Mine sea (photo)

A marine mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy hulls of ships, submarines, ferries, boats and other boats. Unlike deep-seated bombs, mines are in a "sleeping" position until they come into contact with the ship's side. Naval mines can be used both to inflict direct damage to the enemy, and to impede his movements in strategic directions. In international law, the rules for conducting a mine war were established by the 8th Hague Convention of 1907.

Classification

Marine mines are classified according to the following characteristics:

• Type of charge - conventional, special (nuclear).
• The degrees of selectivity are ordinary (for any purpose), selective (they recognize the characteristics of the vessel).
• Manageability - managed (by wire, acoustically, by radio), unmanaged.
• Multiplicities are multiple (a given number of goals), not multiple.
• Type of fuse - non-contact (induction, hydrodynamic, acoustic, magnetic), contact (antenna, galvanic shock), combined.
• Type of installation - homing (torpedo), floating, floating, bottom, anchor.

Mines usually have a round or oval shape (except for min-torpedoes), sizes from half a meter to 6 m (and more) in diameter. Anchorocks are characterized by a charge of up to 350 kg, bottom - up to a ton.

Historical reference

For the first time, marine mines began to be used by the Chinese in the 14th century. Their design was quite simple: under the water was a tarred barrel of gunpowder, to which led a wick, supported on the surface by a float. For use it was required at the right time to set fire to the wick. The use of such structures occurs already in treatises of the 16th century in the same China, but as a detonator a more sophisticated flint mechanism was used. Improved mines were used against Japanese pirates.

In Europe, the first sea mine was developed in 1574 by an Englishman Ralph Rabbards. A century later the Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel, who served in the British artillery department, proposed his own design for inefficient "floating firecrackers."

American developments

A truly formidable construction was developed in the USA during the War of Independence by David Bushnell (1777). It was still the same powder keg, but equipped with a mechanism that detonated during a collision with the hull of the ship.

At the height of the civil war (1861) in the United States, Alfred Wade invented a double-hull floating sea mine. The name for it was picked up by the suitable one - the "hellish machine". The explosive was located in a metal cylinder, which was under water, which was kept floating on the surface of a wooden barrel, which simultaneously served as a float and detonator.

Domestic developments

For the first time an electric fuse for "infernal machines" was invented by the Russian engineer Pavel Schilling in 1812. During the unsuccessful siege of Kronstadt by the Anglo-French fleet (1854), the sea structure of Jacobi and Nobel proved to be very successful in the Crimean War. One and a half thousand exhibited "infernal machines" not only hindered the movement of the enemy fleet, but they also damaged three large British steamers.

Mina Jacobi-Nobel possessed its own buoyancy (thanks to air chambers) and did not need floats. This allowed it to be installed secretly, in the water column, suspended on chains, or let down with the flow.

Later, a spheroconic floating mine was actively used, held at the required depth by a small and hardly noticeable 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

It was kept at the required depth by the anchor end - the rope. The heating of the first samples was provided by manually adjusting the length of the cable, which required a lot of time. Lieutenant Azarov proposed a design that allowed the automatic installation of sea mines.

The device was equipped with a system of lead load and an armature suspended above the load. The anchor end was wound on a drum. Under the action of the load and the anchor, the drum was released from the brake, and the end was unwound from the drum. When the load reached the bottom, the pulling force of the end decreased and the drum stalled, so that the "hellish machine" sank to a depth corresponding to the distance from the load to the anchor.

Early 20th century

Mass sea mines began to be used in the twentieth century. During the boxer uprising in China (1899-1901), the imperial army mined the Haife River, covering the way to Beijing. In the Russian-Japanese confrontation in 1905, the first mine war began, when both sides actively used mass staging-barrage and minefield breakthroughs with the help of minesweepers.

This experience was adopted in the First World War. German naval mines hampered the landing of the British landing and hampered the actions of the Russian fleet. Submarines mined trade routes, bays and straits. The Allies did not stay in debt, practically blocking the exits from the North Sea for Germany (this required 70,000 mines). The total number of used "infernal machines" experts estimated at 235 000 pieces.

Naval mines of World War II

During the war, about one million mines were delivered to the sea theaters of operations, including more than 160,000 mines in the waters of the USSR. Germany installed tools for death in the seas, lakes, rivers, in the ice of the Kara Sea and in the lower reaches of the Ob River. Retreating, the enemy mined port quays, raids, harbors. The mine war in the Baltic was especially brutal, where the Germans supplied more than 70,000 pieces in the Gulf of Finland alone.

As a result of the mine explosion, about 8,000 ships and ships sank. In addition, thousands of ships received heavy damage. In European waters, already in the post-war period, 558 ships were blown up on sea mines, 290 of which were sunk. On the first day of the beginning of the war, the destroyer "Wrathful" and the cruiser Maxim Gorky exploded in the Baltic.

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 mine of the sea exploded not from contact. The ship had enough to swim close enough to the deadly charge. His shock wave was enough to turn the board. The damaged ships had to interrupt the mission and return for repair.

The English fleet suffered the most. Churchill personally put the highest priority to develop a similar design and find an effective means for neutralizing mines, but British experts could not disclose the secret of technology. The case helped. One of the mines dropped by the German aircraft was bogged down in the coastal mud. It turned out that the explosive mechanism was rather complicated and was based on the magnetic field of the Earth. Studies have helped to create effective mine-sweepers.

Soviet mines

Soviet naval mines were not so technological, but no less effective. In general, KB "Krab" and AG models were used. "Crab" was an anchor mine. KB-1 was adopted in service in 1931, in 1940 - modernized KB-3. Designed for mass mine production, the fleet had about 8,000 units at the outbreak of the war. At a length of 2 meters and a mass of over a ton, the device contained 230 kg of explosive.

Mine antenna deep-sea (AG) was used to submerge submarines and ships, as well as to impede navigation of the enemy fleet. In fact, it was a modification of the KB with antenna devices. When fighting in sea water between two copper antennas, the electrical potential was equalized. When the antenna housing of the submarine or vessel touched the potential balance, which caused the closure of the electric circuit of the fuse. 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 by steel, the product received the designation AGSB. Few know how the AMGS sea mine is called: deep-sea antenna with steel antennas and equipment assembled into a single unit.

Mine clearance

Seventy years later, World War II mines still represent a danger to a peaceful shipping company. A lot of them still remain somewhere in the depths of the Baltic. Until 1945, only 7% of mines were rendered harmless, while the rest required decades of dangerous demining work.

The main burden of combating mine risk lay on the personnel of the minesweepers in the post-war years. In the USSR alone, about 2000 trawlers and up to 100,000 personnel were involved. The degree of risk was exceptionally high due to constantly counteracting factors:

• Uncertainty of minefield boundaries;
• Different depths of installation mines;
• Various types of mines (anchor, antenna, with traps, bottom non-contact devices with urgency and multiplicity);
• The possibility of destruction of fragments of broken mines.

Technology of trawling

The method of trawling was far from perfect and dangerous. At the risk of exploding on mines, the ships marched through the minefield and dragged the trawl behind them. Hence the constant stress of people from waiting for a deadly explosion.

Cut off by a trawl and a surfaced mine (if it did not explode under a ship or in a trawl) must be destroyed. When the sea is agitated, secure a subversive cartridge on it. Undermining a mine is more reliable than its execution from a ship's cannon, since often the shell penetrated the mine shell without touching the fuse. An unexploded combat mine landed on the ground, presenting a new danger that was no longer amenable to elimination.

Conclusion

The marine mine, the photo of which inspires fear with only one kind, is still a formidable, deadly, yet cheap weapon. Devices have become even more "smart" and more powerful. There are developments with the established nuclear charge. In addition to the listed species, there are towed, sixth, propelling, self-propelled and other "hellish machines".