[kellyhound]

Marocco, An old vehicle transporting goods, east of the city of Laayoune exploded when the owner tossed a 105MM shell into the back of his truck.

Official sources confirmed that the explosives squad of the military garrison in Laayoune arrived at the scene of the incident and found two 105mm war shells.

The same sources added that “the victim (S.H.) died immediately after the explosion of the explosive device, while his son (Z.H.) was quickly transferred to the recovery department of the Hassan bin al-Mahdi Regional Hospital in order to receive first aid.

The victim was working in the field of selling used car parts and in the trade of hard disks.

In the same context, the security services and public authorities closed the area in order to search and comb the location of the incident and the location of the disappearances by specialists in such incidents, and to open an in-depth investigation into the circumstances of this explosion.

It is worth noting that the victim of the accident had a previous shop in the middle of the market, which is known for its overcrowding during peak periods, which the public authorities closed for the safety of citizens.

[HIGHTECHDUDE]

Nice vanishing act... do it again.

[realsalvador]

Abrakadabra! Now you see it, now you don't

[Trucked up]

Should've had HANDLE WITH CARE on it. Truck still looks drivable, wherever the fuel tank is it didn't explode.

[docfr8]

Good shit.. that unexploded ordinance would have ended up as an IED somewhere

[Mr.NoCredit]

Originally Posted by docfr8 ↗

Good shit.. that unexploded ordinance would have ended up as an IED somewhere

It did. Sadly it wasn’t people that deserved to get blown up…

[Mr.NoCredit]

KA~Boom!!!

[DanteAntonelli]

Tossing a live shell like you would shake a Nitroglycerine vial.

[kbt3168]

105MM shell is a howitzer load.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M101_howitzer#History

[William May]

I used to be very interested in the Afrika Korps, the military unit lead by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, during WWII. I read a bunch of books about the desert war in North Africa in WWII. I always wanted to go there and retrace the battle scenes and see what they look like now.

Silly me!!

The Germans lost, so never removed any of THEIR old ordnance left behind. By the end of WWII, the Egyptians were very hostile to the British, who soon pulled out, and THEY stopped all their efforts at demilitarizing the old battlefields. The U.S. never had any position in North Africa, and when Patton was done there, all the U.S. troops moved to Italy to fight there, so, again, there was no organized removal of WWII armaments.

Both the British and the Germans left HUGE areas of mine fields scattered everywhere there was fighting, or even possible fighting, in North Africa, in WWII.

During the 1960's and 1970's, Japanese car manufacturers bought all the old tanks and other military equipment that had been left there by the Germans, or abandoned by the British, but they never did any cleaning of mine fields. Their interest was in the high-quality steel the Germans left behind in the form of damaged tanks, trucks, and artillery pieces.

I found out about 10 years ago, when I was going to take a trip to North Africa to visit these places, that such visits are NOT RECOMMENDED! I saw one estimate that said that since WWII ended, over 12,000 farmers and land workers have been killed across North Africa, from Tunisia to Egypt, by walking across or trying to till land in former mine fields.

The Germans started sending teams to North Africa in the middle 2005's to start demining operations, and have been doing it since, but it's on a small scale. The British have also started sending small teams to do the same with their old mine fields. It's been proceeding slowly, but has recently gotten more urgent, when the British got the news that ISIS personnel were locating and harvesting German and British mine fields for the explosives, since they are still in perfect condition, and removing mines, safetying them, and then removing the explosive charges is very simple work, easy to do, and carries little risk because the mines are in as nice shape as they were the day they were laid by the Germans and the British.

So I assume these guys came across a cache of old artillery shells from WWII, and were just scrapping them. (Brass is VERY expensive right now, at about $8-$10 per lb. (I was going to stop at a brass supplier for my casting needs, and buy brass casting ingots, at a cost of $.89 cents a lb. if I bought 1000 lbs in ingots, at a place in Chicago, with my mom's U-Haul truck that I rented to move all her stuff down to Tucson in 1994. There was plenty of room in the truck, as she rented a HUGE truck, and we only filled half of it with her stuff. SILLY ME again that I didn't do it, because now that would be about $8.95 per lb.

Since all the easy WWII scrap has been gone in North Africa for years, these guys must have been digging to find the last pieces remaining, and wound up with a load of live ammunition.

I have long since canceled any plans to visit Afrika Korps battle sites, even though I have stupendously good British maps from the war, covering all the moves made by the British and the Germans. The Germans made good maps, but in defeat, a lot of the records were lost. The British made EXCELLENT maps. But a schmoe like me doesn't want to walk around in those areas.

So, another thing in my life that will probably never happen, just like dating Brooke Shields, or winning a night with Ali McGraw in a drunken bar bet.

Oh well. At least I kept all my fingers and toes intact.