4/25/2002: Big ass dud bomb
 

http://cellar.org/2002/dudbomb.jpg

In a housing project in western France, they found this little tinkertoy, and it turns out to be an unexploded American bomb from WW2. It was described as 500 kilograms and 1.2 meters long, and here bomb disposal experts are trying to make sure that nobody gets blowed up.

A 58-year-old bomb... almost ready for pension benefits.

Great title :)

Bombs, even when unexploded, are devastating weapons. Imagine standing there and dropped bomb lands on your foot. You wouldn't walk for at <b>least</b> a day.

Makes yah wonder how many people walked over it, dug around it, grilled on top of it... not a great place to leave your Red Hot Bong sorry...

When I was working in the San Francisco Presidio and they were cleaning up Crissy Field they ran across WW2 era munitions constantly. I guess after the war the ships would just come in and dump their now useless ammo.

I was always grateful that I worked in the IS dept. and wasn't the guy running a backhoe down by the beach.

ahem :p

France surrenders.
 

Well... somebody had to say it. ;)

UXB was a British TV show, fiction I thought, about people who did this job.

A bike tour of Gettysburg can introduce so many more things never encountered by car. One was a man who still recovers unexploded ordinance from that battlefield. He is rather experienced at it. The shells that used black gunpowder - for example a fuse that caused the ball to explode as sharpnel over the enemy - is safely recovered. But there are still, today, ordance that used nitrogliserine (sp). Those, he left and called for Park Rangers.

What he does is illegal. But the Park Service apparently turns a blind eye to those who know what they are doing.

Ordance even over 100 years old is still dangerous to humans.