New findings daily Public warned about grenades in the Rhine
DÜSSELDORF · Remnants of a warring past, grenades are being discovered almost daily, and not only on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn. The Düsseldorf district government warns of the deadly dangers.
From the Kennedy Bridge, one has a beautiful view of the Rhine – or at least what is left of the river at its current low level. With so little water, the river bed reveals all sorts of debris, including unexploded bombs and grenades from World War II. On both Monday and Tuesday, several grenades were found on the banks of the Rhine. They were cleared away by ordnance experts in the early evening.
The low level of the Rhine means that many dangerous remnants from wars past become exposed. Almost every day an unexploded grenade or bomb is discovered. Last weekend alone, the ordnance clearing experts were called out 22 times in Cologne. Seven unexploded bombs were salvaged on the riverbanks of the Rhine in Bonn on Sunday, and on Friday, a 110-kilogram grenade filled with TNT had to be lifted out of the riverbed with a crane. In Cologne, a 50-kilogram dud was successfully deactivated last week.
But there are also false alarms where it turns out that the objects in question are not bombs. Yet, authorities from the district government in Düsseldorf say they would rather receive one call too many than too few. A spokesperson said, „The low water level means that more grenades are being discovered than usual.“
„People can now access areas which were otherwise inaccessible,“ the spokesperson explains. The district government is warning all walkers and self-proclaimed treasure hunters – "bomb tourists" – who are increasingly found walking along the Rhine, to not touch the unexploded grenades. „This can have deadly consequences. Not just for yourself, but also for uninvolved people standing nearby,“ she says. And it is prohibited as well.
Phosphorous grenades pose a special danger
Last Friday, a father was out playing with his children on the banks of the Rhine in Kleve, when they came upon the remains of a phosphorous grenade. „At first I thought it was a shimmering stone,“ says Denis Trisolini. „When I pulled it out of the water and held it in my hands, the surface suddenly began to steam.“ Trisolini immediately put the item back in the water and informed the police. Already two days before that, a grenade had been removed at the same place.
Phosphorous grenades are amongst the most dangerous weapons ever, and are washed up on the banks of the Rhine time and again. Even the smallest fragments can lead to serious injuries. Three years ago, a 77-year-old man experience that firsthand. He mistook a fragment of such a grenade for a stone and put it in his pocket. It ignited in the man's pocket and he suffered severe burns on his hand and hip.
While the government cannot say just how many unexploded devices loom in the Rhine and other waters, it is assumed that there must be many of them in the Rhine, especially near bridges, large cities and settlements. These were the targets of the air raids during World War II. In all, it has been determined that about 2.7 million tons of munitions were dropped on the German Third Reich back then, around a quarter of them fell over the state of NRW.
Almost half of the British and American air strikes targeted the industrial center in the Rhineland and the Ruhr. Aerial photographs from the allies play an important role in evaluating where the bombs might be today. „But we only do that for the Rhine when we have to set in a new bridge pillar,“ said a spokeswoman for the regulating authorities.
Orig. text: Christian Schwerdtfeger, Christian Kandzorra
Translation: ck
