INTRODUCTION TO THE MINE WARFARE OF OUR CENTURY

INTRODUCTION  /  INTRODUCTION - Part 2

Discussing mine warfare topic we’ll make a short excursion into history, jumping over the history of ancient barriers, from “wolf pits”, “garlic”, “moats”, “Greek fire”, Chinese cannons and powder barrels under the fortress walls.

Let's start with the First World War, when the concept of mine warfare was formed, although then its meaning was somewhat different: the war of mines, tunnels (the sapper name originated from the French word sape – pickaxe).

It is difficult to say when the term “mine warfare" appeared. In any case, before the Second World War mines were considered as auxiliary, secondary weapon. During the war, the use of mines increased, but by the 1918 the mines had not completely left the category of auxiliary weapon. And what we call mines today, in those days were called “self-explosive charges”, practically not used in 1914. According to some reports, hand grenades tied to the poles of wire fences with cords attached to barbed wire began to be used as anti-personnel mines in 1915. The exhaust. That's when the famous “trip-wire mineы" appeared.

During the Russian Civil War and before the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939, in border conflicts, engineering and sapper units were mainly engaged in the construction of fortifications, river crossings, etc. During the 1939 Soviet-Finnish war the sappers faced well-equipped lines of defense, with long-term fortifications and barriers, plus extensive minefields that the Soviet troops had to pass. The experience was taken into account, and Red Army begun to reorganize engineering and sapper units with limited success due to limited time left. Most of Soviet sappers were killed or captured during the initial months, but later newly formed units took part in reduction of enemy's advance.

M. Croll in his "The History of Mines" provides very interesting data - in total, about 110 ml. mines layed from 1939 to 1945. Of these, 94 530 thousand were removed and destroyed in 1945-49. The remaining 15 470 thousand acted on battlefield or were destroyed during the war, while some remain in the ground to this day. Of course, of all these figures, the most (relatively) accurate relate to the number of mines removed. It is no longer possible to establish the truth, because a significant number of mines were manufactured in the troops and, of course, did not fall into the number of 110 million; a large number of mines were repeatedly removed and reused; British and American miners during the war had no accounting documents on mining, which was mandatory and performed both in the Red Army and in the Wehrmacht.

In general, we can say that the vast majority of mines hadn’t worked for their intended purpose - namely destruction of tanks and soldiers,. The general attention to mines is rather the result of their main damaging factor affecting the psyche of people, among the military called “fear of mines”. In this regard, the mines fulfilled their purpose during the war, and they are still doing so. To this day, mines and unexploded ordnance kill people in the battlefields of both World Wars, in Afghanistan, in Africa, in the Middle East, in Chechnya, in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone, etc.

Nowadays the concepts of mines and mine warfare are reduced to the use of certain explosive charges connected to the means of detonation and placed in order to destroy or disable enemy military equipment and personnel. Moreover, for the most part, the victim puts the mine into action herself.

The warfare in Ukraine has brought the mine war to a new qualitative level. By itself, this war is not like any of the previous ones, but actively uses all the experience gained in previous wars, multiplied by modern technical capabilities. The entire arsenal of engineering equipment is used: from modern standard means of installing all types of mines and means of neutralizing them, including remote ones, to elementary traps and surprises “homemade” from improvised means. There are a lot of action materials from the scene in social networks, the mere viewing of which provides unlimited educational material and amazes the imagination with the almost limitless ingenuity of the human mind in the extermination of its own kind. And this is only a small fraction of what is actually manufactured and installed by both sides.

Everything is mined. Terrain in front of defensive lines, roads, buildings, structures, abandoned trenches, dugouts, equipment, etc., as well as burials and bodies of the dead. No one is limited to simple tripwires and regular mines. Surprise mines are installed even under antipersonnel mines. The mining density reaches 6-7 mines per square meter (!). Anti-personnel mines are installed under and over anti-tank ones and vice versa. Anti-tank mines are installed deeper than usual in such a way that they are triggered after the passage of mine tank trawls, or after the passage of several pieces of equipment. A so-called “sandwich” can be installed when an anti-tank mine is installed at a depth of about 80 cm, a projectile or a 120mm mine is placed under it, and a piece of metal pipe is installed on the fuse so that the mine detector reacts to it. It can also be installed on top of a piece of metal over the same “sandwich". It is detected, neutralized by a sapper, including an overhead charge, and detonates later.

A lot of traps are set specially for the sappers. From tripwires triggered when the target sensor is cut, to the modernization of standard mines triggered when the fuse is turned out, an attempt to insert a pin or install a fuse.

Perhaps we can say that mining and mine clearance in the modern conditions of modern war has crystallized into one of the most creative military professions that require not only constant replenishment of knowledge and skills, but also continuous self-improvement and expansion of the baggage of theoretical knowledge, practical skills brought to automatism. And here is the most interesting thing: as a consequence of the changing conditions of warfare, new military specialties and a new type of serviceman appear, not only being a professional of the highest category in their field, creatively suited to solving problems, but simply living their profession.

О наиболее значимых и интересных тенденциях, направлениях и инновациях в инженерно-саперном подробнее (в пределах допустимого, конечно) расскажем позже.

We will tell more about the most significant and interesting trends and innovations (within acceptable limits, of course) later.


Published: 11/09/23