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Post by EXO on Apr 29, 2011 15:27:37 GMT 8
WWII bombs dug up near US embassy extension
By Penelope Endozo Philippine Daily Inquirer 28 April 2011
MANILA, Philippines—A stockpile of vintage World War II ammunition was excavated by the police Wednesday afternoon at a construction site on Roxas Boulevard near the US Seafront compound, an extension of the American embassy.
Ten rounds of corroded Bangalore torpedoes and 30 rounds of ammos of undetermined caliber were found after US Embassy security personnel tipped off the location of the buried old bombs, according to the chief of the Pasay City Police’s Special Weapons and Tactics unit Inspector Charito Allan Estrada.
The eight-member SWAT team cordoned off the area and dug up the ammunition, referred to as “unexploded ordnance or UXO,” from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and declared the site safe thereafter.
Estrada said the explosives posed no threat of detonation and were turned over to the Southern Police District’s rapid deployment platoon for disposal.
Vintage bombs are disposed of in deserted portions of the lahar area near Mt. Pinatubo upon clearance, Estrada added.
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Post by okla on Apr 30, 2011 6:14:33 GMT 8
Hey EXO....WIth the tremendous amount of ordnance expended in the liberation of Manila (especially the southern portion) it's a wonder to me that more ammo,etc hasn't been discovered and/or people injured/killed. Every so often, it seems, a bomb is unearthed in London/Berlin. Wasn't some unfortunate soul killed at Verdun in the recent past, from some 1916 munitions???
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Post by The Phantom on Apr 30, 2011 6:47:53 GMT 8
Okla,
Unfortunately people are blown up all the time in the P.I. trying to salvage the brass from old bombs/shells they find. They usually take them to junk shops to sell and that way more people get blown up!
Recently they found several bombs in Caloocan, a suburb of Manila. There was a U.S. airbase there prewar. If I'm not mistaken, vast quantities of the ordnance to be used in the invasion of Japan were stored in that area. More are dug up all the time.
When I find live bombs and shells on Corregidor, (and I do most years) I report them to the authorities.
Sometimes they blow them up on site, sometimes they throw them in the sea, and sometimes they are still there year after year as is the shell stuck in the middle of the road near Battery Ramsey going to the wall of caves.
I found another large shell this year stuck straight in the side of the trolley roadbed on Middleside, maybe a foot across and rusted badly.
I was talking to one of the workers on Corregidor this year and he told me that the fisherman that find unexploded shells take them apart to use the explosives for dynamite to fish near the island.
If you have ever stayed on the island overnight you will hear the explosions, sometimes during the day.
Yes it's illegal and a very dangerous practice..........
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Post by okla on Apr 30, 2011 8:58:19 GMT 8
Hey Phantom....That part about hearing explosions at night is creepy. If I had the good fortune to ever stay overnight on Corregidor and heard explosions, I would think I was hearing ghosts from the past. As you well know, my imagination works overtime when it comes to things such as this. Cheers.
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