Butterfly Bomb Episode - Interesting Fact

Interesting tidbits and quite topical as I just watched this episode today. This gem of a series has been quite enjoyable.

It is amazing (and scary!) how long ordnance can remain potent - hundreds of years in fact.

A man in the US was killed recently by a canonball from the American Civil War:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2010491/posts

I have a few bits of trivia if you're interested.

*When Brian reports in the opening episode, it's to "97 Tunnelling Company." The tunnelling companies were used in WWI but not in WWII, and the explanation that the company was thrust into the UXB business is a dramatic but fictional device to show that Brian didn't know what he was getting into.

*In actuality the first UXBs showed up in the autumn of 1939 before the Blitz and were for the most part easily dealt with, mostly by RAF or ARP personnel. Nearly all had type 15 impact fuses that hadn't detonated. In the spring of 1940, when the Phony War ended, the British realized that they were going to need professionals in numbers to deal with the coming problem. 25 sections were authorized in May 1940, another 109 in June, and 220 by August. Organization was needed, and as the Blitz began, 25 "Bomb Disposal Companies" were created between August 1940 and January 1941, numbered 1-27 (numbers 13 and 26 were not used). Each had ten sections of a bomb disposal officer and 14 other ranks. Six were in London by Jan 41.

*The fuses shown and diagrammed were authentic. The last number of the fuse indicated its purpose: '5' indicated an impact fuse (15 and 25 being the most frequently encountered); '7' indicated a clockwork time-delay fuse (in addition to the type 17 and 67 in the series, the type 57 was most often seen); '0' were anti-handling (i.e. booby trap) fuses of which the type 50 as depicted was the primary threat. The ZUS40 was real and much feared, almost always on the type 17, and the 'Y' fuse was defeated exactly in the circumstances shown by use of liquid oxygen in January 1943 after just 5 days of research and testing, by Major John P. Hudson, a horticulturalist who joined the Territorial Army before the war and was evacuated from Dunkirk, after which he was posted to help the boffins develop counter-tactics to UXBs.

*The Crabtree discharger, clockstopper, steam sterilizer and other devices shown were all authentically depicted.

*The Australians in the Royal Navy disposing of naval parachute mines were real, and two characters in Danger UXB (mess corporal Mould and Lt Syme of 81 Company in "The Quiet Weekend") were named after two who won the George Cross and survived the war.

*The camouflet in the last episode was a hazardous reality for disposal teams. Even with the harness, they were extremely dangerous because of the carbon monoxide trapped in the cavern which could overcome and kill a man before he could be extracted.

*Of the 26 BD companies raised in the Royal Engineers during World War II, ten served overseas in North Africa, the Middle East, or Europe. Five, including three previously based in London, were part of the invasion of France.

*The one failing of the show (being picky) is that it did not show the sheer volume of bombs dealt with. At the height of the Blitz in the first three weeks of September 1940, over 2000 UXBs were disposed of and 3700 more located, and this when the type 17/ZUS40 had just been encountered. Between then and July 5, 1941, BD companies in the British Isles removed over 24000 more UXBs. Some companies dealt with over a thousand bombs in a single month.