Description
This antipersonnel mine is 6 inches in diameter and 7 inches high. It contains 0.5 pound of TNT explosive surrounded by shrapnel. The lid of the mine extends all the way to the base of the charge container. The top of the charge container is closed with a plywood disk. The disk has a hole in the center for insertion of a detonator into the main charge. An MUV pull fuze is inserted horizontally through a hole in the side of the lid. Its inserted detonator rests on a small sack of powdered explosive, which acts as a booster charge to ignite the second detonator and the main charge. (The fuze, the powder sack, and the detonator are inserted only when the mine is laid.) This mine is waterproofed with tar or pitch.
The Soviet pot mine is used as a controlled mine, detonated by a concealed observer, or as a trip-wire mine in mine fields.
Functioning
The mine functions either by a pull wire attached to the striker retaining pin of the fuze or by electrical ignition, an electric detonator being used in place of the pull fuze. Ignition of the electric detonator (or of the fuze) sets off the powder sack, the second detonator, and the main charge, scattering the shrapnel and metal fragments.
It is believed that this mine is of the bounding type and that the MUV fuze is used to set off the propellant powder in the sack. This intermediate explosion forces the mine into the air out of its outer case, where it explodes a few feet above the ground like the German S-mines 35 and 44.
Hazardous Components
Main charge - TNT, 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
Physical Data
Diameter - 6 in. (152 mm)
Height - 7 in. (178 mm)
See Also
Landmine, APERS, S-Mine 35
Landmine, APERS, S-Mine 44
Source(s)
