WEBVTT 

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My name is Thomas Bleicher. I’m head of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit in Lower Saxony.

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The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit in Lower Saxony is responsible for the entire spectrum
of ordnance from the First and Second World Wars.

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And it disposes properly of discovered ordnance by recovering, defusing, and if necessary
detonating devices, as well as removing and transporting them to thermal destruction facilities.

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Very often the sequence of events during an operation is very similar. Either the police or a
commercial ordnance disposal company contacts us to say explosive ordnance has been found.

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We then drive to the given location with our technical equipment and usually take the Unimog too.
At the site of the find we are mostly confronted with the following situation:

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The area where the explosive device has been found is cordoned off.
It is a secured trench with a safety railing so that no one can fall into it.

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And once the bomb disposal expert has got an idea of the situation,
the explosives are freed from the remaining earth.
After that the detonating system is identified and assessed.

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The bomb disposal expert then decides the next steps; whether it will be defused mechanically
or by detonation.

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Today, we were able to defuse the explosive device mechanically.
And after it had been defused in the trench it was removed by a digger and the Unimog.

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It was then loaded onto a truck to be disposed of.

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We have had the Unimog since the end of 2020 and it is a U 523.
Regarding the special equipment, we have a digger implement. The cab is air conditioned and is reinforced with 

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bullet-proof glass and additional steel plates in the footwell to protect against flying splinters.
All the work operations carried out by the digger operator are monitored by a camera system which helps him also

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by showing the work area in the trench. The Unimog also has a tyre pressure
control system for the off-road terrain over which it is often driven.

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We made a conscious decision to choose an extreme off-road model so that we
could access any site throughout the state of Lower Saxony.

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For the U 523 we fell back on the highly successful Unimog technology.
It is our third generation of Unimog. Our vehicles are in operation for between 15 and 20 years.

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And even in very difficult terrain they are very helpful, that’s also why we chose these extreme off-road chassis.

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Another reason for choosing the Unimog was the state-wide service network.
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit travels all over the state of Lower Saxony.

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And it is not only the proximity to Peter Meineke, the Unimog general distributor, 
here in Dorfmark that helps us during our operations 365 days a year, but the well-developed service network too.

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There is always a chance that we could have a technical breakdown
and help is at hand very quickly to carry out repairs.