Millions of unexploded bombs and artillery shells have been cleared and defused since World War II and thousands more remain buried all over Germany on land, in rivers and streams in the sea, sometimes leaking their putrifying contents for decades, heavy metal (Copper, Zinc etc) contamination from the bomb’s casing, organic aromatics (Toluene, Nitrosamines, etc) contamination from the degredation of the explosive charge and heavy metal (Lead, Mercury) contamination from the degredation of the detonator charge.
Immediately and for some time after the war ended, people and pets regularly were killed or injured by unexploded bombs and ammunition. Small children, people trying to clear rubble and even business or home owners attempting to put their lives back together would be killed without warning.
North of Berlin, especially around Oranienburg, where the U.S. Army Air Force dropped 23,675 bombs in seven raids from March 6 to April 20, 1945, some 700 square miles are contaminated. One year alone resulted in the recovery of 700,000 pieces of dud ammo, 15,000 bombs of all sizes, 1,500 rockets, 2,400 land mines, and 4,300 hand grenades. In Berlin over 2,000 bombs, each with 150 to 2,000 pounds of explosives, have been found since 1945. A deadly bomb accident on a building site in Berlin in 1994 killed three workers and injured eight when an aerial bomb in an excavation detonated. In Brandenburg since 1991, almost 10,000 tons of dangerous bombs were removed.
A great danger are bombs which had delayed-action fuses. 10 to 20 percent failed to detonate and are still in the ground. Diabolically set to detonate after the “all clear” for an air raid had been sounded and people had come out of their shelters, their fuses contained glass vials of acetone, supposed to break on impact. Many didn’t because of some slight failure in sequencing. Now they could go off with a slight touch. Duds, and there are thousands of them, with impact fuses are also becoming more dangerous with time. Their firing mechanisms contain lead acid and copper that, with aging, turns into copper acid, a material so volatile that it will react and cause an explosion if you just touch it with a human hair. Tragic accidents are common.
About 3,000 people in Germany work on the search teams today. An average of 20,000 tons of potentially lethal war materials are found each year and the clean up cost is outrageous. Like most German cities, there has been a terrible UXB problem in Koblenz even unto the present day. In May, 1999, while doing excavation work for a new building at the University, the largest bomb was uncovered, a 1945 British 1850 kg. heavy aerial bomb with three impact fuses which could have detonated at any time. It was the fourth bomb of this magnitude found in the city. A national crisis staff was employed, evacuations of houses was mandated, roads were blocked, the water navigation channels cleared, the railroad line rerouted and even the air space above was cleared. 15,000 people, three hospitals and five old people’s homes had to evacuate. More than 1,000 fire-brigades, police and relief organizations from the whole country supervised the procedure. 500 ambulances and supplying vehicles stood by. Five workers from the bomb squad took about a half hour to make the two tons of heavy bombs from the Second World War harmless.
In December, 2011, another massive British bomb triggered the evacuation of about half of the 107,000 residents of Koblenz before it was successfully defused. Among those ordered to evacuate were seven nursing homes, two hospitals and a prison with some 200 inmates. It was one of Germany’s biggest bomb-related evacuations since the war ended with some 2,500 police officers, firefighters and paramedics on duty across the city to secure the operation.
Experts successfully defused both the British 1.8 ton bomb and a 275-pound U.S. bomb that had been discovered around the same time after the Rhine river’s water level fell significantly due to a prolonged lack of rain. As this was playing out, 200 people also had to be evacuated from Nurnberg as experts there defused another 155 pound bomb left from the war. 28 smaller war bombs have been found in Koblenz since 1999.
400 to 600 bombs are discovered each year in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone. In the year 2003, the weapon removal services in North Rhine-Westphalia found 1,156 bombs to defuse and clear. In 2004, there were 1,167, among them were 229 (2003: 265) with a weight of over 50 kg and very explosive. In 41 cases, they were so-called “hole bombs.” These are bombs which already defused during the war or immediately after, but were not emptied and removed. 16 had to be blown up. Altogether 29,500 weapons were eliminated, among them 25,883 shells and hand grenades, 69 mines and 2,381 other explosives. In 2005, over 29,500 devices, among them 24,832 shells and 1,167 bombs with a total weight of over 216 tons were disposed of. In 2005 near Cologne, 63 bombs, 2,232 explosives and 73 kilograms of ammunition parts were removed. There were still 900 suspicious locations remaining to be examined for bombs in the Westphalia area by 2006.
In Aschaffenburg, four road construction workers and a passing driver suffered heavy shocks as a road machine detonated a bomb from the Second World War that lay hidden in the soil. The machine driver died and flying rubble damaged nearby cars. The Bavarian weapon removal service found 22 tons of war ammunition, among them 33 explosive bombs in that same year. In Saxony, experts found five bombs with one over ten kilograms as well as 483 smaller ones and 160 mines.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 123 tons of weapons and weapon parts were found in 2005, and the defusing crews must disengage approximately 1,500 to 1,700 times: about 130 bombs and approximately 100 tons of ammunition in the average year.
The Cold War left behind its nasty reminders as well: 1.3 million highly contaminated acres in East Germany used by the Communist armies as troop training areas are filled with undetonated munitions from anti-tank rockets to bullets. These combined with old World War Two bombs cause endless problems. Often found by construction crews in the former East Germany, which has experienced much construction since reunification, most of the old bombs are still live and potentially explosive. In October of 2006, for example, 22,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Hanover when three World War II bombs were discovered and several people were injured and a highway worker was killed and when an old UXB exploded as he cut through pavement during highway work. Such events are commonplace.
Nor is Austria immune to the continued ravages of war. Around 28 tons of unexploded missiles from World War Two were found and defused in Austria in 2009 alone. The death and destruction is a gift that keeps on giving. About 50 bombs from the first and second world wars are defused each year in Austria. For example, Salzburg’s railway lines were a major target for Allied bombers during the war, and many bombs remain.
From November 1944 to April 1945, beautiful Tirol was also heavily bombed in missions such as the so-called “Battle of the Brenner” which was carried out to stop passage of war supplies from Germany which were for the most part routed via the rail line through the Brenner pass. Over 6,849 Allied sorties were flown over targets from Verona to the Brenner Pass with 10,267 tons of bombs dropped on Tirol cities and towns such as ancient Trent (now “Trento” and part of Italy).
Trent is unique in that, thanks to the historic bomb mapping missions carried out by the US in the area, it is known for an absolute fact that 32,019 of the high explosive Allied bombs (801 with long delay fuses) aimed to attack 271 targets are still missing and unaccounted for and lying in wait to maim and kill people.
Thousands of the Allied aerial reconnaissance photos which were taken after each Allied air raid on German towns during the war became available in 1985, and by studying them carefully and comparing them with street maps, experts can often find old UXBs. However, such assistance was not available in the former communist East until reunification. It is also an extremely costly process because the U.S. and British defense departments sold most of the pictures to commercial archives who now use a form of extortion, marketing them to the German ordnance disposal services, demanding over fifty dollars per photo.