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This Week in Unexploded WWII Bombs: Tel Aviv

IDF sappers defused what’s believed to be an Italian bomb

by
Adam Chandler
April 12, 2013
Sde Dov Airfield(Wikimedia)
Sde Dov Airfield(Wikimedia)

Last week there was news of an unexploded bomb found near Berlin’s main train station–one of several thousand active bombs believed to be buried underground in Germany–which caused delays for German commuters.

This week, today actually, what’s believed to be an Italian bomb that was dropped on the city of Tel Aviv during World War II was found near an airfield in northern Tel Aviv.

The bomb was likely dropped in an Italian airstrike on then British Mandate Tel Aviv in September 1940 which left 107 Jewish residents of the city dead. While most of the Regia Aeronautica’s bombing was focused on central Tel Aviv, near present-day Dizengoff Center, stray bombs could have landed as far north as the Sde Dov Airbase.

IDF sappers defused the bomb, but little else is known about the incident. In a related story: whoa.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.