A Brit and Aussie mapping World War 2 ordnance on Guadalcanal were killed on Sunday, September 20, 2020, CNN reported. Read story here and here.
They were members of a survey team that verifies the locations of unexploded bombs reported by locals and turns that information over to police.
Most of the fighting was in 1942 and 1943, over 77 years ago, but there are still thousands of dud bombs and shells scattered around the islands.
The ordnance clearing project is funded by the U.S. government.
The Norwegian charity they worked for said, “Explosive weapons are … found within city construction sites, coral reefs, farms, forests and suburban gardens” and children sometimes play with them.
The explosion reportedly occurred at an apartment complex the charity uses as an office, and the victims survived long enough to be taken to a hospital, suggesting the device wasn’t a large bomb, but died of their injuries.
Photo: Police at the accident scene.
Since there was little fighting on US soil most Americans are unaware that WWII ordinance still takes lives, except for Shemya and Hawaii, some Japanese balloon bombs made it to the west coast but many ended up in British Columbia (yes there could be some here in Washington) only ordianace brought home by service members has killed many Americans. Civil War munitions still have potential to kill anyone coming across it, and handling it.
All wars have left implements for the innocent to be injured by, modern war especially in the modern industrial era means far more left over bombs and implements, all the way up to fusion bombs that are at the bottom of the sea.