Re: [sg] platoon stuff and combat engineers

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
> --- KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wrote:
> > > Your population gets a lot of practice breaching	minefields in
everyday life?
> >
> > Think of a place like Afghanistan or Mocambique after decades of
civil
war and generous mine-laying and you see it could
> > happen.
>
> Nichts nien.	Civvies stay the hell away from mines--they aren't
stupid.
>
> Hell, even engineers are far more likely to blow in place than lift.

The original point was breaching minefields - precise method not
specified.

> > In Hamburg, every few months a dud bomb from WWII is
> > found and defused - more than half a century after the last one
fell.
>
> Defused by professional explosive ordnance disposal technicians, yes?

Certainly.

But I guess that we have somewhat more of them than the average US city,
especially in that they are trained to deal with WWII ordnance. Though
there
are now fewer of them than in, say, the 1950's. And due to the location
the
bombs may be in, blowing them up in place is often not an option. They
have
to be defused, even if the fuses are rusty or the bombs leak explosive.
When I went to school in the early 1960's, we were taught to recognize
ordnance, not !!!!! to handle it and to inform the police.

Maybe I exaggerated my original statement about everyday mine breaching,
but
in a mine-ridden country, the population will know better how to deal
with
the risks and there will be more trained disposal personnel.

BTW, from some of the documentaries I have seen on the subject,
third-world
mine clearance workers often get pretty basic training and equipment for
the
job.

Greetings