Italy / Blockbuster 4000 Lbs
456th Bomb Group Association
http://www.456thbombgroup.org/war_rtrn.html
The War Returns To Italy:
This page has been added with text and photos from Giuseppe Versolato, aviation historian in Vicenza, Italy, about the ongoing discovery of unexploded bombs. The recent discovery of a British "cookie" (4000-pounder) in the center of the city is the focus of this current piece. The text is part of an email message from Fred Riley, group historian. The text and grammar are as received from the source.
Hi Roy,
This is a message I received yesterday and I thought it might be of interest on the web site. Let me give you some of the background on it.
Giuseppe is the man I visit in Vicenza, he is an author and aviation historian. He and his friends have set up a museum on the Vicenza air field, the NATO Headquarters. Vicenza was one of our WWII targets and is located about 40 miles Northwest of Venice . We have several items in their museum which I have visited.
Giuseppe has written the Vicenza history of aviation from the time of the balloon until present. They have found parts of our planes and bombs and part of a P-38 that went down around Christmas 1943 flown by a pilot who lives in Michigan.
The pictures are good and the story interesting, perhaps the grammar will have to be straightened out some what.
Ciao,
Fred de Ed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends
About ten days ago WWII is come back to the town of Vicenza.
While a working was involved with his bulldozer to work in the ground of the Monumental Cemetery of the Vicenza town, he heard a metallic song so he stopped fo to see what was happeming. At first he saw a part of a metallic box. So he called to the chief of workings and this man after called the artillerymen artificiers becauso he immediately suspected that this strange objects was a bomb.
When the artillerymen were in the place they digged around this object and so apparead a metallic "monstre" about 7 feets long, about 3 feets large, an iron's cylinder. The men was perplex because, in their long expericience, they found for the first time a similar type of weapon. Normally here, especially in North Italy are found more inexploded american bombs, 500 and 1000 Lbs GP, the types more used from USAAF heavy ships and also from medium and fighter bombers. The last found in Vicenza was on 1998, an american 500 Lb. GP, found ner the Vicenza M/Y. To day it is preserved in our Vicenza Air Force Museun. In this first days also myself was touched by the municipality because is known that I've interest in the WWII events , some articles were written from me in the matter about our town, and they showed me some pictures taken for a my personal opinion. I'm not an expert of weapons, but I have a sufficient historical experience for to know the main bellic material emploied in the local raids, thank you the several english and american reports that I had occasion to see and consult for my historical researches. So I had no dubts, this object was one of main english aerial bombs dropped in Italy by RAF heavy bombers.
It was a H.C. (High Capacity) Bomb 4000 lb, a "Blockbuster" nicknamed by english crew as "Cookie". It was not the main bomb dropped in Italy, because RAF Bomber Command in Fall 1943 dropped over Milan, Turin some double cookies, H.C. 8.000 lbs , carried by Lancasters. But in Vicenza, the 4.000 lb HC was the main bomb dropped in the town. By my researches during all the war, RAF during his night raids over Vicenza dropped 20 bomb of this bombs.
This inexploded bomb was surely dropped during a raid on april 2, 1944 because the cemetery was hit also from other bombs of inferior capacity. Of course in the occasion of cover the craters , the morning after the bombing, the cookie was not found because it was underground of 9 feets and it...rested in peace with the graves for 57 years. During this raid the Wellingtons (as is know some of its had the bomb bay modified for to carry one 4.000 lb. cookie, while a Lancaster with a modified bay could carry three 4,000, or 8,000 and the main one 12,000) came over Vicenza with 5 cookies. Reading the reports 3 of its were seen exploded in the target, but there were any inormation of other two. One was found the morning after the raid, in the hills near the target, inexploded , but well damaged. It was showed in the town by fascists for propaganda raisons and of it are some pictures. The last...is the one found in the cemetery.
The day after my indications arrived the official confirmation that the weapon was, as I said, a cookie. In the days after local autorithies and anrtillerymen command touched British Embassy in Italy for to have more information tecnical informations about the bomb and the fuse disposal.
The bomb could be of different types, a Mark II, or III or IV, with different type of explosive: amatol, minol, or the terrific torpex, the main chimical explosive built during WWII.
English Bomb Disposal sent all what was asked but it was important to know the type of explosive. So was made the last two days, and now it is known that the explosive was not the terrific torpex.
So, in one day of the next april, the bomb will be released from the artillerymen artificiers. But there is a"big" safety problem. The cemetery is just on the center of town; has been calculate a safety radius from the aiming point (cemetery) a few less than 2 miles. Pratically all the historic town, its suburbs, and can be estimated an evacuation of about 70,000 or 80,000 people for the day of release operations. Il could be the main evacuation of a town in Italy, after the end of the WWII. But it is no easy to organize a similar evacuation if it is necessary to consider that in the town in a general hospital with 1,000 beds, (it is only 200 feets away from the cemetery area), more clinics,
hospital houses for old people etc.
It is a big safety problem, but we hope that the autorithies solve the problem, a probem that have carried us to the time of Second World War, now at 2001 .
As historian I think do not mistake that also in the future time we had other problems of this type because our town, as other in the North-East Italy (Padua, Mestre, Treviso, Verona , all towns and villages along valley and line for Brenner Pass) had massive bombings with weapons of all types, and more of its were inexploded.
My best regards
Giuseppe
In the pictures:
1) the bomb found in the cemetery
456th Bomb Group Association
http://www.456thbombgroup.org/war_rtrn.html
The War Returns To Italy:
This page has been added with text and photos from Giuseppe Versolato, aviation historian in Vicenza, Italy, about the ongoing discovery of unexploded bombs. The recent discovery of a British "cookie" (4000-pounder) in the center of the city is the focus of this current piece. The text is part of an email message from Fred Riley, group historian. The text and grammar are as received from the source.
Hi Roy,
This is a message I received yesterday and I thought it might be of interest on the web site. Let me give you some of the background on it.
Giuseppe is the man I visit in Vicenza, he is an author and aviation historian. He and his friends have set up a museum on the Vicenza air field, the NATO Headquarters. Vicenza was one of our WWII targets and is located about 40 miles Northwest of Venice . We have several items in their museum which I have visited.
Giuseppe has written the Vicenza history of aviation from the time of the balloon until present. They have found parts of our planes and bombs and part of a P-38 that went down around Christmas 1943 flown by a pilot who lives in Michigan.
The pictures are good and the story interesting, perhaps the grammar will have to be straightened out some what.
Ciao,
Fred de Ed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends
About ten days ago WWII is come back to the town of Vicenza.
While a working was involved with his bulldozer to work in the ground of the Monumental Cemetery of the Vicenza town, he heard a metallic song so he stopped fo to see what was happeming. At first he saw a part of a metallic box. So he called to the chief of workings and this man after called the artillerymen artificiers becauso he immediately suspected that this strange objects was a bomb.
When the artillerymen were in the place they digged around this object and so apparead a metallic "monstre" about 7 feets long, about 3 feets large, an iron's cylinder. The men was perplex because, in their long expericience, they found for the first time a similar type of weapon. Normally here, especially in North Italy are found more inexploded american bombs, 500 and 1000 Lbs GP, the types more used from USAAF heavy ships and also from medium and fighter bombers. The last found in Vicenza was on 1998, an american 500 Lb. GP, found ner the Vicenza M/Y. To day it is preserved in our Vicenza Air Force Museun. In this first days also myself was touched by the municipality because is known that I've interest in the WWII events , some articles were written from me in the matter about our town, and they showed me some pictures taken for a my personal opinion. I'm not an expert of weapons, but I have a sufficient historical experience for to know the main bellic material emploied in the local raids, thank you the several english and american reports that I had occasion to see and consult for my historical researches. So I had no dubts, this object was one of main english aerial bombs dropped in Italy by RAF heavy bombers.
It was a H.C. (High Capacity) Bomb 4000 lb, a "Blockbuster" nicknamed by english crew as "Cookie". It was not the main bomb dropped in Italy, because RAF Bomber Command in Fall 1943 dropped over Milan, Turin some double cookies, H.C. 8.000 lbs , carried by Lancasters. But in Vicenza, the 4.000 lb HC was the main bomb dropped in the town. By my researches during all the war, RAF during his night raids over Vicenza dropped 20 bomb of this bombs.
This inexploded bomb was surely dropped during a raid on april 2, 1944 because the cemetery was hit also from other bombs of inferior capacity. Of course in the occasion of cover the craters , the morning after the bombing, the cookie was not found because it was underground of 9 feets and it...rested in peace with the graves for 57 years. During this raid the Wellingtons (as is know some of its had the bomb bay modified for to carry one 4.000 lb. cookie, while a Lancaster with a modified bay could carry three 4,000, or 8,000 and the main one 12,000) came over Vicenza with 5 cookies. Reading the reports 3 of its were seen exploded in the target, but there were any inormation of other two. One was found the morning after the raid, in the hills near the target, inexploded , but well damaged. It was showed in the town by fascists for propaganda raisons and of it are some pictures. The last...is the one found in the cemetery.
The day after my indications arrived the official confirmation that the weapon was, as I said, a cookie. In the days after local autorithies and anrtillerymen command touched British Embassy in Italy for to have more information tecnical informations about the bomb and the fuse disposal.
The bomb could be of different types, a Mark II, or III or IV, with different type of explosive: amatol, minol, or the terrific torpex, the main chimical explosive built during WWII.
English Bomb Disposal sent all what was asked but it was important to know the type of explosive. So was made the last two days, and now it is known that the explosive was not the terrific torpex.
So, in one day of the next april, the bomb will be released from the artillerymen artificiers. But there is a"big" safety problem. The cemetery is just on the center of town; has been calculate a safety radius from the aiming point (cemetery) a few less than 2 miles. Pratically all the historic town, its suburbs, and can be estimated an evacuation of about 70,000 or 80,000 people for the day of release operations. Il could be the main evacuation of a town in Italy, after the end of the WWII. But it is no easy to organize a similar evacuation if it is necessary to consider that in the town in a general hospital with 1,000 beds, (it is only 200 feets away from the cemetery area), more clinics,
hospital houses for old people etc.
It is a big safety problem, but we hope that the autorithies solve the problem, a probem that have carried us to the time of Second World War, now at 2001 .
As historian I think do not mistake that also in the future time we had other problems of this type because our town, as other in the North-East Italy (Padua, Mestre, Treviso, Verona , all towns and villages along valley and line for Brenner Pass) had massive bombings with weapons of all types, and more of its were inexploded.
My best regards
Giuseppe
In the pictures:
1) the bomb found in the cemetery
![Prettige feestdagen[1].jpg](/data/attachments/38/38418-1315b7dfca438af7b7b830087d4f6b23.jpg)
