In article ,
Paul Stevenson wrote:

"Edward Cowling London UK" wrote in message
...

I'd love to know what the military really think about this.

A deep respect I should imagine!

Survival being a basic human need.

Quite.

I've no experience regarding UXB (and no wish to gain any)
but a few years ago (up in the north of Norway) a was part
of a group which came across a dump of 2cm AA ammunition
of WW2 vintage, much of which was lying in a stream bed.
I took the RNoN bomb disposal squad down to the site the next
day and they (very carefully) removed the shells, together with
a large number more they found in the boskage - all //very//
carefully.
Day after that, the bomb disposal specialist called to say
the items had been destroyed (cooked off in a furnace, as usual
with small stuff) and that they have been /extremely/ (actually,
he didn't say "extremely", he was more emphatic than that) dangerous.
Much of the propellant was crystalline, which meant that a very
small jolt could have set it off.

A bomb that's been sitting in the ground for 60-plus years could
be much more sensitive to vibration than it originally was.
Explosives can get very unstable in their old age. Not nice.

--
Andy Breen ~ Speaking for myself, not the University of Wales
"your suggestion rates at four monkeys for six weeks"
(Peter D. Rieden)