How WW2 bombs across the Pacific are found and destroyed, decades after war

If you look at google maps on images, there is farmland over much of the "red" zone, for example east of Arras.

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-zon...

(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.

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!

> 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

[2] https://www.rheinische-anzeigenblaetter.de/rhein-sieg/c-blau...

Well its supremely dumb to transport rotten corroded 80 year old munition that will kill you & others if it explodes just by yourself.

I see it in countries eastward from Germany that from time to time some old fool brings such things to police station (either 'heritage' from previous generations or found in the field), with corresponding panic reaction (its not like your local police station are bunch of old bomb defusal experts).

I love German humour

Generally when you find munitions illegal it is because the country is allied with some other one that keeps them legal and is willing to take the heat for using them should they be needed. The other possibility is generals find the munition on worth the bother.

Still preferable to living in russia.

The US dropped more bombs on Laos than all countries combined in WW2. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barrel_Roll]. Waves and waves of fully loaded B52s.

260 million bombs, over half a million bombing missions. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37286520]

> It might be nice if they had a chemical decay trigger that required regular replacement, or else they'd self-detonate

I doubt anybody would want that in their storage bunkers. It’s worse enough to have munitions that may self-detonate if kept alone, but ones that are designed to do that?

Also, such a system would have to be very robust. It would have to survive impact and explosions around it.

I think this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_munition#Unexploded_or...) would be more reliable:

“In the 1980s the Spanish firm Esperanza y Cia developed a 120 mm caliber mortar bomb which contained 21 anti-armor submunitions. What made the 120 mm "Espin" unique was the electrical impact fusing system which totally eliminated dangerous duds. The system operated on a capacitor in each submunition which was charged by a wind generator in the nose of the projectile after being fired. If for whatever reason the electrical fuse fails to function on impact, approximately 5 minutes later the capacitor bleeds out, therefore neutralizing the submunition's electronic fuse system.”

That comes close. You shouldn’t toss unexploded ones in a fire or run around with it to get its fan spinning, but it would make them fairly safe to handle.

If that shouldn’t be called “technical debt” I don’t know what else.

They do the opposite these days - they decay to something that cannot explode after a short time. However the chemistry of this is complex and has trade offs: it isn't always appropriate for the needs. Even though some munitions do decay to harmless it isn't safe to assume anything is or will unless you are a trained expert in bomb disposal. It prevents a few accidents (or would - I don't know if any of these have been used in an actual war and so they may just be in warehouses waiting to get the final charge and be used)

It's not really all that desirable to have explosives detonate at unpredictable moments. Not all these bombs are in rural areas, many of them are in the middle of cities or otherwise in locations where it would be really really nice to warn surrounding citizens of any upcoming explosions so that they can make sure not to be nearby.