A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 20

This is the third year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Today’s story: This 1.8-Ton WW2 Bomb Could Have Destroyed a German City:

45,000 people had to be evacuated after two extremely dangerous bombs were found in the Rhine River, 65 years after they were dropped by British and American planes.

The biggest was a British 1.8-ton bomb that had the potential to destroy the entire city center, according to the fire department of Koblenz, the German town were the devices were located. The bombs had remained unperturbed in the Rhine River for decades. This metal beast was found completely intact and ready to go when the water level dropped to an all-time low this year.

But the most dangerous was the American 275-pound high-explosive bomb. While the British shell was in good condition and its deactivation was relatively straightforward, the compact bomb was extremely difficult to deactivate. The impact had made it highly unstable.

The bomb experts destroyed a third device too, but this one was only annoying: a fog generator dropped by Allied airplanes to make hard for anti-aircraft battery operators to hit bombers.

What a great excuse for some nefarious thieving types to evacuate an entire city. Just think of all those empty banks, businesses, houses. So a ruse perhaps.

Or is there a thriller to be had here? The life of some German city, decades removed from war, thrown up into the air by some recently discovered bombs that could go off with the slightest noise or vibration.

Or extract the conceit and move it to the U.S.: Some perfect little suburb wakes up one morning with emails and texts sent to all its citizens. Nobody get in their cars. Nobody leave. We have the entire city rigged with bombs. Somebody doesn’t believe them. Starts car engine. Kaboom!

Are there really bombs everywhere or just an attempt to foment civil unrest based on paranoia? Who are the bombers? What are their goals?

What would you do with this story idea?

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