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WWII bomb explodes on a German autobahn

Bugsy

LE
I've been following this story since this morning waiting for further details. Here's the (German) link:

http://www.morgenpost.de/desk/1083662.html

And here's a translation I quickly knocked up:

"A 500-pound Bomb Explodes on the Autobahn

A 500-pound bomb from the Second World War has detonated at roadworks on the A3 near Aschaffenburg. A building worker lost his life. He triggered the detonation with his surface-router.


Aschaffenburg – Parts of the router were blown up to 500 metres away. This also caused damage to ten other vehicles and the roofs of two houses. The detonation tore a crater 2.5 metres deep and 8 metres wide in the road surface, explained a police spokesperson. Added was “It was a miracle that no-one was badly injured”. Only one female driver and four of the dead building worker’s colleagues suffered a shock.
The dimensions of the bomb crater and fragments found indicated that it was a bomb from WWII. The incident location was examined in the afternoon by experts from the Federal Criminal Authority and EDO personnel. The area around Aschaffenburg was subjected to intense fighting during the war and was heavily bombed, the experts explained.
The accident happened on Monday morning at about 10:45 am. The autobahn between the exits Goldbach and Kleinhostheim was completely sealed off, leading to traffic chaos in the region. In the direction of Frankfurt alone there was a 20-kilometre traffic-jam.
morgenpost.de/dpa/AP"

Status: Monday, 25 October 2006, 04:57 pm

Earlier reports stated that the surface router was removing the old concrete surface down to a depth of about 30 centimetres (approx. 12 inches). This means that this bomb must have been lying just under the surface for over 60 years! But surely it would have been noticed when they were building the road? Or am I missing something?

MsG
 
Makes me think of that episode in the first series of 'Auf Weidersehn Pet' when they find the wartime unexploded bomb on the building site.

'Ooour Neville' looks up at the sour-faced German site manager and says, 'It was probably one of ours'.

'Yes,' he replies.'It did not go off.'

Better late than never...
 
The router doesn't actually have to have hit the bomb to set it off I would suspect, and the autobahns were started before the One-bollocked Austrian Dwarf invaded Poland. It's possible the road was built before the bomb.
 
One of the roads Germany did have or still has a king tiger as part of it foundations hope they emptied the shells out of it 1st or big bangs all around
 
If i remember back to my Airfield EOD course,a Aircraft bomb on impact will penetrate down to the densest layer & it may end up yards away from the initial impact hole & may eventually rise to te surface over time.
 
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