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Does anybody know how often such a bomb is an emergency that has to be defused immediately, and how often can they stop construction work and wait for a convenient time? Over here, they seem to usually manage to close the Brenner highway and train line for bomb removal on Sunday morning, when it will be least disruptive and can be announced in advance.
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 07:09:39 AM EST
Hm, first time I hear of such delayed de-fusings, so I am guessing it's not frequent...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
by DoDo on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 08:48:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]
As usual, police organisers weren't on top of the situation... evacuation took eight hours, until 16:45, with locals not getting any information (or getting wrong information) during their long waits for police.

Then the final dig-out and de-fusing of the bomb took only a little over one hour...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 12:30:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Contrary to initial guesses, the bomb proved to be a German Luftwaffe SB-1000 ('only' 1000 kg). And de-fusing was quick because the bomb shell was empty. All that evacuation for naught.

So, was it de-fused 63 years ago already, but the shell left there for some stupid reason? Or was this sabotage by some forced-labourers at an armory factory?...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 01:24:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
(or cost-cutting by the manufacturer...)

Actually, what's strange is that an empty bomb shell would be loaded on a plane : at the time that was done more or less manually and the weight difference woud have been noticed ?

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 08:44:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Maybe it was manufactured where it was found or somewhere nearby, and something happened (air raid, shelling, the Red Army took the city, whatever) and everybody suddenly had more pressing concerns than properly disposing of an unarmed bomb.

- Jake

Ceterum censeo Chicago esse delendam

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Jul 30th, 2008 at 10:40:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Here in Germany they usually try to defuse the bombs as fast as possible.
They are usually found during construction works. And since nobody knows how the shocks and tremors from that work have influenced the fuse...
It is thought that it´s safer to be fast.
by Detlef (Detlef1961_at_yahoo_dot_de) on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 11:00:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Same in the UK, immediate evacuation irrespective of disruption and defusing starts asap.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 02:03:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I was always a bit puzzled by the Alto Adige closings, and now that I think about it I realize that I never read any details about the actual bombs. I wonder whether it might have been a precaution before doing construction work in an area known to have a high risk of containing bombs? I know that the U.S has made available details of each bombing raid (types of bombs, where dropped etc) as well as aerial pictures from which one can get some idea as to which exploded, so it's just possible that they've done the hard work of correlating them, at least for very sensitive areas next to the highway/railway lines.

On a related topic, I once saw, in the Dolomites (Brenta, I think), a warning not to go past a fence because of the risk of mines. Yes, there are still left-over mines from the first world war.

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Tue Jul 29th, 2008 at 04:04:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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