Berlin construction worker Jens Hoehme got a scare recently whilst operating his digger. Encountering something hard and unyielding he decided to proceed with caution, scraping off the dirt of what was barring his way. Expecting to find a water main he was shocked instead to find a huge 1,000kg Soviet bomb dating back from the time of World War II.
The city was one of the last strongholds to hold out against the Red Army (interestingly it was Breslau - now Wroclaw in Poland, that held out the longest!) as the Nazis were slowly swept out of power by the advancing Russians. Even today it is quite common for 250kg, and even the odd 500kg to be uncovered by construction workers, but to uncover such a large device was quite a shock for poor Herr Hoehme.
It is thought that if the bomb had exploded shrapnel could have flown in a radius of 60metres, causing carnage. Luckily no such thing happened, and although the police were forced to evacuate 4,000 people from the area and to disrupt public transport services, the bomb was carried off to be safely discharged.
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