Sea mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in the water with the aim of damage or destruction of the hulls of ships, submarines, ferries, boats and other boats. Unlike deep bombs, mines are in a “sleeping” position until they come into contact with the side of the ship. Naval mines can be used both to inflict direct damage to the enemy, and to impede his movement in strategic directions. In international law, the rules of mine warfare are established by the 8th Hague Convention of 1907.
Classification
Sea mines are classified according to the following criteria:
- Type of charge - ordinary, special (nuclear).
- The degrees of selectivity are ordinary (for any purpose), selective (recognize the characteristics of the vessel).
- Manageability - managed (by wire, acoustically, by radio), unmanaged.
- Multiples - multiple (a given number of goals), non-multiple.
- Type of fuse - non-contact (induction, hydrodynamic, acoustic, magnetic), contact (antenna, galvanic shock), combined.
- Type of installation - homing (torpedo), pop-up, floating, bottom, anchor.
Mines usually have a round or oval shape (with the exception of mine torpedoes), sizes from half a meter to 6 m (or more) in diameter. Anchors are characterized by a charge of up to 350 kg, bottom - up to a ton.
Historical reference
For the first time, sea mines began to be used by the Chinese in the 14th century. Their design was quite simple: under the water there was a tarred barrel with gunpowder, to which a wick led, supported on the surface by a float. For use, it was necessary to set fire to the wick at the right time. The use of such structures is already found in 16th-century treatises in the same China, but a more technological flint mechanism was used as a fuse. Advanced mines were used against Japanese pirates.
In Europe, the first naval mine was developed in 1574 by the Englishman Ralph Rabbards. A century later, the Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel, who served in the artillery department of England, proposed his design of ineffective "floating crackers."
American developments
A truly formidable design was developed in the United States during the War of Independence by David Bushnel (1777). It was the same powder keg, but equipped with a mechanism that detonated in a collision with the hull of the ship.
At the height of the civil war (1861) in the United States, Alfred Vaud invented a two-hull floating naval mine. A suitable name was chosen for her - "hellish machine." The explosive was located in a metal cylinder under water, which was held by a wooden barrel floating on the surface, which at the same time served as a float and a detonator.
Domestic developments
For the first time, an electric fuse for “infernal machines” was invented by Russian engineer Pavel Schilling in 1812. During the unsuccessful siege of Kronstadt by the Anglo-French fleet (1854) during the Crimean War, a sea mine designed by Jacobi and Nobel proved to be excellent. Fifteen hundred exhibited “infernal vehicles” not only fettered the movement of the enemy fleet, but they also damaged three large British ships.
The Jacobi-Nobel mine had its own buoyancy (thanks to air chambers) and did not need floats. This made it possible to install it secretly, in the water column, hanging on chains, or to let it flow.
Later, a spheroconic floating mine was actively used, held at the required depth by a small and inconspicuous buoy or anchor. It was first used in the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878) and was in service with the fleet with subsequent improvements until the 1960s.
Anchor mine
She was held at the required depth by the anchor end - a cable. The warming up of the first samples was provided by manual adjustment of the cable length, which required a lot of time. Lieutenant Azarov proposed a design that automatically installed sea mines.
The device was equipped with a system of lead cargo and anchors suspended above the cargo. The anchor end wound on a drum. Under the influence of the load and the anchor, the drum was released from the brake, and the end was wound from the drum. When the load reached the bottom, the pulling force of the end decreased and the drum stopped, due to which the "infernal machine" sank to a depth corresponding to the distance from the load to the anchor.
The beginning of the XX century
Massive sea mines began to be used in the twentieth century. During the boxing uprising in China (1899-1901), the imperial army mined the Haifa River, covering the path to Beijing. In the Russo-Japanese confrontation of 1905, the first mine war unfolded, when both sides actively used massive staging-barriers and minefield breakouts with the help of minesweepers.
This experience was transferred to the First World War. German naval mines impeded the landing of the British assault and hindered the actions of the Russian fleet. Submarines mined trade routes, bays and straits. The Allies did not remain in debt, almost blocking the exits from the North Sea for Germany (this took 70,000 minutes). The total number of used "infernal machines" by experts is estimated at 235,000 units.
Sea mines of World War II
During the war years, about a million mines were delivered at sea theaters of war, including over 160,000 in the waters of the USSR. Germany installed death instruments in the seas, lakes, rivers, in the ice Kara Sea and in the lower Ob River. Retreating, the enemy mined port moorings, raids, harbors. Especially brutal was the mine war in the Baltic, where the Germans delivered more than 70,000 units only in the Gulf of Finland.
As a result of the mine bombing, approximately 8,000 ships and ships sank. In addition, thousands of ships were severely damaged. In European waters, already in the post-war period, 558 ships were blown up by sea mines, 290 of which sank. On the very first day of the outbreak of war in the Baltic, the destroyer "Wrathful" and the cruiser "Maxim Gorky" were blown up.
German mines
German engineers at the beginning of the war surprised the Allies with new highly effective types of mines with a magnetic fuse. The sea mine did not explode from contact. It was enough for the ship to sail close enough to the deadly charge. His shock wave was enough to turn the board. Damaged ships had to interrupt the mission and return for repairs.
The English fleet suffered more than others. Churchill personally set the highest priority to develop a similar design and find an effective means for clearing mines, but British experts could not reveal the secret of the technology. The case helped. One of the mines dropped by a German plane got stuck in coastal silt. It turned out that the explosive mechanism was quite complex and was based on the Earth's magnetic field . Research has helped create effective mine minesweepers.
Soviet mines
Soviet naval mines were not so technologically advanced, but no less effective. The main models used were KB “Crab” and AG. "Crab" was an anchor mine. The KB-1 was adopted for service in 1931, and in 1940 the upgraded KB-3. Designed for mass mine productions, the fleet had about 8,000 units at the beginning of the war. With a length of 2 meters and a mass of over a ton, the device contained 230 kg of explosives.
A deep-sea antenna mine (AG) was used to flood the submarines and ships, as well as to complicate the navigation of the enemy fleet. In fact, it was a modification of the design bureau with antenna devices. In a combat setting in sea water, the electric potential was leveled between two copper antennas. When touching the antenna hull of a submarine or a vessel, the potential balance was disturbed, which caused a short circuit in the ignition circuit. One mine "controlled" 60 m of space. General characteristics correspond to the KB model. Later, copper antennas (requiring 30 kg of valuable metal) were replaced with steel ones, the product received the designation AGSB. Few people know what the sea mine of the AGSB model is called: deep-sea antenna with steel antennas and equipment assembled in a single unit.
Mine clearance
After 70 years, naval mines of World War II still pose a danger to peaceful shipping. A large number of them still remain somewhere in the depths of the Baltic. Until 1945, only 7% of the mines were cleared, the rest required decades of dangerous demining work.
The main burden of the fight against mine danger fell on the personnel of minesweepers in the postwar years. In the USSR alone, about 2,000 minesweepers and up to 100,000 personnel were involved. The risk level was extremely high due to constantly opposing factors:
- unknown borders of minefields;
- different installation depths of mines;
- various types of mines (anchor, antenna, with traps, non-contact bottom with instruments of urgency and multiplicity);
- the possibility of destruction by fragments of exploding mines.
Trawling technology
The method of trawling was far from perfect and dangerous. At the risk of being blown up by mines, the ships walked along the minefield and pulled the trawl behind them. Hence the constant stressful state of people from the expectation of a fatal explosion.
The mine that has been cut by the trawl and that has surfaced (if it did not explode under the ship or in the trawl) must be destroyed. In case of sea waves, mount a subversive cartridge on it. Undermining a mine is more reliable than firing it from a ship’s cannon, as a shell often pierced the shell of a mine without hitting a fuse. An unexploded mine was laid on the ground, presenting a new danger that was no longer amenable to liquidation.
Conclusion
A sea mine, the photo of which inspires fear with only one view, is still a formidable, deadly, and at the same time cheap weapon. Devices have become even more “smart” and more powerful. There are developments with an installed nuclear charge. In addition to these types, there are towed, pole, throwing, self-propelled and other "hellish cars".