Panzerfaust
WW II German Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons
Page 11: Mines & Flamethrowers



Tellermine
A weapon that could not actively be employed against tanks but had considerable AT potential on the defense was the mine. Mines can be differentiated into the categories anti-personnel mines, area denial mines and anti-tank mines. Of the vast number of mine types employed by germany during WW II, only the last category, the AT mines, shall be discussed. Anti-vehicle mines can destroy vehicles and immobilize tanks by destroying their tracks.

The first model used by the german Wehrmacht, though only for training purposes, was the Tellermine 29 ("dish mine"), abbreviated as T.Mi.29. It had a diameter of 25.5 cm and weighed 6kg including 4kg of explosives.

T.Mi.35The next model was the Tellermine 35 which weighed 9.6 kg and contained 5kg of explosives, diameter: 32cm, height: 11cm. It became the standard anti-tank mine in the early war years and until 1943, when production ceased, 4,218,900 T.Mi.35 were produced. The top lid served as the trigger and the mine Tellerminendetonated when a pressure in excess of 90kg was exerted onto it. This proved to be too light as the mine already exploded when the tank track barely touched the mine, therefore much of the blast did not catch the tank.
Therefore a thicker steel lid was soon used that increased the trigger pressure to 210kg, which meant that more of the tank had to be positioned on the mine to detonate it. This modification was called T.Mi.35 St. It was produced in 1942 and 1943 at a total number of 2,200,700.

The next type was the T.Mi.42; with a diameter of 31.3cm and a height of 9.1 cm it was alittle smaller; again, the mine was triggered at 210kg pressure; the weapon weighed 9.8 kg and used a charge of 5kg of explosives. The Teellermine 42 replaced the T.Mi.35 as the army's standard AT mine for the rest of the war, and between 1942 and 1945 a total of 9,835,000 were built.

The T.Mi.43 Pilz ("Mushroom") was a simplified construction of the T.Mi.42, replacing the spring-loaded top lid fuse for a simple extendable shaft construction; when the protruding pin was pushed into the mine the mine detonated. 3,622,900 were built in 1943/1944.

A constrcution that reflected the paratrooper's need for lightweight mines was the leichte Panzermine ("light tank mine"); diameter 26.3 cm, height 9cm; weight 4kg incl. 2kg of explosives. The activating pressure was 250kg. It was used extensively during operation Merkur, the airborne assault on Crete. Only 31,700 of these specialized mines were built.
The so-called schwere Panzermine ("heavy tank mine") contained 10kg of explosives to respond to the threat of a new heavy tank. After it was found that the JS-II used the same old tracks that could be destroyed with the existing mines the production of the schwere Panzermine ceased after a few thousand.
Another proposed Aluminium-Mine that weighed 6kg incl. 3,2 kg of explosives was not built.

All the tank mines could be fitted with extra fuses to render the removal more difficult in order to secure them against recovery by the enemy.

A project by the company WASAG saw the use of unused SBe 50 E 50kg bombs that the Luftwaffe had in considerable surplus quantities. These concrete bomb shells were to be filled with 18kg and dug in vertically. when the extended fuse was activated, a propellant of 6kg was to launch the weapon against the tank's bottom. the length of this construction was 122cm, the completed assembly weighed 52kg. The warhead would have destroyed the tank completely. The project did not realize.

Mine Developments

Because of the increasing use of mine-detectors responding to metal the wooden mines were developed. These wooden mines were very dangerous to handle, humidity caused the wood to deform and break. To give an example, between October 1942 and April 1943 accidents with the H.Mi.42 caused no less than 141 deaths and 55 wounded among the german troops.

The Holzmine 42 ("wood mine"), H.Mi.42,was a wooden box measuring 32.5 x 31 x 12 cm filled with 5.4 or 5.6 kg of explosives. The complete weapon weighed 8kg and was activated by a pressure of 220kg. total production from 1942 to 1944 was 5,302,600.
The Panzer-Schnellmine ("tank quick mine") consisted of a wooden box measuring 58 x 31 x 16 cm and containing 5 kg of explosives. Version A used the Zugzünder 42 ("pull detonator") and version B used a chemical detonator.

The Sprengriegel ("detonation bar"), also called Riegelmine 43 ("bar mine"), was a copy of the italian B-2 mine. A long metal box measuring 80 x 8 x 9.7 cm was filled with 4kg, the top lid worked as the pressure fuse; the mine detonated when 200kg of pressure were put onto the lid. the R.Mi.43 weighed 9.3 kg. The mine had several disadvantages: it was difficult to conceal and camoflage and detonated too soon. However these disadvantages were offset by the fact that this weapon facilitated the quick deployment of restriction mine fields both in the total number of mines neccessary and in the number of men neccesary to set them up. Because handling of this weapon proved very dangerous a modified Riegelmine 44 had a different fuse. 3,051,400 were produced from late 1943 to 1945.

The Topfmine ("pot mine"), also called Topf-Mi. 4531, was a completely metal-free mine. The casing material was made of a sawdust - tar combination, the fuse utilized glass parts. The mine had a diameter of 31.7 cm and a height of 14 cm. The mine responded to a pressure of 150 kg because that pressure broke the two glass ampullae containig the chemical fuse. 786,900 of these mines were built 1944/1945. Later a casing made out of a soft coal - bitumen combination was used that was water resistant.
A last redesign was the Viskonit-Mine named after the manufacturer, the Viskonit-Werke in Zittau. It used the sawdust-tar material again and weighed 10kg including 6kg of explosives. Only a few of the planned 460,000 Viskonit mines were built in late 1944 and only used at few select locations.

One project of mine development had a very ironic ending. Army specifications called for a mine that could not be disarmed or removed. Consequently, the company HASAG developed a Druckbügelmine ("pressure.bow mine") containing 5kg explosives and weighing 9.5kg that featured a very sophisticated, complicated fuse that was completely secure against disarming. The weapon proved to be practically undisarmable. However, meeting the required criteria was exactly the reason why it was rejected - the army weapon's bureau eventually realized that a non-disarmable mine could not be removed by the own troops, either!

The mines discussed until now only immobilized the tanks by destroying their tracks, the tanks could be quickly repaired and put back into service. To completely destroy the tank and incapacitate the crew, the Hohlladungs-Springmine or HL.Sp.Mi. 4672 ("hollow-charge jump mine") was developed. It used the warhead of the Panzerfaust mounted in a metal holder on a wooden panel. The weapon was 28.5cm high and was activated by a break/tip - fuse, the warhead could penetrate the bottom of any tank and destroy it. First deliveries to the army began in October 1944, however the first issue to combat troops was in January 1945 because of manufacturing faults of the weapon. Production never picked up significantly, overall only 59,000 were built, because all produced Panzerfaust shaped-charge warheads were needed for the Panzerfaust weapons since it was felt that the warheads would be better employed with the proven Panzerfaust rather than a new mine weapon of unknown quality.
An easier construction was found in the Panzer-Stabmine. The little warhead with a diameter of 12.5cm was filled with a shaped charge of 1.6kg and simply attached to a long pointed stick that was rammed into the ground. The attached break/tip fuse activated the mine when a tank drove over it. The warhead worked better the closer it was to the tank's belly armor. therefore the mine could only be used in high grass or in snow without being spotted. 25,000 were produced and employed in 1945.


Flammenwerfer
The last weapon with limited anti-tank capability to be discussed here was the flamethrower (the picture at left is from a modern flamethrower in actioncontemporary exhibition and is meant to give you an impression of how it looks like when a flamethrower is fired). The effectiveness of flamethrowers against tanks depends a lot on the individual tank type it is employed against. Naturally, the armor of the target is not a factor, although on very thin steel the flamethrower might cook off any content behind the armor such as ammunition, fuel etc. But generally the ability to disable the tank with a flame thrower depends on how easy the burning liquid can ooze into vulnerable parts of the tank such as the engine. If the flamethrower can set the engine afire, the tank is immobilized and often likely to blow up completely due to the gasoline engines of most tanks (russian tanks were not as vulnerable as others since they used diesel fuel which is harder to ignite). Flamethrowers had seen extensive use in WW I. The early models developed between the wars were too heavy to be carried by one man and required teams of two to three men.


Flammenwerfer 34The first weapon designed to be a one-man flamethrower was the Flammenwerfer 34 that was introduced into service in late 1934. However, with a total weight of 36kg (other sources: 35.8kg) it was still practically too heavy to be actually used by a single operator. The larger tank contained 11.8 litres of the flaming liquid Flammöl Nr.19, the smaller tank contained the propellant which was pressurized nitrogene. It was produced until 1941 when it was finally replaced by the Flammenwerfer 40 klein that weighed only 21.8 kg. The two tanks now had a round shape and set into each other. flamethrower soldierThe reduction of weight was mainly achieved by reducing the amount of flaming liquid to 7.5 litres.

fmw41 with ignition magazine
The next development was the Flammenwerfer 41 or FmW 41. It weighed 22 kg (other sources: 21.3kg) and utilised two cylindrical containers; it used hydrogene instead of nitrogene as the propellant. Because of the extreme temperatures on the eastern front which had led to ignition problems when firing the liquid, the next step was the Flammenwerfer mit Strahlpatrone 41 ("flame thrower with jet cartridge") which had an additional magazine with 10 ignition cartridges that FmW41ensured lighting of the liquid when fired through the flamethrower tube. The flamethrower contained enough fuel for about ten seconds of fire; hence, if all ten ignition cartridges were used up that made for ten one-second bursts. However, the weapon of course was not limited to ten bursts as the firing of the ignition cartridge was optional. The weapon among other changes weighed 18kg and had 7 litres of liquid; the liquid could be fires at a range of up to 30m. It remained the standard flamethrower type of the Wehrmacht until the end of the war. A total umber of 64,284 of these weapons were produced between 1942 and 1945.

Intended improvements were the Flammenwerfer 43 that could throw it's 9 litres of fuel up to 40m but was too heavy at a weight 24kg and the Flammenwerfer 44 which was the exact opposite, because weighing only 12kg with it's 4 litres of liquid and a range of 28m it was considered to be not effective enough.
Engineer units were equipped with the Mittlerer Flammenwerfer. it weighed 102 kg and was pulled along by two soldiers on a little trailer. It had 30 litres of flaming liquid that lasted 25 seconds. It was too cumbersome to prove really effective.
A very interesting design (with many parallels to the Panzerfaust as being a single-use weapon for the common infantryman) was the Einstossflammenwerfer 46 that was inspired by a request from the airborne troops. It was a one-shot disposable weapon to be utilized by assault groups. The FmW 46 was a tube with a length of 60cm and a diameter of 7cm; it fired a fire burst that lasted for 0.5 sec. to a range of up to 30m. the complete weapon weighed 3.6 kg and proved to be very effective and popular, a total number of 30,700 was produced in late 1944 and early 1945, many of them were used in the defense of Berlin. The Einstossflammenwerfer is not related to the "Flammfaust" Panzerfaust-project.
The SS developed it's own disposable one.shot flamethrower; it weighed even less - 2.8 kg - and used almost no critical raw materials but again internal rivalries with the army's weapons bureau prevented. An SS design for a more conventional bigger flamethrower that developed it's propelling pressure with tablets was lighter (14 kg) and easier to build than the FmW 41.

 
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© 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 created by M.Hofbauer August 29th 1998; document ver. 1.4 mod 150102
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