landmine
A landmine is an explosive weapon that, once deployed, directs its action against the person or object that triggers it, such as approaching or stepping on it. In addition to land mines, there are also sea mines . Land mines are industrially manufactured, while booby traps are improvised. The Model 1970 (SM-70) fragmentation mine deployed on the former inner-German border is better known as the Selbstschussanlage . Land mines are ethically controversial because they appear indiscriminate and can pose a danger to the population for a long time after a conflict. On March 1, 1999, the Ottawa Convention outlawinganti-personnel mines in force.
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Humans originally developed trapping for hunting. The military use of traps also goes back a long way. The soldiers of the Roman Empire used these weapons systematically (→ see Wolfsangel , Wolfskuhle ). They misplaced crow's feet , hammered special barbed metal spikes into small stakes which then barely visibly protruded from the ground, and dug pits, which they fitted with sharpened stakes and covered for camouflage (called lilia ).
In China, black powder was used as an explosive in bombs by the 13th century at the latest. The first weapons categorized as mines were found by archaeologists in Togtoh County in Inner Mongolia. These are from the battles of 1368 and were used by the Ming Dynasty as a siege weapon against the Yuan Dynasty . These are hollow iron balls, weighing up to 1.7 kg and 11 cm in diameter, which were filled with black powder. There were also specimens made of ceramic.
However, the term mine derives from tunnels that were dug under enemy fortifications in order to bring down the walls by undermining them. In order to increase the effect and to protect the miners , the mine was firmly supported with wood, then easily combustible material was introduced and ignited. As soon as the load-bearing elements burned away, the part of the fortress above collapsed. Using gunpowder made these studs even more effective (see: mine warfare ).
Since the 16th century, land mines (also fladder mines) have been known, which were sunk into the ground as an approach obstacle and which were detonated with a fuse if the attacker walked over them. When stones were used as splinter material, one spoke of stone mines (fougassen). Mainly, these mines were installed in advance of fortresses, less often in open field warfare.
In 1547, the Augsburg gunsmith Samuel Zimmermann developed a self-triggering mine based on the principle of the snap lock . However, this invention was slow to gain acceptance in the military. Black powder is hygroscopic (attracts moisture) and is difficult to protect from moisture in the ground. Johann Friedrich von Flemming was the first to describe the military use of self-triggering mines in 1726 in The Perfect German Soldier .
The first "modern" mines (mechanical fuse, explosives and fragmentation material in one) were used during the Civil War. They consisted of artillery shells with improvised fuzes, so strictly speaking they were improvised booby traps . On May 4, 1862, during the siege of Yorktown (1862) , Confederate troops under Brigadier General Gabriel J. Rains laid the first mines at redoubt number 4, which shortly afterwards also claimed victims.
The improvised landmines were then used in other conflicts such as the Second Boer War or the Russo-Japanese War , but rather sporadically and not across the board.
The first industrially produced mines were used during the First World War .
Mine development was strongly promoted between the world wars; new types of anti- personnel and anti -tank mines were developed and mass-produced. During World War II , these were used excessively, especially in North Africa and the Soviet Union . It is estimated that around 300 million anti-tank mines and an even higher number of anti-personnel mines were laid.
After World War II, other mine types were developed, such as the anti-personnel directional mine ( M18 Claymore ). New types of anti-tank mines were also developed, but they are more likely to be stationary anti-tank missiles and bear no resemblance to the original explosive mines. Throwable mines such as the butterfly mine are used by the Luftwaffe, which is playing an increasingly important role in supporting ground warfare .
To prevent its citizens from fleeing to the West, the German Democratic Republic laid around 1.3 million land mines along the 763 km long inner-German border after the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 . Under pressure from the Federal Republic of Germany, the land mines were cleared in 1984 and the self-firing systems were dismantled.
The asymmetric Vietnam War (1955-1975) changed the use of landmines because there was a lack of clear fronts most of the time . In 1943, during World War II, the Red Army waged guerrilla warfare behind enemy Wehrmacht lines that involved land mines, but Vietcong tactics relied on them. The Vietcong offensively laid mines on roads and trails used by American soldiers. The tactic proved very effective; at times, land mines accounted for three quarters of all American vehicle losses. The crews of the M113 armored personnel carriers placed sandbags on the vehicle floor, which in some cases led to overloading and thus damage to the undercarriage. Also, many crews preferred to sit on the vehicles rather than stay inside, which they valued the risk of driving onto a mine being greater than being fired upon. In addition to Warsaw Pact mines , the Viet Cong used many improvised explosive devices as well as mechanical traps such as Punji sticks or crow's feet. The Americans tried some measures, but with only moderate success. Mine plows and rollers could only be used to a very limited extent. Mine-sniffing dogs were effective, but their numbers were few. Ultimately, alert and trained eyes and metal detectors remained the tools of choice.
The United States responded by developing and mass deploying cluster mines. As early as World War II, the Wehrmacht used the SD 2 fragmentation bomb with special detonators as a mine, but only on a small scale. The Americans developed several cluster mines in the 1960s: Wide-Area Anti-Personnel Mine (BLU-42/54) , Dragontooth (BLU-43/44) and the Gravel mine . The Gravel (German: Kies ) mine has it as in a large and small version. All of these cluster mines, except for the small Gravel mine, had built-in self-neutralization after a certain amount of time from deployment.
From the 1970s, electronics were used in land mines, e.g. B. in the American mines of the Family of Scatterable Mines program . Thus, among other things, a self-destruction of the mine can be realized after a specified time.
In asymmetric conflicts, anti-personnel mines are often replaced by unconventional explosive devices because anti-personnel mines are not available to the irregular forces. Even if widespread mining with improvised means is hardly possible, they pose a danger to the civilian population after the conflict. Medical studies have shown that unconventional explosive devices often inflict much more serious injuries on the victims than landmines.
Landmines have been a major weapon in Yemen's civil war since 2004, in which Iran-backed Houthi rebels have relied heavily on mines to defend themselves against advancing Yemeni-Saudi Alliance forces. According to estimates from 2019, hundreds of thousands of mines are said to have been laid, which are given as the main reason why the Saudi offensive was largely brought to a standstill despite absolute air sovereignty. According to Conflict Armament Research , the deployed explosive devices came from Iran, others from the stocks of the ousted Yemini government and others were produced by the Houthis themselves.
Military operation
Mines are usually used defensively as a means of blocking. The opponent should be decimated, his movement should be hindered or directed in a desired direction. Weak battlefields, threatened flanks and gaps where an attack is to be expected can be closed in this way, and abandoned positions and areas blocked for the advancing enemy. By remotely laying mines with artillery or combat aircraft, newly created weak points can very quickly be blocked for the enemy. If you know the routing plan, your own troops can still enter this section and start an attack yourself.
Mines can be used offensively if they are dropped by aircraft into the hinterland. In this way, the enemy can be prevented from retreating, troop transfers and from bringing in reinforcements and supplies.
Mines can very effectively weaken the enemy. Overall, the threat posed by them has increased: from 23% vehicle loss rate to AT/AV mines by the US Army in World War II, it rose to 56% in the Korean War and finally recorded 70% in the Vietnam War . During the Vietnam War, most of these were American mines that were picked up and relocated by North Vietnamese troops.
Technical Differences
The classic landmine is a container of explosives and a detonator that detonates when loaded with a certain weight. There are several criteria by which landmines are distinguished:
After the goal
- anti-personnel mine
- meant to kill or maim people and stop them that way (e.g. S-Mine , M14 , M16 , M18 Claymore ).
- vehicle mine
- intended to destroy vehicles, but can only penetrate weak armor. The term anti -vehicle mine is not used in many classifications, since anti-personnel mines also damage unarmored vehicles and these are usually also triggered by unarmored vehicles. Most modern anti-vehicle and anti-tank mines are fitted with receiver protection or can be fitted with tripwire pull-type fuses. In fact, they also act as anti-personnel mines.
- anti-tank mine
- intended to stop tanks by damaging the undercarriage or destroying the tank.
According to the mode of action
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- explosive mine
- acts primarily through the detonation wave created during the detonation . The effect of splinters is secondary here. (e.g. M14 anti-personnel mine ).
- split dates
- works mainly through splinters, which are randomly distributed throughout the area during the detonation (e.g. type POM-2 ).
- directional mines
- act in only one specific direction with directional charge .
- fragmentation mine
- uses the Misznay-Schardin effect ; acts like fragmentation mines, but roughly in a certain direction. Therefore, it can be placed just in front of your own lines or serve as an automatic firing system (e.g. M18 Claymore , SM-70 ).
- Directional mine with shaped charge
- or shaped-charge type explosive devices that either fire a shaped-charge effect projectile at the target (e.g. the Swedish FFV 016 or the German DM-12 PARM ).
- Projectile-forming mine
- whose heavy metal deposits are transformed into drop-shaped projectiles by the explosive charge and penetrate the armor due to the high speed (e.g. M93 "Hornet").
- jumping mine
- which, when triggered, throws up an explosive charge with a fragmentation jacket, which explodes at a height of approx. 0.8-1.2 meters and, depending on the type, can be deadly in a radius of up to 30 m (e.g. the DM-31 made in Germany or the anti -personnel mine M16 ); some experimental anti-tank mines can also be classified in this category, which, when triggered, eject their explosive device a few tens of meters in the air and then use sensors to attack the usually weakly armored upper side of the target.
After ignition
- pressure igniter
- is triggered by the weight of the target. Anti-tank mines with this ignition are laid under the surface of the earth in such a way that the turf or ground cover rests about 10 cm on the mine. When laying, it is particularly important to ensure that there is minimal mounding - around 2-3 cm high. This mounding is necessary in order to break through the edge of the pressure plate of the mine and trigger the explosion when the mine is driven over. Drivers only notice this formation of hills when they are driving at walking speed. When laying anti-personnel mines, care is also taken to ensure that hillocks form – albeit to a lesser extent.
- pull detonator
- is triggered by a tripwire or remotely detonated via a tether.
- magneto
- reacts to changes in a magnetic field, e.g. B. by vehicles or mine detectors.
- concussion detonator
- reacts to vibrations they pick up from the ground. The Russian VP-13 system, for example, uses a seismic sensor to react to footsteps up to about 15 m around the sensor and then controls up to 5 mines at the same time. The mines do not have to be close to the trigger, but can be a little further away. The system is battery operated and self-destructs when triggered by a small explosive charge attached to the outside.
- timer
- detonates the mine after a certain time set by the minelayer. Time fuses have several purposes: the mined area cannot be cleared for a certain period of time; the timer serves as a self-destruct mechanism designed to eliminate the need for mine clearance, making the landmine both cheaper to use and more humane. Time detonators are usually not the only detonators in a mine, but are used in addition. Timed-only mines would be identical to time bombs .
- breakaway
- is a staff that protrudes from the buried mine and triggers the mine when the staff bends. Mostly used by anti-tank mines.
- infrared sensor
- which responds to the heat of the vehicles in the case of anti-tank mines.
- remote detonator
- in manually triggered mines, sometimes referred to as spotting mines, which are detonated electrically or with a detonating cord.
- Relief fuze and motion fuze
- are used for clearing protection.
According to the type of laying
- Concealed mine
- is buried in the ground in such a way that the detonator is still effective.
- Open laid mine
- is laid openly on the floor or laid partially concealed. Dropped or fired mines are mostly exposed.
- throw mine
- can be moved, often en masse, by rockets, artillery, or aircraft. Some of these types of mines erect themselves automatically after impact. Mostly it 's butterfly mines like the American BLU-43/B "Dragontooth" or the Soviet PFM-1 that look like big maple seeds (aerodynamic surfaces). Since such mines are laid openly, they are secured against being picked up. The duration of action can often be set before laying, after which the mine should then self-destruct. But this does not always work reliably; for mines of the Bundeswehr and some other NATO countries, a required reliability of self-defusing of over 99% applies.
- underwater laying
- waterproof landmines can be laid in shallow water on shores to deter amphibious landings.
According to appearance, material etc.
- Plate mine or pot mine
- Former and still common construction methods of a heavy anti-tank mine.
- bolt mine
- Variant of the plate mine in the form of a bar with a significantly expanded ignition surface. The term is also used today for an effect of the directional mine.
- Plastic, glass , concrete or wooden mine
- The mines are designed to have a minimal signature for metal detectors and contain no metal except for the fuse. The wooden mines previously used have actually been replaced by plastic mines.
- butterfly mine
- Air-laid anti-personnel mine with an aerodynamic shape resembling a butterfly. Can be mistaken for toys by children.
- Fragmentation mine, colloquially after the first mine of this type Claymore
- rectangular fragmentation mine, which is not buried (e.g. M18 Claymore ).
- rock mine
- Largest and older form of the Claymore, consisting of a target-oriented shaft filled with rock with an explosive charge underneath. When triggered manually, the rock mass is hurled in the target direction. Used in defenses in Malta and the Maginot Line .
- Booby trap (literally idiot trap ) or IEDs ( improvised explosive devices )
- hidden booby traps improvised from available material, partly hidden in everyday objects, in houses or on the side of the road. The first term is also used for step traps and other improvised traps, even without explosives.
- EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrators)
- Special form of the IEDs 8s (see above), in which copper is melted by an explosive explosion and accelerated to an extreme speed (1600 m/s) in order to penetrate light and medium armor and have a devastating effect on the vehicle interior
According to the extent of the destruction
Example of US classification for anti -tank mines :
- M kill or mobility kill
- The M-Kill mine only destroys one or more components necessary for locomotion (vehicle axle, track, foot and lower leg). The weapon system usually remains undamaged, and the death of the crew is not to be expected.
- K kill or catastrophic kill
- The aim is to destroy the weapon system or kill the crew.
Transferring this system to anti-personnel mines means:
- for M-Kill mines, injury or mutilation, but not death, if medical attention is given in good time. This form of action has significant "advantages", since a wounded soldier delays the enemy longer and burdens him more (supply, transport, morale of comrades) than a killed one.
- for K-Kill mines (in this category mostly fragmentation or even spring mines), the goal in this transmission is to kill the person who triggered the mine.
Humanitarian Points of View
Mines have killed around 1 million people in the last 30 years. Of these, 20% were combatants and 80% civilians, who often only fell victim to the mines after the conflict had ended. Overall, around 25% of the victims are children. In 2003, more than 8,000 people were killed or maimed by land mines worldwide, and the estimated number of unreported cases is around 20,000. The different mine types cause diverse injury patterns. Typically, feet , legs and usually also the genitals and hearing (the explosion damages within 5 meters) are affected.
Especially those mines that are not recognizable as explosive devices or are particularly small pose a great danger, especially for children, because they pick up the mines without knowing it.
According to the UN Landmine Protocol , the position of laid mines must be noted. Built-in self-defusing mechanisms are designed to automatically defuse the mines after a certain amount of time. In reality, however, mines are often laid uncontrolled, hastily and without a plan. Mines dropped by aircraft are distributed irregularly, sometimes over long distances. Since they often have energy absorbers in the form of small parachutes or aerodynamically effective surfaces ("butterfly mines"), they can be carried by the wind for a certain distance. Some warring parties also use mines intentionally against the civilian population, to make an area uninhabitable and fields and pastures unusable, or simply to terrorize the enemy population. Hunger , death and lifelong mutilation of innocent people are often the goal in these cases and always the result.
Mines cost very little, are easy to manufacture, and can be deployed quickly in large numbers. They are therefore of particular interest to warring factions who do not have access to expensive weapon systems.
Initiatives and international agreements
The first international agreement was Protocol II of the Convention Prohibiting or Restricting the Use of Certain Conventional Arms of October 10, 1980. On May 3, 1996, the Protocol was further expanded, but for many parties the resulting restrictions did not go far enough.
Global pressure from non-governmental organizations and some government representatives led to the signing of the anti-personnel mine ban treaty (“ Ottawa Convention ”) on December 3, 1997 in Ottawa , Canada . As of 2013, 156 countries have signed the treaty, including two countries that have yet to ratify . 39 states have not yet signed the convention, including the People's Republic of China , India , Iran , Israel , North and South Korea , Pakistan , Russia and the USA .
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 because no weapon had ever been banned before because of civil society commitment . The German section of the ICBL is now represented by Facing Finance , Handicap International and SODI .
However, the Ottawa Convention is also described by many as insufficient. Although the use and production of anti-personnel mines by the participating States is to be phased out, anti-vehicle mines with easy-to-detonate fuses, which effectively act as anti-personnel mines, are still used.
The Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining is committed to humanitarian demining.
States with uncleared land mines
- Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
- Iraq
- Korea : Border area between North and South Korea, ca. 1 million relocated
- Nepal : More than 10,000 displaced by the army (until 2003; Source: Nepal branch of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines)
The Austrian aid organization Together Against Landmines has a map of the countries with landmines with an illustration of the degree of danger.
Ecological Impact
A side effect of minefields is that the areas cannot be entered or even developed by people ( restricted areas ), so nature can thrive untouched and rare species are able to survive. In this way, nature reserves are unintentionally created.
An example of this is the former restricted area of the former inner-German border , which offers nature and biodiversity. Parts of the cleared restricted area have been declared a nature reserve. In 2012, the 9950 km long Eurovelo cycle route Iron Curtain Trail (EV13) along the Iron Curtain was already well developed at over 7000 km.
In some cases, former GSSD military training areas in the eastern federal states of Germany remain closed due to residual ammunition.
However, larger wild animals are themselves endangered by mines. In parts of Africa or Asia, for example, elephants are repeatedly injured by mines, which without human help usually results in the death of the animals. For this reason, mines are sometimes cleared along the elephant migration routes for animal welfare reasons.
demining
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Laying mines is relatively easy and inexpensive, but clearing them is all the more difficult and expensive. Particularly asymmetrical conflicts such as civil wars leave behind dangerous minefields, because these are rarely mapped when they are laid, are used indiscriminately over large areas and are used particularly often in areas of civilian life.
Minefields are cleared for two different reasons. On the one hand for military reasons to break through the minefield quickly during a conflict, on the other hand for humanitarian reasons to make the mined area habitable and farmable again. While the speed of clearing is important in military operations, thoroughness is the top priority in humanitarian clearing. In humanitarian operations, a metal detector or a special mine clearance machine is usually used. Airborne systems for mine detection are now also being tested. Leads can be fixed with a method for expanding foams using multi-chamber plastic containers. This means that further handling of the mines can be carried out safely, since the mine is effectively prevented from being triggered by the blocking of the trigger mechanisms (DPMA Patent No. 102 04 784). When military spaces z. B. worked with a Bangalore to quickly create a path through the minefield. In Mozambique , specially trained giant hamster rats ( Cricetomys gambianus ) are used by Apopo , a Belgian non-governmental organization (NGO) funded by donations, to detect landmines.
The Swiss Foundation for Mine Clearance is committed to mine clearance.
See also
literature
- D. Guelle, A. Smith et al.: "Metal Detector handbook for humanitarian demining", European Communities, 2003, ISBN 92-894-6236-1 PDF
web links
- AVS NoLandmines Facts about the mine problem English
- IMAS Edition 2 on broaching quality English, PDF (417 kB)
- How anti-personnel mines are being replaced PDF (1.13 MB)
- Action alliance Landmine.de
- MgM Foundation People Against Mines eV MgM Foundation People Against Mines eV
- BITS ( Berlin Information-center for Transatlantic Security ) Report 95.1, October 1995: " German landmines - an inventory " by Otfried Nassauer and Thomas Küchenmeister
itemizations
- ↑ Mike Croll: The History of Landmines , Leo Cooper Publishers, 1998, ISBN 0-85052-628-0 pp. 1-8
- ↑ The first mines
- ↑ History of Landmines ( Memento of 16 January 2009 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Uwe Schmitt: Increased residual risk: 33,000 mines suspected on the inner-German border . In: World Digital , published January 11, 2016.
- ↑ Billion injection for the wall builder one day ; GDR loan. The Third Man , Der Spiegel 39/1983 of September 26, 1983; GDR billions in credit: That's a thing , Der Spiegel 47/1983 of November 21, 1983.
- ↑ Croll: The History of Landmines , pp. 102-106
- ↑ Croll: The History of Landmines , pp. 107-108
- ↑ Mike Croll: Landmines in War and Peace: From Their Origin to Present Day , Verlag Casemate Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84468-500-4 p. 189 [1]
- ↑ John Printz: Technical Report ARFSD-TR-90014, RAAM INTEGRATED CIRCUIT SOURCE CHANGEAN ALYSIS , September 1990, US ARMY ARMAMENT RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND ENGINEERING CENTER p. 1 [2]
- ↑ Louis Maresca, Stuart Maslen (eds.): The Banning of Anti-Personnel Landmines: The Legal Contribution of the International Committee of the Red Cross 1955-1999. Cambridge University Press , 2000, ISBN 978-1-139-43197-2 , p. 317 books.google.de
- ↑ Injury profile suffered by targets of antipersonnel improvised explosive devices: prospective cohort study . In: BMJ Open . tape 7 , no. 7 , 2017, ISSN 2044-6055 , pp. e014697 , doi : 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014697 , PMID 28835410 ( bmj.com ).
- ↑ David D. Kirkpatrick, "Land Mines Block Saudi-Led Assault in Yemen, Killing Civilians" New York Times February 17, 2019.
- ↑ Good mine - bad mine!? Why anti-vehicle mines should also be banned Information paper by Thomas Küchenmeister; German Initiative Group for the Ban of Landmines (PDF; 380 kB) according to: Wilhelm Schneck, Countermine Systems Directorate, Ft. Belvoir, Va. 1995.
- ↑ Oxfam Germany, Campaign on Landmines
- ↑ President Trump clears the way for the US military to use landmines worldwide again. In: srf.ch . February 1, 2020, retrieved February 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Monitor: Nagorno-Karabakh of November 28, 2013.
- ↑ swissinfo.org
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of December 27, 2009 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Contamination with mines. In: ggl-austria.at. October 2013, retrieved March 21, 2018 .
- ↑ foundation-naturschutz-thueringen.de
- ↑ Vera Bohle : My life as a mine clearer, ISBN 978-3-8105-0255-1 .
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of 23 August 2016 at the Internet Archive ) EBmonitor "How landmines are detected from the air", retrieved 22 August 2016.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of 19 July 2011 at Internet Archive ) APOPO History, accessed 24 June 2011.
