WWII unexploded bomb explosion - GIF

[Moby Duck]

In the late 1960’s I had a tour of a Naval Armament Depot underground storage facility full of old WW2 and earlier Depth Charges. Many of the drum shaped depth charges were oozing a pink jelly like substance onto the concrete floor and drains. A couple of years later a decision was made to dispose of these “extremely dangerous munitions”. Experts from the Armament Depot confirmed that it would be extremely dangerous to move. One slight knock and the whole area will be totally devastated. Their solution was to build a wharf at a nearby beach, move it by truck to this new wharf and load it onto barges for disposal at sea. Wharf building would have cost millions of dollars so this wasn’t a popular idea with the powers that be. Eventually after much debate involving trade unions and safety experts it was agreed that for 20 cents an hour extra pay, Armament Depot staff would load it, and truck it on multiple trucks, about 30 miles through heavily built up residential and business areas to an existing wharf, then load it onto the same barges for disposal at sea. I’ve always wondered how something so dangerous that it couldn’t be safely moved, suddenly became safe again for 20 cents an hour, and how such a small amount of money was enough to make people risk their lives. It was all done without incident.