a village evacuated to defuse a World War II bomb

The 250kg bomb is now harmless. After a day of demining, Wednesday February 23, the inhabitants of Grussenheim (Haut-Rhin) come to observe the explosive device. In the morning, most residents were evacuated. Those who chose to stay were confined, the roads were closed to traffic. An American bomb dating from the Second World War had to be defused. She was discovered on a construction site in November 2021.

The explosive device comes from a bombardment which took place in January 1945. The explosion had then destroyed 80% of the village. 77 years later, some residents have not forgotten anything. “I was 14, and we were in the cellars and the stables“, says a resident. All day, the deminers took turns to succeed in this delicate operation because “these are mechanisms that, 70 years later, are still working”according to Didier Schal, head of the mine clearance center in Colmar (Haut-Rhin).