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2000 tonnes of WWII munitions found each year in Germany

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  • 04-01-2014 5:41pm
    #1
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭


    ........don't know about anyone else but I was quite surprise by the amount of devices still be being excavated or unearthed.

    About one third of the total found, is found in and around Berlin.

    From The Atlantic.....

    How Many Tons of World War II Munitions Are Found in Germany Each Year?
    World War II ended nearly seven decades ago, but it is not fully behind us. Thousands of tons of munitions lie beneath Germany's soil, unexploded and undiscovered.

    In Brandenburg (the state surrounding Berlin) alone, construction workers, bomb locator squads, and others find an average of 631 tons of unexploded munitions per year. Nationwide, the figure reaches 2,000 tons annually. According to Spiegel Online, "Barely a week goes by without a city street or motorway being cordoned off or even evacuated in Germany due to an unexploded bomb being discovered."

    And many more remain. Estimates put the total load of unexploded munitions at somewhere between five and 15 percent of the total dropped, or between 95,000 tons and 285,000 tons. “We’ll have enough work to keep us busy for the next 100 to 120 years,” the proprietor of a bomb disposal outfit told The New York Times in 2006.


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    #2
    dubhthach
    Registered Users Posts: 3,284 ✭✭✭dubhthach


    Given the amount of Ordnance dropped over Germany during the war it's not surprising, I've seen estimates of anywhere between a minimum of 300,000 and up to 600,000 Germans were killed due to "Strategic" bombing. With estimate of 7.5million rendered homeless.

    Wikipedia has following tonnage dropped (tons):
    RAF : 964,644
    US 8th Air Force: 623,418

    Total: 1,588,062 (tons)


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    #3
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,686 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    The figures are precise, but the debate on whether the impact of these munitions had a significant material effect on the course of the war has been the gist of a number of books (offhand Hasting's Bomber Command and a new work from Richard Overy) with differing stances been taken.


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    #4
    Santa Cruz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    I read that it is a daily occurrence in Flanders and along the Western Front that farmers discover old devices, firearms etc. from WW1. All stuff recovered during ploughing etc. is gathered up and left outside the farm gate for disposal by the army.


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    #5
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    dubhthach wrote: »
    Given the amount of Ordnance dropped over Germany during the war it's not surprising, I've seen estimates of anywhere between a minimum of 300,000 and up to 600,000 Germans were killed due to "Strategic" bombing. With estimate of 7.5million rendered homeless.

    Wikipedia has following tonnage dropped (tons):
    RAF : 964,644
    US 8th Air Force: 623,418

    Total: 1,588,062 (tons)

    Presumably there'd also be a certain amount of artillery and mortar shells, hand grenades and possibly mines found as well.


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    #6
    bitemybanger
    Registered Users Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭bitemybanger


    Ive always been fascinated with any ordinance excavated from the battles and wars of the past. some great documentaries about military excavations.

    Guns and ammo even grenades are often found around Dublin. Remnants of our troubled past, hidden in attics, under floors and in walls. Really fascinating stuff.


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    #7
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    Growing up in Portsmouth, roads being closed because a loud metallic clunk had been heard on a building site was pretty common. We even got sent home from school once because of it.

    Half of Gosport was evacuated a few years ago due to bombs being defused at an airfield there, although these were ones laid by the navy in case of invasion rather than ones dropped by the Luftwaffe.


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    #8
    mickmackey1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,288 ✭✭✭mickmackey1


    Don't know if OP was motivated by this story, coincidence otherwise...

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25594000


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    #9
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    mickmackey1 wrote: »
    Don't know if OP was motivated by this story, coincidence otherwise...

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25594000

    Yep - that incident was being discussed in another forum I'm a member of and the discussion shifted to the amount of ordinance still lying around Germany waiting to be discovered.

    I posted up some data from the US Bombing Survey but it seems to have been wiped in the Great 2014 Boards Shutdown.


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    #10
    rugbyman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,783 ✭✭✭rugbyman


    A few years ago I read in a newspaper in Calais that 650 unexploded bombs had been dealt with THAT YEAR. I read recently that the french navy are actively looking for more, now that technology exists to do so.last month they were blowing up devices which included the name Rommel, like

    bombs encased in concrete below the surface of the beach

    Regards,


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    #11
    Reekwind
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,126 ✭✭✭Reekwind


    Which isn't to even touch on the 1.5 million tonnes of munitions (including chemical weapons) that are slowly rusting away on the Baltic seasbed following a rather hasty post-war de-commissioning programme


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    #12
    Snickers Man
    Registered Users Posts: 5,301 ✭✭✭Snickers Man


    Reminds me of a scene from the series Auf Wiedersehen Pet, a comedy drama from the 1980s about English construction workers working as Gastarbeiter in Germany.

    In one of the episodes, work has to stop on the site because an unexploded bomb is found. The big Geordie Oz, played by Jimmy Nail, enjoys taunting the Germans. "Hey bonny lad, That's one of wor bombs. We dropped that! Made in Britain, like ye knaa!"

    "Yes," says his super serious German boss. "It didn't work."


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    #13
    johnny_doyle
    Registered Users Posts: 1,021 ✭✭✭johnny_doyle


    Must be a fair load of Russian stuff lying around Germany too.

    Lot of ordnance dumped off the coast of Scotland/NI after WW2 which wash up at regular intervals.

    There is still an unexploded WW1 mine in Belgium that failed to detonate in 1917. 22tons ready to go.

    Ammo ship still lying in the Thames estuary with approx 1400 tons of munitions.

    Egyptians still being killed by WW2 minefields around El Alamein. Afghans still stepping on Russian mines.

    IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan made from unexploded munitions.....


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    #14
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    johnny_doyle wrote: »
    Must be a fair load of Russian stuff lying around Germany too.

    Lot of ordnance dumped off the coast of Scotland/NI after WW2 which wash up at regular intervals.

    There is still an unexploded WW1 mine in Belgium that failed to detonate in 1917. 22tons ready to go.

    Ammo ship still lying in the Thames estuary with approx 1400 tons of munitions.

    Egyptians still being killed by WW2 minefields around El Alamein. Afghans still stepping on Russian mines.

    IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan made from unexploded munitions.....

    Not to mention Gruinard Island...


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