Wars pass but the bombs remain.
At the beginning of this month, a resident of Castellbisbal who was doing work at home had two hand grenades fall from a false ceiling. In the hole were ten more grenades.
Hidden on beaches, open fields, forests, rivers or in false ceilings, the old wars are still there: in the last twelve years, the Tedax area of the Mossos has located and deactivated in Catalan territory 8,250 unexploded war devices from the War of Succession, the Napoleonic invasion, the Carlist wars or the Civil War.
Projectiles, aviation bombs, bombardments or unexploded hand grenades that tell us about stories beyond metal. Those of the Civil War – fought with bombs from two conflicts in which Spain did not officially fight – show us how the Republicans bought where they could and snuck surpluses from the First World War, or the new bombs that the Germans and Italians experimented on us: those that would be unleashed on Europe in World War II.
Most of these artifacts are from the Civil War. It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of the bombs dropped in this conflict – which continues to mark us – did not explode. And many are still there, waiting with the humans who pass through time. The Castellbisbal house was the headquarters of the Women's Section and the Youth Front: little did the Falangists imagine that there were twelve republican grenades above them.
These artifacts are memory and heritage, although the vast majority end up being detonated in a controlled manner. Each detonation is like an impact of history, as if the dead wars continued to breathe throughout Catalonia: in the last twelve years there is only one region - Lluçanès - where no unexploded artifact has been found.
A sometimes bloody impact of history: some irresponsible collectors of old bombs have exploded on them, causing serious injuries and amputations.
The historical artifacts neutralized by Tedax – the oldest specialty of the Mossos: it was created in 1980 when President Tarradellas asked the Ministry of the Interior to instruct the Mossos in deactivation – have been appearing in the most unexpected places.
Like the monastery of Santa Teresa de Vic: anarchist explosive material from the Civil War found in 2017 when carrying out renovations in the cells of nuns with a vow of silence. Or the Sallent rectory: 445 FAI hand grenades and two thousand cartridges also appeared in 2017 behind a false wall.
In the construction of a municipal swimming pool in Roses in 2004: an artillery artifact from the 16th or 17th century. Or in the waters of the Ebro: 436 explosive devices from the Civil War found in 2015, including bombs dropped by German and Italian aviation. “We have the photographs of that bombing,” explains Corporal Miquel, who documents each discovery.
“It is the first bomb with a double fuze and an electric detonator,” says Sergeant Gustau, removing a fuze from an SD250, a large German bomb deactivated and displayed in the Tedax training room in the Mossos central services, in Sabadell.
“The Italians threw them on Eixample,” he adds. And it is the bomb that in an Italian town ends up killing the Indian lieutenant of the British army in the film The English Patient.
The place where the Mossos found this megabomb already makes it clear that the explosive trace of old wars appears where you least expect it: underground when they were building the Mossos police station in Cerdanyola del Vallès.
