Comments for Naval UXO Disposal - English Style

Naval UXO Disposal - English Style

2010-03-12T15:23:52Z

Let set the mood by paying homage to the Home Guard of old:

Seven decades have come and gone, and the Royal Navy is still protecting English shores from Hitler's evil designs.

Today, the British newspaper The Daily Mail, details the disposal of an unexploded naval mine just outside of the Dorchester Harbour. Article: HERE.

Boq

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-13

2010-03-13T19:00:18Z

Strobe - don't feel bad. We're a hard audience. I own the place and I don't get any slack at all.

And your conclusion did have some support, as you point out.

Comment from strobe on 2010-03-13

2010-03-13T18:37:23Z

Sorry if I was wrong, guys.
I was going by the decription of it as a "ground mine", and the photo of a "similar mine" laying in a back garden.
The fact that this one was in the water I put down to poor aim or wind drift.

I've had personal experience of these devices.
At one time the Germans modified some air-dropped sea mines for use against land targets - they replaced the shipping fuze with an impact one, often with a delayed action timer.

As a kid in London I used a shopping bag with a fat silk handle (very comfy), recycled from the parachute rigging of one such mine. It had flattened over half a dozen houses when it finally went off.
BTW, this one-tonner landed miles from any halfway legitimate target.

Curiously, it was on that bomb-site that I did get a spear point through my foot.
One of my mates thought that he could throw one of the spikes of a demolished iron fence like a spear - but it was much heavier than he could manage...

Comment from Jon The Mechanic on 2010-03-13

2010-03-13T11:15:50Z

I've got a serviceable spear point that's over 1000 years old...

Just make sure you don't stab yourself with that too.

Comment from Casey on 2010-03-12

2010-03-13T05:29:45Z

I actually have on a shelf an IBM PC with 2 360k floppies, 256k ram, and green screen mono monitor. Works great. Actually I have over a dozen old PCs including a rare Zenith luggable with 9" amber monitor. They all work. Except for the HP MiniSport's built-in screen. Still works with an external CGA monitor.

My '92 Integra runs well, but I need to scrape the $$ together to kill some growing rust on the back-left quarter panel...

So there are still some reliable things out there... :)

Comment from Argent on 2010-03-12

2010-03-13T02:00:54Z

Remind me not to pick up any mines designed by Strobe Industries.

Comment from NevadaDailySteve on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T20:26:32Z

Dad's Army, hilarious. Frazier: "We're doomed, dooooomed.

Comment from BillT on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T20:13:55Z

Annoys the tail gunner if the things are always blowing up in his face.

If the rear gunner in a Schnellbomber had a view that was unobstructed by empennage, he had a bigger problem than a mine going off in his face -- it meant that his ride had snapped in half.

I've got a serviceable spear point that's over 1000 years old...

About six inches long, sharpened on both edges, slightly skewed point? Dang -- I'll betcha it's the one I lost in the Teutoburgerwald ....

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T19:52:17Z

Hey, I've got rifles that are serviceable, have even been through more than one war, that are over 100 years old...

I've got a serviceable spear point that's over 1000 years old...

Comment from AFSister on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T19:23:27Z

I have to agree with you, Wolfwalker, and I'll add to your list: remember when appliances like washers and dryers lasted for 20 years? Now we're lucky to get 5 out of them.

We are a disposable society, which has lead to manufacturers making less durable products, knowing that we will replace them and therefore increase their sales. It's the same reason the everlasting lightbulb will never see the light of day (pardon the pun), and why it costs less to buy an entire razor than replacement razor blades.

That being said... that's one hella BOOOOOOM! sweet.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T18:13:08Z

Strobe - mines are suppsed to explode when triggered by a passing vessel, not when dropped. They most emphatically are *not* supposed to explode when dropped, since they were usually dropped from low altitudes. Annoys the tail gunner if the things are always blowing up in his face.

Comment from strobe on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T18:01:36Z

Whoa, guys!

It worked perfectly?
It was SUPPOSED to explode when it was dropped, so many years ago.
And even now, it needed a hunk of RN demolition explosive to persuade it to go off at long last.

That's not the level of perfection I'd want in any weapon.

Comment from Neffi on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T17:48:44Z

...and Dad's Army was a good show!
"That was a German hand-grenade, and you're all dead!"
"It's a spud, Sarge..."

Comment from Neffi on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T17:45:41Z

I lived in England from 1966-1976, beaches on the east and south coasts saw mines drifting ashore on a regular-ish basis...

Comment from BillT on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T16:13:28Z

Witness the V-22 and the F-35.

Our engineering know-how has already gone somewhere else entirely...

Comment from wolfwalker on 2010-03-12

2010-03-12T15:51:32Z

My car is wearing out after less than 10 years. Computers are obsolete in two or three years. I'm lucky if a pair of shoes lasts more than one.

This mine was sixty years old, and still perfectly capable of functioning as designed.

Why is it that the very best of our engineering know-how always seems to go into our weapons, and nowhere else?