News 45000 evacuated in Koblenz for disarming blockbuster bomb from WW2

[Urwumpe]

Tomorrow a HC 4000 lb blockbuster bomb will be disarmed in Koblenz, requiring the evacuation of 45000 citizens (half of the cities population). The bomb was discovered in the river Rhine because of the exceptional low water levels (we had the driest November in known history this year, extremely little precipitation), 40 cm below the current water surface.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...alf-evacuated-Blockbuster-RAF-bomb-Rhine.html

Will be a pretty complex and pretty scary operation, the three fuses of the bomb are corroded, and a single fuse triggering the bomb can be enough for disaster.

Luckily, blockbuster bombs have never been used in conjunction with delay fuzes. One such fuzed bomb of 2000 lb exploded in Göttingen last year, killing three specialists and causing destruction in a 700m radius.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ills-G-ttingen-experts-attempt-defuse-it.html

 

[Notebook]

Sounds very nasty, hope it all goes well.

N.

 

[Solar424]

Could a bomb diffusing robot be used in this case, or is it too complex to be diffused remotely?

 

[Evil_Onyx]

Probably to degraded for a robot to defuse, a controlled detention a robot could certainly do, but that is not really an option considering its location.

 

[JEL]

It is due to take place on Sunday so as not to disrupt Saturday Christmas shopping.

Half the city has to be evacuated for safety... but let's push it to sunday so we don't interfere with saturday's commercial business...
I do find that way of thinking slightly amusing

Good luck to all there though.

 

[RisingFury]

Makes you wonder how many unexploded munitions are left from the world wars. There was a drama a few weeks back about a Slovenian paraglider that landed in a Bosnian minefield (though not from WW2). He barely survived, but lost both his legs.

I hope the operation goes well and nobody is hurt.

---------- Post added at 05:41 ---------- Previous post was at 05:30 ----------

It is expected to take several hours to make the bomb safe. Should it show signs of going off, experts

The low level of the Rhine has already exposed four other unexploded bombs.

Should it show signs of going off, experts................. what?

 

[Linguofreak]

Makes you wonder how many unexploded munitions are left from the world wars.

There's quite a bit. One example is the cargo of the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery"]SS Richard Montgomery[/ame].

 

[Urwumpe]

Makes you wonder how many unexploded munitions are left from the world wars.

In Germany, they still estimate around 500,000 unexploded bombs, but that includes not only the big ones, but also the many many incendiary bombs.

And usually, if the bomb shows signs to go off (eg, hizzing sound of an acid fuze), they will run like hell is after them. If the fuzes are impossible to be removed in a safe way, they could in this case try to remove the explosive from the bomb, it is already wet (but still as explosive as before)

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16018659

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/history/ww2clips/sounds/all_clear_siren

Keep calm and carry on.


N.

 

[Izack]

Great, disaster averted!

 

[FADEC]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/history/ww2clips/sounds/all_clear_siren

Keep calm and carry on.


N.

 

[Ripley]

...There was a drama a few weeks back about a Slovenian paraglider that landed in a Bosnian minefield (though not from WW2). He barely survived, but lost both his legs...

OMG! Talk about bad luck!!!

 

[Urwumpe]

Luckily all went fine, they also managed to disarm a few more bombs along the campaign, that had been discovered in the region. One notable new discovery had been a "Nebelfass"*, a device for hindering bomb attacks by hiding the target in smoke over a large area. Extremely toxic stuff.

(correct name: "Nebelsäurefaßgerät". That sounds like poetric: fog-acid-barrel-device. or: A barrel device for acid fog.)