July 28
London, England - Police closed streets near London's Canary Wharf financial district on Saturday after an unexploded German flying bomb from World War II was found on a construction site.

Bomb disposal experts were called in to make the V1 missile safe after it was unearthed close to the east London complex that houses 80,000 office workers during the working week, police said. At weekends the area is busy with shoppers and visitors.

Police closed several roads around the site in Millharbour, a road in the former docklands.

"Ambulance, fire and police are there and the building site has been evacuated," a London police spokesman said. The area was cordoned off, he said. Thousands of V1s, nicknamed "Doodlebugs", were fired at the capital during the war, with the docks a prime target.

Hundreds of unexploded bombs from the war are buried across the country, according to government figures. They are unearthed from time to time, often during building excavations.
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Holy cow!

As a child I spent a lot of time in Lancing Sussex(1960's) on the south coast of England. One sunny summers day my cousins and myself were playing on the beach when we came accrues a large metal sphere with what looked like plungers attached to it, as normal curious children we tried to turn it over. Along comes a policeman on his bike, suddenly recognized what we had found and fell of his bike trying to get at us.
Turns out it was an old sea mine washed up on the beach. Its a good thing we didn't play with it to long.

Tell me about it.

A few years ago, whilst building an extension to my local shopping centre, one of Herr Hitler's presents to the citizens of London was uncovered. An area of 500 metres was evacuated for 24 hours. The distance from my house to the bomb - 495 metres!!!



That is not dissimilar to what I thought when the bomb was found 495 metres from my house.

At first I thought it was a plane. And I was thinking: "What is an airplane doing at a construction site?"

Glad they found it. o.O

After so many years, they're still finding WWII objects.

And considering that about 20% of the ordinance did not explode (on both sides), there is much more to come yet.

True.

I wonder if we'll still be finding them. Hundred years from now.

Yeah,

(In the year 2107)

Future kid: Hey! Look what I found!

Other future kid: What is it?

(Its a WWII Bomb)

Future Kid: I don't know........lets play on it!

Other future kid: Yay!






BOOM!

Has happened before and is definitively not funny.

They will certainly be around a while. A quick search on the BBC website shows just how common this is. I found 22 stories on unexploded bombs or mines since 2006, and I have excluded sstories on hand grenades, mortars and shells. Also these are just in the UK (although I have include a story from the Isle of Man and one from the Channel Islands).

With much of Europe being bombed it is reasonable to suspect that just as many bombs and mines are being found across Europe. The battle fields of France and Belgium are also sill littered with unexploded munitions form the First World War.

BBC stories:

• Bomb exploded near Humber Estuary - 13^th February 2006
• Sailors warned of unexploded mine - 15^th February 2006
• Fishing boat nets unexploded mine - 8^th April 2006
• Huge WWII bomb found in garden - 19^th May 2006
• WWII bomb found near City airport - 1^st June 2006
• Double call out for bomb experts - 5^th June 2006
• Work continues to make bomb safe - 9^th June 2006
• Unexploded mine found off coast - 8^th August 2006
• 'Unexploded device' found in barn - 12^th August 2006
• Bomb discovered in town centre - 12^th August 2006
• Bomb alert residents return home - 13^th October 2006
• Unexploded mine found off coast - 27^th October 2006
• Bomb disposal teams destroy mine - 10^th January 2007
• Unexploded WWII bomb discovered - 16^th January 2007
• Unexploded bomb found by worker - 5^th March 2007
• Unexploded mine disrupts ferries - 27^th March 2007
• Homes evacuated after bomb found - 3^rd April 2007
• Evacuations after WWII bomb found - 17^th May 2007
• Unexploded bomb alert at school - 5^th June 2007
• Bomb team called to Glamis Castle - 18^th June 2007
• Bomb disposal work gets under way - 19^th June 2007
• WWII bomb removed from pub garden - 20^th June 2007

Most certainly.

Thanks for the links. I'll have to read some when I get home.

Where did you get the figure of 20 percent? I've never seen this percentage offered before. For relatively modern munitions, such as those used in World War II, it seems extraordinarily high.

My mother was from Belgium.
She used to tell of seeing a V1 Rocket from her kitchen window in Brussels. Mom said there was a long flame from the rear of the V1 as it flew. When that flame stopped, you knew it was going to plummet like a rock.
As she was washing dishes she looked up and saw a V1 flying toward her, then the flame stopped. Her heart leapt into her throat! It landed a few blocks away, killing a number of civilians and horses.
Mom died in 1983 so I'm unclear on the specifics. I know that Brussels and Antwerp, in Belgium, were both rocketed with V1s by the Germans.

An old-timer told me that after World War II, a few V1s were flown and crashed in the U.S., to test them.
He knew of two that were flown in Utah, then crashed in the desert as part of a test. The old-time reported that in the early 1980s, you could still find a few parts of those V1s in the desert. He died a few years ago and I'm uncertain of its exact crash location. I guess it will forever remain a mystery.

There are still plenty of old munitions here in the U.S. Some are found as war souvenirs, fully armed and ready to kill. Some are found on old firing ranges. If you're in the woods or desert, and you find a strange object, leave it alone. Not all explosive devices look like bombs or grenades.
A few years ago, a French farmer was going to cut down an old, dead tree on his land.
Inspecting the tree for the best cut, he found a hollow in its side. Inside the hollow was a cluster of rusted grenades and bricks of plastic explosive!
He called the authorities.
Later, he learned that the explosives were still capable of detonating. Had they gone off while he cut that tree, he would have been killed.
Authorities figure the grenades and plastique were stashed there by members of the French Resistance.
Read this report about 6 years ago on CNN website, as I recall.

That would be such an awesome find...