The red wire. No, the Blue!

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@Machine_Elf

Some real bombs are not so easily disarmed.

When a bomb has that many booby traps, all I can think of is “How the hell did they build the damn thing without it going off?”

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@Robot_Arm

Does anyone know the first use of this trope? There’s a 1974 movie called Juggernaut that ends with a “cut the blue wire” scene. Awesome cast (Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, Anthony Hopkins), and pretty good overall, but the ending is infuriating if you think about it a bit.

I’m still reading the story of the Harvey’s casino bombing. I heard a very good podcast on it a while ago. One thing I’ve not heard, once the culprit was captured was any wiring diagram or instructions found that revealed if there was a way to disarm the bomb using the switches on the panel? Could the bomber have given instructions on how to deactivate the bomb?

Bob Newhart had a routine, “Defusing a bomb,” in his 1960-62 albums and mentioned it as a recurring theme already.

[EdelweissPirate]

@engineer_comp_geek

In WWII, the Germans found out (through spies) that unexploded bombs also worked well as terror weapons, and started putting booby traps and all sorts of things in their bombs to prevent them from being easily disarmed.

I’m really curious: do you have a cite for this? Remarkably, British counterintelligence discovered and captured every single German spy sent across the Channel, turning many of them into double agents.

Cite: Double-Cross System - Wikipedia

Of course, the spies you refer to may not have been ones operating on British soil. But either way, I’m curious.

@engineer_comp_geek

This is one of the few cases where real-life bombs had anything even coming close to a Hollywood bomb. In those old German bombs, they did come up with techniques for disarming them that did involve things like “cut the blue wire”, though these techniques were bomb model specific. The bombs often had fake wires designed to look like they went to the detonator when in reality cutting the fake wires would trigger the bomb to explode. The real detonator wires would be hidden underneath. Once you had some way of identifying the real detonator wires, the bomb disposal technician would cut those wires instead.

A fantastic early-‘80s British TV series called “Danger UXB” (Un-eXploded Bomb) featured extremely realistic accounts of efforts to disarm unexploded German bombs in WWII England. It also explored the arms race between German fuse designers and the British teams that tried to disarm those fuses.

I’ve seen full episodes available on YouTube and they may well be available elsewhere. I watched this show as a kid with my parents when they aired in the US on Masterpiece Theatre. The entire family was riveted. I can’t recommend the show highly enough.

Danger UXB

[Banksiaman]

@EdelweissPirate

… A fantastic early-‘80s British TV series called “Danger UXB” (Un-eXploded Bomb) featured extremely realistic accounts of efforts to disarm unexploded German bombs in WWII England. It also explored the arms race between German fuse designers and the British teams that tried to disarm those fuses.

… I can’t recommend the show highly enough. Danger UXB - Wikipedia

Another pair of thumbs upwards for Danger UXB.

It was in the back of my mind as I wrote the question at the start of the thread. Completely gripping and entertaining. I often looked to see if it was boxed-up for sale, but glad to know its made it to YouTube.

[GusNSpot]

I have always thought the timers on TV spoil the whole suspense angle.

[Leo_Bloom]

@GusNSpot

I have always thought the timers on TV spoil the whole suspense angle.

Yes. It’s like one day I’d like to see a play where you see a pistol in the first act and it never is fired.

[Leo_Bloom]

@EdelweissPirate

…
A fantastic early-‘80s British TV series called “Danger UXB” (Un-eXploded Bomb) featured extremely realistic accounts of efforts to disarm unexploded German bombs in WWII England.

No more zukes!

Actually that whole GQ thread on defusing WWII (and other) bombshas details on stuff here.

[CaptMurdock]

How NOT to defuse a bomb.

[DPRK]

@CaptMurdock

How NOT to defuse a bomb.

Could do worse.

[Leo_Bloom]

@DPRK

Could do worse.

That’s a WWII cartoon (“that’s a blockbuster bomb”). Who’s the other character? A gremlin as in who shows up when stuff doesn’t go “just right?”

NB: All quotes the gremlin guy/thing…

[DPRK]

@Leo_Bloom

That’s a WWII cartoon (“that’s a blockbuster bomb”). Who’s the other character? A gremlin as in who shows up when stuff doesn’t go “just right?”

NB: All quotes the gremlin guy/thing…

It ain’t Wendell Willkie!
The cartoon is from 1943, though “gremlins” are attested as early as the 1920s. Wiki trivia is that the color scheme of the gremlin in the cartoon reflects that of U.S. Army Air Forces training aircraft.

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@DPRK

Could do worse.

Know the difference between red and green.