Almost every day, they risk their lives while removing postwar remnants across eight counties of Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Last year, the Bolesławiec sappers from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Patrol No. 23, commanded by Senior Warrant Officer Radosław Mazur, Radosław Mazur, responded almost 200 times to unexploded bombs, shells and other dangerous finds.
Sapper
During these operations, 1,447 explosive items were neutralized, including: 8 aerial bombs, 65 mortar shells, 268 artillery shells, 35 rockets, 13 mines, 25 hand grenades, 48 grenade-launcher rounds and 995 other dangerous items, including 60 kg of explosives and 30 kg of gunpowder. While carrying out these tasks, the patrol's vehicles travelled more than 30,000 kilometres.
During the patrol's interventions last year, several caches of artillery and rocket ammunition were discovered, for example in woodland near Toporów in Zgorzelec County, where 116 artillery shells were neutralized, and in the Bóbr River in Kraszowice in Bolesławiec County. During the operation, which ended with 28 rockets being recovered from the riverbed, the patrol was supported by mine-clearance divers from the 41st Mine-Clearance Divers Group of the 12th Minesweeper Squadron from Świnoujście.
In addition to removing unexploded ordnance, the patrol conducted preventive activities concerning the dangers posed by explosive items and the rules to follow after finding one.
As Patrol Commander Warrant Officer Mazur emphasizes, organizing training sessions, activities with young people and participation in emergency and crisis-response service exercises in the area covered by the patrol's operations are intended to make the public aware that, although so many years have passed since the Second World War, unexploded bombs and shells still pose a serious threat to people's lives and health.
Let us be careful when encountering such a find, remembering that “rusty death is still dangerous.”