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The Whatziss, answered

By The Armorer on May 8, 2007 | | Comments (7)

Okay, even though I provided some pretty clear hints to some individuals in conversation (heck, I gave 'em the answer, pretty much) no one got close on this one, nor has anyone been trying, so I guess it's time to answer it. Well, the Moat Monster answer at least involved water.

German sea mine fuzing horn

This is a German naval mine contact horn. Made of lead, with an acid ampoule in it, when a ship brushed up against one of these it would deform the lead, crush the ampoule, and initiate the fuze.

Now you know what those little fiddly bits on mines look like close up. Well, at least German WWII ones...

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7 Comments

By Trias on May 8, 2007 8:38 AM
Well I'm happy with my cap claim. Not that it covers much ground. ooo lookee brd. This is a post war fake sir! See it's not even real lead SNAP...uhoh...
 
By LarryK on May 8, 2007 11:57 AM
OK ... quick and no doubt stupid question. In the movies we usually see these mines floating near the surface or sliding alongside a sub. If on the surface there is Navy markman who grew up in the woods huntin' critters who is going to show the crew how to take care of a mine. He is either using a Garrand or maybe a 50 cal to blow the mine up and eliminate the danger. Fact or fiction? And would he have to hit one of the horns or would a hit on the body of the mine explode it? (I imagine a hit from a 50 would but a 30-06 wouldn't right?) Or perhaps, this is all part of the stuff of movie warfare like the guy who shows his buddy a picture of his wife,girlfriend, baby is deader than an Ensign wearing a red shirt on an Enterprise away party.
 
By NevadaDailySteve on May 8, 2007 2:52 PM
Didn't the Iraqis use a mine pretty much like the old WWII mines during the first Gulf war? Spiky lugs and all?
 
By OD on May 8, 2007 3:21 PM
Damn, a Herz horn. I would have got that if I'd been here.
   
By OD on May 8, 2007 3:58 PM
As a matter of fact my dad is a minesweeping expert and was attached to both the Royal and US navies for years doing it (he was originally RCN, who were considered great minesweeping experts after WW2). LarryK, it's true people shoot at mines with rifles and machine-guns, however the intent is not to blow them up but to sink them. The sphere is mostly a flotation chamber, with the explosive in the middle. So put a hole in it and the mine should sink. Of course the fact that the mine is on the surface usually means it's gone wrong. They're supposed to be moored so that the mine is just under the water. Free-floating mines means that either one has come loose, or somebody is breaking the rules of naval warfare. You might think that laying such a mine would be pretty hairy once the horns are screwed in. (I see I misspelled them above - it should be Hertz horns not Herz). But the mine usually sits in its sinker, a shaped concrete box or suchlike, during laying. Then it's reeled out to a preset depth after a timer gives the minelayer time to skedaddle. The sinker is designed to protect the Hertz horns from being squished during laying.
 
By OD on May 8, 2007 4:08 PM
OF course, I should have said that the number one reason for a moored mine being on the surface to be shot at is that its cable has been cut by a minesweeper. In fact the standard minesweeping technique for moored mines doesn't generally blow them up (which would destroy the precious sweep) but cuts the cables, bringing them to the surface to be destroyed or sunk by gunfire. Here, LarryK, I dug up this account of somebody shooting at floating mines with a Garand from a helicoper during the Korean war: The Commies had been frequently placing floating mines in the harbor at night. No doubt, they anticipated that the outgoing tides would float some of these boomers into our ships. Early in the morning the command destroyer radioed us for help. They had sighted two floating mines, that were in the middle of their four anchored ships. We were asked to try and sink these mines because the ships could not fire at them for fear of hitting one of the other destroyers. Chief Slavin was our best rifleman, so with our one and only Garand 30 calibre rifle, we both went hunting. We found the two floaters and while I hovered the helicopter he shot and sank one of them. Then, he shot at the second mine until he ran out of ammunition. We then marked the area with a dye marker and returned to the LST to obtain more ammunition and also to refuel the helicopter. Chief Slavin and I went back to our hunting ground and he fired some more at the second floater mine. He shot and shot, but it wouldn't sink. I yelled to him, "I know damn well that you are hitting that son of a bitch. Let's go take a closer look." As I eased the bird into forward motion, he pulled back on my shoulder with all of his strength and yelled, "It's boiling;" I did a quick stop just in time to prevent being blown up with the rest of that ex-ploding mine, as it raised a column of water two hundred feet high. Seconds later six more underwater mines exploded, most likely from the concussion from the first one. One of the six was directly below the helicopter and although it created a great upheaval of water it didn't affect us. We really felt the concussion, however. A sailor on the bridge of a mine sweeper, one half mile away, just happened to have a camera focused on our show and he snapped a picture exactly at the right moment, when all hell broke loose. We painted eight more mines on the side of our chopper that day. Later we would brag a little when we hovered next to the mine sweepers, which only had two or three painted on their smokestacks. (COMMINRON 3) sent a dispatch to (COMNAVFE) the next day detailing our exploits with the exploding mines. He recommednded the use of helicopters in the future eradication of floating mines, we had shot and sunk two additional mines before (COMMINRON 3) received a dispatch from (COMNAVFE) to all Naval Forces Far East that, "Helicopters will not(repeat) will not attempt to destoy mines in the future." So that was the end of that.