Japanese troops defused this U.S.-made bomb believed to be from World War II after removing it from a historical site in Naha city, Okinawa, on July 6, 2025. A bomb from the same era was discovered near a U.S. Army installation in western Germany. (Naha city, Okinawa)
A World War II bomb discovered near a U.S. Army installation in western Germany forced evacuations, road closures and access restrictions Wednesday, underscoring the lingering dangers of unexploded ordnance in Europe more than 80 years after the war.
The American aerial bomb, weighing over 1,000 pounds, was found Tuesday during road construction work near Clay Kaserne in the Erbenheim district of Wiesbaden, the city said in a statement.
The bomb was discovered near Luftbrückenstrasse, the road that leads to Clay Kaserne’s main gate.
German explosive ordnance technicians scheduled a controlled defusal for late Wednesday morning. Authorities ordered an evacuation within a roughly 750-yard radius by 9 a.m., affecting dozens of residents.
Roads, field paths and rail lines inside the zone were shut down, including sections of the autobahn A66, the B455 federal highway and the Wiesbaden-Cologne rail line.
“There is no emergency,” the statement said, adding that the bomb “has been secured and is under guard.”
The discovery disrupted operations at U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden, based at Clay Kaserne, where access was heavily restricted during the disposal operation.
The installation’s main gate was closed to all traffic during that period, with only inbound access permitted through an alternate gate and no outbound traffic allowed.
Base shuttle services were paused, and military police were on site to enforce safety measures, the garrison said in a community notice posted on social media.
Emergency services secured the site and maintained a perimeter while the operation was underway.
Unexploded bombs from World War II are still regularly discovered in Germany, where construction and infrastructure projects sometimes lead to evacuations and controlled detonations, especially in urban and former military areas.
In March 2026, about 18,000 residents and tourists were evacuated in Dresden after workers rebuilding a collapsed bridge discovered a 500-pound British bomb near the Elbe River. Authorities called it one of the city’s largest evacuation operations.
In January, a 1,000-pound World War II-era U.S. bomb was safely defused in the Stadtwald area of Kaiserslautern. The city forms the core of the Kaiserslautern Military Community, the Pentagon’s largest outside the United States.