"WWII device exploded" Topic

From Feb, but I just spotted it while trawling news headlines:

link

"A World War Two anti-aircraft round has been destroyed in a controlled explosion by Royal Navy bomb disposals experts.

The six inch (15cm) long device was found by construction workers on Thursday in shingle brought from Southampton for a new breakwater.2

What I particularly like about this piece of reporting is the rather unimpressive bit of undramatic 5 second video footage that is in the link

Whereas if this goes off it will make a bit more noise (if not drowned out by the Wembeley roar)
link

I think the explosives used to detonate the AA round made a bigger bang than the round itself. Still, wouldn't want to set it off by accident, I'm sure it's quite impressive up close and personal like. As for the 110 lb bomb, well, hats off to the demo experts who handled it.

God knows how many bombs there are still lurking beneath the streets. It is an amazing thing to have to deal with all of this ordnance so many years later. France has their fair share too…never hear much about Germany on the news, but I imagine they have a lot too.

In 2014 Germany had at least 2 fatal incidents where construction workers hit unexploded bombs, as well as several evacuations that were big enough to make the news in Australia (not Austria).

I read the article advocate linked to about the 110 lb bomb near Wembley. I find myself trying to think of a scenario, probably for some sort of pulp game that would involve an "unspecified location in Bedfordshire." Just sounds mundane enough to be cool, somehow.

I'm not all that well read on WWII bombs, but isn't 110 lbs kind of small? I understand that it would not be good to be sitting nearby if it went off. It's just that I thought 250 and 5000 lb bombs were more usual. Perhaps that was just for Allied bombs, though.

Grelber

A sea mine containing over 200 lbs of explosive was discovered last week on Saipan during excavations for a new casino. The mine had been set in place along the shore to be used as an anti-boat mine. That would have been one big boom! Two other smaller anti-boat mines have been discovered at the site as well as white phosphorous rounds. The EOD guys successfully demilled the mine by burning out the explosives with thermite. Demo in place wasn't much of an option as the area is surrounded by hotels and shops.
LB

"I'm not all that well read on WWII bombs, but isn't 110 lbs kind of small? I understand that it would not be good to be sitting nearby if it went off. It's just that I thought 250 and 5000 lb bombs were more usual. Perhaps that was just for Allied bombs, though."

Bombs came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, although a 5000 pounder would be somewhat on the large size (iirc even Tallboys were only 10,000 pounds).

50kg bombs were carried by a fair number of German aircraft, but yes, bigger ones were also common. Building work uncovered an unexploded 250kg bomb in the east end of Sheffield a couple of weeks ago which rather brought that part of the city to a halt for a bit.

Amusing detail: London City Airport has been closed down twice.
Once when a cleaner mixed fluids in a toilet bowl and created toxic gas, once when workers digging for the Olympic Park found a WW2 era bomb near by.