Evacuation in Koblenz on December 4th, 2011

The main reason for the large-scale evacuation in Koblenz: a British air mine of 1.8 tons of the HC 4,000 LB type with 1.5 tons of Torpex explosives

The evacuation in Koblenz 4 December 2011 took place because of defusing and blowing up of ordnance from the Second World War . About 45,000 residents of this Rhineland-Palatinate city were affected . It was the largest evacuation operation in Germany since the Second World War.

The main reason for the evacuation was a 1.8 ton British air mine that was found on November 20, 2011 in the Rhine near Pfaffendorf . In addition, a smaller American aerial bomb and a camouflage barrel were discovered. All three finds were successfully rendered harmless by the ordnance disposal service on the afternoon of the evacuation day.

A similarly expensive evacuation took place on May 24, 1999. Because of the defusing of a British air mine on the grounds of the University of Koblenz-Landau in Metternich , 15,000 people had to leave their homes.

Air raids in World War II

British air mine weighing 1.8 tons, exhibited in the Wehrtechnischen Studiensammlung Koblenz , the same type was found on November 20, 2011 in Koblenz in the Rhine

The air raids on Koblenz carried out by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II in 1944 and 1945 destroyed the city of Koblenz to 87%. One of the most devastating attacks was directed against the city center of Koblenz on November 6, 1944, rendering it practically uninhabitable. As a result, the historic cityscape of the capital of the Rhine province was lost forever. Two million cubic meters of rubble and rubble shaped the city center. From the Rhine you had an unobstructed view as far as Moselweiß . Of the previous 23,700 apartments, only 1,500 remained undamaged.

The aerial warfare on Koblenz claimed a total of 1016 dead and 2925 wounded. Of the 94,417 inhabitants (1943), around 9,000 were still living in the entire city at the end of the war. These people, who had to stay in the city for war reasons, lived for weeks in the large concrete bunkers in the city center. The rest of the Koblenz population was evacuated to Thuringia by the end of 1944 . The air raids on Koblenz ended in early 1945 when American troops approached the city from the Eifel .

Even decades after the end of the Second World War , duds were and are still being found in the city of Koblenz . These remnants of the heavy bombing can still explode, so they represent a considerable danger to the population. The ammunition is mostly hidden in the ground and - regardless of the targeted search based on suspicious aerial photos - is discovered by chance during construction work. Other duds can be found in the riverbed of the Rhine and Moselle. The ordnance disposal service is responsible for the subsequent defusing and securing of the bombs . This leads to extensive evacuations of the population. Not infrequently, several parts of the city have to be completely cleared.

Finds

A camouflage barrel was blown up in the Rhine near Pfaffendorf on November 20, 2011

Due to the low level of the Rhine in November 2011, munitions from the Second World War that had not yet been cleared came to light in the river. A first camouflage barrel , which was used to fog the Koblenz bridges to protect against air attacks, was found on November 19, 2011 in the Rhine near Pfaffendorf . It was blown up a day later by the ordnance disposal service.

Not far from the camouflage barrel on November 20, 2011, a walker found an air mine in the bank area that was 40 cm below the surface of the water. It was a British air mine of the type HC 4,000 LB with 1.5 tons of Torpex explosives. Their main task was to use the pressure wave of the explosion to cover the roofs of all houses within a radius of up to 1,000 meters and to destroy doors and windows. A second wave was followed by the dropping of stick incendiary bombs to set the houses on fire and create a firestorm . The air mine now found in Koblenz, equipped with three impact fuses, was still in good condition and fully functional. It is likely that the air mine originated from the devastating air raid on Koblenz on November 6, 1944.

During a helicopter inspection flight through the Middle Rhine Valley on November 24, 2011, additional ordnance was discovered. Not far from the findings so far, another camouflage barrel and an American aerial bomb weighing 125 kg came to light on Pfaffendorfer Ufer. These other finds had no effect on the size of the evacuation zone, but this meant more work for the ordnance disposal service.

On November 28, 2011, another camouflage barrel was found on the banks of the Moselle (Peter-Altmeier-Ufer) under the Europe Bridge. This could only be recovered on August 28, 2012.

Evacuation measures

Map of Koblenz with the evacuation zone

Roadblocks in the Koblenzer Neustadt

population

In order to defuse the munitions found, a large-scale evacuation of the population was ordered on December 4, 2011 within a 1,800 meter radius of the site of the air mine. To do this, 42% of Koblenz's citizens had to leave their homes. Around 45,000 people were affected in this, the largest evacuation measure in the history of Koblenz. In addition, the two hospitals, Evangelisches Stift St. Martin and Brüderhaus St. Josef , seven old people's homes, the correctional facility on the Karthauser, the main train station , the Koblenz-Mitte stop , several hotels and the Electoral Palace had to be cleared. The chosen evacuation radius was justified by the fact that the pressure wave in the event of a possible explosion of the air mine can still shatter windows at a distance of 1,400 meters and the fragmentation throw can reach up to 1,800 meters.

The evacuation of the correctional facility began on December 2, 2011. The 200 prisoners were distributed to prisons across the country, which posed a major logistical challenge. On the same day, the evacuation of the two hospitals and the old people's homes began. The approximately 180 patients and 350 residents were distributed to facilities in the surrounding area. Non-urgent operations had to be postponed. Around 130 people in need of care had to be picked up from private households. A total of 45 ambulances and 117 ambulances were in use.

The residents had to leave the evacuation zone by 9 a.m. on December 4, 2011. As part of civil-military cooperation , the German Armed Forces provided seven loudspeaker vehicles including personnel to wake up the population and ask them to leave the evacuation zone. In the event of an explosion, additional rescue workers from the fire brigade were on hand in the Deines-Bruchmüller barracks in Lahnstein. There were emergency shelters available in seven schools in Koblenz, Vallendar and Lahnstein that were approached by evacuation buses from the affected districts. The entire evacuation zone was then checked by employees of the public order office and the fire brigade to see whether all residents had left their homes. A police helicopter with a thermal imaging camera supported the measure. The residents have left their homes without any problems, it had only four doors from Locksmiths be opened to the people to force them to leave. Therefore, the defusing could start relatively early around 1:37 p.m., the plan was for 3 p.m.

Most residents returned to their homes in the evening after the evacuation zone was cleared. This also applied to the patients in the two hospitals and the residents of the old people's homes. Only the patients in the intensive care units were not moved back until the following day.

Around 2,500 emergency services from all over Rhineland-Palatinate under the leadership of the Koblenz fire brigade and the public order office were available to cope with the evacuation, including 700 fire fighters, 400 police officers, over 400 helpers from the medical service, 100 employees from the public order office and 400 helpers from the technical relief organization .

Blocking of traffic routes

The important supra-regional traffic routes were completely closed to incoming traffic on the day of the evacuation before the city gates. These were the connecting roads B 9 and B 42 , which are important in the north-south direction, and the B 327 leading into the Hunsrück . The two Rhine bridges Pfaffendorfer Bridge and Südbrücke as well as the Rhine shipping route were closed . The two important railway lines on the right and left of the Rhine were also affected. They were kept open until 12:41 p.m., but without trains stopping in Koblenz, in order to keep the disabilities caused nationwide as low as possible.

After the end of the evacuation, normality quickly returned to the closed traffic routes.

Defusing / detonating

Horst Lenz, technical director of the Rhineland-Palatinate ordnance disposal service, checks the impact fuses of the air mine on the day before defusing.

The ordnance disposal service works on the day of the evacuation to defuse the British air mine and the American aerial bomb (seen from the Rittersturz viewpoint ).

In order to be able to defuse the air mine in the Rhine at all , the Bingen Waterways and Shipping Office built a so-called cofferdam around the bomb with around 350 large sandbags . The water was pumped out of the basin, giving dry access to the detonators. However, the defusing of the smaller American aerial bomb was more dangerous than that of the large air mine, as its condition was bad due to severe deformation.

Horst Lenz, technical director of the Rhineland-Palatinate ordnance disposal service, carried out the defuses with a team of ten experts. The first thing to do was to defuse the American bomb, while a second team was working on the British air mine. The detonation of the camouflage barrel followed last. The American bomb was pulled out of the Rhine with a rope. On land, the detonator was cleaned and then removed. During the defusing of the air mine, the experts from the ordnance disposal service went to safety behind a house when it came to detaching the detonators with the help of a cable . In the event of an explosion, the men would have had a 75 percent chance of survival. Both duds could be defused successfully and without problems, now the poisonous camouflage barrel was blown up. After the fire brigade had carried out air measurements that were inconclusive, the evacuation could be lifted.

After defusing, the two duds were heaved onto a ship and loaded onto a truck in the Rhine port of Koblenz . Then they were taken to the central interim storage facility for found ammunition.

Contingency plan

The city of Koblenz had an emergency plan in place in the event of an air mine explosion. All buildings within a radius of 30 meters would have been completely destroyed. Houses further away would have got away with less damage if the roofs were covered or the windows were broken. In this case, the schools provided for the evacuees would have been available as emergency shelters for the residents who had become homeless. The city had its snow plows on hold to clear the debris. Experts to check the bridges statically and to restore the electricity and water supplies were also available.

costs

At a press conference on December 5, 2011, Lord Mayor Joachim Hofmann-Göttig put the cost of the evacuation for the city of Koblenz at just under 200,000 euros. The actual total costs are much higher, however. The Mittelrhein Foundation Clinic alone put its costs at around one million euros, 200,000 euros for the evacuation and 800,000 euros in lost sales. The rescue services, which were involved with 350 vehicles from all over Rhineland-Palatinate to evacuate the seven old people's homes and two hospitals, are assuming half a million euros for their services.

The Bingen Waterways and Shipping Authority estimates that the construction of the dam and the draining of the air mine will cost 275,000 euros. These are taken over by the federal government, since the Rhine is a federal waterway .

The city council of Koblenz is providing 1.2 million euros in a supplementary budget for the evacuation. But what will ultimately be spent is still open. The city council first wants to examine claims for damages, for example those of the Mittelrhein Foundation Clinic. So far only 80,000 euros have been paid for the work of locksmiths, bus companies and for the catering of the emergency services. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate will cover the costs of the ordnance disposal service.

According to the city of Koblenz one year after the evacuation, the total costs can be charged to the federal government in a similar case after a court ruling.

chronology

November 19, 2011: A camouflage barrel was found on the banks of the Rhine near Pfaffendorf
November 20, 2011: Evacuation of 1,500 residents in Pfaffendorf and the opposite bank of the Rhine, detonation of the camouflage barrel at 4:05 p.m.
November 20, 2011: A British air mine weighing 1.8 tons was found on the banks of the Rhine near Pfaffendorf
November 24, 2011: Finding of an American aerial bomb weighing 125 kg and another camouflage barrel on the banks of the Rhine near Pfaffendorf
November 28, 2011: A third camouflage barrel was found on the banks of the Moselle under the Europabrücke
December 4, 2011: Evacuation of around 45,000 residents in Koblenz, half of the city closed
- 06:30 a.m .: Opening of the emergency accommodation and start of the evacuation with the evacuation buses
- 07:00 a.m .: Start of loudspeaker announcements in the evacuation zone
- 08:00 a.m .: Closure of the Koblenz main train station and the Stadtmitte stop
- 09:00 am: Closure of the evacuation zone
- 09:00 a.m .: the public order office and fire brigade begin to control the evacuation zone
- 12:41 p.m.: All railway lines are closed
- 1:21 p.m.: After the controls have been completed, the authorities give the ordnance disposal service the signal to start defusing
- 1:37 p.m .: The ordnance disposal service begins defusing
- 3:48 p.m.: British air mine and American bomb are defused
- 4:26 p.m .: The second camouflage barrel was blown
- 4:32 p.m .: cancellation of the evacuation
August 28, 2012: Recovery of the third camouflage barrel on the banks of the Moselle under the Europabrücke