Second World War cartridge in firewood injures elderly Germans

Second World War cartridge in firewood injures elderly Germans - Monsters and Critics

Bielefeld, Germany - Police blamed a discarded Second World War bullet Friday for an explosion in a log fire which injured an elderly German couple as they sat at home.

 

To this day 500kg and greater bombs are found. I left Germany in 2009 and we had to evacuate 3 city blocks in Boeblingen (suburb of Stuttgart) b/c a calling card from the 8th AF had come to the surface after a good rain. Every Polizei/Feurwehr station has a complete map of all found ordnance and trained specialists. God help the French as they have two wars to contend with

 

there was a thread from about a week ago detailing the number of casualties the French have taken from and from clearing UXO. can't find it at moment but was much, much higher than expected, and that's from someone who used to do it as a job

 

I can imagine ... it is not uncommon for French farmers to leave gifts of their harvest on the side of the road for the EOD to come by. They seem nonchalant about the whole affair b/c they have a time schedule and cannot wait for EOD albeit they stop at 500kgs (SO WOULD I) but not mortars or panserfaust rounds. UXOs have a bad way of reminding people of the real dangers ... hard to scratch ones B*tt if you have no hand (smirk).

 

it brings up the question of whether or not someone injured by UXO is entitled to war compensation benefits etc. I haven't heard of it, but there are in effect still ww1 civilian casualties etc being taken today. Interesting legal case.

 

That is interesting? I am sure lawyers would find a way to profit - not diminishing what a horrible lost of limb, life or sight that would be. I would argue if not intentional then claims can be submitted but grossly ignoring the dangers and recognizing an UXO and deliberately handling in ...falls in the realm of stupidity.

In the Balkans during IFOR, the US Army had a SFC who took out his Gruber tool b/c he was going to be a hero and disarm a Bouncing Betty instead of waiting for EOD. The mine was detected at distance and no one was in immediate danger. He had to be a hero and as a result had the Gruber imbedded into his forehead not to mention other injuries. I was the Operations officer for USAREUR (FWD) in Tazar, Hungary during IFOR. How do you explain that to a spouse and three children? Of course we said “in line of duty” so the dependents would get $.

 

I remember like yesterday travelling with my father enroute to Normandy to see the beaches, taking the backroads as he pointed out different historical sites. My father was just making a remark about all the weapons and bombs still being uncovered, when we came across a French Farmer lifting a rusted .50 cal belt to the roadside. It is just mind blowing they still have to deal with left overs of two world wars. My hat is off to the brave Farmers trying to make a living and to continue to live with that nightmare. There is only so much fertile soil in France but what a deadly harvest that can be.

v/r

Obstlt

 

There are actually groups in the Middle East and parts of Africa attempting to push for this. The most recent event that made this group vocal was the explosion of a mine in El Alamein that let to a girl getting her leg amputated.

It would be pretty difficult to determine whether it was an Allied or Axis bomb that you found so it might be a bit unfair to make a single nation pay for it. Perhaps a fund will be setup where a group of nations contribute?

 

IMO not hard to ID the bomb at all - just a little costly - EOD forensics is relatively straightforward. (there would obviously though be questions of if people were secretly dropping each others stuff etc. and problems amongst allies with commonality of munitions)

Whether you can hold the nation who dropped it responsible or not is interesting, because if you could, in theory it would become in everyones interest to develop near guaranteed detonation munitions (almost certainly pricey), which might make people less keen to bomb the c*** out of each other so much.

doubt if you could make it stick in retrospect though.

 

Reminds me of when I stayed in Commanster ( the 'Fortified Goose Egg' ) in the Ardennes in 2004. The Dutch musician who owned the next-door house noticed my WWII books and said 'I found something in the garden today - come and see'.

There in his kitchen stood a perfect, unfired .30-06 round. I politely suggested that maybe it shouldn't be sitting on the kitchen stove - it was too hot to touch.

He was horrified when I explained what it was - in turn, I was amazed that anyone wouldn't recognize an unfired cartridge.

But then, I wouldn't recognize some music by Mozart.....

 

My dad was stationed in Germany when he was in the Army during Vietnam. I'd have to ask him again what all he found, but out walking in the hills and around the farms he came across alot of things- shells etc. He did mention that the farmers were always finding things too. They must be everywhere in Europe. It's too bad people are still being injured because of them though.