Dresden in early 1945. Complete devastation but there are plenty of unexploded bombs down there

Here is an interesting article about a guy who has worked for 40 years as a bomb disposal expert in Germany. During World War II 1.9 million tons of bombs were dropped on Germany and a surprisingly high number of them (5 to 15 percent) didn’t explode.

After the war Germany was in such a hurry to rebuild that authorities didn’t have the time or the means to locate and dispose of the bombs. The result is that every year about 2,000 tons of munitions are found and must be safely disposed of!

There are full time teams of disposal experts who get 2 or 3 calls a day from people who have found unexploded munitions. Everything from bombs, to grenades, to mines.

Especially dangerous are delayed-action bombs which were designed to explode 2 to 146 hours after being dropped (to disrupt clearing up and to cause extra chaos). The way many of them landed meant that they have been lying just under the ground on a hair-trigger every since.

Madness to get into a job like that.

Many types of munitions are defused – including some huge bombs

Dropped more than 60 years ago, the bombs are still killing. This bulldozer set off a bomb during road works.

There is a gallery with several more pictures here.