Minefield Clearance Techniques

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

Don't know about being taught John but I remember seeing a programme years ago about the post war building of (I think) the Bielefeld base for the BAOR.
The major requirement was for a water source to service what would in effect become a small town. After some inconclusive test wells, the REME officer in charge of building the base took out his dowsing rods and located an aquifer which made the base possible.
Pete
(Owen's probably going to blast me for going even further off-topic):p

 

Reference dowsing for mines,
I was in Jordan for GW2 working in a Jordanian Airbase. We had to build a fuel tank farm, accommodation and a bomb storage area. The US were building a new runway and accommodation for themselves at the same time and kept finding air dropped ordnance (we believed it to be Israeli). As we had no detectors one of out Clerk of Works showed me how to dowse (out of the 10 of us only 2 could get it).
I would search an area with some bent pieces of weld rod, whenever the rods moved I would mark my where my heels were. When we dug sure enough there was something there (not very often ordnance, mostly pipes, cables or buried concrete, I could never tell what it was I actually found until we dug it up). Through luck or skill I never missed anything, was an eye opener for me and led to some claims of witch craft lol.

On the explosive clearance methods, the German Borgward IV was used for mine clearance and that had a 500kg charge I believe. All explosive clearance has a little caveat in that it is only suitable for blast susceptible mines.

Report from Kursk

Panzer Kompanie (Funklenk) 313 belonged to 2. Abteilung / s.Pz.Jäg.Rgt. 656 subordinated to s.Pz.Jäg.Abt 654 equipped with 44 Ferdinand heavy self-propelled guns. Their roll was to blow a whole through the enemy minefields enabling further advance of the Ferdinands. Before one had reached the enemy minefields, 4 Borgward IV were lost to own mines, while another 4 makes it through and are sacrificed in favor of the Ferdinands which then were able to pass through the minefield. Later on three Borgward IV destroys two AT-gun nests and single bunker. Later in action with s.Pz.Abt 508.

Panzer Kompanie (Funklenk) 314 belonged to 1. Abteilung / s.Pz.Jä.Rgt. 656 subordinated to s.Pz.Jäg.Abt 653 with 45 Ferdinand heavy self-propelled guns. It used 12 Borgward IV to blow a hole through a deep enemy minefield. StuGs which were used as control vehicles rolled through, but the engineers could not mark the passage as heavy artillery fire pinned them down. Eventually some Ferdinand crew lost track of the passage and a number of vehicles were disabled, considerably delaying the attack.

In the British Army we used (Early 80's to late 2000's for me) Bangalores, Viper/Python and strings of charges (usually PE attached to Det Cord laid by hand) as well as the ubiquitous silent, night breach (Plus plows and the odd flail).

 

One of the annoying aspects of the Rhodesian insurgency was the post-1980 discovery that South Africa had taken away several anti-mine options, such as the Pookie and enhanced them - without updating the Rhodesians. From memory the 'V-shaped' armoured personnel carriers.

 

This might be of interest:
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol22/iss1/4

 

Trials with anti mine devices fitted to tanks began as early as 1918 using mainly MkV** tanks although at least one Mk IV was also used and there is a photo of this equipped with a huge elctro magnet. various type of mine roller were trailed. In WW2 both Britain and the US tried mine rollers again. Ploughs were also tried. The flail proved the most effective

 

Flail definitely has its' uses as a breaching tool, whether in a military or HMA context, but it does not clear ground. Flails throw items forward and sometimes bury them deeper. Flails will leave behind items, sometimes in a more angry condition. On a pattern minefield these days operators will fail up to the rows in order to locate (assuming the mines will detonate) and might even try to make new parallel lanes to the rows but running mech over the rows is no longer seen as efficient or effective.