Here are Today's Vintage Ordinance Finds....

[BadBob]

Vials of Deadly Gases from Second World War Found in Dusty Attic. When another dusty cardboard box was uncovered in her uncle's attic, Lyn Fulton expected to find memorabilia from his days as a war-time air raid warden and chemistry lecturer.

Instead, she found vials of deadly gases thought to date back to the Second World War.

They had been stored there, along with bullets and a book on gases, by William Frank Huxley, who also served as a paramedic.Experts say they may have been part of a kit to help people identify the gases in case of a chemical attack.

The four glass vials were labelled mustard gas, phosgene, Lewisite and bromobenzyl cyanide (BBC) - all used during the two World Wars.

They can cause horrific burns, sickness, suffocation and death.

BBC is a type of tear gas.

Mrs Fulton, 58, discovered the three-inch containers as she and husband Iain, 59, cleared out the house in Pinner, North-West London, following the death of her aunt.

Mrs Fulton said she was 'petrified' when she made the discovery on Monday afternoon.

The street had to be evacuated.

Tests confirmed the vials contained the gases but that they represented no further danger. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1116544/Vials-deadly-gases-Second-World-War-dusty-attic.html)

[BadBob]

One from 2007: Pensioner Used Live Artillery Shell as a Doorstop for 20 Years. For decades the seven-inch-long shell had been a family memento, polished and given pride of place on the mantlepiece.

The First World War relic also served as a toy and finally, for the past 20 years, as a front doorstop at the home of 68-year-old Thelma Bonnett.

At any time during all those years, however, it could have exploded.

The German squat shell was live, packed with its original payload and with its firing mechanism primed, experts have said. It was only when a neighbour saw the shell outside Mrs Bonnett's door that the danger became clear.

The police were called and they summoned Royal Navy bomb disposal experts to the house in Paignton, Devon.

Several neighbours were evacuated from their homes and the device was taken to a local quarry and exploded.

It had been in the family for nearly a century after her grandfather Arthur Croxall brought it home in 1918. "I had no idea it was dangerous," Mrs Bonnett said. "Grandfather picked it up on his travels with the Merchant Navy in

1918. My father used to polish it all the time and kept it on the mantelpiece.

"It looked German because of the writing on the top.

"When I was young, five of us children would play with it. I don't think he would have brought it back if he'd known it was live."

The mortar shell was seen propping open the door by neighbour John Malinovskis.

He said: "I put two and two together and thought, 'That really shouldn't be there'.

"I asked Thelma if she knew about it and she said, 'Oh yes, it's from the war'. She said her father had polished it and kept it on the sideboard."

Mrs Bonnett's son Steve added: "I remember it in my grandparents' house when I was growing up. I probably played with it a few times. It was just one of those things that was always around."

A spokesman for the bomb squad said a firing mechanism had been activated during the First World War but the shell failed to go off. The mechanism had since fallen off but the 'live' charge could have exploded at any time.

Mortar shells are fired at a steep angle with a plunging trajectory so they either explode in the air above the enemy positions or upon impact.

Light and portable, mortars were an effective weapon on the Western Front where soldiers faced one another in well-defended trenches.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The shell was packed full of explosives and it could have gone off at any time.

"It was brought back from France in 1914 and had been used in battle when it had been fired but failed to go off.

"There is a time delay on these type of shells. A brass ring could be turned on top which gave them enough time to fire it to go off in the air or on the ground." (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-465694/Pensioner-used-live-artillery-shell-doorstop-20-years.html)

[BadBob]

Vintage Bomb Safely Removed From Kitchener Home December 03, 2008

KITCHENER — A Second World War-era bomb has been safely removed from a Kitchener home.

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces, dressed in green fatigues, pulled up to the Union Boulevard home shortly after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Waterloo Regional Police officers were already on the scene, after the bomb was discovered Tuesday afternoon behind a bedroom wall by a pair of electricians doing work at the house.

The army personnel emerged about 10 minutes later, carrying a metal box which they placed in a pickup truck.

Neighbouring homes and apartments were not evacuated Wednesday as they had been a day earlier for several hours.

The bomb’s owner, Harvey Gleiser, moved out of the home in the past year and told The Record he’d forgotten all about the device, which he’d brought home as a wartime souvenir. He’d placed the bomb in the attic, but it had fallen through an open slot in the floor years ago.

Pat LeBlanc, Gleiser’s caregiver, looked on as the soldiers entered the home. She said she’d spent four months cleaning up the home after Gleiser moved out in April but never saw anything as she sorted through items in the attic.

She said she was surprised by all the commotion.http://news.therecord.com/Article/453347

[Justin]

Thanks Bob for posting this, No wonder the mortar shell had pride of place it was a looker!

[BadBob]

'Exciting-to-Own' Cannonball Proved a Little Too Dangerous Fred Harrell knew the cannon ball was a piece of live ammunition. He could see the fuse.

"That was what made it so exciting to own," said Harrell, pointing to the spot in his home where the ball rested, until this week.

For 10 years, he'd occasionally pick up the Civil War munition, move it to his carpet, dust his fireplace hearth, and put the cannon ball back. But Wednesday morning, Harrell finally heeded a friend's warnings that any jostling might make the ball blow up.

Harrell called the FBI on himself. The FBI asked the Virginia Beach police to check it out.

Now, Harrell is 71, and he long ago joined the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He wears a big white beard to look the part and keeps the back room of his house as a mini-Civil War memorial. He has portraits of all the Civil War generals, a Robert E. Lee knife, the Confederate flags that recently adorned his mother's grave.

And a fireplace hearth outlined with projectiles: like a 10-inch, 87-pounder, a fragment of a 13-incher and the one that might blow up.

The cops took that one. Harrell asked whether they would bring it back if they found out it wasn't active.

"They said, 'There won't be nothing left to bring you back a souvenir,' " Harrell said.

He was disappointed about that. Martha Pinkerton, his girlfriend for the past 43 years, bought it for him for $20 in Fredericksburg.

Then the police saw two other things: a suspect mortar round and a World War II grenade that Harrell's uncle had given him.

"Look at this," Harrell heard an officer say of the grenade, "it still has the pin in it."

The police turned those two munitions over to the Navy.

Again, Harrell told them he hoped they would find the grenade harmless and return it.

"I doubt that will be the case," Harrell said. "They probably thought, 'He could live without that live grenade.' " (http://hamptonroads.com/2009/02/exciting-own-cannonball-proved-be-little-too-dangerous)

[BadBob]

Even Deactivated, Grenade a Bad Show-and-Tell Idea EULESS, Texas (AP) -- Officials cleared out a Dallas-area elementary school briefly Thursday morning after a second-grade student brought a deactivated hand grenade for show and tell. Euless police Lt. John Williams says the student walked into his classroom with the grenade at Oakwood Terrace Elementary School. The teacher took it, placed it on a desk and notified the principal.

The school was evacuated until police arrived and inspected the object. Williams says that although the grenade still had a pin, it had a hole at the bottom and was empty - the sort of thing that might be used as a paperweight.

No injuries were reported. Students returned to their classrooms after 15 minutes, and the unidentified student was getting a good talking to from police. (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ODD_SCHOOL_DUMMY_GRENADE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-02-12-14-35-12)

[Swordfish]

Funny:laugh:. Made for some good reading. I remember the cannonball episode a couple years ago.

[BadBob]

Bomb Squad Called for Dennis Grenade: SOUTH DENNIS — A Dennis woman brought an unwanted holiday gift to the Dennis Police Department yesterday, causing a road to be closed off and the state bomb squad to be called to the scene.

The woman arrived at the police station on Bob Crowell Road at 12:48 p.m., police said. They said she wanted to get rid of a World War II hand grenade a relative had given her on Thanksgiving.

The woman, police said, left the grenade in a box on the ground next to her car in the police parking lot.

The parking lot and Bob Crowell Road were closed as the Dennis Fire Department and the state bomb squad responded. The green grenade was secured with a cotter pin, police said.

A state trooper X-rayed the hand grenade. It turned out not to have a blasting cap and could not explode, Dennis police said. The road was closed for about 90 minutes.

Police asked people to call in an explosive device instead of actually bringing it to the station. (http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091130/NEWS/911300309/-1/NEWS11)

[BadBob]

NEW BEDFORD, Mass., April 24 (UPI) -- Workers at a Massachusetts shellfish plant were processing a load of clams when they made a potentially explosive discovery, 126 hand grenades, officials said.

It's not unusual for grenades and other munitions to turn up in traps along the East Coast, but 126 is a relatively large number for one catch, WCVB-TV, Boston, reported.

Workers at the Fair Tide Shellfish plant in New Bedford found the grenades Friday -- some of them with pins still attached -- in a catch of clams that had been dredged off Long Island.

"Come to find out, based on what the Navy said, they were live. They were loaded for bear so to speak," Fair Tide Shellfish Finance Executive Tom Slaughter said.

The grenades were in wooden crates covered with dark muck, he said.

"When one broke open, we found all the grenades inside," Slaughter said.

The plant was evacuated and the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad, along with the U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, placed the grenades in a dump truck filled with sand and transported them to a jetty, where they were detonated at about 7:30 p.m. (http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/04/24/Shellfish-workers-net-WWII-era-grenades/UPI-74941272152918/)

[BadBob]

February 19, 2010 — Nine-year-old Edward George Weise III of Lakeland, Florida, was in the kitchen of his home late yesterday afternoon, holding a WWII pineapple grenade in one hand and a lighter in the other.

He lit the lighter next to the grenade and it exploded, critically injuring himself and sending shrapnel through the wall and into other rooms in the house, advised Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

The boy was home with his mother, Ann Marie Weise, who dialed 911.

Edward was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital and operated on by the hospital’s trauma team. Meanwhile, his mother was transported to Lakeland Regional Hospital and treated for emotional trauma.

“Edward is significantly injured, and it’s just a really sad situation,” said Judd, who went on to say that the grenade was purchased hollow, but that a family member had filled it — possibly with black powder.

The case is currently being investigated by the sheriff’s office and the state fire marshal division.

“Quite frankly, if criminal charges are appropriate, they will be brought once the investigation is complete,” said Judd.

(http://www.failuremag.com/index.php/failure_analysis/article/boy_critically_injured_by_wwii_grenade/#ixzz0m9rPOcLo)

[BadBob]

Tue Apr 27, 9:18 pm ET

HOOPER, Utah – A 17-year-old Utah boy mowing the lawn at his home in Hooper ran into a canister of TNT that may date back as far as World War II. Taylor Wood was mowing the pasture behind the family home on Sunday and heard a thud. He then saw a canister that said "TNT shell" on the side.

His mother, Charise Wood, described the canister as looking like a small can of tomato paste. She quickly called emergency crews.

Charise Wood said the family has lived in the home seven years but had never mowed that area of pasture because they had let horses eat down the grass. Now the family has goats that aren't interested in that area.

The Weber County sheriff's department took the canister for disposal.

Hooper is about 35 miles north of Salt Lake City. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_lawnmower_tnt)

[BadBob]

April 29) -- An arsenal of unexploded World War II bombs has been recovered from the waters just a few yards away from Hollywood star George Clooney's lakeside villa in Italy.

Italian navy divers brought the explosives to the surface early Wednesday right in front of Villa Oleandra, Clooney's lavish mansion on the western shore of Lake Como in northern Italy.

Clooney was not believed to be in the area, said Roberto Pozzi, the mayor of Laglio, a hamlet of fewer than 1,000 residents surrounding the villa. Laglio is known for its string of lakeside villas, which have often served as secluded refuges for many celebrities.

"We received an alert by a local diver that there were some explosives right in front of Clooney's villa," Pozzi said. "I sent a warning to the villa personnel that they should leave." Pozzi said about six people work regularly in Villa Oleandra, including a caretaker and his family.

The area around the villa was also sealed off to allow bomb disposal squads to recover the arsenal, which included a mortar and some mines, Pozzi said.

The bombs, found at a depth of 26 feet, were brought to a safe area where they were detonated. They are believed to have been dropped by a World War II bomber.

Clooney bought the two-story Villa Oleandra in 2001, putting Laglio on the map for photographers and paparazzi hoping to get a glimpse of the actor. From members of the Versace family to Sylvester Stallone and Russian billionaires, many celebrities regularly visit or have homes on the exclusive shores of Lake Como.

Earlier this month, police found a woman's body in the water near Clooney's villa. She was later identified as a 36-year-old resident of Ticino, the part of Switzerland nearest to the lake. Her husband has been arrested on suspicion of murder. (http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/wwii-bombs-found-near-george-clooneys-italian-villa/19458687)

[BadBob]

BERLIN — German police said a couple of hungry pigs digging for food came nose-to-nose with a long-buried World War II anti-tank weapon. Police said Friday the two pigs found the single-shot "Panzerfaust" on private land southwest of Dresden. The pigs' owner secured the animals in their stall then called police who were able to remove the weapon and destroy it.

The inexpensive and easy-to-operate panzerfaust was used extensively during the defense of Germany and through the rest of the war. Such finds are still relatively common, even 65 years after the end of the war. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGS2-GJ1VZluHcgmJC74tvxooXTwD9FDIPR80)

[BadBob]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERLIN — Three experts working to defuse a bomb from World War II were killed when the device exploded, injuring six others, police said Wednesday.

Some 7,000 residents from around the area in the central German town of Goettingen, where the 1100-pound (500-kilogram) heavy bomb was found, were still being evacuated when it blew up late Tuesday.

Construction workers had found the 65-year-old explosive device about seven yards (meters) below the ground on an empty where the city is currently building a sport arena.

The three dead men, aged 38 to 55, were experienced in defusing bombs and it was not clear why it exploded, Goettingen Police President Robert Kruse said at a press conference Wednesday. He said two other experts were severely injured and four others were treated for shock.

City spokesman Detlef Johannson said team was still preparing to remove the detonator when the bomb exploded.

Unexploded bombs from Allied bombardments and World War I are found regularly in Germany. Only a few days before, another bomb was found in Goettingen was successfully defused.

Every German state has dozens of specialists trained to defuse old bombs, and accidents are rare. Hundreds of police and fire fighters are usually involved in helping evacuate people before experts attempt to defuse a bomb. (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2010/06/02/14225826.html)

[wilhelm saris]

In the small town of Bakel, nearby where I live, the last weeks various English 1000-pounder bombs were found and by experts dismantled succesfully. They were dropped during WWII and were needed to dismantled as some new houses had to be built. Some 100 persons had to leave their homes and about 1,000 had to stay indoors.


Bakel - De Explosieven Opruimingsdienst Defensie (EOD) heeft zondagochtend negen Engelse 1000-ponders geruimd in het Brabantse Bakel. Enkele honderden mensen moesten hun huis verlaten en zo’n 1000 bewoners moesten binnen blijven.

Om 13:30 uur werd het sein veilig gegeven. De vliegtuigbommen uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog werden eerder deze maand aangetroffen tijdens onderzoek vanwege de bouw van een nieuwe woonwijk.
de rug De omgeving werd afgezet.

BAKEL - Het ruimen van de vliegtuigbommen in Bakel is klaar. Zondag werd rond halftwee 's middags het sein veilig gegeven. De geëvacueerde buurtbewoners mogen weer naar huis.
De negen bommen werden gevonden op de plek waar een nieuwbouwwijk moet komen. In verband met de ruiming moesten enkele honderden omwonenden zondag in alle vroegte hun huis verlaten. De evacués werden opgevangen in het parochiehuis. Duizend bewoners die niet geëvacueerd hoeven te worden, maar wel binnen een straal van vijhonderd meter worden, moesten binnen blijven.

It was all over the news in my country and in newspapers,

wilhelm