Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
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Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
1–10 of 15 posts
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#2Here is a better recording: http://vimeo.com/48399328
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#3Interesting that this made it to the front page of Hacker News.
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#4Weird. Here's a story about a WW2 bomb near Amsterdam's airport from today too: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/29/world/europe/netherlands-a...
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#5Pardon my ignorance, but how involved was Munich in the entire WWII conflict? It was not too close to the front (especially to the west) and the closest bordering nations were allies.
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#6I am guessing either this type of bomb wasn't designed to create shrapnel, or they removed the casing beforehand somehow?
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#7Pardon my ignorance, but how involved was Munich in the entire WWII conflict? It was not too close to the front (especially to the west) and the closest bordering nations were allies.
In terms of being a target - less so than the industrial cities of North-West Germany.
It's a lot further away, so more dangerous to mount a raid and you can put a smaller payload on target, but it's still an important enemy city as well as a communications hub.
On the ground it got off relatively lightly - by the time it was reached the war was pretty much won and it was essentially surrendered without a fight.
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#8Pardon my ignorance, but how involved was Munich in the entire WWII conflict? It was not too close to the front (especially to the west) and the closest bordering nations were allies.
Munich was targeted by many air raids throughout the war. This was the era were an air raid was hundreds of bombers dropping thousands of bombs. In the start, there would have been an attempt at 'precision'. Initial allied air raids nominally targeted factories and other industrial chokepoints. Turns out their accuracy was so low that at some point they just switched over to bombing the city in general.
Also, towards the end of the war, the western and eastern "fronts" basically swept through all of Germany. Munich was attacked by American forces near the end of the air (they also liberated the near by concentration camp while they were at it). Fighting was not as fierce as other urban battles.
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#9I am guessing either this type of bomb wasn't designed to create shrapnel, or they removed the casing beforehand somehow?
They did not. I've read in a German newspaper today that a piece of the metal casing has been found 300 meters off, near one of the main roads of Munich. They coated the bomb in straw and sandbags to minimize the shrapnel as best as possible, though.
Re: Munich Detonates WWII Bomb
#10I am guessing either this type of bomb wasn't designed to create shrapnel, or they removed the casing beforehand somehow?
They did not. I've read in a German newspaper today that a piece of the metal casing has been found 300 meters off, near one of the main roads of Munich. They coated the bomb in straw and sandbags to minimize the shrapnel as best as possible, though.
The straw was there to prevent shrapnel damage. Unfortunatel the straw ignited and started fires in a couple of surrounding buildings.
You can find a lot of pictures in german newspapers and magazines, i.e.: http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/bombenfund-experten-spreng...