Warbird Information Exchange

The World Today
Reporter: Jane Cowan

ELEANOR HALL: Explosives experts were dispatched to a suburban home, in Melbourne, this morning when a couple discovered they'd bought more than they bargained for at auction.The couple had bid on a box of tools, but ended up bringing home a World War II grenade as well. it's an experience they say they are not keen to repeat, but experts say it happens frequently, thanks to the souveniring habit of Australian soldiers.

In Melbourne, Jane Cowan reports.

JANE COWAN: When Peter Todd made a $10 bid at an antiques auction, he thought he was getting a great deal on a box of woodworking tools.

PETER TOOD: When we got the box home last night and started to empty it, we found what looked like a grenade in the bottom of the box. And once we found that obviously we walked away from it fairly rapidly and rang the police.

JANE COWAN: Peter and his wife had to evacuate the house overnight while they waited for explosives experts.

The discovery was made even more nerve-wracking by the knowledge that the box hadn't been handled with particular care.

PETER TODD: Well It was brought home in the boot of the wife's car and we actually dropped it on the driveway when we got it out the back of the car cause it's so heavy.

It's a bit scary to find something like that.

JANE COWAN: Major Danny Rowe is from the Army's Bomb Response Group.

DANNY ROWE: It turned out to be an Italian Breder (phonetic) grenade, that's a World War II grenade used by the Italian army.

JANE COWAN: How common is this sort of thing?

DANNY ROWE: We do a job about ever second day, last calendar year, we did 175 jobs and we picked up about 400,000 items.

JANE COWAN: How many of those turn out to be dangerous?

DANNY ROWE: About 10 per cent of them turn out to be live. So it is quite a significant amount of explosive ordinances out there.

JANE COWAN: And that's where Curator Mike Etzel comes in, he specialises in ordinance and munitions at the Australian War Memorial.

He says the grenade most likely came from North Africa.

MIKE ETZEL: Brought back by an Australian soldier as a souvenir, deactivated over in North Africa before it came into this country and they sort of pop up, from my experience about once every 12-18 months from either a deceased estate or occasionally from a firing range.

JANE COWAN: So that was pretty common for soldiers to bring home souvenirs with them?

MIKE ETZEL: It was common.

It wasn't an official policy, however, Australian soldiers have always been noted for being the sort of people who collect items of memorabilia or souvenirs from battlefields.

JANE COWAN: Do these sort of things have much historical significance?

MIKE ETZEL: Some do, because sometimes they were liberated by Australians who saw combat service in North Africa and have made a name for themselves.

Other times they've been collected by souvenir hunters overseas and just brought back.

Some have got financial value, others have got historical value, so theirs a bit of both involved.

JANE COWAN: The grenade turned out to be totally inert with no explosive filling. But for Peter Todd, his antiquing hobby will never be quite the same.

PETER TODD: We'll certainly look in boxes now (laughs). We will not be buying anything sight unseen anymore I don't think.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's Melbourne man Peter Todd ending that report from Jane Cowan in Melbourne

Where is the story here? It was inert just as it was supposed to be. I have a few items like this in my collection too.

We've got a woman over north of Dallas that is going though the same thing right now, but with an untold number of live grenades poping up in her yard. ATF and bomb squad guys are going over her place foot by foot for the next couple of days trying to see if they can find any more ordinance before she starts moving dirt for some construction.

The story is that if you have Australians around almost anything will be souvineered !!! (Only kidding)

My kind of people!

Years ago, when I was in the USAF, we used to find old ordnance in the base housing units fairly frequently.

Vets would bring it back, tuck it away someplace safe, and forget about it. Years later, the current occupants would discover it. Stuff from WW1 thru Vietnam.

Most interesting was an M3 greasegun, in great condition, with WW2 gear. Sad to see it destroyed by a cutting torch.

BTW, if you collect such items, just because it's in a surplus store, painted blue and has "INERT" painted on it, doesn't mean it is. Just my experience with a 81mm mortar shell.