Unexploded WW2 artillery shells found buried at Polish primary school

Workers carrying out renovation at a primary school in central Poland discovered dozens of unexploded artillery shells that appear to have been buried there since the Second World War. Army sappers were called in, and eventually discovered a total of 72 shells, which have now been safely removed.

“Many years have passed since the end of the war, but we still encounter its remnants in everyday life,” wrote police in Maków Mazowiecki, a town of 10,000 around 80 kilometres north of the Polish capital, Warsaw.

Poland saw intense fighting during the war, being invaded and divided up by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939 before later seeing those two occupiers turn against one another.

Poland also had Europe’s largest underground resistance force, the Home Army (AK), and its German-occupied territory was bombed by Allied aircraft.

The shells were discovered during digging work for heating pipes at the school. Construction was immediately halted and the police were contacted.

The school and surrounding area were then secured until the arrival of personnel from the 2nd Masovian Sapper Regiment based in nearby Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki.

The military personnel concluded that the site had been an “artillery nest” during the war. Details have not been released as to which country’s military may have used it.

The police note that historical ordinance is being found “more and more often” and they warn anyone who makes such a discovery not to attempt to move the munitions themselves. Despite the passage of time, such material can retain its explosive properties.

Last year, thousands of residents of Wrocław, Poland’s third largest city, were evacuated after a half-tonne bomb from World War Two was discovered on a housing estate during construction work. Another evacuation was ordered in the same city this year after an unexploded German bomb was found.

In February, an 11-year-old girl was hospitalised with serious injuries reportedly after her brother accidentally shot her with a World War Two rifle he had found in the forest.

Last year, the wreckage of an American World War Two bomber was located at the bottom of a lagoon in Poland. In 2020, sappers detonated a British 5.4-tonne bomb lying underwater near the Polish city of Świnoujście. It was the largest unexploded ordnance ever found in Poland.

Main image credit: KPP w Makowie Mazowieckim

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.