Bomb Again! Over 200 Kilograms Once More at Globoko

Workers regulating the bed of the Sava river at Globoko, near Radovljica, came across a Second World War aerial bomb on Tuesday. Same place, same bridge, same water management consortium, the third time in a month. This time it is a 213-kilogram British GP 500 Mk IV bomb, not an American 250-kilogram one like the bomb from three weeks ago. For the headline, the difference is obviously irrelevant.

"The defusing of the bomb is planned for the coming weekend and will follow a similar procedure to the one at the beginning of September." (translated)

According to our information from civil protection circles, the intervention will take place on Sunday, 27 September, in the morning, just like the first time. The same closures will follow: the road, the railway and the Sava riverbed within a certain radius, and in all likelihood also airspace, as with the first bomb, when Lesce airport was closed too. No official schedule had been published at the time of writing.

The first round, for comparison. The bomb from the beginning of the month, weighing 250 kilograms and containing 123.5 kilograms of Composition B explosive, was removed on Sunday, 6 September. The evacuation zone covered a 400-metre radius, and movement outdoors was banned between 9 am and 1 pm in a belt from 400 to 600 metres around the bridge. Darko Zonjić, commander of the unit for unexploded ordnance, explained at the time why the procedure is no formality:

"The problem here is that this bomb is filled with Composition B, which is more sensitive. […] That is why, in interventions around the world, two out of ten such bombs have to be detonated, because defusing or destroying them does not succeed." (translated)

That first one was lucky: it worked without detonation. Still, it was a 20 percent risk, not routine.

A second bomb, less explosive, the same circus. On the new 213-kilogram bomb, according to findings so far, one fuze is missing, while the other is in good condition. According to experts, that should allow defusing already in the first phase of the procedure, without cutting and without a cage on the right bank, at least in theory.

"An aerial bomb was already found in this area at the beginning of this month. It was a 250-kilogram American-made aerial bomb, which was successfully defused and removed a few days later." (translated)

What happened in this area between 1943 and 1945 for bombs to still be found in the riverbed at three-week intervals has not been officially explained. In all likelihood it concerns a former railway line and bridge that were a target of Allied bombing, which would explain how often bombs turn up, but for now that is only our guess, not a confirmed fact.

For the residents of Globoko, Mišače and Dobro Polje, this means in practice: on Sunday morning, move your cars and animals away again and do not walk along the river. Sirens will once more announce the start and the end of the intervention. The question of how many more bombs lie in this riverbed remains open and, after the events of the past month, no longer seems rhetorical.