Old WW2 bombs and other unexploded ordnance

A German kindergarten was evacuated after an unexploded WWII incendiary bomb was found on a shelf with some toys.

Apparently a kid found it during a walk in the woods and took it there.

Whenever I hear about folks finding these UX Os in sock drawers and cupboards, I'm reminded of the time some folks found some radioactive material in an abandoned hospital (part of some medical equpment) and, not knowing what it was, brought it home with them without the proper protection (because see above, re: not knowing what it was).

Story ends with quite a few folks dead or sick from radiation poisoning. Evidently the hospital staff didn't secure the radioactive material because they weren't being allowed into the building due to some unpaid rent, and the security guard who was supposed to be keeping people out took a personal day that day. Actually kind of terrifying because do you know what dangerously radioactive material looks like? I wouldn't bet good money on being able to identify it apart from scrap metal.

EDIT: Only four people died. Still, enjoy the reading material.

edited 5th Jul '17 2:10:42 PM by AFP

It glowed quite faintly with a very pretty violet-blue hue, once they cracked it out of the container with all the radioactive warning signs emblazoned on it that they didn't understand, beyond "anything that's this hard to get into must be expensive". The glow itself would have had me running as fast as possible, because I know what even a faint little light show like that means.

But, the little girl thought it was really, really magical and played with it on the kitchen floor while her mother made dinner and her father and uncles tried to 1) work out what it was they had found and 2) how to fence it.

edited 5th Jul '17 5:53:13 PM by Euodiachloris

Ok that is scary. Little Timmy brought home the neat thing from the woods. Very glad they found it before it could possibly pop.

AFP: Oh god. That is rather horrible. Also the link appears fubar.

Euo: Happens more often then I am comfortable with. That is just one incident. Apparently the thieves regularly target these trucks and steal them reportedly not knowing what their dangerous cargo is.

UXO is bad enough but messing with anything radiological is just asking for horrendous disaster.

edited 5th Jul '17 4:59:05 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Try this one, I think TV Tropes hates the accent mark used in Wikipedia's URL.

The one that always springs to my mind is this one. I remember when it hit the news. It chilled me then, and it still chills me today (you might recognise it).

I was only about seven, but I remember that episode of 50/50.

edited 5th Jul '17 6:30:31 PM by Euodiachloris

Euo: Lol.

That makes me a wee bit worried given how nasty death by radiation or radioactive substances tends to be. Even worse there are some missing nuclear UXO out there some of the lost but still not found nuclear weapons. Total list. A couple have been recovered IIRC.

What was thought to be WWII era aircraft bomb UXO turned out to be a time capsule.

Good thing this wasn't a literal blast from the past.

It was a time capsule for a Night Club Madonna used to frequent in hear early days.

Re: radiation hazard symbols — I've seen those yellow-and-black designs ever since I was a kid (my Dad was an engineer at a nuclear power plant.) But until very recently, I never knew that the symbol is supposed to be saying: "These rocks emit death rays."

Speaking of radiation hazard symbols: This Place Is Not A Place Of Honor

That project is pure hokum. Curiosity is an inherent human capability and nuclear waste is not so uniquely dangerous that it'd merit that much fuss.

A team of construction workers in Quebec City found a live British cannonball from the Seven Years War when they were digging. They think it was an incendiary device. The workers posed for pictures near the bomb, not knowing it was a threat, but thankfully nothing happened. Army experts got sent in and moved it for disarming/detonation as needed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40618547

So some guys dug up yet another unexploded shell and did dumb things with it. We really need to educate some of these construction crews and people digging around old war zones and battle sites.

That by the way is not an incendiary device it is just a bog standard iron shell with a powder charge. The British and French used a different shell for incendiary roles and it wasn't filled with a powder charge but nasty flammable material that was ignited on firing the gun and spit fire as it went. They sometimes broke open spilling contents or just sat in what they hit vomiting out burning material. The charming contents of the bulk of the British Carcass Shells was saltpeter, sulfur, rosin, sulfide of antimony, tallow and turpentine.

Huh. Guess that guy was wrong. Then again, he was also dumb enough to take it home with him before handing it over to the Force...

That was the part that got me. They guy obviously suspected what it was but was still dicking with it.

Smithsonian: Found: 200-Year-Old Cannonball From French and Indian War

Really makes you wonder about if there's any leftover American Revolution ordnance lying around. I'd imagine that Yorktown and Charleston are the most likely candidates.

If they are finding ordinance that old chances are good there might be some lurking around somewhere. We also just shared that same find up a few posts from BBC.

edited 21st Jul '17 4:48:33 PM by TuefelHundenIV

As if on cue . . .

Librarian finds live Civil War shells in her office

First day of the job. Now she's got something to put on her future resume.

"Uncovered unexploded ordnance. Has great sixth sense for danger."

It's somewhat surreal reading about that when had something gone wrong with those at the wrong time it could've killed me.

I drive past that library every day going to and from work and the front wall of the library is only ~15 ft from the road which would likely be within the blast area for those if they went off.

Jaustin: Nah you likely would have been fine but anyone in that room would have had a bad day. These were black powder shells and they didn't appear to be the big scary ones but the smaller field guns meant to fire on infantry and other guns. They had rifling so they were likely from a Field Rifle/Field Gun of some sort.

Who ever had them evaluated and then just tucked them into a closet like that is a damn idiot. Kudos to the new blood for not only reading the info with it but also making the immediate smart move to have the authorities examine them.

edited 24th Jul '17 8:53:13 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Reminds me of when I was stationed at Yokota. They found a WWII era bomb buried across the street from the main gym, and some mortar rounds across the street from my office. You'd be surprised what you can get used to.

Anti-riot bomb squads were called into action at Fukushima 'cause of some unexploded bombs found near the outskirts of the power plant.

... Oh, wonderful.

The JGSDF is notified and the CRF will assess if it's safe to go in and disarm.

TEPCO released a statement and mentioned that the area nearby used to be an IJA military airfield during the Pacific War.

A German woman was rather lucky with a piece of white phosphorus. She mistook it for a piece of amber because of the colour and picked it up and put it in her coat pocket. It dried out and was exposed to air and caught her coat on fire. Luckily no one is hurt. The authorities are asking beach combers to put amber into metal cans instead of pockets just in case.