"If you see me running, try to keep up."

set the dam thing off,want to see a BIG BOOM !,park a old retired aircraft on top as a added bonus !

"400 tons dropped" and only one UXB? Best have another look around.

Depending on the type of fuse in this bomb, it could have only been a matter of time before it went off.

After 68 years, I'd say that it's a pretty safe bet that the fuse timer is pretty much shot.

Gumps, you could be correct. However, the story also said

Workers found the explosive device during construction work on a new hydrant system to be used for re-fueling aircraft

Even if the fuse is 68 years old, "explosives near a fuel line" that refuel aircraft could have really caused quite the disaster on the apron, the taxiway areas very badly! Not to mention travelling to other areas of the airport via the fuel line system.

The problem with contact bombs are if they don't go off they sit in the ground and start to decay. If the problem that caused them to not go off in the first place rots then they will finally trigger and it is anyones guess when that happens. So since it has been 68 years there are a lot of these that are just ticking time bombs, excuse the pun, waiting to cause devastation. A car or bus rolling by or a construction crew hitting it, or an airplane landing, who knows. The point is that just because it has been in the ground for a long time does not make it safer. In fact it makes it less safe.

Thing is you never hear of explosions coming out of nowhere that they find after to be caused by old bombs. You also never hear of them digging and setting one off, they seem to always find them first. I suspect after this many years they are not easy to set off.... now when it comes to gas lines you hear about those blowing up all the time when they dig and we have those marked.

Actually Dave , I believe billooo is right. If the fuses didn't work then they are probably corroded to nothing. The detonator then degrades. That doesn't mean the bomb isn't still dangerous, but the liklihood of spontaneous detonation is rather low.

Well I see all of the bomb "experts" are on here today....LOL!

@billoooo

"You have to hit these blockbuster bombs juuust right."

I was told that such a device could be defused by taking two flat rocks and slamming them "just right" across its nose. When I remarked that it all sounded very dangerous to me I was told that one had simply to "keep one's fingers out of the way."

American craftmanship; made to last.

There's actually still a fair amount of WWI UXO buried in the ground in France, though it's mostly artillery shells instead of aerial bombs. For instance, during the Battle of Verdun in 1916, something like 16.9 million rounds were exchanged, if I recall. I have an uncle who was once an artillery officer, and he still absolutely cannot imagine the scale of what it took for the landscape to resemble that of the moon as seen in the old photographs. Let's say that 1% of the projectiles did not explode, but rather buried themselves in the mud upon impact. That would be roughly 169,000 unexploded artillery shells.

I know for a long time, 30 to 40 people were killed by the accidental 'discovery' of unexploded ordnance in Europe, mostly farmers who 'found' it when plowing their fields. I'm not sure just what the numbers are today, but the 30-40 per year number has been in recent decades.

About six years ago, I 'found' a 25 kg German aerial bomb...in an antique store! That piqued my curiosity, for sure. I looked it over, trying to figure out just how it had been demilitarized. It was rusty and crusty, the braces on the stabilizer fins had mostly rusted away at the ends, so it obviously had spent a number of years in damp British soil. There were no cut holes in the casing or other usual signs that it had been disarmed or neutralized, and the fuse was in place. It was brass, and dated March of 1916. I determined that there was an extremely high likelihood that the thing was still viable and weighing roughly 55 pounds, posed a risk to anyone - or more like everyone - involved with or even just nearby when this thing was being moved, especially if it was dropped. I have no idea just how this got into the country without anyone noticing, other than that it must have been quite some time ago before paying attention was a high priority! I was on the phone with an ATF inspector within the hour. I never did hear just how this resolved, though...

I've got one even better than that - 1964 a neighbor came over and asked if I could help her get rid of a souvenir her husband had brought home from IwoJima. She was afraid that now that the kids were getting "inquisitive" they might play with "it" - "IT" was small Japanese fragmentation grenade - cast iron with picric acid explosive (phenol nitrate) fuse striker cap, everything still intact (live ordnance). So i took it went with it in a cotton packed box and drove to EOD and showed it to them - their eyes got kind of wide - nobody had EVER seen an antique like that and LIVE to boot. They took it out on the range, strapped it to a tree, rigged a drop block to hit the striker, went back to the shelter, called "FIRE IN THE HOLE" and yanked the cord to pull the pin and drop the block onto the striker. 4 or 5 seconds or so and it went off (interesting view from the periscope) - too bad I didn't have a camera BECAUSE, the chest of drawers with that grenade was on the other side of a duplex wall where I slept. yes, she was right to get rid of it. Anybody who watched the Japanese IwoJima movie saw some of the soldiers killing themselves by striking grenades against their helmets and holding them. IT WAS ONE OF THOSE. one other thing - over time picric acid becomes unstable - just dropping it from 20 feet onto concrete might have detonated it. This was about 1.5 pounds

Yeah, that's a bit close for comfort.

The 25 kg bomb I encountered was in a popular antique mall about 120 miles from my home, so it wasn't quite so close...let's just say I was never really concerned for my own safety...but very concerned about the future of the store and the people in it should something not so good have happened some time long after I'd left. One thing that's good to understand is that the Germans abandoned picric acid in favor to trinitrotoluene starting in 1902. That's an easy one to remember because that's also the same year that Deutsche Waffen und Munitions introduced the 9x19mm Luger cartridge! Picric acid becomes more than a little unstable when it dries out, and it does react with metals (such as the steel of a bomb shell casing!) and the resulting compound is even more sensitive. I'd much rather be around a TNT device than a picric acid type munition of any type! TNT isn't as powerful as picric acid, but it's a whole lot more stable.

I saw Letters From Iwo Jima and know exactly the scene of which you speak where the Japanese soldiers were killing themselves with those grenades. I was watching it on DVD with 5.1 surround sound on a 24" LED television and found the experience to be disturbingly too realistic. I can only imagine what seeing the movie in a theater would have been like, or far worse, actually having been there in real life. I, for one, am damned glad I wasn't there.

my adventure when I was 19...

I think it's a 'tie' fellas.

Who is going to look for all those landmines. Which number in the thousands.

I guess that you haven't been to Europe or any place. I assure you they really have a wonderful lifestyle and the last thing they want is a War. These countries have a deminished Forces. But due to the treaties that were signed after WWII their forces would probably be hard pressed to defend themselves let alone be an aggressor.

Chef

Are you more than 12 years old? If so your develolpment is severely lacking. Just the kind of stupid remark one gets used to Newsvine I'm afraid.

Chef80 - Grow up dips..t!

Didn't need to be said chef... but you're not wrong about the saving their backside part. And you couldn't be more wrong about doing it again. This sad, sorry generation of peaceniks couldn't save Europe or any place else from a platoon of blind schoolgirls.

of course we COULD chef, but the REAL question is "WHY WOULD WE WANT TO?"

When I was there the "Fulda Gap" was the big strategic point. It was deemed so critical that we had nuclear landmines ready to deploy to stop the Soviet invasion (that never came)

I personally think it's ignorant to act like America "saved" all of Europe. America, Europe, Russia, Canada, Australia, etc... should all be equally proud of their heroes who collectively fought against the Axis powers.

I lived through that war and I feel -- very strongly -- that without Russia this nation might be speaking German today.

It was actually Hitler's ego leading to a series of strategic mistakes that prevented us from speaking German today.

No you mean russia, would be speaking german without us.

P.S. The bomb is located in Kaagbaan runway (Terminal C-13 gates). There was also another WWII bomb that was found in 2008 in the Poldesbaan runway. RAF/USAF destroyed the whole SAchiphol airport since it was a Nazi Germany's airport during Nazi occupation.

If you check it out you can actually buy a German or other countries Sub from WWII. They are for sale to any country or person who wants them. Now go forth and become your own Commander.

To-day's bombs rarely fail to explode as planned - hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Depending on the fusing and whether it was armor piercing or not, the bomb could have just buried itself in the dirt. The terminal velocity of a streamlined projectile, like a bomb, is significantly greater then the terminal velocity of you and me, about 125 mph.

the terminal velocity of a body is ~125mph unless falling in the delta position where the speed can easily break 175 mph

There are parts of France that are still dangerous due to unexploded WWI shells. And that's 100 years ago almost.

...Or the one whose TNT detonator went off after the device was dropped on Florence, SC?

... Or the nuclear tipped anti-aircraft missiles which were 'lost' somewhere in Thule, Greenland when I was stationed there in 1958. The Air Force and the Army both claimed that it was only the paperwork which got 'lost.' Of course we all believed that.

I do not know this for certain but I do not think the nukes are armed until they are about to actually be used. Therefore with the exception of the radioactive material it is a relatively safe device unable to detonate.

Perhaps some old timers could chime in on this.

I'm getting old too. Where am I? What was I talking about?

What does your rant have to do with a WWII bomb in Netherlands?

elk;

lee may have meant that we should use delayed action fused bombs to deny the use of large land areas to our enemies for a very long period of time.

Nick;

Those people just want to see if there aren't some valuable minerals present, to which they own the rights.

Three times. The one in Munich this one, and they found one in the Rhine River. The one in the Rhine I recognize from pictures as a blockbuster bomb.

Adolf;

P-38's were frequently used to bomb targets in Germany. A P-38 [fighter] could -- and often did -- carry two 550 lb bombs.