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WWII bomb blast damages two houses
Published: 18 Sep 12 11:04 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120918-45037.html
An American World War II bomb left a huge crater in a pedestrian zone and two houses seriously damaged – but no-one injured – after experts conducted a controlled explosion on Monday night in western Germany.
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The builders had moved the bomb quite a lot, Die Welt newspaper reported on Tuesday, allowing it to slip into a ditch. “We had to assume that the long detonator had been set off,” said Dieter Daenecke, the bomb disposal head.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from buildings within 500 metres from the site, while people were told not to be outside within a kilometre so they were not at risk of being hit by shrapnel.
The evacuation was complete by around 10:30 pm, the town council said in a statement, and the controlled explosion was carried out shortly after 11pm. By 2:30am on Tuesday, residents were allowed to return to their homes. Just one person had to spend the night in a hotel, the town said.
Many windows of nearby buildings were smashed by the explosion and two buildings backing onto the bomb site were so badly damaged they will have to be partially torn down.
An equally large but less dangerous bomb was found in Hamburg on Monday, pulled out of the water by a digger. Experts there were able to remove the detonator – after buildings in a 300-metre radius had been evacuated.
Another WWII bomb which was set off in central Munich caused significant damage and required 2,500 people to be moved from their homes for the night last month.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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Your comments about this article:
If not Germany then who?
I am an English person living in Viersen and I call this place 'HOME'
I am terribly upset about the damage this bomb has caused and my heart goes out to anyone whose property was damaged in last nights blast.
We all have to put the past behind us and get on with life. We can't change History.
While we could have a long discussion about "who started the war" that's not really the point these days. Most Germans alive to day weren't around in those days, and few that remain had any responsibility for either the war itself or the election of those who guided the German government of the time. In short, today's Germans are just as much victims of these bombs as anyone.
The fortunate thing is that Germany has done a good job of training construction workers and others regarding the discovery of them, and does a pretty good job of dealing with them when they are found. Sometimes damage will still occur, but in this case no one was injured or killed....meaning "the system worked." Even the recent situation in Hamburg was handled well.
Maybe the real lesson to be learned here...beyond the mechanics of dealing with unexploded ordnance, is that war is never clean, never "short", and never a viable solution to our problems. Although I don't think Germany is particularly "needing" of a reminder, maybe for everyone else we can use that "gentle nudge" when resorting to arms starts looking too attractive.
wa
I just read about bomb disposal folks (EOD) in Poland who are dealing with bombs from WWII - dropped by Germany!
The reality is that America has paid a lot to re-build Germany after the war. and by the same token, Germany has paid to help Poland.
The German government chose to break the terms of their treaties with numerous other countries, starting with the secret buildup of their military and culminating in several invasions in Europe. This placed them at war with France, Britain and others.
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, their Axis allies, Germany and Italy, both declared war on the USA.
Having signed a peace treaty with Stalin, Germany subsequently invaded the Soviet Union, where they killed 27 million people, including 18 million civilians.
Germans of today have no responsibility for those events but let's not re-write history.