WWII bomb explodes in Germany...

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14 years 11 months

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Happens a lot, unfortunately. Last weekend in the Netherlands a WW2 phosporous grenade exploded when children found it and and started tossing it about. Amazing there were no injuries. Could have been worse.

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24 years 2 months

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Why do they assume it was an 8th Air Force bomb?

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18 years 10 months

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Why do they assume it was an 8th Air Force bomb?

Because it was in the middle of a field, not a factory ;)

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 9,821

Why do they assume it was an 8th Air Force bomb?

Because it wasn't in a apartment block. :)

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20 years

Posts: 1,496

Why do they assume it was an 8th Air Force bomb?

The most possible or likely reason being that US bomb delayed action fuses were made of High compound Aluminium (Sorry..Aloominum :) ) and corrode to an extent where the fuses fail.They have high tension detonator pin on a spring, which itself is held back by a plastictype disc. If the plastic disk has deteriorated, the detonator pin could only be held back by a small mechanical effect or a piece of corrosion.the slightest movement or a change in temperature can cause the pin to move and trigger an explosion and detonate. British brass manufactured ones do not seem to suffer from this amount of corrosion. The recent and ongoing high ground temperatures could be a factor into why this exploded.

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18 years 2 months

Posts: 460

I just put it down to the Americans being late - again

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17 years 6 months

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Why do they assume it was an 8th Air Force bomb?

Britain being gradually written-out of European history?

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19 years 7 months

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It's probably due to a scorched earth Brexit strategy. :D

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11 years 11 months

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Ordinance is common enough. How common is it for them to self detonate after this long?

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17 years 6 months

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I would say that it is staggeringly rare!

Some estimates put the number of 'dud' bombs as high as 25% of the 'high-explosive' bombs dropped by RAF Bomber Command which would translate to somewhere between 100 and 175 'duds' on a single 'average' raid even if every bomber only carried a single 'high-explosive' bomb! This isn't actually as bad as it seems when the breakdown of the actual bomb-loads carried is considered; much of the overall bomb tonnage carried by the RAF, especially later in the war, was incendiary bombs and 'high-capacity' bombs (4000lb 'cookies' or less commonly 8000lb or 12000lb) which often exploded when jettisoned 'safe' and which were far less likely to fail to explode when dropped 'live'. It is rare to find unexploded cookies although there does seem to have been a few found recently.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_bomb#/media/File:AN-M56_(ORDATA).jpg

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17 years 6 months

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Why do they assume it was an 8th Air Force bomb?

Because the crater is thirty-three feet wide...

...if it were a German bomb the crater would be ten metres wide! :rolleyes:

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14 years 11 months

Posts: 1,755

Ordinance is common enough. How common is it for them to self detonate after this long?

Happens on a regular basis, but indeed not an everyday occurrence (fortunately). Was impressed when an underwater small arms munitions dump from WW2 went up in spectacular spontaneous fashion in the Netherlands at night. Killed all of the fish in the pond... Expect to see stuff like this happen more often the next few years...

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17 years 6 months

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I still maintain that spontaneous detonations are staggeringly rare considering the potential number of unexploded bombs that lie undetected across Europe.

This article puts the number at 'only' one hundred since the end of the war:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...en-hamburg-ww2