A controlled explosion off the coast of the island of Rügen in the Baltic in 2007 Photo: DPAo:

World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945. Nevertheless, over 60 years later, the threat from left over munitions continues and may be getting worse.  Last November, we posted about bombs along the Rhine, where a drought was revealing un-exploded ordinance in German river banks.  Then in December, roughly half of the population of the city of Koblentz, Germany, at the junction of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, was evacuated in order to defuse bombs exposed by falling river levels.  Last month we posted about two un-exploded WWII bombs found in the French Mediterranean port of Marseille, leading to the evacuation of 1,000 residents.

Over the weekend, two women, aged 39 and 77, walking the beach at a seaside resort in the north of the island of Usedom on the German Baltic coast, were seriously burned by pieces of World War II phosphorus that had washed ashore.  They were taken to a local hospital with second and third degree burns to their hands and legs.

The Baltic and the North Sea were used as dumping grounds for hundreds of thousands of tons of surplus munitions after the war.  With time, the threat to seaside communities, fishermen and shipping has grown worse. Rusted bombs, spread by currents, cover large areas of the sea floor and are expected to wash ashore in greater numbers.  Robert Zellermann, formerly in charge of bomb disposal in the northern German state of Lower Saxony says that around one-third of the Baltic seabed was now strewn with munitions.

Growing Peril for Beachgoers – Two Hurt by WWII Phosphorus on German Shoreline

The phosphorus that was washed ashore on the beach at Usedom may have come from incendiary bombs the Allies dropped on the nearby rocket research plant on the island at Peenemünde, where Nazi Germany developed the feared V2 rocket.

The clinic in the town of Wolgast, where the women were initially brought before being moved to Greifswald, said it treats two to three people per year for phosphorus burns.

Experts say bombs, poisonous chemicals and sudden explosions of rusting ordnance pose a major threat to the Baltic Sea. Figures for the number of victims from World War II munitions in the sea for the whole of Germany’s coastline aren’t available. In neighboring Denmark, which keeps records, some 20 people, most of them fishermen, are reportedly injured each year in explosions or through contact with chemicals.

Warning signs along beaches on Usedom alert people to the danger. Environmental groups and scientists have been warning that the bombs are gradually rusting away and releasing their chemicals into the water.