[Chris Going]

There are thirteen areas round Paris where any major development is attended by significantly ‘above backround risk’ for EROW/UXO discovery. While in 2025 some GAF ordnance slumbers on, desiderata from Paula and small scale Luftwaffe efforts in August 1944, by far the majority of air dropped UXO/EROW is of US and UK origin. It’s less the Gare du Nord, Bomphoon, but the skeins of trackways N of the Gare du Nord, towards St Denis.

Some years ago I prepared an overview of the Paris area which involved trawling through contemporary reconnaissance imagery, armourers manifests, fusing, and so on, and made some visually impressive ‘peril maps’. I am currently comparing these with records of actual finds.

While the generally accepted worry is bashing into a bomb hull and provoking a ‘high order’ detonation, the risk from failed time-delay fuzed ordnance, especially with transport networks, is not negligible. Failed time delay fuzed ordnance is getting more prone to exploding spontaneously (one or two a year in Europe, in Germany and Austria). Certain types of piling and basement digging during the redevelopment process aren’t helping.

Best

Chris G