Six Decades After War, Cleanup Is a Constant

Ragusa · Jan 31, 2007

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Six Decades After War, Cleanup Is a Constant. Interesting aricle, and a rare one for that.

For more than 60 years, German bomb squads have been cleaning up. They comb through the woods and dredge the ponds, sift through construction sites and back yards. There's no end in sight.

"In my lifetime, I will never see all the munitions cleaned up in this area of Germany," said Sebastian Dosdall, the boss of this bomb-disposal crew, clad in a pea-green jacket, work pants and metal-shanked boots. "It's hard to clear everything, everywhere."

Dosdall is 29. He learned about old munitions from his father, who has been in the bomb-removal business for 40 years. Hans-Joachim Dosdall was an official Sprengmeister, or demolition expert, under the old East German communist government. When the Berlin Wall tumbled, he embraced capitalism and founded a private company, GFKB, that today employs 120 people and scoops up dozens of tons of explosives a year on government contracts.
(...)
Last year, more than 120 tons of wartime ordnance were dug up and safely detonated by bomb squads in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to the Munitions Recovery Service, a state agency.

"Of course, we could find much more, but we just don't have enough money to do all the work," said Fred Tribanek, director of the agency's local field office. The Nazis operated 10 ammunition factories in the area, he said, and the countryside is still scarred from the Red Army's advance on Berlin in early 1945.

In the district that he supervises, about 10,000 acres of public land still need clearing. The bomb squads covered 250 acres last year.
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And that only in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

A part in the heart of the city I live in, at the river bank, still hasn't been cleaned of bombs, sixty years later. All that makes one thougthful about the heritge of modern war. I mean, Germany is a developed country, and we haven't finished that job in six decades despite all our resources and know-how.

Cúchulainn · Jan 31, 2007

When I was in Crete I visited a lake that is supposed to be full of German tanks. Along the Irish coast huge mines still washup on the beaches.

Carcaroth · Jan 31, 2007

Every building development in London requires a UXB survey as part of the planning regulations. The site I'm doing at Kings Cross will shortly be going through it's third in the last 6 six years.
There was an evacuation in Biggleswade (About 60 miles North of London) last week when construction work found a WW11 UXB.

The Thames Time Bomb still has 1400 tons of exposives on board.

Equester · Jan 31, 2007

Danish fishermen still gets old mines in thier nets, or find old topedoes. it happends at least once a year, that a danish fishingboat gets a mine in it net, luckely they hardly ever explode...sometimes they drift up on the beach too, allthough that is a bit more rare.

sometimes they find something even worse, old dumped weapons from the war.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20020616/ai_n12576807

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Six Decades After War, Cleanup Is a Constant

Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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Six Decades After War, Cleanup Is a Constant

Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

Cúchulainn Gems: 28/31Latest gem: Star Sapphire

Carcaroth I call on the priests, saints and dancin' girls ★ SPS Account Holder

Equester Gems: 18/31Latest gem: Horn Coral Veteran

Cúchulainn Gems: 28/31
Latest gem: Star Sapphire

Equester Gems: 18/31
Latest gem: Horn Coral

Veteran