Aerial mines (used on land)

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by Belville, Dec 8, 2008.

  1. dovermarine

    dovermarine Senior Member

    Hi, The germans used one called a LUFTMINE that they dropped by parachute, mainly in the Dover Straits, but they used them as blast bombs as well. The picture shows the devastation caused when this one missed its target of the town gasworks and landed in an adjacent road.Derek.
     

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  2. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    I recall very clearly, setting out at night to find any land mines suspended somewhere. Or UXBs.....Always identified by the deadly THUMP that was not followed by an explosion. We knew that we would have to go look for them. They did not land in nice convenient places.
    Sapper
     
  3. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    The "aerial" (land) mine was actually a naval mine that had its magnetic exploder removed and another unit bolted in. As it was optimised for laying by submarine (designed to be laid via torpedo tubes) that explains the long rounded-at-each-end appearance you can see in the pic back up the thread. The LW could (and as we know did!) lay these from the air so already had racks and shackles for various types of aircraft at the start of the war.

    IIRC it was used because although the LW DID have a "1000lb" bomb, specially developed for Maginot Line "bunkerbusting" if it had been necessary...the NAVAL mine had a much thinner casing than the land bomb's hardened casing, and so the naval mine had a much larger percentage of its all-up weight as explosive ;)
     
  4. ChrisR

    ChrisR Senior Member

    Having been in the Blitz in Southampton, and in the Home Guard, we knew all about these weapons.They were called "Land Mines" And they did actually get caught up in trees. After a raid we were often detailed to look for UXBs along the docks roads and to look for Land Mines that may have been caught in the trees.

    Here are the details of one mine in Southampton. Though the main charge didn't go off, it still killed a man as it landed.
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

    Sapper, Passed here this A.M on the lung stretcher (the daily jog) bathed in sunlight as I write. For those unacquainted with Southampton this is the Royal Pier, No, wait out, cancel my last - Kuti's Royal Thai Pier! A restaurant!





    Kutis.jpg
     
  6. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Ordinary Seaman Bennett Southwell GC (1913–1940) was a member of a Royal Navy team carrying out bomb disposal when he was killed during the London blitz. He was awarded a posthumous George Cross.
    Southwell was born on 21 March 1913 and enlisted into the Royal Navy in 1939. He was posted to HMS Vernon, the Navy establishment for bomb and mine clearance work. He was part of a team tackling an unexploded parachute mine on the 17 October 1940 during the height of the blitz in Hoxton in the East End of London.
    Southwell and his companion, Sub-Lieutenant Jack Easton, were called to a mine in Clifton Street, Shoreditch. The street was deserted and the 1,500 lb mine could be seen dangling from its parachute, wrapped round the chimney of a terraced house. The pair had to climb through a window into the bedroom, as the mine was blocking the door wedged between a bedstead and the collapsing chimney. Easton set about defusing the mine with Southwell passing him tools through the window. They were working in this way when the rest of the chimney collapsed, setting off the fuse which began to tick. They ran for cover in a nearby air raid shelter but the mine exploded, destroying six surrounding streets and killing Southwell instantly. Such was the damage that his body was undiscovered for a further six weeks. Sub-Lieutenant Easton survived and both men were awarded the George Cross.


    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-grave-photographs/23133-bennett-southwells-headstone-sec-k-grave-286-gilroes-cemetery-leicester.html

    Bennett Southwell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
  7. brit plumber

    brit plumber Member

    Brave Brave Men.
     
  8. TiredOldSoldier

    TiredOldSoldier Senior Member

    AFAIK the Germans used the term "minen" for a lot of thin cased ordonance, including high capacity bombs, so they were not necessarily of naval origin, air dropped mines still need an anchoring mechanism that is useless for a bomb.
    I think most of the "mines" were thin case SB 1000 bombs of which a parachute variety existed.
    www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org - Luftwaffe Resource Center - SB 1000 Parachute Bomb

    The British equivalents would be the various high capacity blockbusters.
     

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