World War II is long over, but traces of it have lingered for decades. And some of those traces, unfortunately, are still highly dangerous. Last year, an unexploded German bomb was discovered in Exeter. A controlled explosion of it left what a BBC report described as “a crater the size of three double-decker buses.” Bomb disposal teams from the U.S. Navy have been called in to investigate unexploded ordinance that’s washed ashore in North Carolina.
The latest instance of vintage armaments that remain very dangerous comes to us from a U.S. military base in Stuttgart, Germany. As Task & Purpose reports, a number of construction workers were repairing sewers at Patch Barracks. Their backhoe collided with a phosphorous bomb that had been in place since the Second World War.
While the bomb thankfully did not explode, the impact was sufficient to release enough phosphorous to send five of the construction workers to the hospital for observation. A bomb disposal team quickly arrived on the scene to deal with the situation.
“There is no threat to Patch Barracks or the local community, but residents are asked to avoid the construction site out of an abundance of caution,” the Army said in a statement on social media.
It sounds like the situation was addressed as quickly as it could be, which is encouraging news. But it’s also an ominous reminder that the effects of war can linger on long after the bulk of the conflict has ended.
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