The motorway A59 was also closed temporarily, causing some brief traffic delays in the region. The all-clear came at 7.40pm: Members of the Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team had disarmed both bombs successfully. The experts were already at the scene of the location of the bombs since the early afternoon. Both bombs were in a field, about 500 meters apart from each other, at the end of the Roncallistraße. The field is a building site. During a routine examination the explosive war relics were found.

Aerial pictures deliver indications on bomb locations usually, but definite confirmation of the location can only be given after using special sensors. First, EOD expert Wolfgang Wolf decided on the evacuation radius. The city council established a collection point in the sports hall of the Gesamtschule „Am Bergeacker“. The evacuation went smoothly, only one resident was intransigent. 100 members of the fire brigade, 20 staff of the public order office, eight of the social welfare office and eight police officers were on site.

While experiences like these are exciting for some residents, they mean total routine for Wolf. „I’m totally calm“, he said and added dryly: „Each day can be the last.“ Together with his colleagues Fritz Putz and Holger Jacobi he worked very concentratedly. The detonators of both bombs were removed quickly. This kind of British aircraft bombs with a double mounting hole is well known to Wolf and his colleagues. Ammunition from the First World War is usually more difficult to handle, said Wolfgang Wolf.

Earlier that day, two experienced excavator operators noticed something unusually hard in the ground of the future commercial area Wolbersacker: Antoon Verschooten and Güter Filkret knew what to do immediately: They got out of the digger, had a quick look and rang the fire brigade, who in turn informed the public order office and a bomb disposal team. It was 9.42am when EOD expert Michael Daenecke’s mobile rang. Less than an hour later, the 46 year old specialist was on site, with a God-given angel-like calmness - despite temperatures of almost 30 degrees already. An area of 300 meters around the location of the 250-kg-bomb had to be evacuated. The bypass B266 and the country road L 158 between Meckenheim and Rheinbach were temporarily closed.

uckily there was no residential area around the bomb location. Only the customers and staff of a building company and a DIY store had to leave the buildings nearby. At 12.15pm Daenecke climbed down into the excavation pit. Before he could remove the two detonators of the heavy US armament, he needed to clean the relic from the Second World War from all kinds of dirt.

The EOD expert can’t even count the number of disarmed bombs in his life: „Many, many“, he smiled. With a steady hand he first removed the back, than the top detonator. After disarming the priming charge too, his work was done. Around 12.50pm the fire brigade reopened the streets. Antoon Verschooten and Güler Fikret went home too. Original text: Dominik Pieper, Mario Quadt, Dieter Hombach, Hanjo Wimmeroth and Axel Vogel Translation: Mareike Graepel