by Jon E. Lewis
Helicopter landing site trap
Where there is a limited number of helicopter LSS, such as in the jungle or if you get into the habit of using an LS more than once, you could find this waiting for you. The grenades or charges on the poles would usually be hidden in the trees.
MINES
The war is over and the soldiers departed. The odd rusting tank or water-filled crater bears mute witness to years of bitter fighting, but civilian traffic now passes over rebuilt roads and bridges. As you pass across a field towards the edge of the village there is a dull boom from across the track. The plough stops dead, the ox stands patiently – but the farmer lies in a bloody heap. The troops may have returned to barracks, but their mines remain on duty.
Combat zones and old battlefields the world over are dominated by minefields. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia remain littered with mines: the old infiltration routes along the borders were showered with air dropped mines by the US Air Force and unexploded ordnance in the south continues to inflict casualties. Afghanistan has been similarly treated by the Soviet forces and more recently by the opposing sides in the civil war.
Throughout North Africa the desert still conceals lethal leftovers from World War II, and in the western Sahara the Polisario guerillas and the Moroccan army both sowed new fields. In the Falklands, tiny plastic anti-personnel mines are moved out of the marked danger areas by the winter storms and continue to present a serious hazard. You may be lucky and never need to know how to survive the mined battlefield; but if by accident or design you find yourself tip-toeing across eggshells in some foreign field, a knowledge of mines could mean the difference between life and death.
A bewildering selection of mines confronts any soldier trying to learn how to counter them. Different nations manufacture mines that produce similar effects but are of totally different construction. The only general preparation you can make is to learn how mines are used, how they are constructed and how armies mark minefields and make them safe for themselves.
But if you’re on operations against an unexpected opponent, you won’t have a chance to become familiar with his mines prior to hostilities. This is what happened to the sappers of the Falklands Task Force, who had little idea of the type of mines used by the Argentinians. In the end, young sappers had to infiltrate booby-trapped minefields and recover examples of live mines.
Mines are being developed with increasing sophistication to keep phase with their primary target – the battle tank – and have an enormous psychological as well as physical impact on an enemy. If you are to survive the mined battlefield, you must appreciate that you are in as much danger from “friendly” devices as you are from your enemy’s. Remember, the mine is a double edged weapon.
THE BASIC PRINCIPLES
A mine is made up of a fuse, a detonator, a booster (sometimes), a main charge, and a body or case. An initiating action causes the fuse to function and this starts the explosive train, whereby a flame or concussion is caused by electrical or mechanical means and is applied to the detonator. This then sets off the booster, if there is one, or the main charge. A variety of initiating actions can set off the process:
1 Pressure (downward force caused by a man’s foot or the wheel or track of a vehicle).
2 Pulling (on a tripwire attached to the fuse)
3 Tension release (release of tension such as cutting a tripwire, that prevents the fuse from acting).
4 Pressure release (release of pressure that prevents the fuse from acting).
5 Electrical (closing a circuit that activates the fuse).
6 Timer rundown (a preset timer arrives at a point that activates the fuse).
Other types of initiating actions include vibrations, magnetic influence, frequency induction and audiofrequency.
TYPES OF MINE
There are three main types of mine, anti-tank, anti-personnel and chemical. Anti-tank mines, designed to damage or destroy tanks and other vehicles and their occupants can be blast-type, disabling wheels or tracks; vertical penetration, attacking the bottom of a vehicle; or horizontal effect, placed off routes to attack the side of vehicles.
Anti-personnel mines are designed to disable or kill personnel. The blast type have an explosive charge and detonate when stepped on. Fragmentation types contain shrapnel or have a case which fragments when the main charge fires, and are divided into static mines (which detonate in place), bounding mines (which bound into the air and explode several feet above the ground), and horizontal effect mines (which expel a spray of shrapnel in one direction).
Not all mines are harmful. You may come across phoney mines – dummies planted to make the enemy think they have found a live one, and waste time tackling it or avoiding it.
HANDLING MINES
Like any other explosive material, mines and their fuses must be handled carefully. Most mines have safety devices to stop them going off by accident or prematurely, but as a soldier you may also find yourself having to improvize mines in the field, so get used to taking great care.
Any amount of explosive can be fused and placed as a mine. Grenades and some demolition charges already have fuse wells for installing firing devices; bombs, mortars and artillery shells can be used; and incendiary fuels in containers can be rigged as flame mines. The aspects of handling mines are:
1 Fusing
This means installing the detonator and fuse assembly. Fuse wells should be clean and free of foreign matter when the fuse and detonator are put in.
2 Arming
When the fuse is installed, you arm the mine by removing all safety devices. The mine is then ready to function.
3 Safing
In general, this is the reverse of arming. If you put the mine in place yourself and kept it in sight the whole time, you can remove it from its hole for safing. If not, attach a long rope or wire, take cover, and pull the mine from the hole. Safing involves checking the sides and bottom of the mine for anti-handling devices and disarming them if found; replacing all pins, clips or other safety devices; turning the arming dial, if there is one, to “Safe” or “Unarmed”; and removing the fuse and, if possible, the detonator.
4 Neutralising
This means destroying the mine if safing is thought to be too risky, as in the case of improvized mines which will probably be unstable and dangerous. But do not detonate chemical mines: they will contaminate the area.
ANTI-HANDLING TECHNIQUES
There are several devices for preventing someone disabling a mine. Enterprising engineers are apt to booby-trap their mines to make it difficult and dangerous to clear them. Anti-lift or anti-handling devices when attached to a mine, will detonate the mine or another charge nearby if the mine is lifted or pulled out of its hole. An anti-disturbance device sets off the explosion if the mine is disturbed or shaken. Shielded, twisted firing wire can be attached to command-detonated mines to defeat enemy ECM. Long pulse or multi-pulse fuses can defeat tank mine-clearing rollers and explosive mine-clearing charges.
ANTI-HANDLING DEVICES
Most anti-tank mines cannot be set off by a man’s weight, so unless they are used in conjunction with AP mines, infantry could lift them. For this reason, many mines will have anti-handling devices fitted to additional detonator wells.
Slightly more sneaky is the use of a second mine to booby-trap the first using a pullfiring device. Most anti-tank mines are equipped with extra detonator wells, but the same effect can be achieved with quantities of explosive placed with the mine.
Another way of dealing with mine-clearing rollers is to place an unfused anti-tank mine (or explosive charge) in the ground, connected with detonating cord to a pressure fuse of firing device about three metres away. The roller then rolls over the unfused mine and activates the fuse when the tank itself is over the mine or charge.
AVOIDING MINES
The US Army manual on mine warfare says, “train to prevent panic”. This is easy to say but rather harder to achieve. As you stand on a jungle trail with a screaming le
gless man in front of you, just what do you do? Rushing out of a live minefield is an obvious recipe for disaster, but staying put in combat will probably leave you in a killing ground under heavy fire. There is no guaranteed safe way out of a minefield, but if you know what different mines look like and understand how they work and the correct way of moving to safety, then you are in with a chance.
The only certain way of surviving the mined battlefield is to avoid blundering into a minefield in the first place. Although the famous skull and crossbones sign with “Achtung Minen” written above will only be seen in the cinema, well-trained armed forces do mark their minefields. Memorize the signs illustrated here and make sure you are fully briefed on marking used by an enemy. Nato minefields are signposted on the friendly side with triangular red markers; the side nearer the enemy is only shown by a single strand of wire about knee high. The Soviet markings shown are those used before the break up of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, but are useful examples all the same.
NATO minefield marking
All minefields will be marked as in the diagram with the exception of “nuisance clusters”. The area will be fenced with a strand at ankle and waist height with the “Mines” inverted triangle every 20m. Mine-field safe lanes will only be marked on the friendly side and maximum use will be made of existing fences so look at the signs, not at the type of fence
SOVIET MINEFIELD MARKINGS
This sign indicates a Russian rectangular minefield. However, if the engineers were pressed for time your side of the field may only be marked by lines of sticks and stones. A German sign could say “Minen” and a Polish one “Miny”
The Soviet side of the minefield may have had a sign like this. The arrow points in the direction of the nearest safe lane through the field, not the minefield.
The minefield gap or safe lane was marked only on the Soviet side of the minefield, with a sign like this. Note that to the left the sign has the same word as the minefield sign as it points to the mines. The opposite direction leads to the passage, which was marked either with two rows of flags or semi-circular lane markers, camouflaged on the side facing the enemy. The safe lane is between the flags or semi circles
Marking safe lanes is a tedious and labour intensive job. The US Army uses the Hunting Lightweight Marking System, a set of steel-tipped plastic poles and yellow reflective tape. The kit is man-portable and the pins are robust enough to be hammered through tarmac. Unfortunately, not all armies are so diligent; witness the way the Argentinians scattered mines all over the Falkland Islands without even keeping a proper record of their position.
TYPES OF MINES
Air-dropped mines
The Soviets mined many guerilla infiltration routes in Afghanistan with air-dropped devices. Similar mines were used by the US Army in South East Asia and they will no doubt continue to be encountered in counter insurgency campaigns throughout the world. They are quick to lay and highly effective: Italian VS50 mines can be dropped by helicopter at a rate of 2,000 per pass. They are also the one type of minefield you can escape by rapid withdrawal from the area if you are unfortunate enough to have them dropped on your current position. Most air-dropped mines do not arm themselves for a couple of minutes, but you should make sure your identification is correct before hot-footing it away. Other characteristics of air-dropped mines are:
1 Fuses can be delay, pressure or magnetic.
2 Anti-tank and anti-personnel mines may be dropped together.
3 Most will self-destruct within a few days or even hours, but do not bank on them all self-destructing at the same time. Mines that self-destruct can be useful for security forces, which can then sweep the area in safety after the mines have done their damage.
Soviet liquid mines
One type of scatterable mine introduced by the Soviets in Afghanistan deserves a mention, although their use creates some interesting moral problems. They are small plastic cells filled with liquid explosives and are camouflaged or even shaped to look like transistor radios, dolls or other harmless items. They detonate when moved or compressed and are thought to contain an unstable explosive similar to nitroglycerine, which is safer when frozen. They are yet another good reason to be alert to the presence of booby traps. Stay switched on even when there is no obvious danger.
Soviet anti-personnel mines
Before you launch yourself onto the battlefield you must have a thorough knowledge of Soviet mines that have been exported worldwide in the last 30 years.
The PFM-1 AP mine/bomblet
Air delivered, plastic and filled with liquid explosive, this has a bulbous, irregularly-shaped body coloured green, sand or arctic white. Any distortion of the body will fire it; this includes light pressure while handling. It does not self-destruct and cannot be neutralized.
The PMD series
This wooden box has a hinged lid, overlapping the sides with a deep groove cut in it above the fuse assembly, and rests on the striker retaining pin. Some have a safety rod locking the lid. Pressure on the lid forces the winged retaining nut from the striker and fires the mine.
OZM-4
Pressure, command or tripwire detonated, this bounds 1.5–2.4 metres into the air and explodes showering fragments over a 50-m diameter.
POMZ-2M
A wooden stake with cast iron fragmentation body, activated by tripwire, this can be neutralized by securing the striker retaining pin and removing the wire. It is normally laid in clusters of three or four.
The PMN
The rubber-covered pressure plate on top of this small plastic mine is secured to the body by a thin metal bank. The mine has a side hole for the firing mechanism and primer charge, opposite which is an initiator adaptor. The mine is armed 15–20 minutes after removing the safety pin.
East European anti-tank mines
TM-62
This family of mines come in plastic, metal, wood or waterproof cardboard casings and are detonated by 175–600kg so a man’s weight will not usually set them off. They have a two-second delay, so the tank is well over the mine when it explodes.
TM-46
The commonest mine in Soviet service, this has a metal body and can be laid by hand or machine. It is pressure-plate activated with an operating force of 210 kg.
TMN-46
Like the TM-46 this is activated by 210 kg pressure and can be fitted with a tilt rod fuse. The important difference is the extra fuse well in the bottom of the mine for booby trapping.
TMD-B
This is a wooden box mine dating from World War II. The top three slats are pressure boards, the middle one is hinged to allow the fuse to be inserted. When armed, the pressure board is held in place with a wooden locking bar.
TMA-3
A Yugoslavian plastic mine with no metallic parts found all over the world, this is blast and water resistant. It has three fuse wells and a fourth in the bottom for booby trapping. Operating weight is 180–350 kg.
MRUD anti-personnel mine
The Yugoslavian equivalent of the Claymore, this fires 650 steel balls over a 60-degree arc with a lethal radius of 50m. Activated by tripwire or remote control it will not damage tanks but will wreck soft-skin vehicles.
Mine injuries
One of the most widely encountered type of mine is the Soviet PMD series of wooden and anti-personnel mines. Simple to lay and difficult to detect, they are used by guerilla forces all over the world. They are activated by pressure and were encountered by members of 22 SAS serving in Oman. It was observed that the local “Firqha” – tribesmen fighting for the government and officered by SAS personnel – suffered less damage than the SAS if they stepped on a mine: treading on a PMD generally led to the tribesman losing his toes but SAS men in DMS or desert boots lost their whole foot at the ankle. British soldiers unfortunate enough to be wearing highneck boots like the US Cocorran jump boots often lost their leg up to the knee. Mines, like all explosives, will take the line of least resistance to cut.
Unfortunatel
y it is not true to say that you can always minimize injury by swapping your combat boots for a pair of Ho Chi Minh sandals. In the Vietnam War, the tiny American “gravel” anti-personnel mines contained only a very small charge. It was enough to cripple someone wearing light footwear, but a hefty pair of boots would actually reduce the damage. Moral of the tale; find out what mines you may be facing and act accordingly.
WHERE TO EXPECT MINES
Mines are frequently positioned in specific locations rather than laid in rows in a field like potatoes. Favourite sites are roads and trails, especially junctions and bottlenecks. They may have been placed to block one route while troops observe another, ready to engage a target with direct fire. In jungle or thick forest the available tracks are screamingly obvious places to choke with mines, forcing the enemy to hack his way noisily through the undergrowth.
Detecting Mines
Mines vary in scale from anti-personnel weapons such as the US “gravel” mine, shaped like and little bigger than a tea bag, to massive anti-tank mines designed to pierce armour plate and destroy a 60 ton armoured vehicle. The sheer diversity of modern mines rules out any single answer to them. All you can do is to employ as many techniques and procedures as possible. Each one provides a degree of safety; combined, they can significantly weaken a powerful weapon.
Military counter-mine operations consist of detection of individual mines; breaching and clearing minefields; sowing a cleared enemy minefield with your own mines; prevention of enemy mining; and detection of enemy mine-laying. In combat you must make full use of all intelligence-gathering resources to obtain enemy mine information. This will enable you to plan the use of sensors, aggressive countermining or other tactics as necessary to defeat his efforts. There are a number of basic rules to surviving the mined battlefield:
