The extreme heat pummeling Germany has helped unearth World War II bombs as water levels drop where battles were once fought. Police have warned against touching the grenades, mines and other possibly live explosives.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K.D. Gabbert
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World War II munitions have been found in numerous places in the Elbe River in the eastern German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, according to police.
So far 22 grenades, mines or other explosives have been found in the Elbe this year, Saxony-Anhalt police spokeswoman Grit Merker told DW. "We ascribe that to the low water level. That's pretty clear," she said.
July was the hottest month in Germany since temperatures have been recorded, while July 31 was the hottest day, with temperatures reaching 39.5 degrees Celsius (103.1 degrees Fahrenheit) in Bernburg, Saxony-Anhalt.
Earlier this week the water level was down to 51 centimeters (20 inches) in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. The historical low point was 48 centimeters in 1934.
Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces
Over 50,000 people were evacuated from the northern city of Hanover in May 2017, so that bombs from World War II could be defused. Even 72 years after the war ended, unexploded bombs are still found across the country.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/U.S. Strategic Air Forces
What is unexploded ordnance?
Unexploded ordnance (UXO or sometimes also abbreviated to UO), unexploded bombs (UXBs), or explosive remnants of war (ERW) are explosive weapons such as bombs, shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines and cluster munitions that did not explode when they were deployed. Unexploded ordnance still poses the risk of detonation, even decades after they were used or discarded.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Grundmann
Why does Germany have a bomb problem?
Between 1940 and 1945, US and British forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe. Half of those bombs targeted Germany. Experts estimate that close to a quarter of a million bombs did not explode due to technical faults. Thousands of these bombs are still hidden underground, sometimes a few meters down and sometimes just below the surface.
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
How big is the issue?
The industrial Ruhr area and the Lower Rhine region were heavily bombed, as were the cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Hanover. So this is where most of the unexploded ordnance is found. Bombs are usually unearthed during construction work or are discovered during the examination of historical aerial images. Experts say it could still take decades to clear all of the remaining unexploded ordnance.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
What happens when an unexploded bomb is found?
When confronted with the discovery of an UXO, UO or a UXB, bomb disposal experts have to decide whether to defuse it or to carry out a controlled explosion. Many have lost their lives on the job. German authorities are under pressure to remove unexploded ordnance from populated areas. Experts argue that the bombs are becoming more dangerous as time goes by due to material fatigue.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Puchner
How many bomb disposal experts have died?
Eleven bomb technicians have been killed in Germany since 2000, including three who died in a single explosion while trying to defuse a 1,000-pound bomb on the site of a popular flea market in Göttingen in 2010.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Zucchi
Which was the biggest evacuation?
A 1.8-ton bomb dropped by Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) was found in the city center of Augsburg on December 20, 2016. The find prompted a large-scale bomb disposal operation and consequently the evacuation of over 54,000 people on December 25. To date, this remains the biggest evacuation for the removal of World War II unexploded ordnance in Germany.
Image: Markus Siefer
What’s the latest?
Authorities conducted another big bomb disposal operation in May 2017, with 50,000 residents in the northwestern city of Hanover forced to evacuate their homes. Thirteen unexploded ordnances from the 1940s were removed. Hanover was a frequent target of Allied bombing in the latter years of the war. On October 9, 1943, some 261,000 bombs were dropped on the city.
Image: Getty Images/A. Koerner
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Call in the experts
In most cases, people contact the police after happening upon the bombs, which mainly stem from World War II, Merker said.
Weapons disposal experts are then sent in to examine the discovery, which sometimes turns out to be an old gas container or fire extinguisher. If the explosives can't be transported, they are detonated on site, which is less often the case, Merker said.
Experts detonated two anti-tank mines found in the Elbe in Saxony last Saturday.
After more than 70 years embedded in the riverbanks or riverbed, the bombs tend to have corroded and been covered with a thick crust of sediment. That makes it unlikely they will simply explode. Even so, police have appealed to people not to touch the explosives but rather to notify them immediately.
"Today there was a photo in a newspaper of someone holding up pieces in their hands," Saxony police spokeswoman Wibke Sperling said. "That is a classic example of what gives weapons disposal experts a fright."
Nothing out of the ordinary
Bomb finds are a relatively frequent occurrence in Germany.
Merker was blasé about the recent discoveries. "I don't think people from the weapons disposal service find it a glaring anomaly," she said.
After World War II many explosives were disposed of by being dumped into the Elbe, which flows from the Krkonose Mountains in the Czech Republic near the border with Poland to Hamburg in Germany's north.
