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> I know these are often big bombs but 900 tonnes a year‽ Remember the Allies alone dropped _millions_ of tons of bombs, yet alone the tens (hundreds?) of mill

> I know these are often big bombs but 900 tonnes a year‽ Remember the Allies alone dropped _millions_ of tons of bombs, yet alone the tens (hundreds?) of millions of tons of shells fired across battlefields, and we've not even started counting grenades and other similar smaller ordinance. 900 tons is _nothing_ compared with the sheer amount fired in the European theatre, especially across both World Wars. Also remember many of the prolonged battles were essentially fields of potted mud: along with period fuses, many of the shells simply landed in soft mud to slowly sink in. I think it's definitely the case that many of those less involved in the European theatre (v. the near universal conscription of men in Europe) don't realise how intensive much of the fighting here was. These are wars that went on for years, often with the front lines scarcely moving for months, with continuous bombardment for the entire time.

userbinator 7y ago
There's another comment here that a big one found was several thousand pounds, so the 900t doesn't seem like all that much.
sk5t 7y ago
Almost one thousand tons per year still seems like a pretty large number considering the war ended some 75 years ago. How long is the long tail of demining?
- brnt 7y ago
  That war is now over a century ago. Belgium still has an impressive infrastructure and skilled personnel to deal with this. Now you understand why mines are outlawed almost everywhere. Cleanup will never be done. Its just started in Bosnia for instance, with decades of work ahead of us.
  - gsnedders 7y ago
    This. If we assume we're talking about the order of 10,000,000 tons, of which 10% didn't detonate (this is roughly accurate for bombs & shells, mines are much harder to quantify), then that left 1,000,000 tons of UXO. If we assume (somehow!) half of that was dealt with quickly, that leaves 500,000 tons of UXO. If we assume 1000 tons are found per year, that's still 500 years to tidy up. Across both wars the total may well be closer to 100M than 10M, so then that makes it 5000 years.
- Scarblac 7y ago
  In Belgium they still have weekly demolitions of WW1 ordnance found by farmers. A couple of years ago an explosion went wrong, somebody died, and they built a new facility.

userbinator 7y ago

There's another comment here that a big one found was several thousand pounds, so the 900t doesn't seem like all that much.

sk5t 7y ago

Almost one thousand tons per year still seems like a pretty large number considering the war ended some 75 years ago. How long is the long tail of demining?

brnt 7y ago
That war is now over a century ago. Belgium still has an impressive infrastructure and skilled personnel to deal with this. Now you understand why mines are outlawed almost everywhere. Cleanup will never be done. Its just started in Bosnia for instance, with decades of work ahead of us.
- gsnedders 7y ago
  This. If we assume we're talking about the order of 10,000,000 tons, of which 10% didn't detonate (this is roughly accurate for bombs & shells, mines are much harder to quantify), then that left 1,000,000 tons of UXO. If we assume (somehow!) half of that was dealt with quickly, that leaves 500,000 tons of UXO. If we assume 1000 tons are found per year, that's still 500 years to tidy up. Across both wars the total may well be closer to 100M than 10M, so then that makes it 5000 years.
Scarblac 7y ago
In Belgium they still have weekly demolitions of WW1 ordnance found by farmers. A couple of years ago an explosion went wrong, somebody died, and they built a new facility.