Understanding Mines: History, Use, and Impact in Warfare

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Introduction to Mine

Mine, in warfare, an explosive charge used as a weapon on land and at sea. It is a defensive weapon used to obstruct or delay enemy movements. On land, mines can complicate major troop and armor advances and inflict casualties on patrols and raiding parties. At sea, mines can be used to block the way to and from harbors and seas. They can also be used to harass shipping in any narrow body of water.

Land Mines

Land mines are designed for use against personnel or tanks. Most kinds are buried just below the surface of the ground, and most are encased in nonmetallic materials, such as wood, plastic, nylon, and ceramic, to conceal their location from magnetic mine detectors. Metal-encased mines, formerly the most common type, are gradually being phased out of use.

Antipersonnel Mines are of several types. The fixed mine consists of a small, usually disk-shaped shell loaded with explosives. The mine explodes when stepped on, maiming or killing nearby troops. Less common is the bouncing mine (or jumping mine), which consists of two cylinders, the inner one of which is loaded with explosives. The mine is triggered by a trip wire; when it is set off. a small charge propels the inner cylinder into the air. The cylinder then explodes and sprays shrapnel for a distance of up to 200 yards (180 m).

A command-detonated mine, such as the U.S. Army's Claymore mine and the British Padmine, requires an operator to detonate it. These mines are designed to channel the force of the explosion in one direction and are electrically detonated from a safe distance through a wire.

Antitank Mines

Large antitank mines are exploded by the weight of a tank moving across them and are capable of penetrating thick armor. Such mines are usually disk-shaped and are buried in the ground by hand. Small antitank mines may be either disk-shaped or bar-shaped and most use electronic sensors to detect the presence of vehicles overhead; they disable tanks by shattering their treads. These mines are usually laid by automated equipment. In one system, mines are planted by a plowlike implement, and in another mines are sown on the surface of the ground by being shot from canisters mounted on land vehicles or helicopters.

Detecting and Clearing Land Mines

The traditional method of clearing a mine field involves sending a team of engineers to scan the ground with handheld metal detectors. Metal detectors are of little value, however, when a mine field contains numerous metal objects such as shrapnel; and they are totally ineffective when mines are made of plastic. In such cases another detection method is used—the ground is probed with bayonets or other sharp instruments. As each mine is discovered, the engineer will either mark it for future detonation or, if the mine cannot be bypassed, have it detonated.

To clear extensive mine fields rapidly most modern armies rely on other methods One involves the use of small rockets car rying line charges (hoses filled with explosives), which are shot into a mine field. The explosions of the line charges detonate any nearby mines. In another method, tanks push heavy mine rollers, which detonate the mines.

History of Land Mines

As a military term mine originally referred to an underground passage dug under enemy fortifications. Attackers would cause a collapse of the enemy's walls by burning the supporting timbers in the mine, thus creating a breach for the attacking troops. The ancient Macedonians and the Romans were both expert builders of mines. A mine dug to destroy an enemy mine was called a countermine. Julius Caesar found the Gauls adept at countermining.

The introduction of gunpowder in the 14th century made mining techniques more effective. A spectacular use of mining with explosives was made by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, when his army stormed the Tatar city of Kazan after extensive sections of the city's wall were destroyed by mines.

Mines packed with explosives to blow up enemy bulwarks were used several times during the American Civil War, notably at Vicksburg (1863), Kennesaw Mountain (1864), and Petersburg (1864). In World War I a series of mines containing a million pounds (454,000 kg) of explosives was constructed by the British forces at Witschaete-Messines Ridge. The detonation of the mines on June 7, 1917, effectively cleared the ridge of German defenders and it was easily occupied.

Late in World War I, the Germans buried artillery shells in the ground to stop British tanks. Land mines, both antitank and antipersonnel, were developed after the war, and were used extensively in World War II. Both sides used mines in the Korean War and the Vietnamese War.

During the 1980's and 1990's the use of inexpensive antipersonnel mines in guerrilla wars grew enormously and became a major cause of civilian deaths and injuries. In Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Somalia, and other countries torn by civil war land mines were used in waging economic as well as military warfare. Not only were land mines used to limit troop movements, but they were also used to prevent or make difficult the planting of crops and to cut off safe routes to market.

When civil wars were ended, as in Angola and Bosnia, millions of mines remained buried and continued to cause a heavy number of casualties and render areas uninhabitable. The difficulty in finding and removing land mines seriously complicated efforts to return refugees to their homes and to return war-torn countries to normal economic life.

In 1992 the United States banned the export of antipersonnel land mines, and in 1993 the United Nations' General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a worldwide ban on such mines.

Submarine Mines

Submarine mines are those used in water against surface or underwater vessels. Before 1900, weapons designed to attack ships below the water line were called torpedoes, whether fixed or moving. The term torpedo now is restricted to self-propelled, submarine projectiles fired at vessels from ships, submarines, or planes. Fixed mines are laid by ships called minelayers, by aircraft, or by submarines. Mines are classified according to their position in the water. Some are moored (anchored below the surface), others are laid on the bottom. Floating mines drift with the current. Mines are also classified by method of firing as either contact mines or influence mines.

Contact Mines

are moored mines, the depth being regulated by the length of the mooring cable. They may be laid in shallow or deep water. These mines carry a charge of about 300 pounds (136 kg) of explosives and are usually anchored by cables and weights. They are exploded on contact.

Influence Mines

are triggered as a ship passes near them. Most modern submarine mines are of this type, and usually incorporate several triggering systems. In one system, detonation is caused by the magnetic field set up by the hull of a passing ship. (Warships are usually protected against this system by degaussing, that is, neutralizing the hull's magnetic field with an arrangement of electric cables. Thus, magnetic detonating systems are intended to be used primarily against merchant ships, which are not ordinarily equipped for degaussing.) Acoustic triggering systems are designed to explode the mine when sound is received from a ship's propellers or engines. Still another system is sensitive to changes in water pressure caused by a moving ship.

Each mine may be set off by one or more of its triggering systems. In many cases, a mine responds only to a complex mixture of simultaneous signals from at least two of its systems.

History of Submarine Mines

As early as the 16th century attempts were made to carry explosives in small boats and explode them against enemy ships. In the American Revolutionary War kegs of powder with slow-burning fuses were floated against British ships.

During the American Civil War, Lieutenant William B. Cushing destroyed the Confederate ram Albemarle in 1864 with a spar torpedo—an explosive charge carried at the end of a long pole in a small boat, to be exploded against an enemy ship. When Admiral David G. Farragut supposedly said, “Damn the torpedoes” he meant a Confederate mine field at Mobile Bay.

British and United States naval forces in World War I effectively closed the North Sea to shipping with extensive mine fields. In World War II German introduction of magnetic mines was a serious problem until degaussing was developed. German use of acoustic- and pressure-detonating systems was quickly countered. In the Korea War, 1950–53, the Communists made effective use of floating mines, carried by currents along the coasts. United States aircraft dropped influence mines into several of North Vietnam's harbors during the Vietnamese War. In the 1980's, in the Iran-Iraqi War, Iran placed mines in the Persian Gulf to try to cripple the oil shipping of Iraq and nations friendly to Iraq. Iraq, in turn, heavily mined the waters near Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War, 1991.

Minesweeping

Minesweeping is accomplished by removing, exploding, or neutralizing (making harmless) all mines in a body of water. The earliest method used was countermining, which consisted of blowing up mines with other explosives.

Minesweeping is usually done by specially built ships called minesweepers; helicopters are also used. Minesweepers are shallow-draft vessels with nonmetallic hulls; the engines and fittings are made of nonmagnetic metals, such as stainless steel. Traditionally, hulls have been made of wood, but since the 1980's glass-reinforced plastic, similar to fiberglass, has also been used.

Minesweepers and minesweeping helicopters carry sonic and electronic equipment for locating mines. They also carry mechanical and explosive cutters to sever the mooring lines of mines.

Contact mines are sunk by gunfire when they rise to the surface. Influence mines of the magnetic type are exploded by setting up strong magnetic fields between electrodes trailed at the ends of long cables behind the minesweeper. Mines with acoustic triggering systems are exploded with acoustic hammers (electrically operated devices that produce strong sound waves) towed behind the minesweeper. Mines sensitive to changes in water pressure are sometimes exploded by towing old ships over them.