Mine Warfare: Strategies, Tactics, and Technologies

By Fouad Sabry

What is Mine Warfare

Mine warfare refers to the use of different types of explosive devices:Land mine, a weight-triggered explosive device intended to maim or kill people or to disable or destroy vehiclesMinelaying, deployment of explosive mines at seaNaval mine, a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy ships or submarinesMining (military), the use of tunnels and sometimes large amounts of explosives to bring down fortifications

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Mine Warfare

Chapter 2: Land mine

Chapter 3: Naval mine

Chapter 4: Mine

Chapter 5: Fuse

Chapter 6: Bomb

Chapter 7: Booby trap

Chapter 8: Improvised explosive device

Chapter 9: Combat engineer

Chapter 10: IED

(II) Answering the public top questions about mine warfare.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Mine Warfare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: May 29, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Mine warfare

Mine warfare refers to the employment of a variety of explosive devices:

A land mine is an explosive device designed to maim or kill people, disable or destroy vehicles, or both.

Minelaying and explosive mine placement at sea

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device used to sink ships or submarines.

Mining (military), the use of tunnels and occasionally massive quantities of explosives to destroy defenses.

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Land mine

A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive device placed under or disguised in the ground and designed to damage or cripple enemy targets as they travel over or near it, ranging from soldiers to vehicles and tanks.

Typically, such a device is detonated automatically by pressure when a target steps on it or drives over it, however different detonation methods are occasionally employed. which is perilous to traverse.

Land mines are problematic because they have the potential to be used as indiscriminate weapons. Many years after a combat has finished, they can still pose a threat to civilians and the economy. Seventy-eight countries are polluted with land mines, and between 15,000 and 20,000 people per year are killed or maimed. About 80% of land mine casualties are civilians, with children being the age group most impacted. Most murders occur during periods of tranquility.

A mine is defined in the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (also known as the Ottawa Treaty) and the Protocol on Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as a munition designed to be placed under, on, or near the ground or other surface area and to explode upon the presence, proximity, or contact of a person or vehicle..

There are three major eras to the history of land mines: Spikes placed underground served many of the same purposes as modern mines. From the Ming dynasty to the American Civil War, mines with gunpowder as the explosive were used. The subsequent development and usage of high explosives in land mines.

In the Roman Empire, some fortresses were encircled by a succession of concealed dangers. These included goads, which were one-foot-long (30 cm) pieces of wood with iron hooks at their ends; lilia, which were pits in which sharpened logs were arranged in a five-point pattern; and abatis, which were fallen trees with sharpened branches pointing outwards. As with modern land mines, they were victim-operated, frequently disguised, and formed zones so large that the adversary could not do much damage from the outside, but were under fire (in this case, spear throws) if they sought to remove the obstructions. Julius Caesar made considerable use of these defenses during the Battle of Alesia. Vercingetorix, the leader of the Gauls, managed to send for reinforcements as his army besieged him. Caesar constructed a line of fortifications on both sides to maintain the siege and defend against reinforcements; these fortifications were crucial to his success. Lilies were also employed by the Scots against the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and by the Germans at the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I.

The Chinese began years of experimentation in the ninth century, which resulted in gunpowder, an explosive concoction of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. The first recorded use of gunpowder in battle occurred in the thirteenth century. In 1277, the Chinese employed a huge bomb attributed to Lou Qianxia at the Battle of Zhongdu, Three centuries after the Chinese built the first pressure-operated mine, a German military engineer named Samuel Zimmermann created the Fladdermine in Augsburg in 1573. (flying mine). It consisted of a few pounds of black powder that had been buried close to the surface and was ignited by stepping on it or tripping a wire that caused a flintlock to fire. On the slope in front of a fort, such mines were deployed. They were utilized during the Franco-Prussian War, although they were probably not very successful because a flintlock ceases to function if left unattended for an extended period of time.

Beginning in the 19th century, more potent explosives than gunpowder were created, mostly for non-military purposes such as blasting train tunnels in the Alps and Rockies. Christian Schonbein invented guncotton in 1846, which is up to four times more potent than gunpowder. It was dangerous to produce until 1865, when Frederick Augustus Abel devised a safe process. From the 1870s to the First World War, it was the standard British military explosive.

The British employed mines throughout the Siege of Khartoum. The British resisted a Sudanese Mahdist force far greater than their own for ten months, but the town was ultimately overrun and the British murdered. During the Boer War (1899–1903), they successfully held Mafeking against Boer forces using a combination of actual and artificial minefields; they also placed mines along railroad tracks to prevent sabotage.

By the time of the First World War, land mines exploded into approximately 1,000 high-velocity fragments; during the Franco-Prussian War (1870), they had only shattered into 20 to 30 fragments.

During the Second World War, tens of millions of mines were buried, particularly in the deserts of North Africa and the steppes of Eastern Europe, where the open terrain favored tanks. However, Finland was the first nation to use them. They were fighting against a significantly bigger Soviet force with over 6,000 tanks, which was twenty times the amount of tanks the Finns possessed; nevertheless, the terrain was fragmented by lakes and forests, limiting tank movement to roads and tracks. The Mannheim Line linked these natural fortifications with mines, including basic fragmentation mines put on stakes.

During the Cold War, NATO countries were afraid about major Soviet Union armored attacks. They envisioned a minefield spanning the entire West German border and devised additional mine types. The Mark 7 anti-tank mine was developed by the British to defeat rollers by detonating the second time it was pressed. In addition, there was a 0.7-second delay so that the tank would be directly on top of the mine. In addition, they created the first scatterable mine, the No. 7 (Dingbat). The United States employed the M6 antitank mine and tripwire-activated, bounding antipersonnel mines such as the M2 and M16.

In 1948, the British created the No. 6 antipersonnel mine, a minimal-metal mine with a tiny diameter that was difficult to detect with metal detectors or poking. The moniker carrot mine was derived from its three-pronged pressure piece. It was nonetheless unreliable under rainy conditions. In the 1960s, the Canadians created a comparable but more reliable mine, the C3A1 (Elsie), which was used by the British military. The British also created the L9 bar mine, a wide anti-tank mine with a rectangular shape that covered a larger area and made it possible to lay a minefield four times faster than with earlier mines. Additionally, they improved the Dingbat to the Ranger, a plastic mine launched from a truck-mounted discharger that could shoot up to 72 mines.

From the 1980s until 2020, the Iraq-Iran War, the Gulf War, and the Islamic State have all contributed to the saturation of land mines in Iraq. Iraq is now the country with the highest concentration of landmines in the world.

Both Russian and Ukrainian armies employed land mines during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainian officials assert that during their exit from Ukrainian cities, Russian forces deployed thousands of land mines and other explosive devices, including in civilian areas.

Throughout World War I, Germans invented a device, dubbed Yperite Mine by the British, Things they abandoned in deserted trenches and bunkers.

It exploded due to a delayed charge, disseminating mustard gas (Yperite).

During the Second World War, a