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What is often underestimated is the sheer amount of ammunition still found. On German mainland alone about 5000 WW2 bombs are destroyed every year. The "Kampfmi

What is often underestimated is the sheer amount of ammunition still found. On German mainland alone about 5000 WW2 bombs are destroyed every year. The "Kampfmittelräumdienstfahrzeug" is common sight at construction sites. Luckily accidents are rare and there are only between 1 and 2 self detonations per year. From what I've heard from my Vietnamese colleagues the situation there is similar. https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/909216/a5448dd84ac14a5b36fb93f400a4dff1/WD-2-032-22-pdf-data.pdf https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/909216/a5448dd84ac14a...

Swizec 2y ago
People still find unexploded WW1 munitions on the Isonzo front in the Alps. Regular iron harvests in Verdun too.
- jabl 2y ago
  In France and Belgium, they dig up something like 900 tons on WWI munitions per year. At this pace they estimate that they're done in another 300-700 years. And the decomposing shells leach nasty stuff like mercury and arsenic, poisoning the soil. https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/05/26/the-real-no-go-zone-of-france-a-forbidden-no-mans-land-poisoned-by-war/ https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/05/26/the-real-no-go-zon...
KingOfCoders 2y ago
"In 2018, the British Ministry of Defence reported that 450 World War II bombs were made safe or defused since 2010 by disposal teams" and "In Berlin alone, 1.8 million pieces of ordnance have been defused between 1947 and 2018." and many other European countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_bomb_disposal_in_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_bomb_disposal_in_...
blueflow 2y ago
Major annoyance in Germany: If you find a mortar or a hand grenade in your garden. Do not try bring it to the police. Transporting it is a federal crime for citizens. Leave it in place and call them.
- elygre 2y ago
  For a second there I thought you meant it was an annoyance that you couldn’t just pick it up and bring it on the bus to the police!
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > Major annoyance in Germany: If you find a mortar or a hand grenade in your garden. Do not try bring it to the police. That's not an annoyance, that's common sense. I mean, I get it, it's not like in Croatia or Bosnia where every child ever since the 90s wars gets "the talk" not about condoms but about "this is how ammunition looks like, and remember that the enemy also placed mines in everyday waste like cola cans or in children toys, DO NOT pick up random stuff you find while playing and stay THE FUCK out of fields and forests marked with 'Pažnja mine' signs"... but hey even in Germany everyone should know that picking up ammunition is one of the dumbest ways to off yourself. The only ones actually dumb enough to do that are people harvesting leftover ordnance for its explosives or to sell it on to "memorabilia" collectors [1], and headlines like [2] are routine whenever one of these collectors/harvesters either mishandles one of the items or they go off on their own. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWWGdxhSsS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWWGdxhSsS4 [2] https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blaulicht/hennefer-munitionssammler-sorgt-fuer-grosseinsatz_a228914 https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blau...
  - blueflow 2y ago
    Are you one of these persons who like to have cops on their property?
    - bell-cot 2y ago
      Compared to your prior "Major annoyance" descriptive (for having the police visit), how would you rate being maimed or killed by exploding ordnance?
      - blueflow 2y ago
        As unlikely.
nixass 2y ago
I am in data center business and People wouldn't believe how many times we get a notification that WW2 bomb was found where the colo is building their new hall. It's not only an issue for a new build but also for existing data centers in the same campus. If you're running HDDs in your servers they are in for a ride in case bomb goes off
willyt 2y ago
There’s a strip across France, the zone rouge, that’s too contaminated to farm because of WW1. There’s not even any effort to remove un exploded ordnance because the contamination means the land is unusable. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge
- KptMarchewa 2y ago
  If you look at google maps on images, there is farmland over much of the "red" zone, for example east of Arras.
  - goodcanadian 2y ago
    The zone rouge was defined immediately after the end of the war at a time when a devastated country was trying to rebuild. At the time, it made sense to say, "don't even waste your time here." In the intervening century, some of it has been cleaned up and rehabilitated. There are still areas that are too poisoned to grow food, though.
mrweasel 2y ago
Fishermen coming in with old naval mines in their nets are a pretty common occurrence in Denmark. Those things are just crazy and it seems like dumb luck that almost no people aren't killed by them.
- sbsudbdjd 2y ago
  (Aside on why I appear blasé: I grew up riding across a heavily trafficked bridge to get to school that was aggressively but unsuccessfully bombed by the allies. They once found a big one and closed the bridge for a few days while they removed it, but there's no reason to believe that there aren't more to be found buried in the mud.) Well they didnt go off when they were supposed to and haven't gone off in 80 years -> there's a good chance there's something about them preventing them from going off. The main danger is that disturbing them could remove the inhibitor. Also, age can make them unstable. This is why we blissfully ignore the known unknown bombs that are everywhere in Europe but are extremely careful when we discover and try to remove one.

Swizec 2y ago

People still find unexploded WW1 munitions on the Isonzo front in the Alps. Regular iron harvests in Verdun too.

jabl 2y ago
In France and Belgium, they dig up something like 900 tons on WWI munitions per year. At this pace they estimate that they're done in another 300-700 years. And the decomposing shells leach nasty stuff like mercury and arsenic, poisoning the soil. https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/05/26/the-real-no-go-zone-of-france-a-forbidden-no-mans-land-poisoned-by-war/ https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/05/26/the-real-no-go-zon...

KingOfCoders 2y ago

"In 2018, the British Ministry of Defence reported that 450 World War II bombs were made safe or defused since 2010 by disposal teams" and "In Berlin alone, 1.8 million pieces of ordnance have been defused between 1947 and 2018." and many other European countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_bomb_disposal_in_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_bomb_disposal_in_...

blueflow 2y ago

Major annoyance in Germany: If you find a mortar or a hand grenade in your garden. Do not try bring it to the police. Transporting it is a federal crime for citizens. Leave it in place and call them.

elygre 2y ago
For a second there I thought you meant it was an annoyance that you couldn’t just pick it up and bring it on the bus to the police!
mschuster91 2y ago
> Major annoyance in Germany: If you find a mortar or a hand grenade in your garden. Do not try bring it to the police. That's not an annoyance, that's common sense. I mean, I get it, it's not like in Croatia or Bosnia where every child ever since the 90s wars gets "the talk" not about condoms but about "this is how ammunition looks like, and remember that the enemy also placed mines in everyday waste like cola cans or in children toys, DO NOT pick up random stuff you find while playing and stay THE FUCK out of fields and forests marked with 'Pažnja mine' signs"... but hey even in Germany everyone should know that picking up ammunition is one of the dumbest ways to off yourself. The only ones actually dumb enough to do that are people harvesting leftover ordnance for its explosives or to sell it on to "memorabilia" collectors [1], and headlines like [2] are routine whenever one of these collectors/harvesters either mishandles one of the items or they go off on their own. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWWGdxhSsS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWWGdxhSsS4 [2] https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blaulicht/hennefer-munitionssammler-sorgt-fuer-grosseinsatz_a228914 https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blau...
- blueflow 2y ago
  Are you one of these persons who like to have cops on their property?
  - bell-cot 2y ago
    Compared to your prior "Major annoyance" descriptive (for having the police visit), how would you rate being maimed or killed by exploding ordnance?
    - blueflow 2y ago
      As unlikely.

nixass 2y ago

I am in data center business and People wouldn't believe how many times we get a notification that WW2 bomb was found where the colo is building their new hall. It's not only an issue for a new build but also for existing data centers in the same campus. If you're running HDDs in your servers they are in for a ride in case bomb goes off

willyt 2y ago

There’s a strip across France, the zone rouge, that’s too contaminated to farm because of WW1. There’s not even any effort to remove un exploded ordnance because the contamination means the land is unusable. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge

KptMarchewa 2y ago
If you look at google maps on images, there is farmland over much of the "red" zone, for example east of Arras.
- goodcanadian 2y ago
  The zone rouge was defined immediately after the end of the war at a time when a devastated country was trying to rebuild. At the time, it made sense to say, "don't even waste your time here." In the intervening century, some of it has been cleaned up and rehabilitated. There are still areas that are too poisoned to grow food, though.

mrweasel 2y ago

Fishermen coming in with old naval mines in their nets are a pretty common occurrence in Denmark. Those things are just crazy and it seems like dumb luck that almost no people aren't killed by them.

sbsudbdjd 2y ago
(Aside on why I appear blasé: I grew up riding across a heavily trafficked bridge to get to school that was aggressively but unsuccessfully bombed by the allies. They once found a big one and closed the bridge for a few days while they removed it, but there's no reason to believe that there aren't more to be found buried in the mud.) Well they didnt go off when they were supposed to and haven't gone off in 80 years -> there's a good chance there's something about them preventing them from going off. The main danger is that disturbing them could remove the inhibitor. Also, age can make them unstable. This is why we blissfully ignore the known unknown bombs that are everywhere in Europe but are extremely careful when we discover and try to remove one.