Interesting Items?

[Benchwayze]

Popular term for shell = bangy bangy
Big shell = big bangy bangy
Fuze = little bangy bangy

So the little bangy bangy 'splodes the big bangy bangy. Bang!

As opposed to sharp things.

"Artillery lends dignity and elegance to what would otherwise be an unseemly brawl"

The principle of the 'Chain of Detonation' simply explained Smudger! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Benchwayze]

They look like Instructional models, cutaway of course. :

Useful for Disposal Officers?

I did do some disposal Dick. Not much, but the RN do like their 'oiks' to have knowledge of how things operate, even if all they do is drop the things over the side in an attempt to bring elegance to an unseemly whale!

John :lol: .

 

[dedee]

an unexploded big bangy bangy (500lb, American) was found close to the centre of Caen last week 20,000 people evacuated from an 800m exclusion zone. At about the same time a smaller big bangy bangy 200lb (British) was found about 5 miles outside of Caen in an industrial park. Both were disposed of on Valentines day.

The exclusion zone and number of people evacuated seems excessive but I guess chances cannot be taken. Out of interest does anyone know if any of the unexploded WWII or WWI big bangy bangies have ever gone off? Obviously they would not be unexploded then but you now what I mean

Andy

 

[big soft moose]

Out of interest does anyone know if any of the unexploded WWII or WWI big bangy bangies have ever gone off? Obviously they would not be unexploded then but you now what I mean

Andy

I once rotovated up a motar bomb ( a moderately small big bangy) which described an arc over the tractor and went boom, (on hitting the ground I guess - by that point i was huddled in the foot well with my hands over my head)

at the time i was creating ploughed plots for stone curlew on a heathland nature reserve, which unbeknownst to me had been an army range during big mistake number 2

 

[Smudger]

Out of interest does anyone know if any of the unexploded WWII or WWI big bangy bangies have ever gone off? Obviously they would not be unexploded then but you now what I mean

Andy

I once rotovated up a motar bomb ( a moderately small big bangy) which described an arc over the tractor and went boom, (on hitting the ground I guess - by that point i was huddled in the foot well with my hands over my head)

at the time i was creating ploughed plots for stone curlew on a heathland nature reserve, which unbeknownst to me had been an army range during big mistake number 2

Yes, and people are killed all the time. Two which come to mind (both WW1) were an army officer (!) who took an 18 pound shell back to his workshop and hit it with a hammer, and two Belgium boys who cracked open a phosgene shell. There are still huge mines 'gone missing' in places, and they are still actively being looked for.
One of the most amazing sights on the Somme is the 'iron harvest' - shells which are still being ploughed up by farmers. They leave them at certain designated places (corners of fields) and then the authorities load 'em on to trucks and take them away to blow them up - often on beaches.

 

[studders]

:shock: Bloody Hell....


I think if I dug one of them Rusty Boys up I'd be cackin' maself.... No hang on, I be Running pretty quick smart whilst simultaneously Cacking maself.

 

[Smudger]

At the Somme the British & Imperial forces alone fired 1.7 million shells, of which 30% failed to explode. That's over half a million shells of all sizes and types left in the ground, in an area about twenty miles in length by a few miles in width. And that's just us, not including the German response or the French in the south.

At Messines Ridge in 1917 the British & Imperial forces shot off over 3 million shells...

The local farmers seem quite relaxed about it. They also find human remains on a fairly regular basis, although according to rumour these are usually reburied on the quiet to avoid the disruption of having their fields dug up looking for mass graves.
There are still 80,000 missing British servicement, and probably the same number of Germans.

 

[studders]

So. is there much 'Running and Cacking' or are they a bit.... 'casual' about it?

I guess picking them up :shock: and stacking them at the side of the road sorta answers that one.

 

[Smudger]

I edited my post above. They seem relaxed about it, and to be fair most shells need a good whack to set them off. Most shells...

They still find ordnance from ww2 in 'our' bit of Normandy, which is the area of the Battle of Mortain, 1944. And dead Germans in hedgerows, until quite recently.

 

[Ironballs]

An interesting little thread all round. Good work Smudger

 

[Smudger]

Bit of an interest of mine.