Yes there has been many unnecessary injuries and deaths do to handling UXO of HE HEAT ordnance and sim natures.
Recently at Singleton, some Diggers found a 66mm HEAT rocket from an M72A6. It rsted on the dash of the Land Rover, and they made it as far as Rge Con, when the driver got out and slammed the door, the rocket blew up, with 2 or 3 blokes in the 110. Lucky no one was killed, but there were some serious injuries.
I too remember when a WO ( who shall remain nameless) RCA type, after working to clear the range found a 84mm HEAT UXO, and chucked into the back of the old 1974 Ptrn jeeps, and made it back to the shacks. For over a week, he used that UXO as a door stop, till someone finally noticed it was not blue, but was black with a bit of red writing on it.... That was one red faced WO!
Another time in regina in about 1962, the RRR had a recruitng display set up in the local fairgrounds.
They did a demo on the old m20A1 3.5in rocket launcher.
Little did they know the rocket indeed was blue, but the engine was OD. Infact they had loadwed a TPT, and it was live. The launcher fired, One Asian bloke who was looking down the muzzle was killed instantly, and others in the BBDA were injured.
The rocket went thru two walls, then penetrated another bldg, and wedged itself in a fridge.
How a TPT or ‘sand bomb‘ as they were know ever got mixed up with dummy ammo, I dont know, but I assure you there would have been a big investigation even by 1960s standards.
I too remember too when back sometime in the mid 70s, during a grenade lecture a group of RCACC cadets were killed when a supposedly dummy grenade went off during a lesson indoors.
Wierd as it seems the person holding the frag, lost his arm, and other in the circle were killed, but most survived.
I do not know what type of grenade it was, but back at my militia unit in the mid 70‘s there was heaps of N0.36 ‘mills bombs‘ in abundance, painted as dummy.
Goes to show you that complaicantcy kills.
Cheers,
Wes
