[gr4yb34rd]

what happens if they send germany the bill for damages?

[Eduard]

Then Germany sends back their own bills?

Cologne has a found WW2 bomb every other week or so, e.g. look at this non-exhaustive press release list: https://www.stadt-koeln.de/basisdienste/suche/?keywords=Bomb...

Most can be disarmed, but some have to be exploded in a controlled manner.

Nowadays I get pushed safety notifications to my phone (KATWARN app) wherever I am in Germany that they found a WW2 bomb nearby.

The app then shows the location and evacuation information.

[ben_bai]

Exactly, we (germany) find lots of old WW2 bombs and smaller ordinances on our own terrain per year.

"Controlled" detonation of old bomb in Munich 10 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrFydaWOTpI

[jchw]

You know, I think there might be a reason in particular why Germany would be responsible for WW2 era bombs in England and not vice versa...

(Not entirely serious here, but still.)

[boomboomsubban]

Yeah, let's levy all sorts of punitive measures on them. After all, they were responsible and they lost! Nothing bad could happen from that approach.

[jchw]

Well, other than the fact that it's too late now, that does actually sound like what happens after you lose a war, regardless of who's responsible.

[samus]

The issue is settled now. Germany paid huge war reparations after WWII until the 1990s.

Apart from that, many of these explosives are malfunctioning bombs that were supposed to go off when firefighters and rescue personell are at the site. Such devices are pure malice; the defense argument can't justify them.

[kayodelycaon]

Yeah, but doing that caused a second world war. Hopefully we learned something from that mistake.

[Retric]

It’s a popular theory that caused WWII, but it’s likely WWII would have happened either way. At a minimum Japan wasn’t impacted.

[ssnistfajen]

You can't randomly levy all sorts of minor nuisance onto somebody after they've conceded and signed a bunch of treaties largely drafted by the winning side meant to settle this. That's just a great way to self-sabotage your diplomatic reputation.

[jchw]

> signed a bunch of treaties largely drafted by the winning side

That's what I was referring to. That's why it's too late now.

Wasn't that complicated, but sometimes people on HN read what they want to read.

[kataklasm]

That's what the winning nations in WWI did and it was one of the single biggest reasons for WWII happening.

[dahdum]

> Then Germany sends back their own bills?

That's a bit like Russia sending Ukraine bills for destroyed military equipment.

[suddenclarity]

Not really considering Britain and its allies declared war on Germany. You can argue they did it for the greater good but it's not like your example.

[snickerbockers]

That probably will happen if the ruskies win.

[hutzlibu]

There is an argument, of who started it.

But there is (or rather was) an greater argument, of not wasting anymore time, with historic fights over and over again and rather move on and look forward.

All the great conflicts are getting solved that way and not with bean counting.

[simonh]

Do you think a former colonial power really wants to go down that road?

[boomboomsubban]

Unless you want it sent in the Compiègne Wagon, they send all their bomb disarmament bills back to the UK and they have far more of them.