I'll admit that World War II gear is one thing I know close to nothing about. Are there any armchair military experts out there who want to chime in here and help identify these bombs found Mountain View?

Two small points, Mark:

1. It wasn't a "mortar" discovered on Calderon Ave., but a mortar shell. (A mortar is the tube that launches the shell, and would not itself normally pose a hazard.)

2. I remember wondering if the Voice woukd pick up this story -- given that your editorial office moved out of downtown Mountain View a few years ago. Because if the office were still here downtown, all of you would certainly have heard the deep BOOM of the detonation, and would not be reliant on other sources to know Something was Up!

This happened the day before the most recent one, on July 8th in Union City.

Web Link

Interesting, but it's soon after the 4th with loud bangs on peoples' minds, and there were news reports on Channels 11 and 5 at least about the Union City case. Someone could have been reminded about some item in the garage.

A response to your comment Mark.I have a hunch that the mortar shell that was found could be a M-69 or M-43A1/2. These were both used with the M2 mortar in WW2. The shape of the body and tail fins are slightly different than either of these shells so it could be something else entirely, but that is what I think this dangerous piece of history was.