Minefield Clearance Techniques

In passing I had better mention that the Germans used the "Bogus" minefields extensively. An area would be marked all the way round with the typical metal "Achtung Minen" ! with the skull and cross bones. Bogus or not, time had to be spent ensuring all of it was "Clear"

 

Mines and Charges
an Interesting article to read , should fill a few gaps about mines and boobytraps .

John

 

Booby traps are a whole world away from mine clearance. Needs a quite different approach...... Believe nothing you see, and trust nothing. At the rear of the Falaise pocket we came across a German officer in his best uniform, dead as a door nail ...And waiting for some idiot to move him...... We thought about putting a rope round his toe, and pulling him from a distance...But we decided that it would be too messy. We did not want his entrails sprayed all over us....
Sapper.
PS some of those mine pictures are "staged" You just do not get more than one man over a mine. We found "staging" was a common practice for the media.
For example you do not get a picture of a Tommy pointing his gun at you... Nor do you get folks gathering round while a mine is lifted..OK if you dont mind colossal casualties I suppose?

 

I sometimes wonder why I bother

I'm aware of charges on a cable fired into a field then detonated and flail tanks and chaps prodding and or using detectors etc. So no need to mention them :wink:

 

The minefield clearance is not just about prodding, and a snake charge across the area, it is also about clearing what you come across. Like air bombs, and even sea mines. with the added interest of HE charges in the heights over roads.

 

Sapper
Did you find with the Schu mines that the rabbits did their crap to one side then actually sat or rested on the mine to absorb the heat that the mine had stored during the day?
My old boss of years ago talked of this method.

In poland in 1939 the Germans ran pigs thru the mine fields to explode them

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 and breath

 

Well it seems they do it today:

Camp Pendleton - OC Science : The Orange County Register

Camp Pendleton officials say the base “will be firing 1,750 pounds of high-explosive munitions in the Whiskey impact area as part of mine-clearing, line charge exercises from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.” on those days. “Depending on atmospheric conditions, the sound of explosions may be amplified and heard up to 50 miles away.”

 

one item I remember reading in 'Dowsing forum' I found somewhere was of a sapper whose 'mine detector' had given up the ghost , he'd pulled out a pair of dowsing rods made from welding rods and carried on 'the old fashioned way' as he called it ..... now thats confidence ! was dowsing ever taught as a trade ?
I wonder if he survived !

John

 

one item I remember reading in 'Dowsing forum' I found somewhere was of a sapper whose 'mine detector' had given up the ghost , he'd pulled out a pair of dowsing rods made from welding rods and carried on 'the old fashioned way' as he called it ..... now thats confidence ! was dowsing ever taught as a trade ?
I wonder if he survived !

John

Was he a Sapper in the Air Force or Artillery?

 

Andy

You might find this interesting. It's from the U.S. War Department publication Tactical and Technical Trends No. 46, May 1, 1944. Under the heading of 'Enemy Mine Clearance'..

The British source from which the details set out below are taken states that the Germans expect land mines to be laid to protect roads, tracks, bridges, crossings, etc., in open country as part of a general defensive scheme; and as scattered booby traps. Mine clearance is a function of the German assault engineers.

a. Reconnaissance

Normal reconnaissance and reports will reveal a suspect area, which must be reconnoitered by the engineers for boundaries, types of mines, gaps and methods of laying. The engineers work in small parties 300 to 500 yards apart. Such reconnaissance should be supplemented by aerial photography, maps, and by interrogating prisoners in the area where captured.

b. Searching

Searching is to be done by small parties of engineers. They use long improvised probes designed to prod, with the soldier standing erect, a lane 3 feet wide. Protective goggles (presumably splinter-proof] are worn. The probes are of three kinds: two are about 5 feet long, one resembling a rapier (Sucheisen) and the other having no special handle (Minensuchstab); the third probe is about 15 feet long with points like a hay fork. Electro-magnetic detectors (Minensuchgerät) are also used for clearing gaps.

Mines which have been laid a long time may be spotted in sand, by the depression; in fields, by the lighter colored grass; in wet earth, by the dark patches; in frosty ground, by the cracks and under a thin covering of snow, by a slight rise if the mines have been laid during the snow fall. Mines laid in frosty ground before the fall of snow cannot be spotted after it.

c. Clearing

Gaps should be 2 yards wide for infantry, 5 yards for vehicles and 10 yards for two-way traffic.

Gaps are cleared by engineer parties, artillery barrage, and air bombardment.

Engineers clearing gaps, if the mines are not under fire, search for individual mines. If the mines are under fire, detonating fuze nets (Knallnetz), charges (geballte Ladungen) or bangalore torpedoes (gestreckte Ladungen) are used. Trip-wire mechanisms are sprung by using a harpoon.

Artillery barrages are an expensive method of mine clearance. For a 100-yard gap 20 to 25 yards wide: a 21-cm heavy howitzer fires 120 rounds of percussion fuze ammunition, a 15-cm medium howitzer fires 400 rounds of percussion fuze (short-delay) ammunition, and a 10.5-cm gun-howitzer fires 600 rounds of percussion fuze ammunition. The latter is not to be used except in an emergency.

Air bombardment with 50-kg bombs fuzed without delay is effective. Lighter bombs are unsatisfactory and heavier bombs create a gap which is impassable for armored vehicles. About nine-hundred 50-kg bombs are required to clear a gap 50 to 100 yards wide and 200 yards long.

Neither shelling nor bombing guarantees that all mines are neutralized; this must be done by engineer parties.

d. Electro-Magnetic Detector

For reconnaissance a detector-operator and a neutralizer work as a pair clearing a lane 5 feet wide. The detector-operator crawls about 3 feet ahead of the neutralizer and sweeps to and fro across his front covering a lane 5 feet wide.

For clearing a gap 15 feet wide, five such pairs are used, each detector-operator dragging a 30-yard line behind him as a guide for his neutralizer and his neighbor. Pulls on the rope also serve as a means of signaling. The pairs work in staggered formation 10 yards behind each other, each pair sweeping a 5-foot wide lane and overlapping its neighbor's lane by about 1 foot 6 inches; this is done by sweeping up to 5 feet out from the line of the neighboring pair in front. The boundaries of the gaps are marked with tape laid 1 foot 6 inches outside the guide lines.

When there is no opposition, detector-operators walk erect sweeping a lane 8 feet wide.

e. Detonating Fuze Net

Detonating fuze is made up into a net 30 feet long and 8 feet wide with a 6 inch mesh. The net is raised on pegs or stakes 2 to 3 feet above ground. The net is laid by hand.

f. Mobile Bangalore Torpedo (Ladungschieber)

This is improvised from two wheels with an axle between. Several of these are made or collected and spaced 5 yards apart. The pipe of the bangalore torpedo is laid over the axles and made fast. To supplement this, 3-kg charges (geballte Ladungen) are placed on the pipe, two spaced between each axle. The normal length of the bangalore torpedo on wheels is 25 yards, and it clears a gap 4 to 6 yards wide. It is towed as far as possible before being pushed out into the minefield. The front wheels and axle are replaced by skids in overgrown country.

g. Neutralizing Mines in a Rear Area

Mines are destroyed with detonating fuze, two turns being taken round each mine cover.

Mines may be ploughed by using a tractor or winch to pull the plough from a safe distance.

S-mines may be cleared by a tank towing a harrow.

 

Bill,

You're a star - someone has read Post No.1

Have some rep and cheers for that.
Andy

 

The following U.S. military report on German methods of mine clearance was originally published in Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 46, May 1, 1944.

...

c. Clearing

Gaps should be 2 yards wide for infantry, 5 yards for vehicles and 10 yards for two-way traffic.

Gaps are cleared by engineer parties, artillery barrage, and air bombardment.

Engineers clearing gaps, if the mines are not under fire, search for individual mines. If the mines are under fire, detonating fuze nets (Knallnetz), charges (geballte Ladungen) or bangalore torpedoes (gestreckte Ladungen) are used. Trip-wire mechanisms are sprung by using a harpoon.

Artillery barrages are an expensive method of mine clearance. For a 100-yard gap 20 to 25 yards wide: a 21-cm heavy howitzer fires 120 rounds of percussion fuze ammunition, a 15-cm medium howitzer fires 400 rounds of percussion fuze (short-delay) ammunition, and a 10.5-cm gun-howitzer fires 600 rounds of percussion fuze ammunition. The latter is not to be used except in an emergency.

Air bombardment with 50-kg bombs fuzed without delay is effective. Lighter bombs are unsatisfactory and heavier bombs create a gap which is impassable for armored vehicles. About nine-hundred 50-kg bombs are required to clear a gap 50 to 100 yards wide and 200 yards long.

Neither shelling nor bombing guarantees that all mines are neutralized; this must be done by engineer parties.

Complete article here:

Enemy Mine Clearance, WWII Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 46, May 1, 1944 (Lone Sentry)

 

I didn't notice it was already posted. Sorry

 

I suppose anything is worth trying if it saves lives. We certainly tried many ruses to find and make safe mines. But the artillery or bombs seems to me to be an extraordinary expensive way. Knowing that many mines will not have been triggered. The best way in times past, was to detect and PULL the mine in Situ, Stick a rope round it. take cover and pull the bloody thing. IT works and saves stacks of young mens lives

 

Just stumbled on this in WO 171/1600

 

Yes we tried the Conger. An explosive rope like cable that was shot across a minefield from a makeshift mortar barrel. We did no use it in action. The reason? The bloody thing "Snaked" all over the place. So that even if it did explode, the minefield that infantry running across, would be taking a series of loops and turns making them more open to incoming.

Somewhere in the house, along with a load of other stuff. I have a photo of our NCOs and officers loading the Conger. Pre invasion
As an aside. We never used prisoners of any type to lift mines. We were pretty dab hands, and had perfected our own methods. many of them quite outside the training manuals, What was handy is a nice strong cord, suitable for Pulling mines, and a pocketful of "Panel Pins" to make the S Mines safe.

One thing is stone wall certain is that sooner or later your number will come up..You can clear mines .Explosive charges but sooner or later BUGGER I lost me effing leg! or some similar expression...

I lost a lot of damn fine mates. Some of them a large group. all gone Nothing left...
Sapper

PS the Sappers have perfected the Conger so that it now fires in a straight line