Interesting story here. I like the BBC, no hysteria, just the facts and information needed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39828327

It is ORDNANCE not ORDINANCE.

My buddy is in the pipeline portion of the oil & gas business in England. They have to look for UXO prior to excavation.

And it's not just WW2 ordnance that's still a problem. Areas of Belgium and France are still littered with millions of unexploded WW1-era bombs/shells/grenades/mines, including gas and chemical shells.

People are injured or killed every year, especially among farmers and construction workers.

At the current rate of cleanup and disposal, it's estimated that it will take several hundred more years before all the unexploded ordnance is cleared out.

quote:

It is ORDNANCE not ORDINANCE

Corrected as noted. I could not figure out how to spell bomb.

As if war wasn't savage enough already. Still claiming innocent people 100 years later.

Googling "French iron harvest", makes for some interesting reading.

Google "unexploded ordnance Guam" to read about the problem on U.S. territory.

You dont have to go as far as Guam. Google unexploded ordnance tierrasanta san diego. They built military housing on an old bombing range.....what could go wrong...

SS Richard Montgomery....

According to a BBC news report in 1970, it was determined that if the wreck of Richard Montgomery exploded, it would throw a 1,000-foot-wide (300 m) column of water and debris nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) into the air and generate a wave 16 feet (5 m) high. Almost every window in Sheerness (pop. circa 20,000) would be broken and buildings would be damaged by the blast.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery

Heck, it's believed there could still be some unexploded Japanese balloon bombs in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com...omb/article21065545/

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
It is ORDNANCE not ORDINANCE.

True, but sometimes the ordinances are more destructive...

Some young french men and women last year or the year before were on a beach on the Brittany coast of France having an evening together with drinks and a campfire. They happened to build their campfire right atop an unexploded WWII bomb. The explosion killed at least one of them and severely injured the rest. Must've been a heck of a surprise. Terrible when you have to think about the possibility of blowing yourself up just by taking a walk on the beach.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
Heck, it's believed there could still be some unexploded Japanese balloon bombs in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com...omb/article21065545/

Still flying around!? Ay caramba!

Its a big problem here in the United States.

Here is a link to the Department of Defense Munitions Response Site (MRS) Inventory (see http://www.denix.osd.mil/mmrp/mrsi/home/) and a link to the DoD Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) (see http://www.denix.osd.mil/mmrp/home/). These are MRSs are on active military installations, installations closed under the various Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) rounds, and Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) which are locations transferred from military control to other federal agencies (e.g., Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service), state, tribal, or local governments, or to private ownership. Check your state and see how many MRSs appear in your neck of the woods.

These sites include both explosive ordnance in the form of unexploded ordnance (UXO), discarded military munitions (DMM) as well as the chemicals that comprise them, referred to as munitions constituents (MC).

Also included is chemical warfare materiel (CWM) in the form of UXO or DMM, munitions and certain materials of interest with unknown fills (e.g., glass containers of chemical agent (CA)), chemical agent identification sets (CAIS), and CA-contaminated debris or environmental media where the concentration of CA presents a hazard to human health or the environment.

I've been supporting DoD on these issues since 1991 and had a hand in many of the federal regulations and policies that define the MMRP. If you have a specific question, my eddress is in my profile. I won't be able to answer questions about specific locations, but I can probably steer you to the DoD Component organization who can.

Camp Croft (WWII) was/is just up the road. They still find uxo there every now and then.

Oh yeah? In Goldsboro NC near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base there is an unexploded Mark-39 4 megaton nuclear bomb! A B-52 broke apart and crashed in 1961 carrying 2 nukes. One they recovered, the other went in the swamp and sunk. It's still there. The bombs armed as they were ejected from the aircraft and only one safety prevented detonation.

B-52 crash Wikipedia

My favorite hiking spots on the East Coast has signs at the trail head warning of bears and unexploded ordnance. Never seen any ordnance bears well that's another story but they always run aways from me.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
Never seen any ordnance bears

Ordnance Bears?! Why has nobody wanted me that this is a thing? Like getting eaten by a bear isn't bad enough, now we have to worry about getting blown up by one too?!


(Artist's rendition)

You'de be surprised how common UXO really is.