Sea mines are a proven weapon of deterrence. Design principle of operation of bottom mines Sea mines and the fight against them
A sea mine is one of the most dangerous, insidious types of naval ammunition, which is designed to destroy enemy watercraft. They are hidden in the water. A sea mine is a powerful explosive charge placed in a waterproof casing.
Classification
Mines installed in the waters were divided according to the method of installation, according to the operation of the fuse, according to the frequency of occurrence, according to the method of control, and according to selectivity.
According to the installation method, there are anchor, bottom, floating-drifting at a certain depth, homing torpedo type, pop-up.
According to the method of triggering the fuse, ammunition is divided into contact, electrolyte-impact, antenna-contact, non-contact acoustic, non-contact magnetic, non-contact hydrodynamic, non-contact induction and combined.
Depending on the frequency, mines can be multiple or multiple, that is, the detonator is triggered after a single impact on it or a set number of times.
Based on controllability, ammunition is divided into guided or unguided.
The main installers of sea minefields are boats and surface ships. But mine traps are often set by submarines. In urgent and exceptional cases, minefields are also made by aviation.
First confirmed information about anti-ship mines
At various times, in coastal countries engaged in various military operations, the first simple means of anti-ship warfare were invented. The first chronicle mentions of sea mines are found in the archives of China in the fourteenth century. It was a simple tarred wooden box containing an explosive and a slow burning fuse. Mines were launched along the water flow towards Japanese ships.
It is believed that the first sea mine, which effectively destroys the hull of a warship, was designed in 1777 by the American Bushnell. These were barrels filled with gunpowder with impact fuses. One such mine struck a British ship off Philadelphia and completely destroyed it.
First Russian developments
Engineers, subjects of the Russian Empire, P. L. Schilling and B. S. Jacobi, took a direct part in improving existing models of sea mines. The first invented electric fuses for them, and the second developed the actual mines of a new design and special anchors for them.
The first Russian ground mine based on gunpowder was tested in the Kronstadt area in 1807. It was developed by the cadet school teacher I. I. Fitzum. Well, in 1812, P. Schilling was the first in the world to test mines with a non-contact electric fuse. The mines were powered by electricity supplied to the detonator by an insulated cable that was laid along the bottom of the reservoir.
During the war of 1854-1855, when Russia repelled the aggression of England, France and Turkey, more than a thousand mines of Boris Semenovich Jacobi were used to block the Gulf of Finland from the English fleet. After several warships were blown up on them, the British stopped their attempt to storm Kronstadt.
At the turn of the century
By the end of the 19th century, the sea mine had already become a reliable device for destroying the armored hulls of warships. And many states began to produce them on an industrial scale. The first mass installation of minefields was carried out in China in 1900 on the Haife River, during the Yihetuan Uprising, better known as the Boxer Uprising.
The first mine war between states also took place on the seas of the Far Eastern region in 1904-1905. Then Russia and Japan massively laid minefields on strategically important sea lanes.
Anchor mine
The most widespread in the Far Eastern theater of operations was the sea mine with an anchor lock. It was kept submerged by a mine rope attached to an anchor. The immersion depth was initially adjusted manually.
In the same year, Lieutenant of the Russian Navy Nikolai Azarov, on the instructions of Admiral S. O. Makarov, developed a design for automatically immersing a sea mine to a given depth. I attached a winch with a stopper to the ammunition. When the heavy anchor reached the bottom, the tension of the cable (minrep) weakened and the stopper on the winch was activated.
The Far Eastern experience of mine warfare was adopted by European states and widely used during the First World War. Germany has achieved the greatest success in this matter. German sea mines closed the Russian Imperial Fleet in the Gulf of Finland. Breaking this blockade cost the Baltic Fleet heavy losses. But the sailors of the Entente, especially Great Britain, constantly set mine ambushes, closing the exits of German ships from the North Sea.
World War II naval mines
During the Second World War, minefields turned out to be very effective and therefore very popular means of destroying enemy naval equipment. More than a million mines were laid across the sea. During the war years, more than eight thousand ships and transport vessels were blown up and sank there. Thousands of ships received various damages.
Sea mines were laid in different ways: a single mine, mine banks, mine lines, and a mine strip. The first three methods of mining were carried out by surface ships and submarines. And planes were used only to create a mine strip. The combination of individual mines, cans, lines and mine stripes creates a minefield area.
Nazi Germany thoroughly prepared to wage war on the seas. Mines of various modifications and models were stored in the arsenals of naval bases. And German engineers took the lead in the design and production of revolutionary types of sea mine detonators. They developed a fuse that was triggered not by contact with the ship, but by fluctuations in the Earth's magnitude near the steel hull of the ship. The Germans dotted all the approaches to the shores of England with them.
By the beginning of the great sea war, the Soviet Union was armed with mines that were not as technologically diverse as Germany, but no less effective. Only two types of mine anchors were stored in the arsenals. These are the KB-1, which entered service in 1931, and the AG aerial deep-sea mine, mainly used against submarines. The entire arsenal was intended for mass mining.
Technical means of combating mines
As the sea mine improved, methods were developed to neutralize this threat. Trawling sea areas is considered the most classic. During the Great Patriotic War, the USSR widely used minesweepers to break the mine blockade in the Baltic. This is the cheapest, least labor-intensive, but also the most dangerous method of clearing mines from shipping areas. A minesweeper is a kind of sea mine catcher. At a certain depth, he drags behind him a trawl with a device for cutting cables. When the cable holding a sea mine at a certain depth is cut, the mine floats. Then it is destroyed by all available means.
Floating mines
Until now, we have been talking about mines that precisely “know” their place under water, their combat post, and are motionless at this post. But there are also mines that move, float either under water or on the surface of the sea. The use of these mines has its own combat meaning. They do not have minreps, which means they cannot be trawled with ordinary trawls. You can never know exactly where and where such mines will come from; this is discovered at the last moment, when the mine has already exploded or appears very close. Finally, such mines, set adrift and entrusted to the sea waves, can “meet” and hit enemy ships on their way far from the place of deployment. If the enemy knows that floating mines have been placed in such and such an area, this hampers the movements of his ships, forces him to take special precautions in advance, and slows down the pace of his operations.
How does a floating mine work?
Any body floats on the surface of the sea if the weight of the volume of water displaced by it is greater than the weight of the body itself. Such a body is said to have positive buoyancy. If the weight of the volume of displaced water were less, the body would sink and its buoyancy would be negative. And finally, if the weight of a body is equal to the weight of the volume of water it displaces, it will occupy an “indifferent” position at any sea level. This means that it itself will remain at any sea level and will neither rise up nor fall down, but only move at the same level with the current. In such cases, the body is said to have zero buoyancy.
A mine with zero buoyancy would have to remain at the depth to which it was immersed when dropped. But such reasoning is correct only in theory. On the. In fact, at sea, the degree of buoyancy of the mine will change.
After all, the composition of water in the sea is not the same in different places, at different depths. In one place there are more salts in it, the water is denser, and in another there are less salts in it, its density is less. The temperature of the water also affects its density. And the water temperature changes at different times of the year and at different hours of the day and at different depths. Therefore, the density of sea water, and with it the degree of buoyancy of the mine, is variable. More dense water will push the mine upward, and in less dense water the mine will go to the bottom. It was necessary to find a way out of this situation, and the miners found this way out. They arranged the floating mines in such a way that their buoyancy only approaches zero, it is zero only for water in a certain place. Inside the mine there is an energy source - an accumulator or battery, or a reservoir of compressed air. This energy source powers the motor that rotates the mine’s propeller.
Floating mine with propeller
1 - screw; 2 - clock mechanism; 3 - camera for battery; 4 - drummer
The mine floats under the current at a certain depth, but then it fell into denser water and was pulled upward. Then, as a result of the change in depth, the hydrostat, which is ubiquitous in mines, begins to work and turns on the motor. The mine's screw rotates in a certain direction and pulls it back to the same level at which it floated before. What would happen if the mine could not stay at this level and went downwards? Then the same hydrostat would force the motor to rotate the screw in the other direction and raise the mine to the depth specified during installation.
Of course, even in a very large floating mine it is impossible to place such an energy source so that its reserve would last for a long time. Therefore, a floating mine “hunts” its enemy - enemy ships - for only a few days. These few days she is “in waters where enemy ships could collide with her. If a floating mine could stay at a given level for a very long time, it would eventually float into such areas of the sea and at such a time when its ships could get on it.
Therefore, a floating mine not only cannot, but should not serve for long. The miners supply it with a special device equipped with a clock mechanism. As soon as the period for which the clock mechanism is wound has passed, this device drowns the mine.
This is how special floating mines are designed. But any anchor mine can suddenly become floating. Its minerep can break off, fray in the water, rust will corrode the metal, and the mine will float to the surface, where it will rush with the current. Very often, especially during the Second World War, warring countries deliberately laid surface-floating mines on the likely routes of enemy ships. They pose a great danger, especially in poor visibility conditions.
An anchor mine, which has involuntarily turned into a floating mine, can give away the place where the barrier is placed and can become dangerous for its ships. To prevent this from happening, a mechanism is attached to the mine that sinks it as soon as it floats to the surface. It may still happen that the mechanism does not work and the broken mine will swing on the waves for a long time, turning into a serious danger for any ship that collides with it.
If the anchor mine was deliberately turned into a floating one, then in this case it is not allowed to remain dangerous for a long time; it is also equipped with a mechanism that sinks the mine after a certain period of time.
The Germans also tried to use floating mines on the rivers of our country, launching them downstream on rafts. An explosive charge weighing 25 kilograms is placed in a wooden box at the front of the raft. The fuse is designed in such a way that the charge explodes when the raft collides with any obstacle.
Another floating river mine is usually cylindrical in shape. Inside the cylinder is a charging chamber filled with 20 kilograms of explosives. The mine floats underwater at a depth of a quarter of a meter. A rod rises upward from the center of the cylinder. At the upper end of the rod, just at the very surface of the water, there is a float with whiskers sticking out in all directions. The whiskers are connected to a percussion fuse. A long camouflage stem, willow or bamboo, is released from the float onto the surface of the water.
River mines are carefully disguised as objects floating along the river: logs, barrels, boxes, straw, reeds, grass bushes.
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sea mine
A sea mine is a naval munition installed in the water to destroy enemy submarines, surface ships and ships, as well as to impede their navigation. It consists of a body, an explosive charge, a fuse and devices that ensure installation and retention of the mine under water in a certain position. Sea mines can be laid by surface ships, submarines and aircraft (planes and helicopters). Sea mines are divided according to their purpose, the method of holding them in place, the degree of mobility, the principle of operation of the fuse and controllability after installation. Sea mines are equipped with safety, anti-mine devices and other means of protection.
There are the following types of sea mines.
Aviation sea mine– a mine, which is deployed from aircraft carriers. They can be bottom-based, anchored or floating. To ensure a stable position in the air portion of the trajectory, aircraft sea mines are equipped with stabilizers and parachutes. When falling onto the shore or shallow water, they explode from self-destruct devices.
Acoustic sea mine– a proximity mine with an acoustic fuse that is triggered when exposed to the target’s acoustic field. Hydrophones serve as receivers of acoustic fields. Used against submarines and surface ships.
Antenna sea mine– an anchor contact mine, the fuse of which is triggered when the ship’s hull comes into contact with a metal cable antenna. They are usually used to destroy submarines.
Towed sea mine- a contact mine, in which the explosive charge and fuse are placed in a streamlined body, which ensures that the mine is towed by a ship at a given depth. Used to destroy submarines in the First World War.
Galvanic impact sea mine - contact mine with a galvanic impact fuse, triggered when the ship hits the cap protruding from the mine body.
Hydrodynamic sea mine– a proximity mine with a hydrodynamic fuse, triggered by changes in pressure in the water (hydrodynamic field) caused by the movement of the ship. Receivers of the hydrodynamic field are gas or liquid pressure switches.
Bottom sea mine– a non-contact mine that has negative buoyancy and is installed on the seabed. Typically, the depth of mine placement does not exceed 50-70 m. The fuses are triggered when their receiving devices are exposed to one or more physical fields of the ship. Used to destroy surface ships and submarines.
Drifting sea mine- an anchor mine torn from its anchor by a storm or a trawl, floating to the surface of the water and moving under the influence of wind and current.
Induction sea mine– a proximity mine with an induction fuse, triggered by changes in the strength of the ship’s magnetic field. The fuse only fires under a moving ship. The receiver of the ship's magnetic field is an induction coil.
Combined sea mine - a proximity mine with a combined fuse (magnetic-acoustic, magneto-hydrodynamic, etc.), which is triggered only when exposed to two or more physical fields of the ship.
Contact sea mine- a mine with a contact fuse, triggered by mechanical contact of the underwater part of the ship with the fuse itself or the body of the mine and its antenna devices.
Magnetic sea mine– a proximity mine with a magnetic fuse that is triggered at the moment when the absolute value of the ship’s magnetic field reaches a certain value. A magnetic needle and other magnetically sensing elements are used as a magnetic field receiver.
Proximity sea mine- a mine with a proximity fuse, triggered by the influence of the physical fields of the ship. Based on the principle of operation of the fuse, non-contact sea mines are divided into magnetic, induction, acoustic, hydrodynamic and combined.
Floating sea mine– an unanchored mine floating underwater in a given depression using a hydrostatic device and other devices; moves under the influence of deep sea currents.
Anti-submarine sea mine - a mine for destroying submarines underwater as they pass at various diving depths. They are equipped primarily with proximity fuses that react to the physical fields inherent in submarines.
Rocket-propelled naval mine- an anchor mine that emerges from the depths under the influence of a jet engine and hits a ship with an underwater explosion of a charge. The launch of the jet engine and the separation of the mine from the anchor occurs when exposed to the physical fields of the ship passing over the mine.
Self-propelled sea mine - Russian name for the first torpedoes used in the second half of the 19th century.
Pole sea mine(source) - a contact mine used in the 60-80s. XIX century An explosive charge in a metal casing with a fuse was attached to the outer end of a long pole, which was extended forward in the bow of the mine boat before a mine attack.
Anchor sea mine- a mine that has positive buoyancy and is held at a given depression under water using a minrep (cable) connecting the mine to an anchor lying on the ground.
This text is an introductory fragment.Naval ammunition included the following weapons: torpedoes, sea mines and depth charges. A distinctive feature of these ammunition is the environment in which they are used, i.e. hitting targets on or under water. Like most other ammunition, naval ammunition is divided into main (for hitting targets), special (for illumination, smoke, etc.) and auxiliary (training, blank, for special tests).
Torpedo- a self-propelled underwater weapon consisting of a cylindrical streamlined body with tails and propellers. The warhead of a torpedo contains an explosive charge, a detonator, fuel, an engine and control devices. The most common caliber of torpedoes (hull diameter at its widest part) is 533 mm; samples from 254 to 660 mm are known. The average length is about 7 m, weight is about 2 tons, explosive charge is 200-400 kg. They are in service with surface (torpedo boats, patrol boats, destroyers, etc.) and submarines and torpedo bomber aircraft.
Torpedoes were classified as follows:
- by type of engine: combined-cycle (liquid fuel burns in compressed air (oxygen) with the addition of water, and the resulting mixture rotates a turbine or drives a piston engine); powder (gases from slowly burning gunpowder rotate the engine shaft or turbine); electric.
— by guidance method: unguided; erect (with a magnetic compass or gyroscopic semi-compass); maneuvering according to a given program (circulating); homing passive (based on noise or changes in the properties of water in the wake).
— by purpose: anti-ship; universal; anti-submarine.
The first samples of torpedoes (Whitehead torpedoes) were used by the British in 1877. And already during the First World War, steam-gas torpedoes were used by the warring parties not only in the sea, but also on rivers. The caliber and dimensions of torpedoes tended to steadily increase as they developed. During the First World War, torpedoes of 450 mm and 533 mm caliber were standard. Already in 1924, the 550-mm steam-gas torpedo “1924V” was created in France, which became the first-born of a new generation of this type of weapon. The British and Japanese went even further, designing 609-mm oxygen torpedoes for large ships. Of these, the most famous is the Japanese type “93”. Several models of this torpedo were developed, and on the “93” modification, model 2, the charge mass was increased to 780 kg to the detriment of range and speed.
The main “combat” characteristic of a torpedo—the explosive charge—usually not only increased quantitatively, but also improved qualitatively. Already in 1908, instead of pyroxylin, the more powerful TNT (trinitrotoluene, TNT) began to spread. In 1943, in the United States, a new explosive, “torpex,” was created specifically for torpedoes, twice as strong as TNT. Similar work was carried out in the USSR. In general, during the Second World War alone, the power of torpedo weapons in terms of the TNT coefficient doubled.
One of the disadvantages of steam-gas torpedoes was the presence of a trace (exhaust gas bubbles) on the surface of the water, unmasking the torpedo and creating the opportunity for the attacked ship to evade it and determine the location of the attackers. To eliminate this, it was planned to equip the torpedo with an electric motor. However, before the outbreak of World War II, only Germany succeeded. In 1939, the Kriegsmarine adopted the G7e electric torpedo. In 1942, it was copied by Great Britain, but was able to establish production only after the end of the war. In 1943, the ET-80 electric torpedo was adopted for service in the USSR. However, only 16 torpedoes were used until the end of the war.
To ensure a torpedo explosion under the bottom of the ship, which caused 2-3 times more damage than an explosion at its side, Germany, the USSR and the USA developed magnetic fuses instead of contact fuses. The German TZ-2 fuses, which were put into service in the second half of the war, achieved the greatest efficiency.
During the war, Germany developed maneuvering and torpedo guidance devices. Thus, torpedoes equipped with the “FaT” system during the search for a target could move “snake” across the ship’s course, which significantly increased the chances of hitting the target. They were most often used towards a pursuing escort ship. Torpedoes with the LuT device, produced since the spring of 1944, made it possible to attack an enemy ship from any position. Such torpedoes could not only move like a snake, but also turn around to continue searching for a target. During the war, German submariners fired about 70 torpedoes equipped with LuT.
In 1943, the T-IV torpedo with acoustic homing (ASH) was created in Germany. The torpedo's homing head, consisting of two spaced hydrophones, captured the target in the 30° sector. The capture range depended on the noise level of the target ship; usually it was 300-450 m. The torpedo was created mainly for submarines, but during the war it also entered service with torpedo boats. In 1944, the modification “T-V” was released, and then “T-Va” for “schnellboats” with a range of 8000 m at a speed of 23 knots. However, the effectiveness of acoustic torpedoes turned out to be low. The overly complex guidance system (it included 11 lamps, 26 relays, 1760 contacts) was extremely unreliable - out of 640 torpedoes fired during the war, only 58 hit the target. The percentage of hits with conventional torpedoes in the German fleet was three times higher.
However, the Japanese oxygen torpedoes had the most powerful, fastest and longest range. Neither allies nor opponents were able to achieve even close results.
Since there were no torpedoes equipped with the maneuvering and guidance devices described above in other countries, and Germany had only 50 submarines capable of launching them, a combination of special ship or aircraft maneuvers was used to launch torpedoes to hit the target. Their totality was defined by the concept of torpedo attack.
A torpedo attack can be carried out: from a submarine against enemy submarines, surface ships and ships; surface ships against surface and underwater targets, as well as coastal torpedo launchers. The elements of a torpedo attack are: assessing the position relative to the detected enemy, identifying the main target and its protection, determining the possibility and method of a torpedo attack, approaching the target and determining the elements of its movement, choosing and occupying a firing position, firing torpedoes. The end of a torpedo attack is torpedo firing. It consists of the following: the firing data is calculated, then they are entered into the torpedo; The ship performing torpedo firing takes a calculated position and fires a salvo.
Torpedo firing can be combat or practical (training). According to the method of execution, they are divided into salvo, aimed, single torpedo, area, successive shots.
Salvo firing consists of the simultaneous release of two or more torpedoes from torpedo tubes to ensure an increased probability of hitting the target.
Targeted shooting is carried out in the presence of accurate knowledge of the elements of the target’s movement and the distance to it. It can be carried out with single torpedo shots or salvo fire.
When firing torpedoes over an area, torpedoes cover the probable area of the target. This type of shooting is used to cover errors in determining the elements of target movement and distance. A distinction is made between sector firing and parallel torpedo firing. Torpedo firing over an area is carried out in one salvo or at time intervals.
Torpedo firing by sequential shots means firing in which torpedoes are fired sequentially one after another at specified time intervals to cover errors in determining the elements of the target’s movement and the distance to it.
When firing at a stationary target, the torpedo is fired in the direction of the target; when firing at a moving target, it is fired at an angle to the direction of the target in the direction of its movement (with anticipation). The lead angle is determined taking into account the target's heading angle, the speed of movement and the path of the ship and torpedo before they meet at the lead point. The firing distance is limited by the maximum range of the torpedo.
In World War II, about 40 thousand torpedoes were used by submarines, aircraft and surface ships. In the USSR, out of 17.9 thousand torpedoes, 4.9 thousand were used, which sank or damaged 1004 ships. Of the 70 thousand torpedoes fired in Germany, submarines expended about 10 thousand torpedoes. US submarines used 14.7 thousand torpedoes, and torpedo-carrying aircraft 4.9 thousand. About 33% of the fired torpedoes hit the target. Of all ships and vessels sunk during the Second World War, 67% were torpedoes.
Sea mines- ammunition secretly installed in the water and designed to destroy enemy submarines, ships and vessels, as well as to impede their navigation. The main properties of a sea mine: constant and long-term combat readiness, surprise of combat impact, difficulty in clearing mines. Mines could be installed in enemy waters and off their own coast. A sea mine is an explosive charge enclosed in a waterproof casing, which also contains instruments and devices that cause the mine to explode and ensure safe handling.
The first successful use of a sea mine took place in 1855 in the Baltic during the Crimean War. The ships of the Anglo-French squadron were blown up by galvanic shock mines laid by Russian miners in the Gulf of Finland. These mines were installed under the surface of the water on a cable with an anchor. Later, shock mines with mechanical fuses began to be used. Sea mines were widely used during the Russo-Japanese War. During the First World War, 310 thousand sea mines were installed, from which about 400 ships sank, including 9 battleships. In World War II, proximity mines (mainly magnetic, acoustic and magnetic-acoustic) appeared. Urgency and multiplicity devices and new anti-mine devices were introduced into the design of non-contact mines.
Sea mines were installed both by surface ships (minelayers) and from submarines (through torpedo tubes, from special internal compartments/containers, from external trailer containers), or dropped by aircraft (usually into enemy waters). Anti-landing mines could be installed from the shore at shallow depths.
Sea mines were divided according to the type of installation, according to the principle of operation of the fuse, according to the frequency of operation, according to controllability, and according to selectivity; by media type,
By type of installation there are:
- anchored - a hull with positive buoyancy is held at a given depth under water at an anchor using a minerep;
- bottom - installed on the bottom of the sea;
- floating - drifting with the flow, staying under water at a given depth;
- pop-up - installed on an anchor, and when triggered, it releases it and floats up vertically: freely or with the help of a motor;
- homing - electric torpedoes held underwater by an anchor or lying on the bottom.
According to the principle of operation of the fuse, they are distinguished:
— contact — exploding upon direct contact with the ship’s hull;
- galvanic impact - triggered when a ship hits a cap protruding from the mine body, which contains a glass ampoule with the electrolyte of a galvanic cell;
- antenna - triggered when the ship's hull comes into contact with a metal cable antenna (used, as a rule, to destroy submarines);
- non-contact - triggered when a ship passes at a certain distance from the influence of its magnetic field, or acoustic influence, etc. Non-contact ones are divided into: magnetic (react to the target’s magnetic fields), acoustic (react to acoustic fields), hydrodynamic (react to dynamic change in hydraulic pressure from the movement of the target), induction (react to changes in the strength of the ship’s magnetic field (the fuse is triggered only under a ship that is moving), combined (combining fuses of different types). To make it difficult to combat proximity mines, emergency devices were included in the fuze circuit, delaying the bringing of a mine into a firing position for any required period, multiplicity devices that ensure the explosion of a mine only after a specified number of impacts on the fuse, and decoy devices that cause a mine to explode when an attempt is made to disarm it.
According to the multiplicity of mines, there are: non-multiple (triggered when the target is first detected), multiple (triggered after a specified number of detections).
According to controllability, they are distinguished: uncontrollable and controlled from the shore by wire or from a passing ship (usually acoustically).
Based on selectivity, mines were divided into: conventional (hit any detected target) and selective (capable of recognizing and hitting targets of given characteristics).
Depending on their carriers, mines are divided into ship mines (dropped from the deck of ships), boat mines (fired from torpedo tubes of a submarine) and aviation mines (dropped from an airplane).
When laying sea mines, there were special ways to install them. So under mine jar meant an element of a minefield consisting of several mines placed in a cluster. Determined by the coordinates (point) of the production. 2, 3 and 4 min cans are typical. Larger jars are rarely used. Typical for deployment by submarines or surface ships. Mine line- an element of a minefield consisting of several mines laid linearly. Determined by the coordinates (point) of the beginning and direction. Typical for deployment by submarines or surface ships. Mine strip- an element of a minefield consisting of several mines placed randomly from a moving carrier. Unlike mine cans and lines, it is characterized not by coordinates, but by width and direction. Typical for deployment by aircraft, where it is impossible to predict the point at which the mine will land. The combination of mine banks, mine lines, mine strips and individual mines creates a minefield in the area.
Naval mines were one of the most effective weapons during World War II. The cost of producing and installing a mine ranged from 0.5 to 10 percent of the cost of neutralizing or removing it. Mines could be used both as an offensive weapon (mining enemy fairways) and as a defensive weapon (mining one’s own fairways and installing anti-landing mines). They were also used as a psychological weapon - the very fact of the presence of mines in the shipping area already caused damage to the enemy, forcing them to bypass the area or carry out long-term, expensive mine clearance.
During World War II, more than 600 thousand mines were installed. Of these, Great Britain dropped 48 thousand by air into enemy waters, and 20 thousand were dropped from ships and submarines. Britain laid 170 thousand mines to protect its waters. Japanese aircraft dropped 25 thousand mines in foreign waters. Of the 49 thousand mines installed, the United States dropped 12 thousand aircraft mines off the coast of Japan alone. Germany deposited 28.1 thousand mines in the Baltic Sea, the USSR and Finland – 11.8 thousand mines each, Sweden – 4.5 thousand. During the war, Italy produced 54.5 thousand mines.
The Gulf of Finland was the most heavily mined during the war, in which the warring parties laid more than 60 thousand mines. It took almost 4 years to neutralize them.
Depth charge- one of the types of weapons of the Navy, designed to combat submerged submarines. It was a projectile with a strong explosive enclosed in a metal casing of cylindrical, spherocylindrical, drop-shaped or other shape. A depth charge explosion destroys the hull of a submarine and leads to its destruction or damage. The explosion is caused by a fuse, which can be triggered: when a bomb hits the hull of a submarine; at a given depth; when a bomb passes at a distance from a submarine not exceeding the radius of action of a proximity fuse. A stable position of a spherocylindrical and drop-shaped depth charge when moving along a trajectory is given by the tail unit - the stabilizer. Depth charges were divided into aircraft and shipborne ones; the latter are used by launching jet depth charges from launchers, firing from single-barrel or multi-barrel bomb launchers, and dropping them from stern bomb releasers.
The first sample of a depth charge was created in 1914 and, after testing, entered service with the British Navy. Depth charges found widespread use in the First World War and remained the most important type of anti-submarine weapon in the Second.
The operating principle of a depth charge is based on the practical incompressibility of water. A bomb explosion destroys or damages the hull of a submarine at depth. In this case, the energy of the explosion, instantly increasing to a maximum in the center, is transferred to the target by the surrounding water masses, through them destructively affecting the attacked military object. Due to the high density of the medium, the blast wave along its path does not significantly lose its initial power, but with increasing distance to the target, the energy is distributed over a larger area, and accordingly, the damage radius is limited. Depth charges are distinguished by their low accuracy - sometimes about a hundred bombs were required to destroy a submarine.
Naval ammunition installed in the water to destroy enemy submarines, surface ships and ships, as well as to impede their navigation. It consists of a body, an explosive charge, a fuse and devices that ensure installation and retention of the mine under water in a certain position. Sea mines can be laid by surface ships, submarines and aircraft (planes and helicopters). Sea mines are divided according to their purpose, the method of holding them in place, the degree of mobility, the principle of operation of the fuse and controllability after installation. Sea mines are equipped with safety, anti-mine devices and other means of protection.
There are the following types of sea mines.
An aircraft sea mine is a mine that is deployed from aircraft carriers. They can be bottom-based, anchored or floating. To ensure a stable position in the air portion of the trajectory, aircraft sea mines are equipped with stabilizers and parachutes. When falling onto the shore or shallow water, they explode from self-destruct devices.
An acoustic sea mine is a non-contact mine with an acoustic fuse that is triggered when exposed to the target's acoustic field. Hydrophones serve as receivers of acoustic fields. Used against submarines and surface ships.
An antenna sea mine is an anchor contact mine, the fuse of which is triggered when the ship's hull comes into contact with a metal cable antenna. They are usually used to destroy submarines.
A towed sea mine is a contact mine in which the explosive charge and fuse are placed in a streamlined body, which ensures that the mine is towed by a ship at a given depth. Used to destroy submarines in the First World War.
Galvanic impact sea mine is a contact mine with a galvanic impact fuse that is triggered when the ship hits the cap protruding from the mine body.
A hydrodynamic sea mine is a non-contact mine with a hydrodynamic fuse, triggered by changes in pressure in the water (hydrodynamic field) caused by the movement of the ship. Receivers of the hydrodynamic field are gas or liquid pressure switches.
A bottom sea mine is a non-contact mine that has negative buoyancy and is installed on the seabed. Typically, the depth of mine placement does not exceed 50-70 m. The fuses are triggered when their receiving devices are exposed to one or more physical fields of the ship. Used to destroy surface ships and submarines.
A drifting sea mine is an anchor mine torn from its anchor by a storm or a trawl, which floats to the surface of the water and moves under the influence of wind and current.
An induction sea mine is a non-contact mine with an induction fuse, triggered by changes in the strength of the ship's magnetic field. The fuse only fires under a moving ship. The receiver of the ship's magnetic field is an induction coil.
A combined sea mine is a non-contact mine with a combined fuse (magnetic-acoustic, magneto-hydrodynamic, etc.), which is triggered only when it is exposed to two or more physical fields of the ship.
Contact sea mine - a mine with a contact fuse, triggered by mechanical contact of the underwater part of the ship with the fuse itself or the body of the mine and its antenna devices.
A magnetic sea mine is a non-contact mine with a magnetic fuse that is triggered at the moment when the absolute value of the ship's magnetic field reaches a certain value. A magnetic needle and other magnetically sensing elements are used as a magnetic field receiver.
A non-contact sea mine is a mine with a non-contact fuse that is triggered by the influence of the physical fields of the ship. Based on the principle of operation of the fuse, non-contact sea mines are divided into magnetic, induction, acoustic, hydrodynamic and combined.
Floating sea mine - an unanchored mine that floats underwater in a given depression using a hydrostatic device and other devices; moves under the influence of deep sea currents.
Anti-submarine sea mine - a mine for destroying submarines in a submerged position as they pass at various diving depths. They are equipped primarily with proximity fuses that react to the physical fields inherent in submarines.
A jet-floating sea mine is an anchor mine that floats up from the depths under the action of a jet engine and hits a ship with an underwater explosion of a charge. The launch of the jet engine and the separation of the mine from the anchor occurs when exposed to the physical fields of the ship passing over the mine. Self-propelled sea mine is the Russian name for the first torpedoes used in the second half of the 19th century.