500lb bomb & torch....don't try this at home

[OldDominion]

Still a lot of stuff laying around from WWII. Link to video: BBC News - World War Two bomb kills seven in Bangkok

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Very interesting! We did bomb Japanese facilities in Thailand in WWII. The Thais let the Nippers use Thailand without invading as they did everybody else. Remember Bridge of the River Kwai? The real bridge was in Thailand.
We had several bases in Thailand during SEA and used a lot of 500 pound MK82 bombs. The bombs arrived at a port on the Gulf of Siam. The were trucked up country by civilian truck conveys escorted by the Thai Army. Lots of possibilities for loses there. And on occasion we jettisoned bombs. Most likely some of these were never recovered.
And let's not forget the Thai Air Force. We have provided them with planes and bombs including 500 pounders. The 500 is a Navy bomb formulated to be safe to use on carriers. Sometimes called the Ladyfinger by The Air Force.

 

[Mydogmax]

Workers were using a blow-torch to take the bomb apart and detonated it in the process, officials say...
That's like removing the pin & spoon so you could polish your grenade.

 

[gdnagle]

I remember all the WWll mines washing ashore in the 50's and all the unexploded ordinance in England that they are still finding. Happens in different places in Europe I guess England and Germany are the ones you hear about the most. Glad these guys didn't buy the 2,000-pound bomb that was found in Hong Kong Feb 06 2014.

I guess these workers should have watches the history channel where the VC were cutting bombs apart with a hacksaw and water.

 

[BigBill]

We're using up the surplus ww 2 bombs in man and somewhat to this day too. Who knows when we actually dropped this stuff.

A torch on a bomb not smart did they sip saki or what.

 

[M3Stuart]

Yea, don't use a torch;

I think that you're supposed to cut it with a hacksaw and scoop the explosive into homemade mines as demonstrated in this display in Vietnam. (I took this pic at the Cu Chi tunnels tour about a month ago. - the weather was nice.)