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Today, I heard about seven deaths attributed to an explosion of a bomb from World War 2: Seven dead as war bomb explodes in Bangkok scrap yard

Hopefully, the last death or deaths that can be reasonably regarded as caused by World War 1 has already happened. What was it, and when did it happen?

Golden Cuy
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  • Clearly the referenced accident it caused by stupidity and not WW2. –  Apr 03 '14 at 11:31
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    @qarma The people doing this weren't doing it for fun. They were doing it to try to earn a living. – Golden Cuy Apr 03 '14 at 11:35
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    Clearly the result of 1 + 2 = 3 is caused by the 2 and not the 1. Oh wait, results can have multiple factors? Gosh! – hippietrail Apr 03 '14 at 11:54
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    @hippietrail indeed. I apologize for having said that rashly. Not being familiar with the details, calling those workers stupid is uncalled for. Careless, maybe; lacking forethought, sure; unlucky, possibly; lacking experience to identify and handle explosives, quite so likely. –  Apr 03 '14 at 14:51
  • I don't know, I think there is a strong argument for stupid. Dismantling an old bomb with blow torches falls into the category of stupid, I would think. Where I live (New England) the equivalent is people who use blow torches to thaw frozen pipes and burn their house down (happens about 4-6 times every year). We are dealing in Darwin awards here. – Tyler Durden Apr 05 '14 at 18:13

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Still happening -- Ypres: World War One weapon explodes, killing two

Opt
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  • Nearly add a few hundred more... http://www.twcc.com/articles/2014/04/08/w/wwi-artillery-shells-found-in-luggage-at-o-hare – Phil Perry Apr 08 '14 at 17:42
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To expand on Sid's answer, for those who are interested. Unfortunately, it is likely to continue for a fair while. Estimates given by ordnance disposal experts in Belgium by the (BBC in 1998) and by The Telegraph in 2013 estimate that the last un-exploded munitions from WW1 won't be removed for another 50 to 400 years.

It is estimated that for every square metre of land on the western front one ton of explosives were fired, and that as many as one in 4 shells failed to detonate. (BBC, Legacies of the Great War). In the Ypres Salient alone it is estimated that 300 million dud shells were fired. (The Daily Mail, 2013)

To this day, Belgian and French farmers collect what is known colloquially as the Iron Harvest. Farmers will discover tonnes of un-exploded ordnance each year when ploughing or otherwise maintaining fields and will place them at the side of the road before notifying the authorities. These will then be collected by ordnance disposal experts and destroyed.

It's also believed that a small number of large un-exploded mines are lost in Belgium and France. Although, I can't find a source that gives a number I have found the following on thegreatwar.co.uk.

Some of the tunnels were built with the aim of laying an explosive charge at the far end in order to blow a mine under the enemy's position. This was treacherous work and many tunnellers from both sides of the Front Lines died in tunnel collapses, underground explosions and suffocation. In some cases it is known that the explosive charge did not go off, and these particular tunnels with their unexploded mines still pose a potential hazard today.

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Kobunite
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    See "Battle of Messines"; or this http://www.rense.com/general47/50000lbWW1bomb.htm – DJohnM Apr 03 '14 at 00:43
  • Yeah, it was that kind of mine that has potentially been lost. – Kobunite Apr 03 '14 at 08:13
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    And if you follow the logic that WW2 and the October Revolution were the inevitable result of WW1, the cold war the inevitable result of WW2 and the emergence of communist dictatorships all over the world the inevitable result of the October revolution (both are viable assertions), every person executed by their government in places like North Korea and Cuba is a result of WW1. – jwenting Apr 03 '14 at 09:16
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    Counting the political consequences goes a bit far, I think. Eventually, all of history is caused by all the history that happened before it. – mcv Apr 03 '14 at 10:31
  • You could say that Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill's insistence on returning the post-WWI exchange rate to $5 to the Pound (rather than $4.50 or so) was the direct cause of the Crash of '29, the Great Depression, WWII, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, and the religion-fueled unrest that followed. (Really... this one act collapsed Britain's economy, which was salvaged by convincing the U.S. to cheapen the dollar by lowering interest rates, which led to the Roaring 20s,...) – Phil Perry Apr 03 '14 at 14:25
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    @PhilPerry: it's a well known fact in the UK that every economic downturn was caused solely by whichever of the two main parties is not currently in power. Statements by government ministers confirm this time and time again ;-) So currently the crash of '29 is Ramsey MacDonald's fault, and it can't switch back to being Churchill's until 2015 at the very earliest. – Steve Jessop Apr 03 '14 at 22:42
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    If we go all the way back, the one responsible for everything is either Adam who bit into that strange piece of fruit, or that strange ape who decided to climb down from the tree. – vsz Apr 04 '14 at 06:12
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In addition to explosive shells still lurking in the ground, there are many unexploded poison gas shells turning up a century after WWI. WWII also has unexploded shells, but a bigger problem is unexploded bombs dropped by both sides. Poison gas weapons were stockpiled by both sides during WWII, and some were unaccounted for due to accident, carelessness, or enemy action.

David Richerby
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Phil Perry
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    Do you have a source /citation for this? Interesting, but more interesting with references. – MCW Apr 02 '14 at 17:59
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    It would be helpful to make it clear that UX is an abbreviation for unexploded. – Peter Taylor Apr 02 '14 at 20:45
  • yup, they found a nearly intact V1 recently, fueled and armed, burried in a boggy field. – jwenting Apr 03 '14 at 09:17
  • @PeterTaylor and the seven upvoters: that's what the edit link is for -- use it! – David Richerby Apr 03 '14 at 22:10
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    @DavidRicherby, 4 characters is too small a change. – Peter Taylor Apr 03 '14 at 22:14
  • @PeterTaylor That can be worked around by adding an HTML comment or by editing to replace the two instances of "UX" with "unexploded" (which is what I did; awaiting peer-review). – David Richerby Apr 03 '14 at 22:19
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    I can only speak for germany, but unexploded bombs are a frequent problem when building. If you are building, you are required to contact authorities first, who conduct a bomb survey using old photographs taken from the bombers. I've lived in cities like Bremerhaven, and evacuations due to bomb disposal where frequent. Even then, sometimes a bomb gets missed and construction people die - most often exvacator drivers who hit the bomb by accident. – Christian Sauer Apr 04 '14 at 06:40