Some interesting news out of Barcelona this week, a 150 pound bomb from the Spanish Civil War was discovered just off shore of the Barceloneta Beach, prompting evacuations of the popular tourist area. The Guardia Civil were able to recover the bomb and later detonate it further out at sea:
https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/26/watch-tourists-evacuated-after-civil-war-bomb-found-at-barcelona-beach
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14741 posts
Very interesting Carlos!
I was surprised this spring on an RS tour thru Belgium and Holland that farmers in the area of the WWI battlefields are still finding unexploded ordnance when the plow their fields. The farm where we had lunch had 5 shells they had just uncovered the previous week and we awaiting the bomb squad to come by and do something with them.
Posted by
OP
Barcelona + Sweden
4180 posts
Yes very interesting about those WWI battlefields too, Europe has been an epicenter of conflict for many years, it's not just in the books and Wikipedia for us, but a living history, it seems every few months in Germany they find unexploded ordnance from WWII. In Spain, we are still finding unmarked mass graves from the Civil War.
This bomb that was found near Barceloneta Beach was probably courtesy of Mussolini's Royal Italian Air Force, who heavily bombed Barcelona towards the end of the war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Barcelona
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7160 posts
As stated, near Ypres, the farmers just stack the WW-I ordnance by the roads and once the pile is large enough, the bomb squad is called to pick it up.