When we think of old World War II bombs being uncovered, we automatically think of German bombs in the UK, and not ever about the Allied bombs in Germany. Of course by the end of the war we had dropped more than 3.4 million tons of bombs on Germany, far more than the Germans had managed to drop here.
So when you think of it, there must be more old unexploded bombs there, then here. In Berlin alone, its estimated that 465,000 tons of allied explosives hit the ground, and about one in eight bombs did not explode*.
So someone has to clean them up when they turn up .... this is where the rather brave Ralf Kirschnick comes to the fore, he is Berlins lead bomb disposal expert. With all the rebuilding of the German capital following reunification and the relocation of government back there following reunification, he's and his equally brave team are busy men as bombs are being uncovered.
Rather counter intuitively he does not wear protective clothing because he says it would do nothing to protect him from an exploding bomb (I hear what he's saying but .....), and of course rusty bombs are inherently unstable, so its something of a miracle that he's here to tell us about his job. I suspect he would rather just be killed cleanly, rather than be left seriously maimed, but I am only guessing at that.
Anyway, a salute to all the bomb disposal teams around the world .... mad as hatters the lot of them, but very brave.
* The reason for high proportion of unexploded ordinance is that the British and Americans tested their bombs in a part of Scotland with particularly hard ground. When they tried them out on the softer earth of Berlin, they sank into the ground .... so now they are lying there waiting to go off or be uncovered.
So when you think of it, there must be more old unexploded bombs there, then here. In Berlin alone, its estimated that 465,000 tons of allied explosives hit the ground, and about one in eight bombs did not explode*.
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| Manuel Kunzendorf, Ralf Kirschnick und Horst Reinhardt |
So someone has to clean them up when they turn up .... this is where the rather brave Ralf Kirschnick comes to the fore, he is Berlins lead bomb disposal expert. With all the rebuilding of the German capital following reunification and the relocation of government back there following reunification, he's and his equally brave team are busy men as bombs are being uncovered.
Rather counter intuitively he does not wear protective clothing because he says it would do nothing to protect him from an exploding bomb (I hear what he's saying but .....), and of course rusty bombs are inherently unstable, so its something of a miracle that he's here to tell us about his job. I suspect he would rather just be killed cleanly, rather than be left seriously maimed, but I am only guessing at that.
Anyway, a salute to all the bomb disposal teams around the world .... mad as hatters the lot of them, but very brave.
* The reason for high proportion of unexploded ordinance is that the British and Americans tested their bombs in a part of Scotland with particularly hard ground. When they tried them out on the softer earth of Berlin, they sank into the ground .... so now they are lying there waiting to go off or be uncovered.
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