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Nestor Bachmann / EPA
A smoke column rises over the roofs of Oranienburg, Germany, on Aug. 30, 2012, following a controlled blasting of a World War II bomb near the Oranienburg train station.
MAINZ, Germany -- Another bomb scare hit Germany Thursday with the discovery of two unexploded devices dropped by U.S. forces during World War II.
Bomb-disposal experts have begun to disarm a 550-pound bomb in the city of Oranienburg, near Berlin, formerly part of East Germany. Later in the day, a controlled explosion of a second bomb was carried out near the city’s main train station.
Thursday’s bombs will be number 137 and 138 in a long list of unexploded ordinances that have been found since officials started searching for them in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. According to local media reports, more than 22,000 bombs were dropped on Oranienburg by allied forces at the end of the war.
Such incidents are routine for the bomb experts in Brandenburg state.
But, after a large controlled explosion of a bomb in the city center of Munich on Tuesday caused a bright fireball, smashed shop windows and set nearby buildings alight, media attention and public interest are higher than usual.
PhotoBlog: Controlled explosion of WWII bomb ignites Munich fires
Two days after they were evacuated from their homes, many residents in the southern German city still cannot return as at least 16 buildings are at risk to collapse and need to be inspected by local engineers.
'Difficult situation'
Meanwhile, a debate about compensation for the damages has started.
In the aftermath of the supposedly controlled explosion in Munich, the situation was tense in Oranienburg.
In Munich bomb experts destroyed a bomb found in a building slated for demolition, igniting an explosion heard throughout the city. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
“This is an exceptional and difficult situation,” city spokesman Bjoern Luettmann told NBC News.
“The many undetonated bombs are a burden for the city and its residents, especially on days like this,” Luettmann added.
Nearly 6,000 residents were due to be evacuated Thursday. Public transportation has come to a near standstill and the majority of train connections in and out of Oranienburg have been cancelled.
“The explosive devices in Oranienburg are a ticking time bomb because many were equipped with so called long-period delay detonators,” Luettmann said.
“These are detonators that do not trigger an explosion upon impact to the ground and those that did not explode at all can go off at any time now,” he added.
Designed to 'create chaos'
The delayed-action bombs were designed to explode between 2 and 150 hours after impact.
“They were designed to create chaos on enemy territory,” Luettmann said.
Oranienburg is the only city in Germany that has been systematically searching for unexploded World War II bombs, mostly with the help of old aerial photos that were released by Britain and the United States in the 1990s.
Unexploded WWII bomb disrupts Amsterdam Schiphol airport
During World War II, Allied forces suspected there was a nuclear bomb research site in Oranienburg. The city also hosted an aircraft factory and had other strategically important manufacturing facilities.
Several years ago, the local state had a professional assessment done that offered short- and long-term plans on handling the threat. Officials stated in their report that an unusually high number -- more than 4,000 -- of the delay-action bombs were dropped on Oranienburg.
While the detonators are decaying underground, the explosives within – mostly TNT -- are not. Several construction workers in Germany have been injured or killed in the past when their heavy maintenance vehicles accidentally ran over such bombs.
"We wish that we could get more financial support from the German government, the search and subsequent measures are costly," Luettmann said.
City officials say that on average nearly 3 million euros -- the equivalent of $5 million -- are spent on the search for explosive devices.
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Third Reich started the WWII -period- there most certainly will be no compensation on part of the Allies- since Adolf Hitler's Germany was Guilty of War Crimes,Crimes against Humanity,starting a War of Conquest,Occupying many countries- slave labour,Holocaust etc. According to Maerkischeal-Gemeine Zeitung- both bombs have been detonated. The one in the vicinity of Metro (rails)in Oranienburg section was a 250 kg one- -4,000 evacuated; the other bomb was found on Koesener Strasse 17-partly rusted away but the pin intact. Demolition/bomb experts were Andre Muelle and Heino Borchert. For all so far found bombs in both West and East Germany (now Germany) there is a map with numbers of bombs found. The bomb at the metro was buried in 4 meters. http://maerkischealgemeine.de/cms/beitrag/12384427/62249/zw
Article says nothing about US compensation. Did you read the whole thing?
They're wanting compensation from the German Government for assistance.
Between you and the article, you're the only one who mentioned compensation by the Allies.
Er, Mimi -- please pay attention before ranting. The article said compensation from the GERMAN government.
Make sure the IslamoFascists see this. You f#ck with the US of A, and we will f#ck you up for decades to come! These babies were built to last. Makes me proud to be an American.
Gary, two words: grow up. WWII happened better than 70 years ago, blaming the citizens of today's Germany for the actions of those seven decades ago is not only short sighted it is infantile. People like Gary and Mimi who are unable to get over historical events such as those are a disgrace to the human race.
dont forget the german bombs still being found in england
I was a young soldier in Germany in the early 70's and saw many easy on the eye bomb shells.
German nationals I've spoken to seem to have a very good understanding of the responsibility there country bears for all of European WW2. I've not heard anyone ever speak of expecting allied compensation. In fact many are racked with guilt over the destruction there country caused and the Holocaust they created.
Yes Gary, you must feel SO proud every time a child loses an arm or leg to one of those awesome USA land mines that are just laying all over the rest of the world. Every time an innocent peasant trying to eke a living out of dirt, is killed or worse by the unexploded cluster bombs and ordnance we have so liberally sprinkled all over just for them. Be very glad that you live the USA, the cleanest land in the world. A-hole!
i like german chocolate cake...hope no cake factories blow up...
how many stories have we read with headlines like: "buried wwII bomb spontaneously explodes"?
i just can't recall that and i believe it would be newsworthy. i know the consequences of doing nothing could be tragic, but how many bombs are there, buried in the german (and english) soil that in spite of being labeled ticking timebombs by the experts, just never DO go off?
i think some statistics should be developed on just how big IS the real risk. of course, i will never be faced with knowing there's a 65 year old bomb buried outside my window as i'm trying to drift off to sleep.
“They were designed to create chaos on enemy territory,” ... as opposed to the ones rained on London that exploded immediately.
Lesson 1 for Germany here.
DON'T START A WAR. Then you don't have to worry about unexploded ordenance
There is unexploded ordinance in the US too. There was a camp in the FL panhandle camp Johnston I believe was the name. They trained the soldiers there for the D Day invasion. We got a letter this year from the Corp of Engineers wanting permission to go on our land & check for unexploded ordinance everybody got one in about a 20 mile stretch & a couple of the barrier islands. Then they have the old bombing range in the Apalachicola National forest I've seen signs warning hunters to look out for them.
The people living today had nothing to do with the WWII conflict. I feel we should help them with all the information we have about the ordinances, the drop zones, everything they need to find them and dismantle them as easily and cost effective as possible. Help them pay for it? No way!
Who said we want money from the US ? The issue is help from the German government.
From the article (emphasis mine):
as it should be. Some of these people are just ignorant about WW2....clearly Germans are not. As I said before. Let Germany deal with it. The people know those bombs wouldn't even be there if not for the actions of their fathers and grandfathers before them and do not need to be reminded. That's like telling a fat person they are fat. They are smart people and perfectly capable of shouldering the burden of searching out these bombs and deactivating them.
Many people living in Germany during WWII wanted to have nothing to do with the conflict... But war is an extremely messy thing.
Many people think that we should not help the people living in Germany because of Hitlers actions and the common people just accepted his actions. At first, they thought he was the best person for the job. Once he was elected as Chancellor (number two leadership spot), he had the the person in the number one spot killed. He then took charge of that spot by military force and deemed himself Fuhrer. At the same time, anyone who opposed him were labelled traitors to the fatherland and shot. At this time, it was too late for the German people to rebel and there were no elections Hitler had to deal with.
We do need to help by sharing our technology in finding all remaining unexploded bombs and I am not opposed of the US help in paying part of the cost. Had we have made better bombs, there would not be any unexploded ones today. We can easily fund this by removing the Tax breaks that we give Big Oil. Big Oil profited $62 Billion last year and we give them $30 Billion out of our "Hard Earned" Tax Dollars. The Republicans feel that Big Oil needs this money to stay competitive.
Germany today should be A Super Power. As Japan. To many threats that are increasing by the day and getting worse.
What are you getting on about?
They are. But they concentrate on jobs, their economies, their country's infrastructure, schools that actually educate, universal health care, safe retirement for seniors, having little or no government debt and other socialist cr@p (sarcasm). On the other hand we are building $7 billion nuclear aircraft carriers one after another. The US spends more money on the military than the next 17 countries put together and 19 guys with box cutters kicked our @sses.
Devils son: you hit the nail on the head, but with the wrong conclusion. Germany was able to concentrate on rebuilding its country and infrastructure (and social programs) BECAUSE the USA paid for the defense, and most of Europe for that matter. They paid some, but on a whole we paid the majority to defend them from 1945 to the 1980's. Defense is important, otherwise the social programs mean nothing.
Other countries should take a leaf out of Germany's book! They also should start using US for their defense and instead focus on their economies. As it is, US is the police of the world and focus on spending its way making weapons and super sizing its military while ignoring its economy, infrastructure, health care, education etc. Let's not forgot a major chunk of our taxes goes for maintaining the weapons programs, military and fighting umpteen number of wars instead of on health care and education.
So 22,000 bombs dropped and give them a benefit of 200 not detonated which is .009. So 99.9% detonated and did their job, they don't make them like the use to with this record. A+ to the WWII Vets and to the remaining Germans I say Happy easter Egg Hunting!!! DAS BOOM......
Very funny - just imagine one of them blows up a school.
Oh well. Another day. Another bomb.
and the whaler's lament....'thar she blows'...
@IXLR8, or math Wiz, seem to have brain but no heart. These bombs were dropped on unsuspecting civilians and you still rejoice. Sad. What if you were in their place instead?
IXLR8-You are filth, there isn't anything funny about bombs, unexpolded or not.
timb2-It was WWII these were not unsuspecting civilians (unless they were blind and deaf), there was a war going on with daylight and night bombings almost constantly. This has nothing to do with Germany of today or the people of today but there are consequences to actions even all these decades later, of which I'm sure the German people need no reminders.
Why are they finding these all of a sudden?
It's not "all of a sudden". They have been finding them steadily since the ended. Of course, as the years go by, fewer and fewer. I remember back in the late 70's some were found on a kaserne in Southern Germany. They just closed up the building and control detonated it. Don't think they were as big as these though.
Many communication tunnels running between the kasernes were booby trapped as well.
They aren't. There is just more media attention recently.
Had to fill in all that time since the olympics are past.
did you read the article? the u s and england released photographs helping identify the geographic locations that were bombed.
since wwII, technology has advanced a bit. more sensitive and accurate metal detectors? yes. ground penetrating radar? yes. better dowsing rods? maybe.
make sense now? unless you were searching for some kind of conspiracy with a conspiracy detector.
Let the Germans take care of it. It is their problem and those bombs wouldn't be there if not for their fathers and grandfathers.
No harm in helping with the information and expertise on where to locate them. But we shouldn't pay for it. And, to be clear, we did the former and no one asked us to do the latter.
"those bombs wouldn't be there if not for their fathers and grandfathers."
You need to understand that some Germans were forced to be part of Hitlers army. When the Red Army was closing in on Germany, Hitler drafted boys as young as 14 years old and as old as 60 years old into his army. Now the pilots were probably not forced, but the soldiers were. The people of Germany couldn't see Hitlers motives. All they knew was that he got Germany out of the Great Depression, so they thought he was a great leader.
Random-your talking about the last year of the war, what about the 11years or so that led up to that last year, no one was being forced for all that time. The German people are not and were not idiots, I think the best description of the German peoples attitude toward Hitler would be "willful ignorance", not my phrase but the reference escapes me now.
I don't see anything in the article other than an unsubstantiated comment by the reporter that it's a US bomb.
I'm sure this will upset a lot of folks, but the US didn't have/use 550-lbs bombs during World War Two. (nor do we have/use that size today). Our bombs (and the Brits for those who are wondering) came in 250-lbs, 500-lbs, 1,000-lbs... and others. But nothing in the 550-lbs size.
Now, the Russians used a 250-Kg bomb which, which coverted to pounds, would be 550-lbs. Not suggesting anything or drawing any conclusions... just stating the facts...
Nice catch ...
Here's a link to bombs used by the RAF/USAAF for those interested.
http://www.303rdbg.com/bombs.html
However, I'm not sure how much the USSR actually bombed that area (and they didn't bomb Munich, also mentioned in the story) and by that time of the war many Soviet bombs were "recycled" German ones.
Interesting article here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13792357
I think the problem is more likely the reporter didn't know how to convert metric to American and back again as the bomb would have had American markings.
Here's a story that illustraters that point:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/unexploded-bombs-in-germany-the-lethal-legacy-of-world-war-ii-a-584091.html
Beth, When speaking of converting "American back to metric" remember, the US used and still uses the "English system". The English does not use the English system as much as the US still does today.
You probably knew that, but many people do not.
And by the way, the metric system is much easier to use than the English system. All 4 of my vehicles have both metric and English sized nuts and bolts. What a pain!
Wireman -- what I meant is that the reporter was probalby told something in metric, then converted it "back" to American -- as in the system Americans use. Most people just guess, thus easily making a mistake on the weight. (I have very silly stories from when I first moved to Germany screwing that up).
Your probably the biggest English sized nut in your car. <just kidding- couldn't resist that softball>
I always get a kick out of people when they describe something that they know entirely nothing about. During WWII the US dropped all size & manner of explosives. Yes during that time some of the bombs that were dropped were 250 lb,500 lb, 750 lb, 1000 lb, but the problem is that's not their actual weight. That's just the weight of the cast steel casing. And, knowing the way the US news reporting always screws things up, they probably screwed up reporting about the weight of the weapon.
I always shake my head when I hear somebody say; "why can't they speak American? why do they always have to speak Mexican?"
They can thank Adolf Hitler for all of those unexploded bombs.
They know that.
Of course, Hitler did not act alone. In fact, he never fired a shot or dropped a bomb. (He may have personally shot a few prisoners, just for fun.) The prosecution of the war and genocide was carried out eagerly by the German people, and many of the people in the countries and areas controlled by Germany.
True, but Hitler manipulated a naive and ignorant populace into a frenzy with his philosophies and leadership. The only reason this hasn't happened since is because of the massive cautionary tale that this is.
I wrote 'hasn't happened since' when I should have included modern extremist Muslim terrorism. The exact same tactics, techniques and philosophies are being used to make little terrorist today, it's a model used by corrupt political power grabbing Imams. But that's a bit off topic so I'll spare you all any more about that.
Kinda what is happening to some ignorant and naive people in this country?The ones gathering in Tampa right now?
my2fish, you are just a very funny guy, maybe you research the origin of the progressive movement in this country. People are naive about the true purpose of Obama's programs and his intent to deminish America.
Yes the democrats that are trying to disrupt the RNC!
but Romney manipulated a naive and ignorant populace into a frenzy with his philosophies and leadership, just look at American-2444716 if you want proof.
The vast majority of the German people are ashamed of Hitler and what he had done. When he was elected, Hitler did not tell them his true motives. By the time they learned of his true motives, it was too late. They no longer had the means to replace him through the election process and if they shown any sign of Resistance - They were either shot on the spot or sent to the death camps. Since Hitler shot himself, They were left to accept the blame for his actions. I personally do NOT blame the German people - They were mislead, besides, most of the ones alive today had NOTHING to do with it.
Imagine that. The news writers who specialize in unexploded ordnance will have job security for many years until all the leftover land mines and unexploded bombs are cleaned up in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel (yes, they are still setting them out along the Gaza border) and many islands in the South Pacific from WWII. Aren't explosives fun?
several years after WW II my brother was playing in a field in Germany and was digging in the dirt as little boys will do -- he found metal "growing" in the ground and ran to show my mother -- needless to say there was quite big a to-do -- the UXB was disarmed, not detonated ...
one of my friends had a sister who married a Frenchman and when they decided to clear the field behind their home in the 1960s they found a UXB as well --
I would wager there are plenty of them yet to be found ...
Having been subjected to German bombing of civilians in the UK in 1940----we should have just dropped one atomic bomb on Japan and the second one on Berlin!!!
The war in Europe was over before the atomic bomb was ready for use. By then Berlin had been occupied.
There was plenty of damage to the country and it's people brought on by their own gullibility.Using a nuke really doesn't solve much in the long run-otherwise why are we so incredibly worried about nukes falling into the wrong hands?Makes you wish they had never been created.
Sue crazy Americans the German people never asked for help they will deal with the problem themselves.I am an American and as a group we all have a tendancy of saying"I ain't payin' for dat" we suck and we had better change our attitudes.
I'm an American and have never used the word 'dat'.
dem peoples dat got dem o'bombs...needs to blow dem up in a safe place...yupp...i use dem and dat...
I wonder if he pays for workmans comp.
nupe...he use's day workers...lightly trained and more than willing...to screw up...
From memory, the europeans used mainly TNT and the US just used RDX as a bomb filling (explosive) at that time. Could be wrong of course.
For a bit of interest, when I was in the Middle East some years ago, I watched a donky walk into a old minefield that had both British and German land mines in it. One bit of a bang when one mine went off and the explosion set off other mines in the area. When we went into check, we found some UXB's that had been thrown to the surface and all suffering from extrudation of the TNT filler.
Spider 24 your right, your wrong. When I was loading bombs on the F-100's in our squadron in Viet Nam during 67-68 a lot of the ordance that we loaded & the pilots dropped, were leftover's from WWII. The 1000 pounders were filled with TNT. The trouble with TNT it gets very sensitive after some time. The nitro in it has a tendency to settle down to the lowest past of whatever it is in. Be it a block of TNT or a cast steel casing. Being those bombs were dropped at that time in time. The weapon is now very very sensitive to any shock. So now you have to either disarm it or detonate it. Moving in even if disarmed is a chancy operation. Also during WWII a lot of the fuses were either time delay or anti-withdraw. And, it just what it sounds like. A quarter turn counter-clockwise, the safetys in the fuse move out of the way & the firing pin strikes home. BOOM the weapon goes off. And, if one goes off the shock wave usually sets off the other ones that are close by & maybe undetectable.
If you want to watch an excellent TV series based on true stories of the UK bomb disarming teams during WWII, see "Danger UXB". Edge of your seat stuff. You get to know and like characters who you think "they'd never let him die," then BOOM!
Love that last (evidently incomplete) sentence in the article:
"City officials say that on average nearly 3 million euros -- the equivalent of $5 million -- are spent on the search for explosive devices."
What does that mean? What is the denominator of the 'average'? 3M euro per year? per week? per minute? per device located? per resident/per year? per stray cat? per city block? per star in the sky?
Sounds like a lucrative contact for some company, regardless of the time period. And you can always say you are searching - just walk around waving a divining stick ( German "Wünschelrute": fortune rod or stick.)
I wish them all the luck in finding and disarming all of those bombs. With all the economic problems we all have to face these days, no one should have to worry about injury from a bomb dropped 70 years ago. That's just sad to have innocent people having to deal with that.
Then again in these hard economic times at least it's keeping the bomb detonator folks employed.
Wait til they find the unexploded ones in Japan!?! Better not blow those babies up...
I spent 18 months in Germany back in the 70's.I had a great time and met many very nice and caring people.I wish them luck with the bomb problem.I guess a bunch of you people writing on here have never been in a war nor seen tens or more dead bodies at any given time.If you did you would not be talking out your butts.Go back to drinking your beer and leave the conversations to the adults.
Boom!!!!
got'a get dat...boom...boom...pow...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j2T0Q4ohbk
What fact led this educated Andy Eckardt of NBC News to, declare that the US Forces dropped the bomb in question? Did he see the markings on the plane? History records numerous air raids on Berlin by US, British and Russian aircraft. Andy should also know that the Russians "liberated" Berlin, not the Western allies. For sure, the US supplied such weapons, but each nation also manufactured them. Did Andy Eckardt, NBC News zealous reporter, get a serial number off the bomb? No, the a**hole just made up a bunch of anti-US trash to write without an ounce of integrity.
Terry,
A lot has to do when the bomb was dropped. Typically the Brits bombed at night throughout the war, but concentrating on cities with incendiaries. The US bombed during the day, strategic targets early in the war, city centers in late 1944 and 1945. The Russians primarily bombed in support of their armor and infantry.
The terms 250#, 500# and 1000# bombs should be seen as generic terms which referred to equivalent amount of TNT that the bomb contained. Just as now, high explosives allowed smaller, more concentrated bombs. While others like the rolling dam-buster bombs or the deep penetrating bunker busting bombs were created in specific shapes and weights for specific roles.
Heck, folks still find unexploded shells around these parts all of the time - from the Civil War. And, from time to time, people blow themselves to smithereens. Is it right? Nope. Is it unusual? Nope. Should folks be concerned? Absolutely. I don't think it's too much to ask of the German government to help out when there's a threat of UXBs from 70 years ago. Certainly the US Army comes out to help with unexploded shells from 150 years ago.
...it's "ordnance" not "ordinance," NBC. For the love of God, where did all the copy editors go?
Rambie, I guess NBC is unaware that an "ordinance" is a law or regulation and "ordnance" has to do with weapons and ammo. I suppose that a proof reader is a minimum pay job.
The same misuse of the words ordnance and ordinance occured the other day on this MSNBC forum when the first story was reported. LOL. American schools.
Return the bombs to the senders: The US and UK were killing refugees at the end of the war by criminally bombing them in the undefended cities. The Russians were fighting what was left of the Wermacht in the East of Germany.
DOU44, What the heck are you spouting about, Germany killed millions of undefended people the whole war, you sound just like a jackass braying. But of course to people like the US is always the vilian. Have a good day.
But the US and UK didn't have to bomb the cities full of refugees fleeing the heavy fighting in the East of Europe, but they did anyway. The rascism and callouness of General Curtis LeMay and others in the US-UK high command ordered the continuing bombing although Germany's Army was practically defeated and certainly being cut to peices under the Russian onslaught. Read some books so that you are not just an american idiot.
copy editors are so pre politically correct...and just un-needed...that's what the american peoples want...obama said so...