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Feuerwehr Muenchen via EPA
A handout picture by the Fire Department of Munich made available on August 29, 2012 shows firefighters walking past a burning protective wall after the controlled blasting of an unexploded WWII-era bomb in Munich, Germany, early on August 29.
Feuerwehr Muenchen via EPA
Firemen extinguishing a fire which broke out in a neighboring building after the blast.
Nearly 3,000 residents were evacuated from the heart of Munich on Tuesday before explosives experts detonated the remains of an undetonated, 550-pound World War II bomb, Andy Eckardt of NBC News reports.
Bales of straw which had been placed around the bomb to cushion the shock of the detonation were set ablaze and thrown through the air by the detonation, according to the European Pressphoto Agency. Some of them landed on the roofs of neighboring buildings and ignited fires.
Marc Mueller / EPA
Before the controlled explosion, the bomb was covered with sand bags as nearly 3,000 people left their homes nearby.
Police in Munich say experts successfully detonated the remains of a 550-pound bomb from the Second World War on Tuesday evening.
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Das Ooops!
uh. yes, sorry about that.
Not so "controlled" now is it?
My favorite part "experts successfully detonate". I don't know if I would call it such a success haha
Rweber,
"Das Ooops!"
I like that! It's clever. But are you sure it's "das oops", and not "der oops" or "die oops"?
Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm ... What happen to the Blasting mats? .. Seems that they would have covered it with earth the the blasting mats to prevent just this from occurring .............. maybe I'm behind times ...
Blasting mats work for some small explosive like a pipe bomb, or maybe a few sticks of dynamite wired to an alarm clock. Basically small-yield homemade type bombs. A 550 pound bomb with military grade explosives on the other hand...
If you cover the bomb with earth then you're tamping the charge which will force the blast deeper into the ground. Maybe they didn't want to create a larger crater than necessary? Who knows? The other issue that can occur by covering the bomb with earth would be extra/safety if a misfire occurs. Now everything is totally under ground and someone has to fix it. In the Army if you set the charge, you and the range NCOIC had to go down range and clear the misfire. Sometimes simple is better.
moonbeamracer,
" maybe I'm behind times ..."
Or maybe they are.
Lucky for them it was not an incendiary bomb. Willy Peter is bad stuff and very hard to to out . We dropped tons of them over there to burn their cities down and light up the target area for the next wave of bombers.
Thank you to the warmongers of yesteryear...
The WWII Vets are the reason you can write that crap and in English instead of German.
Reminds me of the young punk snot nosed air force kid bragging about the B-1 and how "those old guys flew such POS antiques" when he was going through a restored B-17. I reminded him it it were not for "those old guys" he woouldn't be braggin in english about anything!
Damnned libiots!
Your welcome.
toredown, you ungrateful twirp. liberal in everything you post.
Seven2Seven
You do realise that WWII wasn't exactly an AMERICAN victory right? The Russians had way more to do with the destruction of the Nazi Party. The US wouldn't be occupied by Germany, ever.
Seven2Seven,
"The WWII Vets are the reason you can write that crap and in English instead of German."
I admire your patriotism, but there is nothing wrong with the German language, you know. German is actually very closely related to English and was almost adopted as the official language of the new United States after the Revolutionary War.
Mickey Is your last name MOUSE ?????
The German ( Hessian's ) fought for the British during the Revolutionary War !!!!!!!!
If you care to remember the French fought with us. Does La Fie-at ring a bell for you ????
Gee, Mr explosive's EXPERT,
Do you think that bales of STRAW on a BOMB.....MIGHT be FLAMMABLE?!?!?!?! BRILLIANT, JUST BRILLIANT!!!!!!
This was just one bomb. Now try to image hundreds. It's terrifying to think what that must have been like during WWII.
Ding, Ding, here comes the German Fire patrol let by Sergant Schultz, I know nothing, nothing..........
Though there were incidental fires caused by the controlled demolition of this bomb, the damage is still much less than it would have been had the bomb exploded by itself. Had that happened, a number of buildings would have been totally destroyed. There is no telling how many pieces of unexploded ordnance remain buried across Europe.
I would love to know if the use of hay bales for this detonation task was standard operating procedure. I'm tempted to think this fire department got lazy, and imagine some tons of sand would have made this a simple safe task: any experts out there?
Hay bales ignite, YIKES! Who wood a thought!
Why not use a blast blanket. HAY THAT'S A VERY GOOD IDEA.
Because they are Germans, the superior race. Oh look out, here comes the Germans. The girly men in thigh high storm trooper boots.
Fred - and you are more of an expert on this issue. The Germans are smart people and I am sure they had knowledgeable folks in on this before they set it off. I just love Monday morning quarterbacks.
Scott-921969 is probably driving a BMW with an AIRBAG, has some ASPIRIN in his medicine cabinet, and owns many other things that are of German origin. Get over yourself!
I'm surprised they didn't charge the U.S. for the cost of exploding it....God knows we paid for everything else after the war.
Was there any indication it was a bomb from the US?
Yes ............ it still exploded after 70 years ... if it was Made in China .... it would have stopped working in two years fallen apart in five! ...........(Only A pun)
Sounds like they might have had help from obammys bunch of inept clowns.
Get a life, everything is not about President Obama you racist pig ....er.
Tonyin - what a mindless comment, hope you and your kind are not the future of thsi country.
Get a life, just saying something negative about Obama is not racist. Assuming any negative remark about Obama "must be racist", is racist though.
It's seventy years too late, but better late than never...
The gift that keeps on giving.
You really need to get a check of your peacenik mind and mouth that war is over and this is one reason we are fighting war now days non vets who can say this because of the men and women who fought in that war that gives you the freedom to post such.
Dan - you read a lot of nothing into Ken's comment.
How do you know Dan is not a vet and what is wrong with a peacenik? How do you know Dan is not appreciative of past sacrifices of our solders?
What a freaking mindless hot head you are.
I meant Ken not Dan in my last note.
They should have called the English and asked them the safe way to detonate a WWII bomb. Being hey still keep finding them. Maybe call Sgt. Shultz??
I read an earlier report that stated the Munich detonation was successful!
Wonder why they SANDbagged buildings in WWII instead of straw piling them? And this was "just" a 550 pounder - what if it had been some of the big "bunker buster" jobs?
Another reminder of why you don't call " B-17" in German bingo.
Good one!
Sgt. Schultz of Munich fire dept. said "Ve haff learned our lesson. Next time ve vill soak die straw in gasoline first so it is not so dry."
After watching the video you gotta ask, "WHY would you leave a job like this up to a municipal fire department???" This is OBVIOUSLY something that should be handled by an ordinance disposal crew and that's a talent that's still readily available.
I'm no explosives expert, but could the straw bags which are ignitable have been replaced with water bags? Water transfers force more readily than straw (which means some people would have gotten really wet and might have felt some pain), but I assume water would be safer in terms of preventing further damages.
Well, I guess next time an undetonated WW2 bomb needs to be set off they will have a better technique.
Actually, Steve, it's why you don't say "Lancaster" or "Halifax" in German. The bomb, at 550lb, equates to 200 kilograms. We used English measurements; the English and everyone else in Europe used metric. British bombs were rated by metric weight and load capacity of Britsh bombers categorized the same way.
This kind of event is not uncommon anywhere in western Europe. It never makes the news, but just about annually some poor farmer in France or Belgium is blown up by hitting unexploded ordnance with a tractor or plow. There's a tremendous amount of unstable explosives out there from both world wars, and gas shells from WW1. Nasty stuff.
Ask any Ordinance disposal person and they will tell you old ordinance is extremely dangerous and unpredictable because of it's unstable nature! I am surprised there was not more damage.
For a 550 pound explosive bomb, possibly incindiary bomb...you have to deflect the energy blast in one direction. Put a firecracker in your hand, and close the hand, BOOM, no more fingers. They needed to direct the concussive blast in a direction.
Looking at the size of that bomb, they needed to have reinforced in a circular pattern, cone shaped, either reinforced concrete, or SAND in the sandbags. If they decided for non conical shape, then that means they would have had to create a wood frame, poured concrete mix up to 12 feet high, and leaving an opening in one direction along the ground. This too would have deflected the energy of the explosion in one direction.
A log of HAY on top of an incidiniary bomb, means you put a bunch of consumables on top of a keg that was going to ignite during the explosion. I thought German Engineers were smart?
Let me guess. The politicians got involved and didn't want a lot of "Damage" or "work" done to take care of the device. I'm pretty sure a politician went for the least time consuming and least expensive way to go. Hay. Piled on incindiary bomb. Boom. Lots of fire all over the neighborhood.
It's kinetics 101. In South Korea, our ammo sheds are surrounded by sandbags, filled with sand in a conical shape, to help direct a blast UP, that way the other ammo sheds are not effected. And the sheds are sprea apart by so many meters in case one shed detonates.
Yah, they didn't use their brains. I'm sure several german officers are either laughing or cursing right now, going "Who is the DUMBKOFF that did this SHEISTE! SCHULTZ!!!"
"I know nuffink!"
Straw instead of sand bags , good move. In nam our powder bunkers were sand baged also.
Who would have thought of straw, not me says the wise man.
Bomb go boomb! then fire works start! I don't understand we got the extra dry hay, just like the English told us!