Frankfurt Orders 70,000 To Evacuate To Defuse WWII Bomb

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**Co'tor Shas**

Tens of thousands of German residents in Frankfurt are being told to evacuate by Sunday morning for authorities to defuse a World War II-era bomb.

A Frankfurt police spokesperson said as many as 70,000 people could be affected, according to The Local Germany, which would make it Germany's largest evacuation since World War II.

"Due to the large size of the bomb, extensive evacuation measures must be taken," Frankfurt police said. They tweeted a map of the circular evacuation zone, an area which stretches slightly over 3 kilometers, or about 1.8 miles, at its longest on the map.

Police said the bomb was discovered during construction work on Tuesday in the city's Westend district, but that it's not "currently" dangerous.

The bomb is called an HC 4000 and contains more than 3,000 pounds of explosives, police said in a statement. It's likely a British bomb dropped during a World War II bombing raid, Deutsche Welle reports.

Finding unexploded ordnance in Germany is relatively common, and certifying a site as free of buried weapons is a prerequisite for construction, according to DW. The U.S. and U.K. dropped more than 1.3 million tons of bombs on Germany during World War II, Smithsonian Magazine says, with about double that number on Europe as a whole.

Up to 10 percent of those bombs have not exploded, according to the magazine.

In May, 50,000 people had to be evacuated from the German city of Hanover while technicians defused three British bombs found there. On Christmas Day last year, about 54,000 people had left their homes in Augsburg. That was the biggest evacuation in Germany since the war's end, DW reports.

Defusing the bombs is not without risk as well. Eleven bomb disposal technicians have been killed on the job in Germany between 2000 and early 2016, Smithsonian Magazine says.

There are thousands of unexploded bombs still buried around Germany. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson says they become more dangerous over time as components break down.

NPR's Eric Westervelt reported in 2010 that in the German capital of Berlin alone, 4,000 "unexploded pieces of ordnance — mostly aerial bombs and artillery" were still undiscovered. At the time, about 7,300 bombs in Berlin had been "detonated successfully" since the mid-1980s, he said.

Unexploded bombs from World War II have prompted evacuations across Europe. More than 70,000 people had to evacuate from Thessaloniki, Greece in February. And bombs dropped during the German Blitz on London have stuck around there as well.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/31/547486291/frankfurt-orders-70-000-to-evacuate-to-defuse-wwii-bomb

We don't really think about this much in the US, but unexploded WWII and even WWI ordinance is still a massive issue in Europe. Especially since a lot of these bombs were dropped on cites (either terror bombing, or the fact that factories were often in cities).

**hotsauceman1**

Why not put the bomb up as a monument? and the form a religion about it?

**Frazzled**

Just a gift from Winston "You don't start nothin, then there won't be nothin, now come at me Bro!" Churchill.

**Ustrello**

Funnily enough the airbnb I stayed at two months ago was super close to that bomb site

**Orlanth**

RAF still hitting Jerry for six seven decades later.

**Kilkrazy**

There's a classic, possibly apocryphal story about a British Airways pilot who was trying to land at Berlin in the 1960s.

He couldn't find the proper runway due to bad visibility, and had to orbit twice.
The control tower got a bit batey due to the delay and radioed, "BA: haven't you ever flown in to Berlin before?"

The BA pilot replied, "Yes, I have, actually. But it was 1944 and I didn't land."

**Sentinel1**

I bet the residents did Nazi that coming!

Might be an American bomb, but more likely a British bomb from a 1000 bomber raid. Seems a bit excessive to me, rather just block off a single 500m - 1km square area would be much easier to enforce.

**Grey Templar**

A 3 kilometer evacuation area is total overkill, even for a bomb that size. But yeah, its a bit scary to have to worry about unexploded bombs.

**feeder**

Grey Templar wrote:
A 3 kilometer evacuation area is total overkill, even for a bomb that size. But yeah, its a bit scary to have to worry about unexploded bombs.

Probably the city officials adhering firmly to the C.Y.A. principle.

**jhe90**

1.5 ton bomb is not light weight but thats a tad over kill exclusion zone.

i mean, 1000m . i think your safe.

**Desubot**

Well Better overkill than under kill.

**Witzkatz**

It rarely makes international headlines I guess, but local German news have some bomb evacuation relating to WW2 multiple times every year, even so many years after the war. Usually it's 250lbs bombs or something of the like, bombs which only warrant a comparably small evacuation zone, but from time to time they find a biggie like this one.

The good thing is, I don't think I've heard of an uncontrolled explosion or some other accident in my lifetime so far. Either the fuses are really rotted to crap after all these years or the EOD guys are just that good.

Edit: Armenian Flag, because in Denmark, but actually German. Just to clarify.

**jhe90**

Witzkatz wrote:
It rarely makes international headlines I guess, but local German news have some bomb evacuation relating to WW2 multiple times every year, even so many years after the war. Usually it's 250lbs bombs or something of the like, bombs which only warrant a comparably small evacuation zone, but from time to time they find a biggie like this one.

The good thing is, I don't think I've heard of an uncontrolled explosion or some other accident in my lifetime so far. Either the fuses are really rotted to crap after all these years or the EOD guys are just that good.

Edit: Armenian Flag, because in Denmark, but actually German. Just to clarify.

Fuses can rot, or they can decay to be useless or become extremely unstable and liable to detonate at a feathers touch.

Rather deadly game of chance.
Even then a 3km exclusion is extreme.

Gah must sick to be German and up rooted regularly by bombs that are 70 years old.

**Witzkatz**

jhe90 wrote:
Witzkatz wrote:
It rarely makes international headlines I guess, but local German news have some bomb evacuation relating to WW2 multiple times every year, even so many years after the war. Usually it's 250lbs bombs or something of the like, bombs which only warrant a comparably small evacuation zone, but from time to time they find a biggie like this one.

The good thing is, I don't think I've heard of an uncontrolled explosion or some other accident in my lifetime so far. Either the fuses are really rotted to crap after all these years or the EOD guys are just that good.

Edit: Armenian Flag, because in Denmark, but actually German. Just to clarify.

Fuses can rot, or they can decay to be useless or become extremely unstable and liable to detonate at a feathers touch.

Rather deadly game of chance.

I think all German EOD teams are extremely well read about every possible bomb type and subtype and fuse subtype ever put together by Western or Eastern Allies at this point. I'd assume it should be mostly possible to figure out if a certain fuse is liable to get more dangerous or less dangerous over time, and then plan the whole situation around that - with controlled explosion as the last resort.

**d-usa**

Kilkrazy wrote:
There's a classic, possibly apocryphal story about a British Airways pilot who was trying to land at Berlin in the 1960s.

He couldn't find the proper runway due to bad visibility, and had to orbit twice.
The control tower got a bit batey due to the delay and radioed, "BA: haven't you ever flown in to Berlin before?"

The BA pilot replied, "Yes, I have, actually. But it was 1944 and I didn't land."

Another (probably fake) story I've read a few times goes something like this:

Lufthansa Pilot: *flying in Germany, says something to air traffic control in German*
Air Traffic Control: "Please repeat in English"
Lufthansa Pilot: "I am a German pilot, flying for a German Airline, flying in German airspace, why do I need to speak English"
Unidentified Pilot with English Accent: "Because you lost the bloody war"

**jhe90**

Witzkatz wrote:
jhe90 wrote:
Witzkatz wrote:
It rarely makes international headlines I guess, but local German news have some bomb evacuation relating to WW2 multiple times every year, even so many years after the war. Usually it's 250lbs bombs or something of the like, bombs which only warrant a comparably small evacuation zone, but from time to time they find a biggie like this one.

The good thing is, I don't think I've heard of an uncontrolled explosion or some other accident in my lifetime so far. Either the fuses are really rotted to crap after all these years or the EOD guys are just that good.

Edit: Armenian Flag, because in Denmark, but actually German. Just to clarify.

Fuses can rot, or they can decay to be useless or become extremely unstable and liable to detonate at a feathers touch.

Rather deadly game of chance.

I think all German EOD teams are extremely well read about every possible bomb type and subtype and fuse subtype ever put together by Western or Eastern Allies at this point. I'd assume it should be mostly possible to figure out if a certain fuse is liable to get more dangerous or less dangerous over time, and then plan the whole situation around that - with controlled explosion as the last resort.

Yeah, they must be some of most skilled EOD going in regards to WW2 bombs.
Still, I mean up rooting that many people, it's a dangerous bomb but if your 2.5km out, and behind about 100 or so buildings. Your safe.

**Witzkatz**

I think at that size, they might be worried about semi-seismic effects - shaking up fundaments, sewers and so on, and they probably just want to make sure there's not a secondary house-collapse a mile away and a domino effect or something.

**Frazzled**

Interesting point. Hopefully it is taken care of without harm.

**Wyrmalla**

I remember a couple of unexploded bombs being uncovered about my area over the years (that's not to speak of all the sea mines). They put up a cordon and folks came out to watch the clearance crews. There's flats now where they found a few.

And off topic, whilst searching to see when the latest ordnance was found, I remembered that the Clyde just casually has a capsized ship sitting in it.

**Kilkrazy**

There is a 5,000 ton cargo of WW2 munitions sitting in a sunken ship in the River Thames near Southend.

If that went up it would be like a tactical nuclear weapon.

**Da Boss**

On my way back from my honeymoon last year my wife and I were stranded in Bremen due to a huge bomb they'd found when demolishing a school.

Funny to think of it sitting under the ground there for so long.

Nowhere near as bad as what happened to Laos though:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexploded_ordnance#Laos

**zedmeister**

Eh, sorry about that lads. Trigger happy and all that.

If it makes you feel any better, I had to leave my house a few years ago when they were digging in Coventry!

**Witzkatz**

http://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/kliniken-bringen-patienten-aus-der-bomben-sperrzone,bombe-frankfurt-evakuierung-samstag-100.html

The surrounding hospitals are slowly being evacuated, other hospitals try to make room for severe cases, and especially also the babies and newborns, sometimes still in incubators, from the gynecology wards.

Police are slightly worried about possible raiders and burglars using the evacuation to break into homes without people noticing. The recommendation is to leave your house "like you're on vacation", everything locked and shut. Police want to increase a presence in the area up until the actual moment of defusing.

http://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/polizei-droht-mit-festnahmen-in-frankfurter-evakuierungszone,bombe-raeumung-rechtlich-100.html

Police are actually looking into forcibly removing anybody who insists on staying in their own home, apparently. The city has actually looked into the laws surrounding this and claim they will do this because, while they are effectively suspending the right of free expression and right of your own home, they say the right to life and bodily integrity weighs higher.

Bit of a weird thing, there. Not sure where I stand on that, but when over a ton of explosives is involved, I can see the goal of really getting everybody the hell outta dodge.

**Grey Templar**

Sure, you want to keep people safe, but shrinking that perimeter by half would still be massive overkill.

**Witzkatz**

It seems rather large to me, too, sure. However, if you want to take into account that even breaking windows due to the blastwave far away might be enough to injure perhaps older people or acoustic trauma being possible, I can see it. Why only make sure nobody dies, when you can make sure nobody gets even injured, know what I mean?

**Grey Templar**

I'm assuming the bomb is buried below ground, which would contain the shockwave quite nicely. It's not exploding in the air which lets the shockwave travel that great distance.

**Witzkatz**

If I remember a picture correctly, it was unearthed, so at least on ground level, not very deep in a crater necessarily. And with structures like subway tunnels, that river in the East and a whole lot of sewers running through the town, I'm pretty sure it would cause quite some damage nevertheless.

**AlmightyWalrus**

Windows shattering can easily kill people. You try standing behind a large window as it turns into thousands of sharp fragments.

**Spetulhu**

Witzkatz wrote:
It seems rather large to me, too, sure. However, if you want to take into account that even breaking windows due to the blastwave far away might be enough to injure perhaps older people or acoustic trauma being possible, I can see it. Why only make sure nobody dies, when you can make sure nobody gets even injured, know what I mean?

That's exactly what is being done, I agree. "Better safe than sorry" is a pretty old proverb. Inconveniencing more people than strictly necessary is better than taking even the slightest risk with a 75-year old bomb where the detonator might have decayed completely or just become unstable.

Besides, they will also have to cart it out of there. Can't well do a controlled explosion in the city, so even disabling the detonation mechansm there's a truckload of explosives (that might also be unstable) to slowly and carefully move away from people and buildings.

**Tannhauser42**

Perhaps another reason for the large area could be additional unknown bombs nearby that could go off if this one were to explode? I'm not a bomb expert, is that even a possible scenario?