Fire in the hole! Stunning drone footage shows 2,000lb German WW2 bomb being detonated in the middle of Exeter after lying undiscovered for 81 years

• Residents were evacuated on Friday after a 2204 pound 'Hermann' bomb was discovered and then detonated
• Stunning drone footage shows the might of the blast which could be heard six miles away and caued damage
• But residents may not return on Sunday evening as 'impossible' to tell when safety assessment is finished

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9309775/Stunning-drone-footage-shows-force-WWII-bomb-detonated-middle-Exeter.html

Caused quite a bit of damage.

I was curious about that, too. Germans didn't have heavy bombers, so that's quite a bomb. I'd bet it was intended for some important target and missed.

CanyonAg77 said:

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I was curious about that, too. Germans didn't have heavy bombers, so that's quite a bomb. I'd bet it was intended for some important target and missed.

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It could have been one of the following:

No.1- a bomb that was dumped by bomber in trouble and lightening the load, or is some case, breaking up in the air. It is a common reason for an indiscriminate "bombing".

No. 2- possibly be a "target of opportunity" after its primary target was obscured.

No. 3 - general "terror" bombing.

No. 4. Mistaken Identity.

My theory is No.4 ..... This was not a Battle of Britain bombing but one later in the war. They sent over bombers in ones and twos at night to go after specific targets. I looked to see if there was anything of importance near Exeter during WWII and nothing shows up. They were lost and thought they were bombing some place else.

It would appear that an 80 yr old bomb with metal innards would degrade to the point of being scrap iron. I guess no one wanted to be the 'hero' and test that theory.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_Blitz

Just being A-holes

UK
Germany

I read that these really old rusted ones are more dangerous due to corrosion of the fuses that makes them even more unstable.

Look up the red zone in France around Verdun. Some several hundred square miles of forest that no one is allowed in due to UXOs from WWI

Meant that for Cen-Tex

BQ78 said:

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I read that these really old rusted ones are more dangerous due to corrosion of the fuses that makes them even more unstable.

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What about the explosives inside? I know that really old dynamite is dangerous, as it sweats the nitroglycerine out. I wonder if some of the old explosives get unstable, too.

And just so you all sleep well at night, there are several nuclear weapons that have disappeared where no one can find them. The Tybee Island bomb comes to mind.

JABQ04 said:

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Look up the red zone in France around Verdun. Some several hundred square miles of forest that no one is allowed in due to UXOs from WWI

Meant that for Cen-Tex

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Thanks. Had seen something on tv a few years ago on the problems farmers have around those old battlefields. From what I recall, some of the land was toxic as well.

I've been to Savannah 6-7 times. Was aware of the nuke there. Had too much fun to let it worry me.

JABQ04 said:

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_Blitz

Just being A-holes

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No.3.

It's my understanding that if the casing is still sealed the HE does not degrade. An even bigger problem I understand for the UK are sea mines from WW 1 and 2 dumped off the coast after the wars. Now they are exploring for oil in those waters and hitting these mines and even after decades in sea water they still explode.

I think these are just inside Shibasaki's bunker on Tarawa. When people find them on the island or in the water, they call the "police" and they are stored there. While nothing like the huge one that is the topic of this thread, there were probably 70 or 80 of them all laid out in a row!

Rabid Cougar said:

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2,000 pounders were kind of rare in general bombardment activities during the Battle of Britain, specially by German standards. HE-111 could carry two of them but had to carry them externally and it greatly inhibited their performance. They normally carried eight 500lb or 32 100lb bombs. Stukas could carry a single 2,000lb bomb but they were pretty much removed from the Battle of Britain very early due to being shot of the sky in droves.

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For such a bomb, I figured the 111 was not likely the one carrying it. Stukas - neat plane but fodder for RAF fighters, yep, removed from the battle.

The Luftwaffe did field operational aircraft that could routinely deliver such big bombs: the He177 Grief could carry up to 15000 lbs internally, and the Fw200 Condor, capable of carrying up to 2200 lbs internally. Both could also be fitted with external stores, but I'm thinking a 2000 lb bomb would cause lots of performance problems. The Condor was typically used in an anti-maritime role rather than as a bomber, so I'd guess that the Grief was most likely the bomber that dropped this bomb.


Condor

Grief

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For such a bomb, I figured the 111 was not likely the one carrying it.

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Well, I didn't say it couldn't carry it, just that it was not the likely choice given its typical bomb load.

Kampfgeschwader that took part in the Exeter Blitz of April/May1942 utilized He-111's and Do-17's.

Rabid Cougar said:

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Kampfgeschwader that took part in the Exeter Blitz of April/May1942 utilized He-111's and Do-17's.

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This prompted me to do some digging. Earlier comments that I made were right off the top of my head with no details as to squadron assignments, just my understanding of which aircraft the Luftwaffe had available that could potentially deliver the SC1000 bomb.

III/KG2 operated Do217 bombers out of Schipol, the Netherlands during the time of the Exeter Blitz per at least one source I was able to locate. That Dornier could carry 1 of these bombs. These belonged to Luftflotte 3. KG2 also operated the Do17 light bomber as well as the Junkers 188, a development of the Ju88 that was not available in April 1942.

I didn't find any reference to the KG that participated in the Exeter raids operating He111's, but not discounting what you're saying. These kind of records are often difficult to locate, and when one does find something, I wonder how accurate they really are. But based on what I found, I'd say the Do217 was the bomber - again, not definitive by any means.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Rabid Cougar said:

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Kampfgeschwader that took part in the Exeter Blitz of April/May1942 utilized He-111's and Do-17's.

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This prompted me to do some digging. Earlier comments that I made were right off the top of my head with no details as to squadron assignments, just my understanding of which aircraft the Luftwaffe had available that could potentially deliver the SC1000 bomb.

III/KG2 operated Do217 bombers out of Schipol, the Netherlands during the time of the Exeter Blitz per at least one source I was able to locate. That Dornier could carry 1 of these bombs. These belonged to Luftflotte 3. KG2 also operated the Do17 light bomber as well as the Junkers 188, a development of the Ju88 that was not available in April 1942.

I didn't find any reference to the KG that participated in the Exeter raids operating He111's, but not discounting what you're saying. These kind of records are often difficult to locate, and when one does find something, I wonder how accurate they really are. But based on what I found, I'd say the Do217 was the bomber - again, not definitive by any means.

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KG 200 was the pathfinder squadron that took part in the raids. They flew He-111s .

Well a kid in Virginia just found a huge naval shell from the Civil War and the navy had to blow it up. Germane to this thread because the article mentions that explosives do not degrade with time.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/metal-detecting-kids-dig-cool-235037847.html

That was black powder. One wonders about more modern explosives.

BQ78 said:

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Well a kid in Virginia just found a huge naval shell from the Civil War and the navy had to blow it up. Germane to this thread because the article mentions that explosives do not degrade with time.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/metal-detecting-kids-dig-cool-235037847.html

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Yes, this is very common around Petersburg. Creek bottoms are full of "stuff". Nothing that big though.

I'm still pretty sure that modern explosives if sealed and protected from the elements are as potent today as they will be hundreds of years from now.

I will say that nuclear weapon degrade just sitting there and the yields of nuclear bombs from the 60s are not the same today as they were when first delivered to the military.

I don't know that there are many nukes from the 1960s just sitting around. A huge swath of them have been removed from service and disassembled. A lot of the remaining ones have been rebuilt and/or upgraded.

"Maintenance of the nuclear stockpile" is one of the major missions of the local WMD facility.

Well there were many from the 50s and 60s still around in the '80s, don't know about now.

BQ78 said:

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Well there were many from the 50s and 60s still around in the '80s, don't know about now.

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You do realize that the 80s were forty years ago.

We are getting old.

And serious reply, a crap ton of the disarmament treaties were in the 80s and later. Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the stuff you were aware of was taken out of service soon after.

I think its possible the Powers That Be knew they were declining, but didn't want to spend any money upgrading a soon-to-be-surplus system.

Still hasn't hit me yet, I guess, seems like yesterday. But then I see where we are as a country now and realize it has been a long time.

CanyonAg77 said:

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I don't know that there are many nukes from the 1960s just sitting around. A huge swath of them have been removed from service and disassembled. A lot of the remaining ones have been rebuilt and/or upgraded.

"Maintenance of the nuclear stockpile" is one of the major missions of the local WMD facility.

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Well there is still one somewhere in Georgia and another in North Carolina.