Earth spits out unexploded granades

[Olham 164]

In the German ZDF program's evening main news, they have just reported about unexploded

ammunition, that still "surfaces" on fields and acres at the former Ypres front bend.

The Belgian army drives around in vans, to collect the granades from farmers, who sometimes

just pile the ammo by the street. Many of those granades still contain the highly dangerous

"Senfgas". The army cannot catch up with destroying these old weapons - they have hangars

full of that stuff, only losely guarded! (I hope Al quaida didn't watch this!)

 

More than 90 years later, they still bring in 300 tons of such unexploded weapons!

 

In the Ypres front bend alone, more than 500.000 men lost their lives.

[Rickitycrate 10]

I was watching a program on tv today about the Ypres front and they were excavating, doing a dig, and found a lot of material. There are still pockets of tunnels where the men bunked that are untouched. The ground above gives way and a cow disappears.

[shredward 12]

Not just Ypres - you can find that stuff almost anywhere along the Front, lying on the surface after the fields have been ploughed. I was walking across a corn field on the western slope of Vimy Ridge a while back, and found an unexploded 18 pounder just laying there.

Cheers,

shredward

[Rickitycrate 10]

Not just Ypres - you can find that stuff almost anywhere along the Front, lying on the surface after the fields have been ploughed. I was walking across a corn field on the western slope of Vimy Ridge a while back, and found an unexploded 18 pounder just laying there.

Cheers,

shredward

 

Very cool! Is it sitting on your desk now?

[shredward 12]

I would be ill advised to discuss its whereabouts, if I in fact knew, or how it got there, if it went anywhere, on a public forum. :patsak:

shredder

[Olham 164]

Rickity, those unexploded granades are still dangerous. The powder changes somehow,

and becomes even more explosive. Not to talk about "Senfgas" - if you get one drop of

that on your skin, you will soon see a bubble big as a tennis ball there.

[Rickitycrate 10]

I understand.

[Check Six 2]

I guess you couldn't just wander through the customs line whistling nonchalantly with an 18 pounder encrusted in Flanders mud under your arm.

 

When I was in the army (many, many decades ago) we were shown a film to outline the dangers of unexploded ammo...stuff like huge unfired shells used as decorations sitting on a mantlepiece. The sarge's wife holding the baby, goes to kiss sarge bye byes for the day, puts bub's bottle down next to the shell, falls off....ummm... bad things happened. Kids taking a hammer and chisel to a live grenade to see what was inside them.

 

I also spent 15 years as an Inspector of Naval Ordnance. Although the explosive wasn't the most dangerous stuff we had to work with, we were pretty damn careful.

 

What? Oh, the most dangerous stuff?? OTTO Fuel II. It's a monopropellant fuel (doesn't require oxygen to burn) used to fuel Mk 46 torpedoes. As a fuel, it gives you a nasty headache if you're near enough to it to breathe its fumes. If you're disassembling a torpedo that has been on a test run, the fuel is under pressure. If you don't bleed off the pressure before taking the sucker apart, a huge cloud of atomised hydrogen cyanide (the residual chemical result of burning) puffs out. Quite unpleasant really.

[JimAttrill 24]

Monopropellants are very dangerous. I used to work with Iso-propyl-nitrate (coded as AVPIN) which was used in Hunter FGA9 and Lightning starter motors. We once had an idiot who primed a diesel engine with the stuff and blew it to pieces. And someone who thought adding a bit to their car tank would make the car go faster.

[Maeran 20]

More than 90 years later, they still bring in 300 tons of such unexploded weapons!

 

In the Ypres front bend alone, more than 500.000 men lost their lives.

 

The good side of this is that those munitions were intended to kill many more men, and didn't.

 

Let's hope it stays that way.

[Rickitycrate 10]

Speaking of the trenches. I just received a copy of "Paths Of Glory" in the mail today. As good as the movie is the book should be even better.

[Hauksbee 103]

It's been some years now, but I recall reading that France has a still active official department, staffed by a few dozen WWI bomb disposal experts. Every springtime, a new crop emerges from the mud and farmers hit them with plows. The bomb disposal guys give the explosives a lot of respect, but it's the gas-filled munitions they worry about most. In many cases, shells are corroded to a point where the walls are paper thin, but the gas [especially chlorine gas] is still potent. And like all hazardous professions [Alaskan crab fishing, or Formula Racing] they have their casualties.

Edited August 2, 2009 by Hauksbee

[Bullethead 12]

If you wish to suffer one Helluva Shock, go to this website http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-color.html and go to the Grey area on the lefthand side, go 11 topics down, and if that ain't enough to scare the schitt out of you, try #12 on for size. I'm sure that it's known of, but there's No money. Till the schitt hits the fan, then the powers to be will act suprized and outraged

 

Amen to that.

 

It rather buggers the mind (not "boggles", but definitely buggers).

 

I remember in Desert Storm we came across acres of abandoned SA-7s and SA-14s, and had to leave them there for the taking, except for a few we shot for entertainment. I'm quite surprised so few airliners have been knocked out of the sky since then.

 

But all that rather pales in comparison to the stockpiles of gas shells just sitting there, rusting away, in heavily populated parts of Europe.

Edited August 2, 2009 by Bullethead