Infernal Machines

Of all the devices for killing men which have been elaborated upon in World War II, none is more insidious than the land mine. British troops pursuing Rommel were delayed last week while their sappers (engineers) fished in the earth to remove land mines buried beneath the African desert. Moscow reported that several Russian tanks had hit mines buried deep in the snow, but that the way had been cleared by mortar fire.

Land mines are generally divided into two classes: anti-tank and antipersonnel. The German IP2 is a typical anti-tank mine, disc-shaped, 10 1/2 in. in diameter, 2 1/4 in. thick, weight 9 Ib. (5 Ib. TNT, 4 Ib. steel casing, detonator, etc.). Anti-tank mines are buried in the ground at strategic points through which approaching enemy tanks must pass. The number used may run into astronomical figures: a field 400 by 750 yards containing mines placed 1 1/2 yards apart requires 5,000 mines. As many as 25,000 Russian mines have been dug out of one field by Nazi engineers (a path is cleared first; the rest of the field later)

The resulting explosion, even of a 19-lb. German Teller mine which contains 11 Ib. of TNT, is no more than enough to blow the tread off a tank, or sometimes to blast a hole in its thin-skinned belly. But stalled tanks are vulnerable targets.

Booby traps are the most frequently used anti-personnel mines, and no more devilish contraption has been found since gunpowder was invented. Nazis and Japanese are equally adept at using booby traps to blow to shreds unsuspecting men who pick up letters, light fires in stoves, turn doorknobs in onetime enemy territory, or pick up dead soldiers to bury them.

Not all anti-personnel land mines are secreted booby traps. Some, usually sensitive two-pounders, are buried like antitank mines. Since they kill comparatively few of the enemy, their psychological hazard is greater than their apparent value.

No man can pursue his enemy as wholeheartedly if he knows his own next step may be his eternal undoing. From Russia last fortnight came reports that Germans had contrived the most ingenious antipersonnel mine yet: a small mine which, when tripped, blasts a larger mine into the air, where it explodes and scatters lethal fragments 100 yards.

Anti-personnel mines are a development of World War II. French patrols during the "phony" war of 1939-40 went out and never returned. Several patrols were thus annihilated before it was found that the Germans had strung thin wires through no man's land. Thereafter, the French patrols drove cattle and pigs ahead of them. Says Lieut. Colonel Paul W. Thompson, U.S. authority on land mines: "As long as the supply of animals holds out, the method has its points. Its efficacy is indicated in German reports describing the odor of decaying swine flesh which pervaded the Arndt Forest."

The removal of land mines is the sort of horrifying job that defies description. All armies depend on their-engineers to do it. One detector is a sort of divining rod that works on an electromagnetic circuit, creates a buzz in the engineer's earphones when held over a buried mine. Such equipment is cumbersome on a battlefield, and British sappers prefer the old poke-&-dig method (see cut). Once the mines are discovered, each--whether there are 250 or 25,000--must be dug up with a fine touch.

When the British cleared pathways for their tanks through the German mine fields at El Alamein they sent out sappers to do the job. All night long they dug their way through, a fresh man stepping in each time to take up the work when the man ahead of him was blown to kingdom come. For some of the battalions who did the job it was as costly as a charge into the face of machine-gun fire--and required a far cooler type of courage. Mines were responsible for a big share of the British casualties at El Alamein.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.