Unexploded Bombs and Shells It is hard to believe, but we are still finding unexploded shells on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Just recently an unexploded cannon shell was found, and I guess it could have exploded any time during its 160 year tenure under the dirt and grass. It makes me think about others which might be there. But Gettysburg is not alone in this discovery. Unexploded munitions are still being discovered all over the world. It is said there are plenty of unexploded World War 1 munitions in France and people are still dying from them. It is hard to believe that munitions from over 100 years ago are still a threat and weren’t able to have been removed by now. There is a town in France named Ypres. Since the end of World War 1, 360 people have been killed by these munitions and 500 injured. It is important to note the number of shells fired by the British and Germans. It was over one billion. It has been estimated 300 million unexploded bombs are buried under farmland in Northern France. In an article dated 2014 it mentioned the fact two people had been killed by one of these explosions. There is an area in France known as the Red Zone. Significant numbers of munitions were buried all over the area. So many munitions were buried in the area the government relocated the people living there today. Only a few people visit the area for different reasons. The government thought it was too expensive to renovate the area and remove all the munitions. Even in the United States there were deaths and injuries from unexploded ordinance from World War 1 on. There were 126 incidents according to the UXO Incident Report Revised. Some occurred at recycling facilities and some in other places. The total number of worker deaths was 66 and the number of injuries was 61. Civilian deaths were 38 and injuries 134. It is said there are thousands of tons of unexploded munitions in Germany. It is said during World War 2, The British and Americans dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe and half that amount fell in Germany. It is estimated the number of bombs which did not explode was 10%. That seems incredible to me but the Smithsonian Magazine stated this in an article. That is not counting the other munitions such as shells and grenades. As of 2015, 2000 tons of unexploded munitions were being found every year. Some of the bombs are very big such as 4,000 pound blockbusters. Unfortunately, many bomb disposal people have been killed trying to defuse the bombs, shells and mines. An island in Hawaii named Kahoolawe had been used for test firing by the military and had been uninhabited for decades. The island was turned over to civilian control in 1994, with the provision the United States Navy was to clean it up. In 2020 only 10% of the island had been cleared to a depth of 4 feet, and yet there was 28,600 objects found at a cost of 400 million dollars so far. It is said the cleanup will have to go on for decades more and it is too dangerous for any residents to live there. Laos is another country littered with dangerous explosives. Many cluster bombs were dropped and they contained hundreds of bomblets. 30% do not explode on contact with the ground and become very dangerous to those around them. They can lay dormant for decades and still go off. It has been said by experts the most heavily bombed country in the world was Laos. It has been estimated over 200 million tons of bombs have been dropped on this country. In the country the most heavily bombed area was the Ho Chi Minh trail. The trail runs from eastern Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam. Not only were bombs dropped on Loas, but also defoliants and herbicides. The villagers are very poor and some sell scrap metal from unexploded bombs, taking a terrible chance. Others just get too close not knowing the bombs are there. Many thousands have been killed by bomb explosions and many more injured. Cambodia is one of the world’s heaviest mined countries. Five years ago an estimate of the remaining mines and unexploded ordinance was made and it was said 3 to 5 million explosives remain underground. Even the Mekong River has unexploded bombs being found in it by fishermen and such. The United States trained an underwater bomb disposal team to help the country clear the bombs from the river. It was said at the time the waterways in Cambodia contain 2,000 tons of explosives. The landmines come from the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime. One of the cruelest in history. The country is trying to clean up the landmines. It is said rural areas still contain many mines. Unexploded munitions in Vietnam are still killing people. Quang Tri is a province in Vietnam which had more bombs dropped on it than all the bombs dropped on Germany in World War 2. Then there was all that Agent Orange. We sprayed more than seven hundred thousand gallons of it on the place. A nongovernmental agency was formed consisting of foreigners who wanted to help clear the country of unexploded munitions. A number of Vietnamese have been killed by the munitions laying around and no doubt by Agent Orange. As in Laos, some in Vietnam are selling scrap metal from bombs and this is getting them killed. Calls about unexploded munitions are said to come in 3 to 5 times a day to agencies. Bombs from World War 2 have been found in countries all over Europe. As we build bombs such as those containing bomblets, things get even worse for residents of countries. There was a story I once heard stating some Asian countries had many one legged people because of the landmines blowing off one leg. Countries are good at dropping bombs and shooting shells, but they are not so good at cleaning up after the war. The most fearsome unexploded munitions are the several nuclear bombs we lost and no doubt the ones the Russians lost which were nuclear weapons. It is believed we lost at least 3 nuclear bombs we know about and the Russians lost among other nuclear weapons, according to the website The National Interest, 100 suitcase nuclear weapons. Two more nuclear weapons were aboard the lost submarine Komsomolets also known as K-278. The nuclear weapons in this case were nuclear torpedoes. There are probably more missing Russian nuclear weapons we don’t know about.
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