At 14.11 a.M. Blaster michael weib had solved the problem: two fragmentation bombs from the second world war. Blindgangers, who were about 15 meters apart, one and a half meters below the bamberger airfield – for almost 70 years. On sunday, the war had a lasting effect: because of the bombs, about 4200 people had to leave their homes for several hours. The bomb disposal unit defused one bomb and removed the other one. Auberdem exploded the experts a grenade on which they fall.
On sunday, neighborhoods in the north and east of bamberg were affected. Police completely closed two highways and diverted traffic.
No one was allowed to stay within a radius of one kilometer – because the bomb was in the middle of the open plain, because in the worst case no house had steamed the force of the explosion.
The bombs are M 82: fragmentation bombs. Dropped thousands of times in the second world war, a mass product. 70 centimeters long, weighing about 40 kilograms, simple design: in the fall, a propeller turns a spindle from the house and releases the tinder mechanism. The bomb explodes on serve. Normally. It was different with the bamberger bombs. "Low altitude, frost and a layer of clouds or sabotage could have been the reasons", says andreas heil, the operations manager of the wurzburg-based company tauber, which defuses world war bombs for the free state of bavaria.
The bombs had appeared because the automotive supplier brose wants to expand in bamberg and therefore the airport was investigated.
The company needs a fertile airfield. "Those were suspicion flags,", says ulrike siebenhaar, the city’s spokeswoman. Bamberg was bombed three times during the second world war, one of the bombs fell on the airfield.
The bombs had appeared last wednesday. The city had informed the affected people through direct mailings. Those who left their house on sunday morning were asked to pin a tear-off note to the door. Or close the shutter – the sign for house cleared. That worked. "The operation has gone as we predicted", said udo skrzypczak, the head of police operations.
Around nine o’clock in the morning, helpers controlled the evacuated districts, a police helicopter monitored the operation.
Three school gymnasiums were designated as shelters for the affected citizens. The city was lucky in the evacuation: two senior citizens’ homes are just outside the exclusion zone. When everything went well shortly after 2 p.M., the city spokeswoman said: "we were prepared for the worst, but if that’s the way it goes, of course we’d rather it be that way." a little more quietly she added: "it will not be the last bomb to be found under bamberg."