few years back, with a 2500 metre cordon . That one was a British Tallboy, airdropped on a German warship evacuating in 1945. It made a bit of a splash. The drone footage is from the city side - you see mostly forest, but that's a busy shipping channel including an hourly ferry service connecting two parts of a port city of 40 thousand inhabitants just behind that drone.
Honestly, any earthworks in Poland just... factor in explosive WWII hardware as a part of the budget. I remember the utter puzzlement when the metro construction in Warsaw dug up a mammoth instead.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 8:00 AM on February 24 [18 favorites]
Honestly, any earthworks in Poland just... factor in explosive WWII hardware as a part of the budget. I remember the utter puzzlement when the metro construction in Warsaw dug up a mammoth instead.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 8:00 AM on February 24 [18 favorites]
I used to live in Koblenz where they found a 2,000 lb bomb along the Rhein several years back. It was about 200 meters from where I had lived up the hill, right next to a small shoreline park and fairly close to a grade school. I used to sit in that park because it was a beautiful place to just relax on the river.
It's a fairly common experience in Germany.
posted by moonbiter at 8:23 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]
It's a fairly common experience in Germany.
posted by moonbiter at 8:23 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]
he's heard the last of First World War bombs in Belgium should be cleaned up in another hundred years. WTH?!?!
Yes indeed. Belligerents plastered Belgium pretty thoroughly in fall 1914.
posted by doctornemo at 8:54 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]
Yes indeed. Belligerents plastered Belgium pretty thoroughly in fall 1914.
posted by doctornemo at 8:54 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]
the last of First World War bombs in Belgium should be cleaned up in another hundred years.
The Zone rouge is still being demined, Wikipedia says it’s hundreds of years from done, and has chemical warfare dead spots (plants all die) that we don’t know how to clean.
And only from WWI; think of the new poisons we have invented since.
posted by clew at 10:36 AM on February 24 [9 favorites]
The Zone rouge is still being demined, Wikipedia says it’s hundreds of years from done, and has chemical warfare dead spots (plants all die) that we don’t know how to clean.
And only from WWI; think of the new poisons we have invented since.
posted by clew at 10:36 AM on February 24 [9 favorites]
The best caption in one of the articles is under a picture of a truck from the road, reading:
The bomb was transported through the city
No big deal... shrug
posted by JoeXIII007 at 10:41 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]
The bomb was transported through the city
No big deal... shrug
posted by JoeXIII007 at 10:41 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]
Yesterday I read an article that concentrated on all the coordination and cooperation it took to do the evacuation. Can’t find it now but it was both cheering and bracing. Anyone?
posted by clew at 11:15 AM on February 24
posted by clew at 11:15 AM on February 24
Seldom does my hometown reach the front page of the blue! This was the talk of many of my group chats yesterday.
Local journalism coverage was questionable in places; my favourite entire, discrete update from the local paper's livestream page was the headline 'volunteers are helping out'. I also enjoyed the statement on the BBC news site a few days ago, 'Plymouth people have every right to be suspicious of strange objects found in their garden, says a historian'. The headline 'Plymouth holds its breath as bomb is transported out to sea' was met with the online comment 'no we aren't stop exaggerating'.
My great aunt lives in Keyham and chose to evacuate herself to my mother's house just outside the city. My mother was meant to be going out last night, and was anxious that my great aunt wouldn't be able to go home in time, but we knew all was well when we received a message in the family group chat stating 'bomb in sea! irma gone home!'. And when my great aunt got home a cordon complete with police officer was still in place around her street, but eventually the police officer admitted they couldn't really stop her (bomb, after all, was already in sea) and she was allowed to go home.
Growing up in Plymouth was at least 50% responsible for my deep appreciation of absurdity and farce.
posted by terretu at 11:26 AM on February 24 [22 favorites]
Local journalism coverage was questionable in places; my favourite entire, discrete update from the local paper's livestream page was the headline 'volunteers are helping out'. I also enjoyed the statement on the BBC news site a few days ago, 'Plymouth people have every right to be suspicious of strange objects found in their garden, says a historian'. The headline 'Plymouth holds its breath as bomb is transported out to sea' was met with the online comment 'no we aren't stop exaggerating'.
My great aunt lives in Keyham and chose to evacuate herself to my mother's house just outside the city. My mother was meant to be going out last night, and was anxious that my great aunt wouldn't be able to go home in time, but we knew all was well when we received a message in the family group chat stating 'bomb in sea! irma gone home!'. And when my great aunt got home a cordon complete with police officer was still in place around her street, but eventually the police officer admitted they couldn't really stop her (bomb, after all, was already in sea) and she was allowed to go home.
Growing up in Plymouth was at least 50% responsible for my deep appreciation of absurdity and farce.
posted by terretu at 11:26 AM on February 24 [22 favorites]
I went on a school trip to Flanders about 20 years ago, and you could just pick up bullets and shrapnel up from the fields. I was there for an hour and got two handfuls of metal junk left over from the war.
posted by Braeburn at 11:38 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]
posted by Braeburn at 11:38 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]
More on Zone Rouge, if it's new to you:
"The zone rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible".
Under French law, activities such as housing, farming, or forestry were temporarily or permanently forbidden in the Zone Rouge, because of the vast amounts of human and animal remains, and millions of items of unexploded ordnance contaminating the land. Some towns and villages were never permitted to be rebuilt after the war."
-Wikipedia
posted by doctornemo at 12:55 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]
"The zone rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible".
Under French law, activities such as housing, farming, or forestry were temporarily or permanently forbidden in the Zone Rouge, because of the vast amounts of human and animal remains, and millions of items of unexploded ordnance contaminating the land. Some towns and villages were never permitted to be rebuilt after the war."
-Wikipedia
posted by doctornemo at 12:55 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]
Someone caught the bomb detonation on tiktok.
In a typical year, the Army will dispose of FIVE German WW2 bombs in the UK, most of which are 50kg SC bombs and on average, one unexploded bomb is discovered in London each year. Not all of these bombs are found on construction sites. [x]
Of the 65,000 bombs dropped on the UK in WW2 around 10% didn't explode, so at the current rate it will take another 1200 years to clear them all.
Still at least we are not Vietnam where the US dropped almost twice as many, with a similar failure rate.
posted by Lanark at 1:04 PM on February 24 [9 favorites]
In a typical year, the Army will dispose of FIVE German WW2 bombs in the UK, most of which are 50kg SC bombs and on average, one unexploded bomb is discovered in London each year. Not all of these bombs are found on construction sites. [x]
Of the 65,000 bombs dropped on the UK in WW2 around 10% didn't explode, so at the current rate it will take another 1200 years to clear them all.
Still at least we are not Vietnam where the US dropped almost twice as many, with a similar failure rate.
posted by Lanark at 1:04 PM on February 24 [9 favorites]
Another article with details about the evacuation in the Guardian.
posted by Coaticass at 3:12 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]
posted by Coaticass at 3:12 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]
And only from WWI; think of the new poisons we have invented since.
Good news! Here's the Bret Devereaux argument that international agreements against chemical weapons have been extremely effective and will still be in future because chemical weapons don't work very well on a modern battlefield.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:20 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]
Good news! Here's the Bret Devereaux argument that international agreements against chemical weapons have been extremely effective and will still be in future because chemical weapons don't work very well on a modern battlefield.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:20 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]
Lanark beat me to it, but what is a big news day in Europe is just business as usual in Vietnam and Laos. Why can't we figure out that war is not healthy for children and other living things?
Glad nobody was hurt.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:23 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]
Glad nobody was hurt.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:23 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]
Back in the 90's I came across a book Aftermath: The Remnants of War after reading a New Yorker article on the sp? deminers in France who collect and dispose of the unexploded ordnance left over from WWI and 2 (sorry can't find a link.) I remember both being exceptional and having the dull pulse of obviousness after learning. Also a documentary about recyclers in Cambodia called Bomb Hunters landed pretty hard. Also I saw part of a short film by a Vietnamese artist (ran out of time at the museum) whose subject was invested with the bomb remnants and some sculpture LINK
posted by Pembquist at 7:51 PM on February 24
posted by Pembquist at 7:51 PM on February 24
Something similar happened just down the road from us last week: only 7500 people were dis placed, though. Googling for an English report they find big-ass bombs about once a year (Berlin, German.). It’s a useful reminder and a big factor, I propose, in the EU’s reflexively dove-ish responses to major conflicts.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:41 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]
posted by From Bklyn at 9:41 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]
When I cycled through Belgium I was warned about just wandering in the woods as there was still so much unexploded WW1 & 2 ordinance lying near the surface. I found Belgium very hard as one can feel the death in some places (well I can).
My dad's father was a weapons designer/maker during WW2 with a workshop at home (H&S was unknown), and new prototypes were shown to the children (the original magnetic mine, torpedo parts, a rocket with 6000 feet of wire for destroying airplanes...). So dad and his brother were all too familiar with triggers, detonators, and things that burned and went bang! and after air-raids they'd take a wheelbarrow out to the local marsh and bring home unexploded items like this, some were 'only' incendiary and some had explosive.
Dad and Dave wanted them for the magnesium which would burn like crazy once it was extracted and lit and a lot of fun apparently.
posted by unearthed at 10:35 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]
My dad's father was a weapons designer/maker during WW2 with a workshop at home (H&S was unknown), and new prototypes were shown to the children (the original magnetic mine, torpedo parts, a rocket with 6000 feet of wire for destroying airplanes...). So dad and his brother were all too familiar with triggers, detonators, and things that burned and went bang! and after air-raids they'd take a wheelbarrow out to the local marsh and bring home unexploded items like this, some were 'only' incendiary and some had explosive.
Dad and Dave wanted them for the magnesium which would burn like crazy once it was extracted and lit and a lot of fun apparently.
posted by unearthed at 10:35 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]
Here's one from last year that went off as they tried to disarm it, nobody was hurt.
posted by Lanark at 1:41 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]
posted by Lanark at 1:41 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]
It's a fairly common experience in Germany.
Yeah, there were two being disarmed in Hanau today, for example. Most of the time it’s barely even regional news, it’s only the really big evacuations that get national press. (Or the more spectacular ones, like where they decided to do a safe explosion of one found in the Main river in Frankfurt.
posted by scorbet at 7:58 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]
Yeah, there were two being disarmed in Hanau today, for example. Most of the time it’s barely even regional news, it’s only the really big evacuations that get national press. (Or the more spectacular ones, like where they decided to do a safe explosion of one found in the Main river in Frankfurt.
posted by scorbet at 7:58 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]
About eight years ago, an unexploded World War II bomb was found a mile or so from our house. I posted this on Facebook to my friends: "If you don't hear from me tomorrow, I got killed by NAZIS FROM BEYOND TIME, which is the second most metal way to go."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:15 PM on February 25 [4 favorites]
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:15 PM on February 25 [4 favorites]
« Older Flaco, NYC's favorite Eurasian eagle-owl, has died | Every Transaction an Ad, Every Machine a Spy Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by wenestvedt at 6:44 AM on February 24 [9 favorites]