CHIAfE+VRES AIR BASE, Belgium-As construction crews work to enhance the future of ChiAfA..vres Air Base with a new commissary, the community was reminded of the installation's past Sept. 9. While trenching behind the building to install new light poles, a contractor unearthed a German WWII training bomb.
During the Second World War, the air base was used by the German Air Force to launch attacks against Allied forces. According to Herman Mattheus, of the Belgian Explosive Ordnance Detachment, the 50 kilogram bomb found on site was used by the Germans during the war for training.
He said it was filled with an acid, and when dropped from the plane, it would emit a smoke so the Germans could see if they hit their target.
When the contractor unearthed the bomb, the Army Corps of Engineers contacted the ChiAfA..vres Military Police who, with the USAG Benelux Directorate of Emergency Services, immediately evacuated the main PX.
A curious crowd gathered around the perimeter, as military police secured the area and nearby roads. Mattheus, David Forier and Daniel Schun, all of the Belgian EOD, arrived around 11:30 a.m. Jeffrey Durieux and Laurent Verschueren, from the SHAPE Federal Police, were also on site.
The men, wearing no protective gear, walked out to the bomb and analyzed the situation. In less than five minutes, they reported back to the MPs that the community wasn't in any danger.
They returned to the scene, surveyed the area and Mattheus and Forier simply lifted the bomb onto a cloth and placed it in a metal box in their vehicle. In addition to the bomb, the team found scraps of metal that Mattheus said belonged to the fuselage of a plane's tail section.
The PX reopened around noon.
The history of ChiAfA..vres Air Base dates back to WWI, and this isn't the first time that war artifacts have been found on the installation.
According to Dennis Mayer, construction inspector technician for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a contractor found a WWII 50-calibur machine gun and another gun earlier this year during the build-up of the Alliance Home Station Training Area.
In 2006, German WWI munitions were found near what is now the Attre Housing Area. The Belgian EOD removed 350 to 400 tons of artillery and mortar rounds across a 600-square-meter area that year.
The Germans first occupied ChiAfA..vres Air Base during WWI. After the Armistice was signed, the Belgians turned the base back into agricultural land. The Germans reoccupied the airfield in 1939, until it evacuated the base 65 years ago this month.
On Oct. 1, 1944 the base was operational again, this time under the command of Allied forces. And in 1967, it was officially given to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and operated by the U.S.
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