Glass mine 43
The glasmine 43 is a German anti-personnel mine from glass , in the Second World War was used.
background
The glass mine 43 was developed in order to limit the effectiveness of the improved mine detection devices with metal detectors with the least amount of metal and to be no longer detectable if possible. In this respect, it is comparable to more modern plastic refills. Glass splinters are difficult to see on X-rays and are therefore difficult to remove and pose a high risk of infection. So the victim suffered sustained, often life-threatening damage even with injuries that appeared minor on the outside.
While the first types still had a small amount of metal in the igniter (lever igniter 44), this was replaced by a chemical igniter in the following types. The mine housing was made entirely of glass and was similar in shape, size and weight to a flower pot (weight 1.2 kg, diameter 150 mm, height 105 mm). The glass lid broke under a load of around ten kilograms and triggered the detonator. When triggered, a firing pin struck a primer in the lever fuse 44. It ignited a booster charge that immediately detonated the actual explosive charge. Chemical detonators, on the other hand, consist of two liquids in separate glass flasks. These break when exposed to stress, the liquids coming together react explosively and ignite the screwed-on explosive charge (explosives 28, 200 g). Chemical detonators were also used, the reactants of which consisted of a liquid and a reactive powder. In this detonator, too, the combination of the substances led to an explosive reaction. The explosive charge was 200 g of TNT. The mines could not be safely transported and laid.
In the years 1944 and 1945 around eleven million mines of this type were produced; after the end of the war, around 9.7 million mines were still in stock. The production took place among others by the Gifhorn glassworks . Clearing glass mines is very time and material consuming. Glass mines have to be cleared either slowly by hand with a mine search needle or mechanically with a corresponding large-scale device such as the mine clearance tank " Keiler ", whereby it should be borne in mind that the "Keiler" has a corresponding error rate, as for tactical reasons it is mainly used to create mine lanes comes. There are mines of this type, for example, in the Eifel National Park on the site of the former Vogelsang military training area .
According to Colombian government sources, homemade mines of a similar construction were used by guerrillas in Colombia in 2004.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Glass mine (accessed on September 28, 2012)
- ↑ Effectiveness, structure and pictures of glass mines (English) ( Memento from January 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 11, 2012.
- ↑ Lever fuse 44 ( Memento of March 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 11, 2012.
- ↑ TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces , accessed June 11, 2012.
- ^ Dieter Wulf: On the edge of the Eifel National Park. April 5, 2009 in Deutschlandfunk , accessed on September 8, 2013.
- ↑ GMMI 43 anti-personnel mine , accessed on November 19, 2017.
