In response to a written Parliamentary Question from Simon Hughes, (Hansard vol 282, col 863 15th October 1996), Armed Forces Minister Nicholas Soames released a site listing of known German Unexploded Bombs (UXB's) in the London area.
This data was reprinted from the Evening Standard - Wednesday 20th November 1996, based on information supplied by the Ministry of Defence.
Quote:
Northwest quadrant Hayes [54] 20 yards south of Springfield Road
Hendon [26] Council refuse disposal works
Potters Bar [4] In field south of Cecil Road near Barnet by-pass
I had no idea the Govt had a list of UXBs. I wonder whether such info would be released during a planning application?
Pretty much where they all fell was recorded and most of them did of course go bang.
Where there was a hole in the ground and obvious evidence a bomb had done through and not exploded, if it was a certain depth down and the London clay usually meant they were, unless they posed a serious imminent danger they were left and the holes filled in. Most were recorded some were not. Hence the existence of this list.
Germany has a far worse problem with British and US unexploded ordnance. 15 devices a day they find on average.
Germany[edit] Thousands of UXOs from the Second World War are still uncovered each year in Germany. The daily average is 15, most of them aerial bombs.[21] Concentration is especially high in Berlin, where also lots of artillery shells and smaller munitions from the Battle of Berlin are uncovered each year. While most cases only make local news, one of the more spectacular finds in recent history was an American 500-pound aerial bomb discovered in Munich on 28 August 2012.[22] As it was deemed too unsafe for transport, it had to be exploded in situ, shattering windows over a wide area of Schwabing and causing structural damage to several homes despite precautions to minimize damage. In 2011, a 1.8-tonne RAF bomb from the Second World War was uncovered in Koblenz on the bottom of the Rhine River after a prolonged drought. It caused the evacuation of 45,000 people from the city and was called "the biggest bomb-related evacuation in Germany's post-war history".[23] One of the largest individual pieces ever found was an unexploded 'Tallboy' bomb uncovered in the Sorpe Dam in 1958.[24]
The Munich device being dealt with.
There was a German one found the other day in Bermondsey a 1000 pounder. Was discovered by workmen developing a site and the army bomb disposal had to come deal with it. Everyone was moaning about the exclusion zone and the disruption...
A 5ft-long World War Two bomb weighing 1,000lb that was uncovered by builders at a construction site on Monday could take a "very long time" to make safe, police said.
Couple of things stood out from this. Some idiot on twatter complaining about the disruption and asking why they were still finding them when 'the war was ages ago'. and Simon Hughes local MP saying these things had to be managed better and to reduce disruption? Maybe he should have volunteered to help dig it out.
When I was in the fire brigade, I went to a UXB in a gasworks in SE London - Lewisham sort of way I think.
The device was submerged under filthy water inside a water seal gas holder (the sort that moves up and down when gas in inside). It turns out that during the war, a UXB was removed from the damaged holder and then the steelwork was repaired before the gas holder was put back in use. In the rush to maintain gas supplies from an already damaged national infrastructure, nobody looked to see if there was another one under the water!
Hats off the the RN divers who had to work blind for several days and nights (there was no point knocking off at night as they couldn't see anything anyway!) dealing with this bomb using just their bravery, technical knowledge and sense of feel. Whilst it is apparently relatively easy to predict the effects of corrosion of a bomb sunk in London clay over many decades, nobody really knew what the condition of this bomb would be sitting in sludgy and rusty water. I am not sure what these RN divers are paid, but that day, it could never be enough!!!
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