World War II Allied Sabotage Devices and Booby Traps by Gordon L. Rottman

Author:Gordon L. Rottman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War II Allied Sabotage Devices and Booby Traps
ISBN: 9781472801623
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

A bridge over the Guil River at Embrun, France, destroyed by the French Resistance. Rather than attempting to blow the heavy vertical pilings, charges could be placed across the center of bridge spans from side to side. A charge sufficient to fracture the deck and the horizontal stringers supporting it would allow the deck to break and collapse under its own weight; even if the bridge failed to collapse fully, its weakened state could prevent its use. The abutments – the brick or masonry retaining walls supporting its ends – were the most massively constructed parts of a bridge; it required huge amounts of explosive to collapse them, but if this could be achieved it made reconstruction even more difficult and time-consuming. (IWM HU57103)

The booby trap was usually placed beneath or to the side of the mine. In rare instances one or more other mines were linked to a booby-trapped mine by detcord for simultaneous detonation. The booby-trap charge might be activated by a pull-firing device attached to the mine, or by a pressure-release device activated when the mine was lifted off it. A more sophisticated method was to position a charge with a pressure-release device on its side, with the activating lever against the mine’s side surface; failing to discover a booby trap beneath the mine, an engineer might lift it without making an all-round check, with fatal consequences. Some mines had secondary fuse wells for firing devices on the bottom or side; a blasting cap and pull-firing device could be fitted to the secondary fuse well, with a short pull-wire running to a buried anchoring stake beneath or to the side of the mine.

The unit laying the minefield was supposed to make a scaled diagram of the field’s layout, with one or more landmarks indicated by direction and distance so the orientation of the field could be determined. Any booby-trapped mines were to be indicated, as was the type of booby trap. Any intentional gaps and lanes for the passage of patrols were also marked. In the “fog of war,” however, the shifting and relief of units and the passage of time often led to these diagrams being lost, or a unit failing to pass them to a relieving unit, thus rendering the removal or breaching of “friendly” minefields just as dangerous for them as it was for the enemy.

In order to launch attacks, units had to clear and mark gaps through their own minefields. Initially the mine removal party strove simply to locate the extent of the minefield and mark its boundaries, at least in the vicinity of the breach or gap that was to be cleared. Mines were then detected by visual indicators, magnetic mine detectors, or by the most common and effective means – probing. The easiest, quickest, and safest way to clear or breach a minefield was to detonate the individual mines with small demolition charges, which of course negated the booby-trapping threat. However, this method could not always be used owing to shortage of explosives, the potential for damage to nearby structures, or a wish not to alert the enemy.

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