Unexploded WWII Bombs In Italy

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Unexploded WWII bomb creates havok in Italy Italy was cut in two this morning as an unexploded WWII bomb was removed from a field in Umbria, causing traffic to be stopped on Italy 's busy A1 motorway that joins Milan to Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples . Between 11.30am and 1.30pm the Italian army worked to defuse and remove the 450kg bomb – an operation which everyone within a 1.9 kilometer radius to be evacuated and stopped traffic between major Italian cities. The closure of the road and nearby railway lines between the Umbrian towns of Orte and Orvieto plunged commuters into chaos. By the time the Italian army had removed the unexploded bomb – which was found last Monday – there were queues of cars a kilometer long in both directions along the motorway. …show more content…

After the bomb had been defused, the army took it to a nearby quarry where it was successfully destroyed via a controlled explosion. It is difficult to estimate how many unexploded WWII era bombs are still lying under Italian soil, but every year notable examples turn up in gardens and on beaches across the country as a deadly reminder of the war. Last summer an unexploded bomb closed the Airport of Catania in Sicily. During the Second World War, Anglo - American forces dropped some 370,000 tones of bombs on Italy, causing 100,000 deaths. Sixty years ago, incidences of fuse failure were much more common and experts estimate they could have been as many as 30 percent of all devices dropped may have failed to