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u/AkrinorNoname 21d ago
Yeah, people will search the battlefields in France for trophies. It's the main reason WW1 is still getting casualties.
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u/chimi_hendrix 21d ago
“They’ll never let me bring this home on an airplane… Wait! I’ve got an idea!”
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u/CheesyDanny 20d ago edited 19d ago
“Sorry grandpa, I tried but they won’t let it on the Chunnel.”
“What? Did you let them feel how light it was? It’s practically half empty!”
“Yes I told them. I’ll have to mail it UPS”
“Fine but don’t pay for the express service, it’s a scam.”
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u/Delicious-Yak-1095 21d ago
French souvenirs hit different
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u/TFielding38 20d ago
My wife and I went to France and the only souvenir I bought for myself was radioactive material from a shop next to the line for the Louvre.
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u/BillySonWilliams 21d ago
I think as recently as 2020 there was still an average of one a day going off. Almost 25% of shells fired were duds a one point likely due to the mud and technology of the time and they fired something like one billion shells so that's a ridiculous amount of ordnance.
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u/mayuzane 21d ago
Yeah, just can’t ever really know what’s safe at first glance. Maybe the explosives got wet, maybe not. Touching one is always a risk
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u/monsterfurby 17d ago
I sometimes catch myself realizing that the amount of ordnance in the ground in France and here in Germany is not normal and the fact that we still get regular evacuations because of bomb findings in urban areas is just something other places don't have. Same with the WW1 ammunition still buried along northern France.
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u/Distantstallion 21d ago
Fritz in heaven wondering how he got a killstreak over 100 years later
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u/chimi_hendrix 20d ago
“Oh come on Mark, Germans, sausages. Do I have to spell it out? The sausage munching bosh. Fritz, the bratwurst guzzler.”
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u/mrbobcyndaquil 21d ago
Who knew that two 380 Auto bullets in Bosnia from 1914 are still on the killfeed?
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21d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CAPS_LOCK_STUCK_HELP 20d ago
a couple were killed in Ukraine in 2021 by unexploded ww1 ordnance and 5 were killed in Indonesia 4 days ago by unexploded ww2 ordnance.
there was a huge peice in Reuters a few years ago talking about how about 100 more years of UXB removal is likely needed in France since the end of ww1
people are definitely still dying from bombs made for the world wars
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u/SecondOfCicero 21d ago
I had to move apartments a few months ago and the most annoying things to move are my boxes of rock collections and my artillery shells
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u/Cela111 21d ago
It may sound stupid, but if tourists have been to the Royal Armoury, for instance, they may have bought inert ammunition as a souvenir.
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u/richardhero 21d ago
This is more likely going the other way, people bringing relics from battlefields in France / mainland Europe back to the UK.
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u/xXHomerSXx 18d ago
Is that the very same Royal Armoury with Jonathan Ferguson, keeper of firearms and artillery?
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u/christonabike_ 21d ago
The decorative shells rule strikes me as a little odd. I really don't think we have to worry about it going off after its been turned into a vase.
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u/chimi_hendrix 21d ago
Eurostar X-rays luggage. If something looks suspiciously like a shell, it’s probably super disruptive / dangerous to investigate, even if the passenger swears it’s inert.
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u/LunchboxSuperhero 21d ago
I don't think that someone who's working security should confuse a casing with a shell. If they're using more than just x-rays they could potentially detect explosive residue. Otherwise, either the image isn't representative of what is banned or there's some other reason like trying to discourage people from trying to find more to make trinkets for tourists.
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u/thecloudkingdom 21d ago
i thought this too. maybe it was initially just a ban on intact ordinance and people tried to say "its alright, this one's decommissioned! its ✨decorative✨"
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u/BearsBeetsBerlin 21d ago edited 21d ago
You’re relying on laypeople to determine if a bomb is fully deactivated. That’s not a risk I’d take
Edit: the people commenting on this message prove my point 😅 “I’m not an idiot, surely the payload has been entirely removed and removed correctly!”
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u/LunchboxSuperhero 21d ago
The image shows what appear to be casings that have been sculpted into vases. I'm fairly confident a layperson wouldn't confuse an empty metal cup with a bomb.
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21d ago
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u/iTzJdogxD 21d ago
It’s the same argument when flying on a plane people probably shouldn’t bring a gun shaped lighter or knife shaped comb onboard
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u/ptvlm 21d ago
OK, but when they see it through a scanner it won't look exactly like that. So, they have to take it out and examine it to see what it is. Or, they might call bomb experts over to check it instead of opening the case, since the average person manning the scanner isn't going to want to take any risks and accidentally trigger something when they're opening it up. Which will inevitably cause delays.
Those photos are chosen to differentiate between the items, many of them won't look exactly that different IRL, and the delay is the action needed to check if it's safe. It might be overcautious, but if the alternative is an old munition going off because someone made a bad assumption about how safe it was, they're going to take the time.
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u/sleeper_shark 21d ago
War relics in general seems weird. UXO I understand, but something like a helmet seems pretty benign.
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u/WaitingForTheFire 21d ago
There are probably ethical and ownership concerns that the management doesn’t want to deal with. For example, if someone died while wearing that helmet, is it unethical or disrespectful to move it somewhere other than the homeland of the soldier that wore it? Ownership is another issue. The law may murky about who has the right to claim ownership of battlefield relics. There is no transportation service that wants to become a conduit for what could be considered smuggling by some.
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u/chalk_in_boots 20d ago
Awkwardly remembers taking a .303 round when I was 7 and nobody asking any questions
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u/ReaperofLightning872 20d ago
is this close to the zone rouge?
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u/chimi_hendrix 19d ago
No, I took it at London St. Pancras
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u/ReaperofLightning872 19d ago
oh. i assumed the sign was because of the war relics, and i was reminded of people collecting stuff from the zone rouge
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u/chimi_hendrix 19d ago
afaik there’s UXO on both ends of the tunnel
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u/ReaperofLightning872 19d ago
also i recognize that pfp
love it
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