this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
114 points (99.1% liked)

World News

38732 readers
2277 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A World War II-era bomb whose discovery prompted one of the largest peacetime evacuations in British history has been detonated at sea, the Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) explosive was discovered Tuesday in the backyard of a home in Plymouth, a port city on the southwestern coast of Britain. More than 10,000 residents were evacuated to ensure their safety as a military convoy transported the unexploded bomb through a densely populated residential area to a ferry slipway, from which it was taken out to sea.

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

UXOs are no joke. Imagine how long that was just sitting there before it was discovered!

[–] aeronmelon 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This still happens with regularity in Japan. Cities that were firebombed but still have pre-war buildings that tend to be found to have undetonated incendiary bombs under the floorboards / in the garden / sitting IN STORAGE with junk that hasn't been sorted through in generations...

[–] cmbabul 6 points 7 months ago

Shit, when I was in college another school in the same state had to evacuate because someone brought what was believed to be a potentially still live civil war shell

[–] aaaantoine 10 points 7 months ago (4 children)

How did it take them 80 years to find a bomb in a back yard? Is it a large yard? Was the bomb buried?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago

Plymouth, home to major naval bases for centuries, was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Britain during the World War II. Fifty-nine separate air raids killed 1,174 civilians, according to local officials. The raids destroyed almost 3,800 homes, and heavily damaged another 18,000.

There would've been a lot of destruction and rubble. It isn't hard to imagine that some of it would have been built over.

The ground is also not static, things move from their original position over time.

[–] The_v 23 points 7 months ago

They usually are buried. Bombs were usually dropped from over a mile up. If the soil was soft enough, duds could be completely buried on impact.

The also used carpet bombing techniques. So if one bomb didn't blow, the nearby explosion would help bury it and hide the soil disturbance.

They find these all the time in Europe.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

this is a regular occurrence across europe. shells from ww1 are found every year, accidentally, in what is known as the "iron harvest"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Me mate, Wallace, thought it a peculiar mushroom in his garden.

[–] Siegfried 4 points 7 months ago

An opa almost randomly illuminates in Argentina

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


LONDON (AP) — A World War II-era bomb whose discovery prompted one of the largest peacetime evacuations in British history has been detonated at sea, the Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) explosive was discovered Tuesday in the backyard of a home in Plymouth, a port city on the southwestern coast of Britain.

More than 10,000 residents were evacuated to ensure their safety as a military convoy transported the unexploded bomb through a densely populated residential area to a ferry slipway, from which it was taken out to sea.

Plymouth, home to major naval bases for centuries, was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Britain during the World War II.

Fifty-nine separate air raids killed 1,174 civilians, according to local officials.

The raids destroyed almost 3,800 homes, and heavily damaged another 18,000.


The original article contains 165 words, the summary contains 137 words. Saved 17%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!