# Finding old unexploded WWII era bombs: preferred to defuse it in place or move it first? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308 "2014-02-14T05:57:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![KMS94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ad7895/32.png) [@KMS94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KMS94)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/101 "2022-12-22T20:27:10Z")
> **[Did an 88-Year-Old French Man Stick a WWI Shell in His Anus, Causing a...](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ww1-shell-stuck-anus-hospital-evacuated/)** > > The title of a Reddit thread claimed, "88 yo french man evacuated a whole hospital because he had a WW1 shell stuck in his anus." ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/102 "2022-12-23T01:00:26Z")
I’ll just note that a UXO can be a real _pain in the arse_!! ::rimshot:: Tripler Thanks, I’m here all week. Try the veal. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/103 "2022-12-23T02:35:45Z")
Rectum? It nearly killed… everyone! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/104 "2022-12-23T02:40:29Z")
If the rectal UXO had been real and had detonated we could have used the old joke: > **Q** : What was the last thing to go through his mind? > **A** : His a$$hole. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/105 "2022-12-23T17:02:19Z")
Snopes–a site I read with more dicey information than the NY Post–did their thing and rated it true, starting with a Reddit cite scooped us/me by one day. Responsibly enough in this case, Snopes revisited Richard Gere and the Gerbil, supposedly placed in the same place for the same reason. > **[Did an 88-Year-Old French Man Stick a WWI Shell in His Anus, Causing a...](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ww1-shell-stuck-anus-hospital-evacuated/)** > > The title of a Reddit thread claimed, "88 yo french man evacuated a whole hospital because he had a WW1 shell stuck in his anus." Worth noting, in my opinion, is that being 88 years old does not affect one’s libido to the extent that you find it pleasurable to put strange things up your butt. Perhaps it was a case of a learned man searching for more wisdom in his remaining few years, and the pleasure was purely intellectual. In either case, it is a lesson for us all. PS: he’s way old, so maybe one of nostalgia. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/106 "2022-12-23T17:10:25Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Worth noting, in my opinion, is that being 88 years old does not affect one’s libido to the extent that you find it pleasurable to put strange things up your butt. Perhaps not, but it may be that an 88YO person has a long history of taking pleasure from putting strange things up their butt. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/107 "2022-12-23T17:48:25Z")
You people could be making unfounded ass-umptions. The poor old feller might have accidentally fallen on the WMD, like this unfortunate victim. > **['Weapons Of Ass Destruction!' People Can't Keep The Jokes In After A Man Gets...](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/artillery-shell-rectum-bum-squad-twitter-reaction_uk_61aa265fe4b0f398af204204)** > > "Fire in the hole!" ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/108 "2022-12-23T20:06:02Z")
“Million-to-one shot, doc!” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/109 "2022-12-23T21:12:02Z")
It wasn’t just the hospital evacuated. And, FTR, one of the old tv MD dramas–the one I think with George Clooney before he was George Clooney–had this UXO in body requiring surgery hospital wide drama ensues in addition to hero surgeons thing, but lacked the whole “I fell on it it’s a sex thing” reveal-- again truth is not only stranger, but funnier than fiction. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/110 "2022-12-23T21:13:34Z")
In some of the original French reports, the relevant French vocab is almost poetic; > **[Toulon : un homme se présente avec un obus dans l'anus, un hôpital évacué](https://www.lepoint.fr/sante/toulon-un-vieil-homme-se-presente-aux-urgences-avec-un-obus-dans-l-anus-20-12-2022-2502381_40.php)** > > L’hôpital de Toulon a dû être partiellement évacué le temps de gérer cette « alerte à la bombe », une unité de déminage ayant été mobilisée sur place. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/111 "2022-12-23T21:38:10Z")
As I say–and in line with Machine\_Elf immediately above–suggesting perhaps it was done purely for nostalgia: 88 years, with whatever time subtracted for puberty, is pretty darn close to WWI. Maybe the shell had been active – if not in this hospital event–it _had_ been to his knowledge and part of the sexual attraction of it all. Moreover, again on the dating of past practices with that particular shell, or a similar one with which he broke his cherry, so to speak, either shell might be one taken directly from WWI active or recently decommissioned stock by his father or other relative, who taught him the practice, or the son observed it and figured he’d follow in his father’s footsteps (insert joke). If Machine\_Elf’s suggestion is true, not to speak of the two I supply here, we are provided another teachable moment: one hell of a strong multi-role and mission-capable rectum all of us have, PS: addressed particularly to one of the many savants in this thread: one may say a veritable Fat Amy, in theory at least. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/112 "2022-12-23T21:56:58Z")
[A personal note from me, the mad scientist obsessed with zombies: I don’t even know if I am OP or even posted in this thread. But I remembered it; moreover, thought this news event important enough to search the threads and post after 6 months of absence here, which itself was preceded by years of self-imposed exile from this island. Huh.] ---
**Author:** ![FrenchDunadan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frenchdunadan/32/5449_2.png) [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/113 "2022-12-24T19:35:43Z")
Apparently it was a demilitarized shell, and an inheritance from his brother. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/114 "2022-12-27T22:12:30Z")
Demil-ed or not, it sure made the ER staff say, “UX-_whoaaa_!” Tripler Again, I’m here all week. _Please_ try the veal. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/115 "2022-12-28T04:58:21Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > And, FTR, one of the old tv MD dramas–the one I think with George Clooney before he was George Clooney–had this UXO in body requiring surgery hospital wide drama ensues in addition to hero surgeons thing, but lacked the whole “I fell on it it’s a sex thing” reveal-- again truth is not only stranger, but funnier than fiction. This was one of the plots in MASH season 2 episode 9. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/116 "2022-12-29T02:01:16Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > This was one of the plots in MASH season 2 episode 9. It was also a rescue in an episode of _Emergency!_. A collector had somehow gotten a WWII grenade lodged inside his abdomen. Dr Brackett and Dr Morton came to extract it, with John and Roy’s help. The bomb squad placed it in a container to take it off for disposal. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/117 "2022-12-29T02:23:42Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > And, FTR, one of the old tv MD dramas–the one I think with George Clooney before he was George Clooney–had this UXO in body requiring surgery hospital-wide drama ensues in addition to hero surgeons thing, but lacked the whole “I fell on it it’s a sex thing” reveal-- again truth is not only stranger, but funnier than fiction Actually, IT was Elliott Gould’s comedy “ER” and it was the putz accidentally shot his wife with what was supposed to be an explosive-tipped bullet from some eastern euro country (they were a gift from someone)… which is why it didn’t explode it was dud ,the thing was those aren’t federally kosher and he tried not to tell anyone but someone knew what it was by looking at it > **[E/R](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E/R)** > > E/R is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 16, 1984, to February 27, 1985. > Developed from the play of the same name created and produced by the Organic Theater Company under the direction of Stuart Gordon and conceived by Dr. Ronald Berman, the series was produced by Embassy Television and lasted a single season. Shuko Akune and Bruce A. Young reprised their roles from the original Organic Theater Company production of the play. > Two of the show's stars, George Clooney and Mary M... it was EP 9 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/118 "2023-02-09T19:44:35Z")
Watch your step around Civil War battlefields, too: > **[Unexploded Civil War era device found in Gettysburg National Military Park](https://www.abc27.com/local-news/unexploded-device-found-in-gettysburg-national-park-area-closed/)** > > GETTYSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Gettysburg National Military Park announced they discovered a Civil War-era unexploded artillery shell on Wednesday, Feb. 8. According to the park, the shell was foun… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/119 "2023-02-09T21:34:55Z")
I’m glad I didn’t jump up and down when we visited Little Round Top. 💣 😬 ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2023, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308/120 "2023-02-11T08:43:46Z")
Latest case in point in the UK > **[Second world war bomb detonates unexpectedly in Great Yarmouth](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/10/second-world-war-bomb-detonates-unexpectedly-in-great-yarmouth)** > > No one hurt in ‘unplanned’ explosion of 250kg device found in Norfolk town, police say [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-old-unexploded-wwii-era-bombs-preferred-to-defuse-it-in-place-or-move-it-first/681308.md?page=7)