We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:06:00 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Seven decades have come and gone, and the Royal Navy is still protecting English shores from Hitler's evil designs. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:23:52 -0600
And your conclusion did have some support, as you point out.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100051 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100051 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:00:18 -0600 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...

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100050 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100050 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:37:23 -0600 I've got a serviceable spear point that's over 1000 years old...

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

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100032 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100032 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:15:50 -0600
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... :)

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100026 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100026 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:29:45 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100022 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100022 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:00:54 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100013 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100013 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:26:32 -0600 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 ....

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100012 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100012 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:13:55 -0600
I've got a serviceable spear point that's over 1000 years old...

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100010 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:52:17 -0600
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.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100008 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100008 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:23:27 -0600 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100003 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100003 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:13:08 -0600
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.

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100002 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-100002 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:01:36 -0600 "That was a German hand-grenade, and you're all dead!"
"It's a spud, Sarge..."]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99999 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99999 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:48:44 -0600 I lived in England from 1966-1976, beaches on the east and south coasts saw mines drifting ashore on a regular-ish basis... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99998 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99998 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:45:41 -0600
Our engineering know-how has already gone somewhere else entirely...


]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99994 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99994 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:13:28 -0600
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? 
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99993 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/03/naval_uxo_dispo.html#comment-99993 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:51:32 -0600