My father, who was in the Royal Engineers at the end of WWII and for a few years after, was always worried about the "tons" of mustard gas and explosives that he and his colleagues were ordered to dump into the Irish Sea. He told me that some of the explosives were so unstable that they "sweated" nitroglycerine, and they used to run their finger down the sides of the explosives and flick it at each other to make small bangs. Bear in mind that although they had explosives training they were basically kids.
He also mentioned that the seas were often so rough that they did "dump and run" as soon as they were out of sight of land. It was supposed to go into the deepest sections of the Irish Sea, but he claims a lot of it was closer to Scotland.
It was the mustard gas, and other nasties that he wouldn't talk about, that worried him right up until he passed away in his eighties. They knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but at that time you followed orders and did as little as possible until you got demobbed.
My gradma digged trenches and stacked bodies, at the age of 14 or 15. Modern day guies don't do that, or something similar. War time is dramatical different.
I'm not so sure. I can remember the feeling I got when the news during the Iraq war showed a couple of kids laughing like it was a big joke and listening to Metallica as they shelled Fallujah. In the US 40% of active duty members are less than 25 according. Humans have a long history of getting their young ones to do their dirty work.
http://www.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2011_Demo...
Right now there are thousands of child soldiers around the world doing things much worse than digging trenches. There are also a number of armed conflicts that are currently ongoing (although they aren't anywhere near the scale of something like WWII).
Well, no. They're not just dumping anything over the side - they're using a mobile chemical reactor called the Field-Deployable Hydrolysis System to break the chemical weapons agents down into far less nasty, but still quite toxic, waste. Which isn't being dumped over the side, either.
My dad worked out of Stranraer at that time, the dumping area was called Beaufort's Dyke. If you search for the name there are all sorts of interesting documents, especially if you get the PDFs.
I heard similar stories from him, including one where a some of the 'goods' ignited whilst still on the barge and a couple of very brave men dumped the burning cases to sage the barge. Likewise, there are things he didn't talk about too.
He also mentioned that the seas were often so rough that they did "dump and run" as soon as they were out of sight of land. It was supposed to go into the deepest sections of the Irish Sea, but he claims a lot of it was closer to Scotland.
It was the mustard gas, and other nasties that he wouldn't talk about, that worried him right up until he passed away in his eighties. They knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but at that time you followed orders and did as little as possible until you got demobbed.