Bombs at Airfields ??

[GREML1N]

With regard to the latest airfield closure and exclusion zone at Solent-on-Sea due to unexploded Ordnance from WW11 one wonders how many other airfields that we fly into have explosive devises buried under the runways ?
As a boy growing up at White Waltham Airfield near Maidenhead I remember hearing stories of Bombs/Arms and anti-aircraft shells being buried at various sites on the airfield, either for future use or to to hide from the potential threat.
Did the station commanders at these various airfields keep a record of these secret sites?? Was there a clear up operation after the War ??
With the building of housing estate's over the years, encroaching on what once used to be remote airfields and the generation having nearly passed away that new the secrets. Is there a potential threat to safety? Do you know what your landing on ??

[paulc]

The ordnance found at Lee on Solent had been there for decades so why suddenly is it deemed essential to remove it - perhaps the developers did not want to build houses on potential uxb's.

Other south coast airfields (Eastleigh / Hurn etc) had a similar clearance operations done back in the 80's (i think) Lee on Solent was also 'cleared' so this batch may have come to light since then.

[Out Of Trim]

These explosives, are in fact large "pipe bombs" and were laid during WW2 to enable the airfields to be blown-up in the event of German invasion and occupation.

I was serving at RAF Manston in the early eighties and remember similar excavations and controlled demolition of the explosives during that time. The story we were told was that the airfield had been swept by Canadian Troops after the war but, not all of the pipe bombs were located then.

[Sedbergh]

Same story years ago when they were bricking over Gravesend Aerodrome - long pipe bombs drilled under the airfield at a shallow angle for anti-invasion demolition. Could have spoiled someone's evening if he'd indulged in over-enthusiastic double digging!:{

[Lon More]

Bought a house at Hawkinge a couple of years ago. Was advised not to dig the garden deeper than 3 feet(!!) due to possibility of pipe bombs there. I heard that the builders had "Lost" a JCB due to one.

[chevvron]

German UXBs are still occasionally found on UK airfields which existed in WW2 when construction work on taxiways or runways is carried out, I can remember several over the years at my airfield.

[WHBM]

The construction of the new millenium footbridges over the Thames alongside Charing Cross railway bridge was put off for some years because there are two Underground lines crossing underneath the river close to that point and it is known there are untold UXBs still down in the river mud that might be contacted by piling work for the new bridges. Eventually a technique was developed to make things safe.

In passing, has anyone ever known WW2 unexploded ordnance to actually detonate in recent years ? A lot of it gets dug up over time but is there actually a real danger ?

[henry crun]

Many years ago I read a book about the guys that dug up and made UXB's safe.

One of the maps showed all the sites in UK where UXB's were known to be but were considered too difficult to reach, I never counted them but there were an astonishing number.

There were various reasons for leaving them, the more common was that they were too deep, or the subsoil allowed the bomb to slip away from the diggers every time they got close.

[BEagle]

Bantering some Luftwaffe chums at a base in Germany a couple of weeks ago as we walked past some new building foundations, I said "Don't dig too deep - and if you find any souvenirs from my predecssors' uninvited aerial tourism of the early 1940s, we don't want them back!"

"Well, actually they'll be glad to pul the old building down", said one of my colleagues, "Because they have to keep painting one of the walls. If they don't, then every so often the damn Hitler cross keeps re-appearing!"

It turns out the 1930s brickwork was etched with an eagle-and-swastika - and if the sun is in a certain position it can still be seen, much to their embarassment.

[ORAC]

Last week of disruptions - hopefully.

BBC: Disruption for airbase neighbours

Thousands of residents living near the former HMS Daedalus airfield in Hampshire face another week of disruption as homes are evacuated.

People living near the site in Lee-on-the-Solent had to leave their homes on Monday morning as a 750m exclusion zone was set up. The evacuations are so that controlled explosions can be carried out on World War II pipe bombs found at the base. It is hoped this will be the final week of the five-week bomb clearance.

This week has been timed to coincide with the half-term week so that incendiaries located closer to neighbouring schools can be dealt with. The exclusion zone and associated road closures will remain in place on Monday and Tuesday until 1600 BST.

The bombs have been buried at the site since 1939. They were planted so the airfield, which measures 256 acres (104 hectares), could be destroyed in the event of a German invasion.

Reception centres for residents are available at the Lee-on-the-Solent Community Centre and Crofton Community Centre in Stubbington.

[Pom Pax]

BEagle
Many a true word spoken in jest
Item on ABC (Oz) tv news last night regarding a fatality and others injured after a digger unearthed a WWII UXB beside a road in Germany.
And WHBM that answers your question.