"WWII Bomb today disposed in Frankfurt Germany" Topic

Today in my native town Frankfurt am Main a 500 kilo World War II (not exploded) bomb will be hopefully disposed (disarmed). The bomb had been found during construction works about some weeks before. An area about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) with 16.000 inhabitants had been evacuated for some hours. My office is in that area but fortunately I am not in my office often at sunday.

It is an american bomb thrown on Frankfurt perhaps 78 to 75 years ago. I thought it will be interesting for some of the readers how long you have problems with the consequences of a war. It probably will not be the last of such events. The last bomb disposal in Frankfurt was only about two years before.

Sincerely Werner

I wonder when these are found, how many people are alive today because their parents or grand parents weren't killed because it didn't blow up. And, how ironic, that those miraculously still living are upset that their day is ruined because of the find.

When I had the pleasure of dealing with a similar German device in Bethnal Green, London where an old lady refused to be evacuated.

We politely reminded her of what would happen if the Royal Engineers/Logistics Corps didn't quite get their act correct, but she didn't care.

She said she was in her late 80s and if she went out with a big bang then all the better! ;)

DB

About a week or so ago there was a whole spate of EOD work carried out across the Gower Penninsula (Swansea, UK) about 15 separate explosions of various WW2 and more modern ordinance collected over the preceding months :)

Every now and again quite large German pieces re-surface either from dredging or during building works.

For those interested on further informations: The bomb in Frankfurt was disposed at Sunday within two hours. Two detonators were separated from the bomb. After that the bomb could be transported to a safer place without any problems.

Werner

There are some really terrible jobs out there and bomb disposal has to be one of the worst…

My understanding is that Germany has no national mechanism / force for disposal of unexploded ordnance. Instead, each of the states has their own approach and team. Some leave it to police, some to fire services, some use contractors …

I claim no useful knowledge in this field, but I would think that spreading the learning process across multiple dis-connected organizations … well it seems like a very unproductive approach to learning, in a field of study where tuition costs can be VERY high.

Oh, and BTW, if it was indeed an American bomb, it was probably 454kg, not 500kg. Not that I expect such a difference to matter to the fellows who had the job of taking out the detonators.

I don't know how I would feel in the case of such an event. I mean, would I be happy they got it out? Well, it was there, and it's FAR better to have it taken away. But I didn't want it to be there in the first place. But it was. Is there another? Should one be happy when they find another, or upset?

Glad to hear it was taken away safely.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

I'm surprised that they pulled the detonators and then moved the bomb, as opposed to blowing it in place.

TNT that old is NOT stable!!!

Mark, if I have understand right it was indeed a part of a fire brigade who disarmed the bomb. I am not sure if the fire brigade was belonging to the town Frankfurt or to the region Hessen.

Lion, the place where they found the bomb was in the midst of the town very near to the European Central Bank (ECB), I think they did not intend to blow up the bank organizing the Euro money system and some other houses.

Werner