German Sea Mine

[Old Smelly]

A recently discovered German Mine was detonated this weekend, see link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7343780.stm

there is also a viedo link from this page

http://youtube.com/watch?v=idWVE1ZKzAQ

[pete]

.

A few RN EOD buddies of mine have dealt with these before over the years The interesting thing is that alot of people who havent seen these close up, despite the big bang they can and do make, will over look the fact that when they are located they are often in quite excellent condition. The ones that were described to me were said to have been in pristine condition, and I mean glowing and clean, because of the far ahead of their time metalurgy the germans were using. Another point of note is that many sea mines do not work because the fuzes have been assembled by jews or forced labour who purposely put them together that way.

Other interesting uses of these:

1) In Bosnia/Croatia they were rolled down hills into villages or other targets using burning time fuze inserted into the fuze wells etc.

2) Used in Bosnia/Croatia as charges under bridge abutments, or small bridges for reserve demolition operations or on other targets. For those of you who dont know, reserve demo is like on a bridge too far, right in the enemy face, last ditch.






Best,

Pete

[Old Smelly]

Apparently several local fishermen had know about the 'object' for some time and been mooring their boats to it assuming it was a buoy
Lee

[Von Hoth]

A few RN EOD buddies of mine have dealt with these before over the years The interesting thing is that alot of people who havent seen these close up, despite the big bang they can and do make, will over look the fact that when they are located they are often in quite excellent condition. The ones that were described to me were said to have been in pristine condition, and I mean glowing and clean, because of the far ahead of their time metalurgy the germans were using. Another point of note is that many sea mines do not work because the fuzes have been assembled by jews or forced labour who purposely put them together that way.

Other interesting uses of these:

1) In Bosnia/Croatia they were rolled down hills into villages or other targets using burning time fuze inserted into the fuze wells etc.

2) Used in Bosnia/Croatia as charges under bridge abutments, or small bridges for reserve demolition operations or on other targets. For those of you who dont know, reserve demo is like on a bridge too far, right in the enemy face, last ditch.






Best,

Pete

could you please post some photos if any of your friends have of german sea mines that were still in good condition? I find this almost impossible knowing what salt water does. (I live near the beach in Florida) but I do have a lot of respect for german engineering so I'm all ears.

[Jack T]

Here is a pic of the mine that was detonated.

[pete]

.

When my freind comes on skype I will get the recollection again and post it here. I think he was refering to parts important in EOD but standby! Maybe I can get some pics


Best,

Pete

[Von Hoth]

ok, great.

well judging by that picture of this one that was detonated, they do appear to last a while. aside from the barnacles, I don't see any corrosion. They used a specail kind of aluminum? Because even aluminum turns into white greenish powder if left in saltwater.

how the hell did they make these?

[paddywhack]

a mate of mine use to own a house by the sea that had its own wee little harbour BUT it was in bits!the reason? well during the war a mine(they dont know if it was british german etc) washed into the harbour and exploded!!! saw pics of it during war and it was in bits!!! cool video!would have loved to have been there! also while i was up in denmark at the very tip the danish army were exploding mines from a ww2 german mine field and it was pretty loud!!

[Jack T]

I've often wondered how post war they cleaned up all the sea mines used by both sides and how many are still floating around or still attached to their anchor cables.

Jack

[glaser]

h

I am looking for the complete version (not the 54 pages) of "OP 1673 A" US manual on german ordnance mines, 1946 , I did not found one on the www