Naval mines of the Second World War. Naval mines Scheme of an underwater mine

On the evening of November 10, 1916, the ships of the German 10th flotilla, consisting of 11 brand new destroyers of 1000 tons of displacement, launched in 1915, left Libau, occupied by the Germans, to the expanses of the Baltic and headed for the mouth of the Gulf of Finland. The Germans had in mind to strike at the Russian ships. Their destroyers advanced confidently. With the stupid self-confidence characteristic of the Germans, German officers even in those years did not believe in the strength and skill of the enemy, and mines ... it is unlikely that Russian minefields are impassable and dangerous.

The darkness of the autumn evening was rapidly gathering. The destroyers sailed in the wake formation and "stretched out in a long straight line. From the lead ship, only the dark silhouettes of the rear three destroyers were seen; the rest just blended into the surrounding darkness.

The first underwater strike hit the Germans at about 21:00. By this time, the three terminal ships were behind in order. The commander of the destroyer flotilla Witting knew about this, but still continued to lead his ships forward. And suddenly the radio brought him the first disturbing news: the destroyer "V.75" - one of the stragglers - ran into a Russian mine. An underwater strike broke into the ship with a heavy hammer and damaged it so much that there was no point in saving the destroyer, it was just right to save people. As soon as the second destroyer "S.57" took on board the team, as "V.75" received a second blow, broke into three parts and sank. "S.57" with a double team began to retreat, but then another underwater strike sounded menacingly. The third ship "G.89" had to urgently triple its crew and take on board all the people from the "S.57", which went to "catch up" with the "V.75".

Freshly impressed by the Russian mine strikes, the G.89 commander was not in the mood for bold raids and he ordered the return to the base.

So the last three of the line of German destroyers melted away. The remaining eight continued to move towards the Gulf of Finland. Here the Germans did not meet the Russian light forces. Then they entered the bay of the Baltic port and began shelling the city. With this senseless shelling, the Germans expressed their exasperation for the losses suffered.

Having finished the shelling, the German destroyers lay down on the return course. And then again the sea boiled with underwater explosions. The first to hit the mine "V.72". Walking near "V.77" removed people from the blown up ship. The commander of this destroyer decided to destroy the "V.72" with artillery fire. In the impenetrable darkness of the night, volleys of guns were heard. On the lead ship they did not figure out what was the matter, and decided that the Russians had attacked the tail of the column. Then the leading destroyers made a 180° turn and went to the rescue. Less than a minute later, one of them - "G.90" - received a blow near the engine room and followed the "V.72". Like a frightened pack of wolves, the German destroyers rushed in different directions, just to quickly escape from the deadly ring of Russian mines. "Victory" arrogance flew off the German officers, they had no time for victories. By all means, it was necessary to bring at least the surviving ships to their bases. But at 4 o'clock, a deaf explosion and a water tornado that shot up over the S.58 informed the flotilla of the loss of the fifth destroyer. The ship was slowly sinking, and around, as if besieging it, preventing other destroyers from approaching, there were formidable Russian mines seen from the surface of the water. Only the boats from the S.59 managed to penetrate this deadly underwater palisade and remove the crew from the sinking ship. Now the expectation of another catastrophe did not leave the Germans. Indeed, after an hour and a half, the S.59 suffered the same fate as the S.58, and after another 45 minutes, the V.76 went to the bottom - the seventh destroyer that died on Russian mines skillfully placed on probable paths of enemy ships.

During the 1600 days of the First World War, the Germans lost 56 destroyers on mines. They lost one-eighth of this number on the night of November 10-11, 1916.

During the entire period of the First World War, Russian miners placed about 53,000 mines in the waters of the Baltic and Black Seas. These mines were hidden under water not only near their shores for their protection. Approaching the enemy's shores, penetrating almost into its very bases, the brave sailors of our fleet littered the coastal waters in the south of the Baltic and the Black Sea with mines.

The Germans and Turks did not know peace and security along their own shores, and Russian mines lay in wait for them there. At the exits from the bases, on coastal routes - fairways, their ships took off into the air, went to the bottom.

Fear of Russian mines fettered the actions of the enemy. The enemy's military transports and military operations were disrupted and disrupted.

Russian mines operated flawlessly. They killed not only warships, but also numerous enemy transports.

One of the German submarine "aces" Hashagen wrote in his memoirs: "At the beginning of the war, only one mine was dangerous - a Russian mine. None of the commanders to whom England was "entrusted" - and we, in fact, were all like that - willingly went to the Gulf of Finland. "Many enemies - a lot of honor" - a great saying. But near the Russians with their mines, the honor was too great ... Each of us, if he was not forced to do so, tried to avoid "Russian affairs."

During the First World War, many enemy ships perished in the minefields of Russia's allies. But these successes were not achieved immediately. At the very beginning of the war, the mine weapons of the British and French turned out to be very imperfect. Both of them had to take care of improving the mine technology of the fleet. But there was no time for study, it was necessary to find a source of ready-made experience, high mine technology and borrow it. And so the two countries, which had powerful, advanced in their technology and numerous fleets, had to turn to Russia for help. And the Germans themselves diligently studied the art of mine warfare from the Russians. At all times, mine technology stood at a high level among Russian military sailors - they were not only brave, but also skillful, enterprising, inventive miners. Russian mines were distinguished by high combat effectiveness, the tactics and technique of setting minefields in the Russian fleet were excellent.

From Russia, 1000 mines of the 1898 model and mine specialists were sent to England, who taught the British how to create, make mines, how to put them, so that they would surely hit enemy ships without a “miss”. Then, at the request of the British, they were sent our mines of samples 1908 and 1912. And only after learning from Russian miners, borrowing their rich experience of studying in peacetime and the combat use of mines during the war, the British learned how to create their own samples of good mines, learned how to use them and, in turn, had a great influence on the progress of mine weapons.

During the Second World War, the mine weapons of the Allies turned out to be better, more combat-ready, or rather, than the German one, despite all their "novelties" advertised by the Germans.

underwater palisade

(minefield)

Where the North Sea merges with the Atlantic Ocean, England and Norway are separated by a very wide passage of water; between their shores - more than 216 miles. Freely, without special precautions, ships pass here in peacetime. It was not so during the First World War, especially in 1917.

Under water, mines were hidden in the entire width of the passage. 70,000 mines in several rows, like a palisade, blocked the passage. These mines were placed by the British and Americans to block the German submarines from entering the north.

Only one narrow waterway was left for the passage of their ships. This underwater "palisade" was called the "great northern barrier".

It was the largest in terms of the number of mines and the size of the fenced area. In addition to this barrier, both sides put up many more. Underwater "palisades", whole chains of hundreds and thousands of mines, protected the coastal sea areas of the warring countries, blocked the narrow water passages. More than 310,000 of these underwater shells were hiding in the waters of the North, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black and White seas. More than 200 warships, dozens of minesweepers (vessels designed to detect and destroy mines) and about 600 merchant ships died on minefields in the first world war.

During the Second World War, mines gained even more importance. In the days when these lines are being written, the results of the mine war at sea have not yet been published. But even some of the data published in the press make it possible to say that both sides made extensive use of improvements in the construction of mines, new methods of laying them, and continuously, very actively used mine weapons.

Underwater "palisade"

In the First World War, mines were most exposed to protect coastal areas and sea lanes of communication. Such barriers were put up in advance, in some cases even before the declaration of war, at sea positions covering approaches to their waters. The position for such a minefield was chosen so that it could be defended by both fleet ships and coastal artillery.

Thousands of mines lined up in the lines of such a barrier, which is called “positional”.

One of the positional barriers was set up even before the start of the 1914 war at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. It was called the "Central Mine Position", consisted of thousands of mines and was guarded by ships of the Baltic Fleet and coastal batteries. Throughout the war, especially at the beginning of it, this barrier was updated and built up.

Minefields, which are placed near the coast to prevent enemy ships from approaching and not allowing them to land troops, are called defensive.

But there is another type of barriers in which mines do not seem to protect or attack, but only threaten and threaten enemy ships to change course, slow down their movements, or completely abandon the operation. Sometimes, if the enemy rushes about in confusion or neglected the threat of these mines, they turn into an advancing force and sink enemy ships. Such barriers are called maneuverable. They are placed during the battle at different moments in order to make it difficult for enemy ships to maneuver. The mines of the maneuverable barrier must very quickly, as soon as they are placed, become dangerous.

Very often, mines are also used as a weapon for attack - minefields are placed on enemy coasts, in foreign waters. Such barriers are called "active".

During the Second World War, the mining of enemy waters became one of the most frequently used operations. Air minelayers, which appeared back in the First World War, made it possible to widely use active barriers.

Modern aircraft penetrate into the deep rear of enemy states and litter the rivers and lakes with mines. They perform those operations that cannot be carried out by either surface or submarine ships.

At first, the Allies had mainly to protect their shores with mines in order to prevent the fascist fleet from carrying out offensive operations. The Red Fleet laid minefields, which reliably covered the flanks of the Red Army, resting on the sea.

An important role was played by British mines, which surrounded the approaches to the British Isles and prevented the Germans from invading England from the sea. In the end, the Nazis had to abandon attacks from the sea, they had no chance of success.

While the Allies defended themselves with mines, the Germans carried out offensive mine operations. They mined the waters off the coast of their opponents, at the exits from their naval bases. They tried to do it later.

But soon the Allies switched from mine defense to mine offensive. The turning point of the mine war came, around the autumn of 1942, when the Allies themselves began to widely lay active minefields off the coast of Germany, lock Nazi ships in their bases, and hamper their movement even along coastal fairways.

* * *

How are the mines located in the underwater "palisade"? First of all, it depends on the place where the barrier is placed. If it is necessary to block a narrow fairway where the enemy ship has to keep to a strictly defined direction, it is enough to scatter a small number of mines in its path without particularly precise adherence to any order of placement. In such cases, they say that a mine "can" has been set. If we are talking about blocking a large water area or a wide passage, then they put a lot of mines, hundreds and thousands, or even tens of thousands. In this case, they say that a "minefield" has been set up. For such a barrier, there is a certain order for placing mines. And this order depends mainly on which enemy ships the barrage is set up against. First of all, you need to decide in advance on which recess to place mines. If the barrage is placed against large ships sitting deep in the water, mines can be deepened 8–9 meters below the surface of the water. But this means that small enemy ships with a shallow draft will freely pass through the barrier, they will pass over the mines. The way out of this situation is simple - you need to put mines on a small depression - 4-5 meters or less. Then the mines will be dangerous for both large and small enemy ships. But it can also happen like this: it is unlikely that small enemy ships will pass through the barrier, but it would be good for your small ships to leave the possibility of maneuvering in a mined area.

Therefore, the miners have to carefully weigh all the features of the combat situation and only then decide which recess to place the mines on. And having solved this issue, it is necessary to ensure that the mines are placed exactly on the given recess.

How big are the gaps between the mines in the underwater "palisade"? Of course, it would be nice to put mines thicker, so that the probability of a collision with mines and hitting a ship passing on the surface is as high as possible. But this is hindered by one very serious obstacle, which makes it necessary to maintain intervals between mines of at least 30-40 meters. What is this obstacle?

It turns out that mines are bad neighbors to each other. When one of them explodes, the force of the explosion spreads underwater in all directions and can damage the mechanisms of neighboring mines, disable them or blow them up. It will turn out like this: one mine exploded under an enemy ship - this is good, but neighboring mines immediately exploded or completely failed. The passage seems to have been cleared and other enemy ships will be able to pass through the barrier without loss, and this is already bad. This means that it is better to place mines less often, so that the explosion of one of them does not affect the others. And for this, it is necessary to choose in advance the size of the smallest gap between them, so that, on the one hand, the barrier remains dangerous for enemy ships, and on the other, so that the explosion of one mine does not disarm neighboring sections of the barrier. This interval is called the mine interval.

Different designs of mines are more or less sensitive to the force of the explosion of a neighboring mine. Therefore, for different designs of mines and intervals, different ones are selected. Some mines are protected from the influence of a nearby explosion using special devices. But still, the gap between mines varies between 30-40 meters.

How dangerous is such a rare underwater "palisade" for ships?

If a ship of the line 30-36 meters wide passes over such a barrier, then, of course, it will surely hit a mine and blow up. And if it will be a destroyer or other small warship only 8-10 meters wide? Then two cases are possible. Either the ship goes to the barrier so that its course line is perpendicular to the mine line, or the ship's course line is directed at an angle to the mine line. In the first case, there is little chance of hitting the ship, since the width of its hull is 3-4 times less than the gap between the mines, and most likely the ship will slip through the barrier. In the second case, the probability of a collision with a mine depends on the angle between the course line of the ship and the line of mines - the smaller, sharper this angle, the greater the chance that the ship will hit the mine. It is easy to imagine, and even better to draw a line of mines and a ship that crosses it at an acute angle. That is why, if the miners know exactly in which direction the enemy ships will pass, they lay mines at a very small, sharp angle to the likely line of their course.

But this direction is far from always known. Then the whole barrier placed against small ships in one line will most likely turn out to be useless or very little effective. To prevent this from happening, miners place a barrier in two or more lines against small ships, arrange mines in a checkerboard pattern so that each mine of the second line falls between two mines of the first. At the same time, such a safe gap is maintained between the lines so that the explosion of a mine in one line does not cause an explosion of mines in another line and would not disable them.

During the Second World War the situation changed. A huge role in naval operations began to be played by small ships with a small draft (torpedo boats, sea "hunters"). It was against such vessels that small mines had to be placed in a very small depression, sometimes 0.5 meters. And yet, often such ships easily passed through minefields.

The Germans began to put up dense barriers of small mines. But the Soviet miners learned to cope with this "novelty" of the Nazis, to guide their small ships through the German "dense" barriers.

And finally, there is another type of minefield. Two or more mine lines break, drawing an underwater zigzag. Therefore, enemy ships have to overcome not 2-3 lines of mines, but 6-9 such lines. All this applies to those obstacles that consist of so-called anchor mines, such mines that are anchored in one place and at a certain predetermined depth.

Anchor mines were the most common in the first world war, they did not lose their importance in the second world war.

But there are other mines that are differently located under water. These are bottom mines hiding at the bottom of the sea. In the Second World War, these mines played a big role.

There are also floating mines that are placed in the likely path of enemy ships. Most of all, such mines were and are used in maneuverable barriers.

These three types of mines differ in the way and place of setting under water, but the mines differ in another important feature. Some mines explode only in direct collision with the ship, they are called "contact". Other types of mines also explode if: the ship passes at a known, fairly close distance. Such mines are called "non-contact". An anchor mine can be "contact" and "non-contact", it depends on its devices enclosed in the hull. The same applies to floating mines and bottom mines.

All these mines, their device, features and differences will be discussed ahead. But they have one thing in common. At different depths, these spherical, oval or pear-shaped metal shells lurk under water. Like invisible sentries they watch over their region of the sea. Here comes the enemy ship. A deafening explosion, raising a huge column of water, strikes the underwater part of the ship, tearing it apart. Streams of water rush into the hole. No pumps have time to pump out the mass of rushing water. It happens that the ship immediately or after a more or less short time goes to the bottom. It happens that an underwater strike incapacitates him, weakens his resistance to the enemy.

How are mines arranged?

Mina at anchor

The most important, "working" part of the mine is its charge. Long gone are the days when a mine was equipped with ordinary black powder. Nowadays, there are special explosives that explode more powerfully than gunpowder. The most common "stuffing" of a mine is an explosive - TNT.

The charging chamber filled with explosive is placed inside a metal shell - the body of the mine. The shape of the body is different: spherical, ovoid, pear-shaped.

At the time of the explosion, the “filling” burns out and turns into gases that tend to expand in all directions and therefore put pressure on the walls of the case. This pressure instantly builds up to a very large value, breaks the hull and falls on the ship and on the surrounding masses of water with a tremendous impact. If the walls did not resist the gases, their pressure would increase more slowly and the impact force would be much less.

Separate moments of setting an anchor mine using a shtert

This is the first, main role of the mine body. But the same body serves another very important purpose.

The camera with the charge must hide under water at a certain depth so that the mine is not noticed from the surface. An enemy ship, passing over a mine, must hit it and cause an explosion.

All mines (except bottom ones), if they are placed against surface ships, are usually installed at a depth of 0.5 to 9 meters. If a barrage is placed against submarines, mines are laid at different depths, including large ones. But the explosive chamber is heavier than water and cannot, by itself, float either on the surface of the water or at any level underwater. By itself, she would have gone to the bottom. But this does not happen - the shell of the mine plays the role of a float for it. Inside the shell there are "voids" filled only with air, so that the weight of the water displaced by the mine is greater than the weight of the body with a charge and other devices. Therefore, the mine acquires the property of buoyancy, it will be able to stay on the surface of the water.

At the same time, one must remember and know that a mine is not a small and not a light projectile. Mines vary in size and weight. So, for example, the smallest German mine, together with the anchor, weighs 270 kilograms and contains only 13–20 kilograms of explosive. Her body is a ball. The ball diameter is only 650 millimeters. The Germans, on the other hand, have mines with a diameter of more than a meter and with a total weight of more than a ton. In such a mine, the explosive weighs 300 kilograms.

And yet, no matter how large and heavy mines are, the hull holds them well in a given recess.

If a mine is simply immersed in water to a certain level and then released, the sea will immediately push it back to the surface.

But after all, we need the mine to remain under water, so that something holds it in one place and does not allow it to float. For this purpose, a special anchor is attached to the shell on a steel cable. The anchor falls to the bottom and keeps the mine at a given recess and prevents it from floating. To make it easier to imagine how this happens, let's follow the laying of a mine from a ship.

It turns out that it depends on the length of the stitch. The longer it is, the sooner its weight will touch the bottom, the sooner the minrep will stop winding, the deeper the mine will go into the water. The shorter the pin, the later the view will stall, the less deepening of the mine will be. Let's explain this with an example. Our rod is 4 meters long. The weight touched the bottom. This means that the minrep stopped reeling just at the moment when the anchor was 4 meters from the bottom. Mina at the same time was still on the surface of the water. Now the anchor is starting to pull her down. And since the anchor is left to fall 4 meters, then the body of the mine will plunge into the water by the same 4 meters.

And what is the stitch for? It is much easier to measure the minrep of the required length in advance and throw a mine with an anchor into the water. The anchor will touch the bottom, and the mine will be on a given recess. But after all, it is very troublesome to inquire every time on the map about the depth of the sea in a given place, calculate how long the minrep is needed, and measure it. Setting mines is much easier and faster when a long minrep is wound on the view, suitable for various depths. A small cable automatically places a mine on a given recess.

All this device is very simple and at the same time quite reliable. But there are other, equally simple and at the same time very interesting devices for laying mines on a given recess.

One of these devices is a very simple and interesting mechanism. This mechanism is often found in both mines and torpedoes and performs a very responsible and varied job in these shells. It's called a hydrostat.

How a hydrostat works From above - there is no water pressure on the disc, the spring is unclenched Bottom - water pressure on the disk compresses the spring
Separate moments of setting an anchor mine using a hydrostat 1st position - mine dropped 2nd position - the mine goes to the bottom 3rd position - anchor at the bottom 4th position - the mine pops up, the anchor is in place 5th position - the mine fell on a given recess

In any vessel, even in an ordinary glass, the liquid presses on the walls and bottom. If we draw a pencil around any area on the wall or bottom of the glass, then this area is pressed by the weight of a column of liquid, in which the base is equal to the area of ​​the circled area, and the height is equal to the distance from the area to the surface of the water. It is clear that the greatest pressure will be at the bottom of the glass.

Now suppose that our glass is made of metal, and the bottom of it can move up and down. This glass is empty. Substitute a compressed spring under the bottom. She will unclench and raise the bottom up. Now let's start pouring water into the glass, more and more. The bottom remains in place, which means that the force of our spring is greater than the weight of the poured water. But then the water level rose again, the column of water in the glass increased, and the bottom went down. Such a device is called a hydrostat, and the movable bottom is called a hydrostatic disk (see figure on page 53). For him, you can always choose a spring that will be compressed by the weight of a column of water of a certain height.

Mine with an anchor first goes to the bottom. Then the body with the view associated with it is separated from the anchor with the help of a special mechanism and rises upwards, the minrep is unwound from the view. The hydrostat is located right there, near the view. All the time the mine body is raised, the water pressure is still very high, the hydrostat spring remains compressed, the disk is stationary. But now the shell has reached just such a level when the weight of the water column above the hydrostat disk turned out to be less than the spring force. The spring begins to decompress, the disk moves up. The brake is connected to the disc. As soon as the disk starts moving upwards, the brake stops the minrep - the body stops at the depth at which the hydrostat is set.

The same hydrostat had already managed to work even earlier in the mechanism, which at the bottom separated the mine from the anchor. The rod that fastens the mine with the anchor is connected to the hydrostat disk. When the mine with the anchor reaches the bottom, the increased water pressure presses the hydrostat disk, and thereby takes the fastening rod aside. Mina is released and floats up.

How a hydrostat works in a disconnector Above is a mine connected to an anchor, there is no pressure on the hydrostat; below - a mine with an anchor at the bottom - the pressure on the hydrostat plate has reached such a value that the spring is compressed and retracts the fastening rod - the mine body is separated from the anchor and floats

Not only the hydrostat can play the role of a disconnector, release the mine from the anchor.

The rod that fastens the mine with the anchor can be supported by a spring, and so that it does not expand, insert between it and the stop ... a piece of sugar or another substance (rock salt) that dissolves in the will. Sugar or salt does not immediately dissolve in water, it takes several minutes. During this time, the mine with the anchor will reach the bottom. And when the sugar completely melts, the spring will open up so much that it will pull the rod along with it, the mine will free itself from the anchor and float up.

How the sugar disconnector works From above - a compressed spring rests on a piece of sugar and holds a mine. Bottom - sugar dissolved in water, the spring unclenched and released a mine that pops up

You can also adapt the shtert so that at the moment when its load touches the bottom, the mechanism that releases the mine is triggered.

All these simple devices - with a hydrostat, with dissolving substances, with a pin - often and successfully work in the mechanisms of a mine and ingeniously solve the most diverse and complex problems; we will meet them again.

So, the mine is placed on a given recess and lies in wait for enemy ships. Will an enemy ship explode if it simply touches the shell of a mine, even if it hits this shell with its hull hard? No, it won't explode. The explosive filling of the mine has a very valuable property - it is insensitive to shocks and shocks. During the transportation of equipped mines, loading them onto the ship, during the laying of mines, no matter how careful the miners are, shocks and even impacts still occur. If the mines exploded at the same time, it would be too dangerous and difficult to use them, and many accidents would occur.

How does a simple mechanical fuse work. On the left - a drummer before a collision with a ship; on the right - when the ship collides with a mine, the cargo moves away, the striker acts
How does an electric fuse work? From the impact of the ship on the mine, the cargo is displaced, the striker closes the electrical contacts, an explosion occurs

In addition to tens or hundreds of kilograms of the main explosive, a metal glass with 100–200 grams of a more sensitive explosive is also placed in a mine. Such a substance is called a "detonator".

In order for the mine to explode, it is enough to quickly heat the detonator, and the explosion is transmitted to the entire charge.

And how to heat the detonator? To do this, just hit the detonator cap. Heat develops on impact. It is transferred to the substance of the detonator, an explosion occurs, which in turn causes the main charge of the mine to explode.

So, it is necessary to arrange a mine in such a way that from a collision with a ship (and at the same time the mine receives a very strong blow), something would hit the detonator primer. This is precisely the essence of the device of a shock-mechanical mine fuse. Inside the mine, the sharp firing pin "aimed" at the primer. A special stop does not allow the striker to hit the primer. This emphasis is made in the form of a load on a rod, which is mounted on a hinge. One has only to take the load to the side, and the lever with the striker will do its job; will fall on the capsule, hit it, heat it, ignite it, explode it. But this requires a strong push, from which the load would shift to the side. Such a push is obtained when the ship collides with a mine.

To heat the detonator, you can also use the collision of a ship with a mine in another way. It is possible to turn on the detonator in the electrical circuit from the battery and arrange the percussion mechanism so that the load moves away when pushed, and the fallen lever closes the electrical circuit. Then the electric current will heat the conductor, the heat will spread through the conductor, penetrate the detonator and explode it. But where does the current flow from? From the body of the mine, from its upper part, a kind of “mustache” of the mine sticks out in all directions, 5-6 whiskers. These are the so-called "galvanic shock caps". On top of them are put on soft lead shells. Inside the lead caps are glass vessels. These glass vessels are filled with a special liquid - an electrolyte. If such a liquid is poured into a vessel and two different conductors are immersed in it, then you will get the so-called galvanic cell - one of the sources of electric current. In a mine, these two different conductors - the electrodes of the element - are placed separately from the electrolyte, in a special cup. When a ship that has run into a mine crushes the cap, breaks glass vessels, the electrolyte is poured into a cup with electrodes. An electric current immediately arises, which flows through the conductors into an electric fuse. At this moment, the circuit is already closed and the developing heat explodes the detonator and the mine itself.

The device of the anchor mine body. In the upper part of the shell, “whiskers” stick out in all directions - lead crumpled caps with galvanic elements enclosed in them. These elements are wired to the detonator

There are also mines that do not have dangerous "whiskers", and yet the explosion is caused by an electric current. When the ship hits the mine, the load releases the striker lever, the tip of the striker falls, but not on the detonator primer, but on the glass capsule with electrolyte and breaks it. The liquid is poured into a glass with electrodes, an electric current arises, which flows through a closed circuit and explodes a mine.

We already know that the charge of a mine will not explode either from impact or from friction until a fuse is inserted into the shell, until a blow to an enemy ship or even proximity to it causes the mechanism that ignites the detonator to work. But before the start of setting the mines, the fuse is already inserted, the mine is ready for action. It is worth carelessly handling it on deck or touching it at the moment of setting, it is worth breaking the glass vessels of the fuse for some reason and ... the ship will become a victim of its own mine. In the past, such cases have happened more than once, and this taught the miners not only to be careful and skillful in handling mines when setting them, but also to introduce special mechanisms into them that do not allow the mine to explode before a certain time. The device of these mechanisms is as ingenious as all other mine mechanisms.

How do all these devices work? In one place, the fuse's electrical circuit is interrupted, the contacts are disconnected and they do not close until the sugar or salt melts in the safety mechanism, or the wound clock mechanism starts working, or until the hydrostat disk moves.

All this takes time. Until this time expires, the mine cannot explode either on the deck or near the ship that placed it, even if the glass vessel breaks for some reason.

In the meantime, the ship that laid the mines will have time to get out into the open water, to get away from the danger it "sowed".

mine with antenna

We already know about the "great northern barrier" of 1917, when 70,000 mines formed an underwater palisade that stretched between the coasts of Scotland and Norway.

This barrage was put up against German submarines. Therefore, it was not only multi-row - in several lines, but also "multi-story" - rows of mines were placed at different depths. Could such a barrier be considered impassable for enemy submarines? To answer this question, it is best to do a simple arithmetic calculation. The width of the fenced area is 216 miles. If mines were placed in each line after 40 meters, then 10,000 mines had to be spent on one line. But a submarine is a small ship, 40 meters is a very wide, safe gate for such a ship. It means that one line of mines or even two lines is not enough. You need at least three lines, or even more. And all these mines would make up only one "floor" of the barrier. And it took several such floors, one every 10 meters of depth. When they calculated how many mines were needed in total, it turned out that they would need about 400,000. Such a number of mines was difficult to produce in a short time and, moreover, it would take a long time to set them up.

Scheme of the device of the anchor antenna mine. The figure also shows the anchor device

The difficulty was very serious; American and British miners persistently invented, looked for a way out of a difficult situation.

How to make a more rare barrier impenetrable, so that one mine works the same way as four or five mines?

The answer was very simple. It was necessary to ensure that the mine exploded not only from the fact that the ship hit its hull and galvanic impact caps, but also if the ship passed close, at some distance. Then it would not be necessary to place mines so densely, fewer mines would just as well guard the blocked area.

One of the American inventors, engineer Brown, solved this problem.

He reasoned something like this: sea water is a solution of salts. One can imagine the ocean or the sea as a gigantic vessel filled with such a “solution. From physics it is known that if one plate of zinc or copper is lowered into such a vessel, and the other of steel, then a galvanic current is formed between them. A copper or zinc plate can be put on a mine, then it will serve as one of the electrodes of the galvanic cell. And when the steel mass of the ship passes not far from the mine, this will be the second plate, another electrode of the element. Now, if the copper plate of the mine and the steel plate (ship) are connected by electrical conductors to a sensitive device (in technology such a device is called a “relay”), then the device will close the electrical circuit, the current will flow into the detonator and explode the mine. Connecting a mine plate to a relay is not difficult, but how to connect a steel bulk of a ship to a relay? Brown proposed to supply the mine with conductors extending upwards - to the surface of the sea and down to a great depth - antennas. These antennas lie in wait for a submarine throughout the depths of the sea. As soon as the ship touches the conductor, the circuit will be closed and the mine will explode.

True, the blow will be delivered at some distance from the ship. But a mine explosion is dangerous even for a surface ship at a distance of 5 meters, and for an underwater one even at a distance of 25 meters.

Therefore, Brown's invention greatly helped the Americans and the British. They managed to block the entire passage between Scotland and Norway and at the same time manage only 70,000 mines (instead of 400,000).

Such mines inflicted underwater strikes during the Second World War.

The mine antenna can also be arranged so that it is extended not only up and down, but also to the sides, so that it also acts against surface ships.

That this is so can be seen from the device of one of the "novelties" of German miners, which they tried to use against the Soviet fleet. True, this time we are not talking about an electric antenna, but about an ordinary hemp cable, which was assigned the role of a “tentacle” of a mine.

The Germans equipped an ordinary small anchor ball mine with a charge of 40 kilograms of explosive in a special way. In addition to the fuse caps on the upper hemisphere of the mine shell, they provided the lower part of the shell with two ordinary mechanical locks.

And from these contactors goes up (to the surface of the sea) an ordinary hemp cable - the “tentacle” of a mine. It is supported on the water by cork floats, one for every meter of cable length.

German mine with a "tentacle"

In the evening twilight and at night it is very difficult to distinguish in the water the cable itself and its floats, and during the day they can pass for the floating part of a harmless fishing net.

If the ship hits a mine and crushes the caps, the charge will explode. If this does not happen, the ship will pass by, but will touch and slightly pull the cable - one of the mechanical locks will immediately work, and the mine will explode.

And against this novelty, our miners quickly found their means, learned to avoid the "tentacles" of the mine, to neutralize them.

So the miners made sure that the mine exploded without colliding with the ship, without direct contact with it. But still contact remained, if not with the mine itself, then with its antenna. What if the ship doesn't touch the antenna? It turned out that Brown's invention only partially solved the problem.

And it was necessary to solve it completely, to ensure that the mine exploded without any contact with the ship, only from its approach. Miners solved this problem in different ways at the end of the First World War, but only in the Second World War did the belligerents widely use new non-contact mines.

magnetic mines

Before the new one, in 1940, on the English ship Vernoy, in a solemn atmosphere, King George VI presented awards to five officers and sailors.

The admiral who presented the awardees to the king said in his speech: “Your Majesty! You have the honor to present awards to these five officers and sailors as a sign of the country's gratitude and respect for their great courage and the high skill that they showed in the combat mission of dismantling, disarming and unraveling the secrets of building two completely new types of enemy mines; they successfully coped with their task, while risking their lives in every minute of their dangerous work.

What feat did these five officers and sailors accomplish? How did they deserve the award in such a solemn and warm atmosphere in front of the formation of their comrades?

On one moonlit night in November 1939, German bombers appeared over the southeast coast of England.

While the air raid sirens were howling, while the long beams of searchlights were rushing across the night sky and combing its long beams, while the anti-aircraft guns were short and angrily “bellowing”, shooting at the air pirates hiding high behind the clouds, a large three-engine German plane flew slowly and low along the coast line. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the air raid, directed skyward against the bombers, the plane quietly crept up to the intended area and ... bombs flew into the water. But at that moment, the observers of the English coastal defenses discovered this air enemy. They were surprised: bombs in the area - it was very strange. It was hard to understand what the Germans were actually bombing. There were no ships on the sea in this place, there were no objects for bombing.

But suddenly in the air the bombs began to disintegrate. Something flew off them and fell like a stone into the sea. And then it turned out that it was not bombs that were falling further, but some heavy objects suspended from parachutes. Here they are at the water. It can be seen how the parachute panels are still rinsing near the surface. This means that nothing pulls them swiftly under the water; it means that heavy objects separated from the parachutes and went to the bottom. Observers began to guess... Maybe these are not bombs at all? After all, already in the first two months of the war, many English ships died on mysterious mines, in the most seemingly safe places. Minesweepers were ahead of the ships, combing the sea. And yet it didn't help. It was suspected that these were mines of a special device, magnetic, hiding at the bottom of the sea, that they were delivered by aircraft.

Meanwhile, the second fascist plane on a turn approached too close to the shore. Night darkness deceived the air bandit, his bombs landed very close to the shore. Observers reported unusual projectiles to the mine specialists of the Vernoy ship. They made tools from non-magnetic material and only then began to disassemble and disarm the suspicious surprise that fell from the sky. Why were such precautions necessary?

How a destroyer plane drops its new weapon - a magnetic parachute mine The figure shows the individual positions of the mine during the drop

Magnetic mines were not new to either the British or Soviet miners. The British were making such mines at the end of the First World War, and Russian sailors had to deal with magnetic mines as early as 1918. Therefore, it was known that such mines explode when any metal object approaches.

The magnetic properties of the steel mass of the ship's hull were used to set up so-called "induction" fuses in mines. Several turns of conductor connected to a sensitive relay are included in the main device of the mine's induction fuse. When a ship passes near such a mine, its steel mass excites in the conductor a very weak electric current, so weak that it cannot explode the charge. But the strength of this current is sufficient to close the relay contacts - the arrow closes the contact from the battery placed in the mine case to the detonator - the mine explodes.

The coils of the conductor in the induction fuse are an intermediary between the steel mass of the ship and the relay pointer. It would be even better to do without this intermediary, which in some cases can fail, fail to fulfill its task. It turned out that you can really do without an intermediary conductor ... It is enough just to make the arrow of the relay magnetic. Then the steel mass of the ship, as soon as the relay is in its magnetic field, will cause the arrow to deviate and close the contacts from the battery to the fuse. Why would such a deviation occur?

The main material for the construction of modern ships is steel. Earth's magnetism magnetizes the steel mass of the ship, turns it into a very powerful magnet, forming its own magnetic field. The magnetic needle in the mine is under the influence of the earth's magnetic field and is located along its magnetic poles. This is the case until a ship appears nearby. The magnetic field of the ship distorts the magnetic field of the earth, and thereby causes the arrow to deviate at some angle; in this case, the contacts from the battery to the detonator are closed. This is how the idea of ​​a magnetic mine was born, which made so much noise at the beginning of the Second World War.

So, five mine experts from the Vernon, armed with non-magnetic tools, approached the mysterious mines. Their task was extremely difficult and dangerous. They had no idea about the details of the German magnetic mines. Each new removed nut, screw threatened to cause an explosion. At every minute of the miners' work, there was a sudden, irresistible danger, death.

Courage alone was not enough for this work. It was necessary to arm this courage with cold-blooded, calm, cautious thoroughness. It was necessary not to rush in order to get away from the danger as soon as possible, but, on the contrary, not to rush into work in order to more accurately find this danger, to neutralize it. Miners acted stubbornly and methodically. Only one of them worked for the mine. After each disassembly operation, having unscrewed the nut or screw, he left the mine, returned to his comrades, handed over the removed part to them. This was done so that in the event of a mine explosion at any dismantling operation and the death of one of the miners, the rest would know exactly at what point in the disassembly the explosion occurred, where the secret of the mine is hidden, how to defeat this lurking death when dismantling the next mine.

So, slowly but surely and stubbornly overcoming the "secrets" of the new underwater weapons, five English miners revealed all its secrets and found out how the German magnetic mine works.

The eye was very similar to an air bomb, a huge cigar 2.5 meters long and 0.6 meters in diameter. Its total weight is 750 kilograms, and the explosive charge weighed a little more than 300 kilograms. The case was made of light non-magnetic metal, duralumin. This was done so that the shell of the mine did not have a magnetic effect on the internal mechanism.

The charge (the latest explosive) is placed in the thicker part of the mine body. In the middle part of the body is placed a mine blasting mechanism - an electric battery. The current of this battery cannot explode the charge, since the electrical circuit is interrupted. Where the chain is interrupted, one of its ends is shaped like a magnetic needle. Two springs hold this arrow in one position. But as soon as a metal magnetic object appears near the mine and creates a magnetic field, the force of the springs is overcome and the arrow turns on the axis until it touches the end of the second part of the chain (at the break point). The circuit will close, current from the battery will flow to the charge and explode it.

A parachute box in the form of two drop-down cones is placed in the pointed "tail" of the mine. The box contains a parachute with cables on which a mine hangs.

Aircraft adapted for dropping torpedoes are armed with magnetic mines. Only instead of one torpedo, such an aircraft takes two mines with it; they are placed in a chamber at the bottom of the aircraft fuselage. When the mine separates from the aircraft, its parachute box opens and releases the parachute. The parachute opens and on its cables lowers the mine into the water. The impact on the water is not strong (thanks to the parachute) and the mechanisms do not break. After the mine falls into the water, a special mechanism is triggered that releases the parachute. Mina sinks to the bottom. At a low drop height, mines are placed without parachutes.

A mine explosion occurs when a ship passes over it and affects it with its magnetic field. A magnetic mine has to be placed at a shallow depth, no more than 20–25 meters, since at a greater depth it will not “feel” the ship.

Almost simultaneously with the description of the magnetic bottom mine, information appeared in the press about another type of such weapon, about a floating magnetic mine. There are so many curious, instructive details in the device of the pop-up mine that it is worth getting to know him.

Such a mine is dropped without a parachute at a low altitude.

The device of this mine is more complicated; it has many new mechanisms, because a pop-up mine has a more difficult task - to lie in wait for ships at great depths, not in coastal waters, but on sea routes. Up to 120 meters separate such a mine from the surface of the water. When a ship appears nearby, the mine should float up and explode only at a shallow depth - 10-15 meters.

This mine is shaped like a radio tube magnified 100 times or more. It weighs 400 kilograms and contains 200 kilograms of explosives. The body of this mine is also made of non-magnetic metal. An electric battery, a mechanism with a locked magnetic needle and electrical circuits are placed in the upper part of the case. In addition, two hydrostats are also located here. Their mechanisms operate at a certain depth.

A charge and an explosive device are placed in the middle part of the mine. There are two chambers at the bottom. One is designed for ballast water (we will soon find out when and why the mine takes this ballast). The second is filled with compressed air. In addition, the body of the mine is equipped with plumage from behind: this is a stabilizer.

An aircraft drops a mine from a low altitude (30-60 meters) without a parachute, and it falls forward side down. Here the mine touched the water and went to the bottom. But the disk of one of the hydrostatic instruments is adjusted to work at a depth of 20 meters. As soon as the mine comes to this depth, the disk begins to move and pushes a thin piston, which presses on the adjacent tube; mercury pours out of it into the place where the electrical circuit is interrupted. The circuit is closed, and the current from the battery releases the magnetic needle from the fuse.

There are three electrical circuits in this mine. The first has already worked, and the second and third are still open. While the mine goes to the bottom, the ballast compartment is filled with water through the holes in the tail section. From this, the tail of the mine becomes heavier than its front part - the mine turns over in the water and "sits" on the bottom on its tail. Now the mine is set and lies in wait for its future victim.

The magnetic needle is very sensitive. When the ship is still at a distance of a little less than a kilometer, it begins to oscillate, turn around its axis. The ship is approaching - and the arrow turns more and more. Finally, there comes a moment when the arrow touches the contact.

The second circuit will close, but the mine will not explode; after all, an explosion at a depth of 100-120 meters will not harm the ship. Besides, the ship is still far away; it is only approaching that part of the sea surface under which the mine is installed - there is still time for the explosion. Therefore, it is not the charge of the mine that explodes from the circuit, but a small fuse in the tail section. This small explosion opens the valve of the compressed air tank. With great force, the air rushes into the ballast compartment and expels water from there. Mina is getting lighter. When the water leaves the ballast compartment, special springs close the holes - no more water penetrates the mine. The mine starts to float to the surface. Less and less water pressure on the disk of the second hydrostat, which has not yet "worked". At a depth of 10–15 meters, this pressure will decrease so much that the spring will go up and push the disk; the lever connected to the disk will work and close the third, combat electrical circuit. This time, the electric current will go into charge and detonate the mine.

But where will it explode? Under the ship or away from it, in front or behind? These questions are difficult to answer. Of course, the ship will suffer the most if a mine explodes under its very bottom. What is needed for this to be so? It is necessary that both the mine and the ship travel the distance to the point of explosion at the same time. But the ship may not go in that direction at all, because the ship's hull can affect the arrow if the mine is not in front, but somewhere to the side. If the ship is heading for a mine, then in such a case one can rarely expect a real explosion. Mina goes up at a speed of 6-7 meters per second; a ship of the line is approaching it at a speed of, say, 40 kilometers per hour or 11 meters per second; suppose that the needle closes the circuit when the ship is within 300 meters of the mine. The mine will reach the point of explosion in 17 seconds (approximately), and the ship in 27 seconds. This means that the mine will explode in front of the ship, at a distance of about 100 meters, and will not cause any harm. This example shows that you need a successful coincidence of the magnitude and strength of the magnetic field of the ship (this determines at what distance from the ship the magnetic needle closes the contact of the second circuit and the mine begins to emerge) with the direction of the ship, with its speed and with the installation depth of the mine. Only in this case, the explosion will occur under the bottom or very close to it. Therefore, even if a pop-up magnetic mine were really used, one could hardly expect any particular success for it.

At the beginning of the Second World War, there were many cases of the death of Allied ships on German magnetic mines. I had to urgently look for means against a new underwater danger. Such a tool was found and successfully serves its purpose.

How these means are arranged and operate, we will talk about this in the chapter on the workers of the sea, about the sailors-miners from minesweepers who find and destroy enemy mines.

Mines that "hear"

(acoustic mines)

Even before German planes took off from their airfields in occupied Greece to land troops on the island of Crete, fascist destroyers often "visited" this area of ​​the Mediterranean Sea and dropped mines on the waterways leading to the island. They tried to surround Crete with a mine ring, tighten a deadly loop around the island and cut it off from the main naval bases of the English fleet. All this was done in order to block the path of the enemy ships in advance, to weaken the defense of the island, and so that at the critical moments of the air attack conceived by the Germans, the British could not provide assistance to Crete from the sea.

The Germans were unpleasantly surprised when it turned out that the British ships regularly supply the island and suffer negligible losses on mines. As if someone managed to tell the English miners what kind of "traps" await them on the approaches to the island, and taught them to avoid dangers. The Nazis especially felt the weakness of their mines when the German transports going to the island experienced the powerful and destroying blows of the British ships.

It seemed that the mines dropped by the Germans were powerless against the British ships. And the Nazis pinned special hopes on these mines. By this time, their magnetic mines, one of the types of Hitler's "mysterious" weapons with which the Germans were going to conquer the world, were well known to the allies. Allied miners learned to deal with German magnetic mines without much loss. And then the Germans decided to bring down on the ships of the allies a new "unknown" weapon, a new, it seemed, irresistible mine of enormous destructive power. It was with these mines that the Germans blockaded Crete, and yet they were again and again defeated. New mines almost did not inflict losses on the enemy. What were these new mines? Their peculiarity was that inside, in the body of the mine, a mechanical “ear” was hidden - a microphone, the same as in the handset of an ordinary telephone. Very soon, mana specialists figured out the device of this mine. It turned out that the mine "hears" the noise of the machines and propellers of the approaching ship.

Moreover, this “hearing” is so subtle that it catches the moment when the ship passes over the mine. Then it explodes under the very bottom of the ship ... unless, of course, measures are taken to prevent this from happening.

The device of the "hearing" mine is very interesting.

As with all other mines, the power of its impact lies in the charge. It is very large, much larger than in other mines. The amount of explosive filling the charging compartment of the mine reaches 700–800 kilograms. It is known that a “hearing”, or, as experts call it, acoustic mine, hides on the bottom of the sea off the coast at relatively shallow depths. It explodes at some distance from the bottom of the ship. Therefore, the Germans supplied this mine with almost a ton of explosives so that the force of its underwater strike, weakened by the water column, was sufficient to destroy the ship. The membrane of the mechanical ear of the mine is connected to a special oscillating vibrator lever located inside the mine, in the center of its upper part. A microphone is located under the vibrator, as soon as the vibrator touches the microphone, you get a continuous circuit from the shell to its mechanical ear. As long as there is no noise, as long as the "ear" does not "hear" anything, the vibrator is at rest and does not connect to the microphone.

Mina that "hears" (acoustic mine) 1 - ship machines; 2 - area of ​​the greatest noise; 3 - sound waves; 4 - sound waves vibrate the "ear" of the mine and actuate the vibrator; 5 - contact "whiskers"; 6 - another "ear" mines; 7 - vibrator; 8 - charge; 9 - microphone; 10 - detonator.

The mine is powered by an electric battery. The microphone is always connected to the circuit of this battery, and a small direct current flows through it. The primary winding of the transformer is included in the same circuit. As long as the mine does not “hear” anything and the vibrator is at rest, the current in the microphone circuit flows harmlessly, without threatening anything.

But here comes the ship. Sound waves from the noise of cars, propellers diverge in all directions and spread far under water. They reach the membrane—the "tympanic membrane" of the mine's mechanical ear—and begin to vibrate it. At first, these fluctuations are small and slow. But the noise is getting closer, the sounds are intensifying, the membrane of the mine begins to fluctuate more and more. The vibrator oscillates with it. And at the same time, in each of its oscillations, it first touches the microphone, joins its electrical circuit, then moves away from it, turns off the circuit. Each switch on causes an increase in the electrical resistance of the microphone, each switch off reduces this resistance. From this, the voltage of “a direct electric current flowing through the microphone circuit and the primary winding of the transformer changes all the time, becomes either less or more. The direct current turns into a pulsating one. According to the laws of electrical engineering, an alternating current is excited in the secondary winding of the transformer, and its strength is greater, the “louder” the sounds of the noise “heard” by the mine.

The mine also has a rectifier. The alternating current of the secondary winding of the transformer passes through this rectifier and enters a new electrical circuit composed of two relays.

Meanwhile, the ship is approaching, its noises are getting stronger and with them the current in the new electrical circuit is getting stronger. Finally, the noise reaches a certain value and ... the first relay is activated. It closes the contacts and at the same time connects a new special-purpose battery to the coil of the second relay. And the increasing noise in seconds causes the second relay to work, which forms a “bridge” between the new battery and the mine detonator with its contacts. The current from the battery rushes through this bridge to the detonator, heats it up, ignites and thereby detonates the mine. The whole explosive device is adjusted in time so that the explosion occurs just under the ship and hits it in the least protected part of the hull, in the bottom.

In addition to acoustic mines that "hear" the approach of the ship, the Germans also used magnetic-acoustic mines. In these mines, both magnetic and acoustic devices work in the fuse circuit, or rather, the acoustic device, as it were, helps the magnetic one. Such help was needed because a purely acoustic device often failed and did not work at the right time.

Despite all the tricks of the Germans, their "new unknown weapon" - acoustic mines - was very quickly unraveled by the Allies. They soon learned how to neutralize them, to clear the barred areas of the sea from them. In turn, the allies managed to create more advanced samples of acoustic mines.

"Sighted" mines

All mines, both anchor and bottom, ordinary contact and non-contact (magnetic, acoustic) - they are all "blind" and do not make out which ship is passing over them. Whether your ship or the enemy touches the mine fuse, its antenna, or passes near a magnetic or acoustic mine, an explosion still follows. But there are also "sighted" mines, which, as it were, "distinguish" ships and explode only under enemy ships.

In 1866, when the Austrians were at war with the Italians, among the coastal structures near Trieste, not far from its harbor, a small house, disguised by trees, was carefully guarded. One of the rooms inside the house, if the Italian spies had penetrated it, would have aroused their legitimate curiosity. All the walls of the room were painted in thick black. The only window was closed not by ordinary, but by optical glass - a lens.

The image of the harbor of Trieste through a lens fell on a glass prism inside the room and was reflected from it down onto the matte surface of a special "observation" table.

Mine "piano" of the Austrians (1866)

Dots were marked on the surface of the table. If the image of the harbor was correctly reflected on the frosted table, each dot marked the place where a mine was hidden under water. But these were no ordinary anchor mines. An electrical wire connected these mines to the mysterious house.

Attached to the observation table was the same keyboard as a grand piano or upright piano. Each key controlled the explosion of a specific mine. It was enough to press one or another key of the "piano" and immediately an electric current from the station on the shore ran to the mine and blew it up.

Scheme of the device of station minefields. On the left - a diagram of the barrier, on the right - a diagram of the arrangement of a group of mines 1 - a group of mines; 2 - main cables from the control station to junction boxes; 3 - batteries of rapid-fire guns protecting the minefield; 4 - wires from the junction box to mines; 5 - coastal mine control station; 6 - station mines; 7 - electrical wire from the junction box to the mine; 8 - junction box; 9 - main station cable

From the picture of the harbor reflected on the frosted glass, the observer could follow the approach of an enemy ship. As soon as the ship was above the mine, pressing the keys of the mine "piano" drowned it.

This device was tested, the “music” of the mine piano was considered very successful, but ... the Austrians did not have to use it as a military weapon: by this time the Italians had already been defeated in the naval battle of Lissa.

"Sighted" mines were not invented by the Austrians. This weapon originated during the American Civil War between northerners and southerners.

A few years before the battle of Lissa, the southerners used mines that exploded with electric current "sent" from the coast. The current was turned on when an enemy ship passed over a mine. These were "sighted" mines, it is these mines that should be considered the ancestors of modern "station" mines guarding the naval bases of the warring parties. Since then, the technique of arranging and detonating sighted mines has been continuously improved.

How do modern sighted mines protect the shores?

On the shore, somewhere between the rocks or underground, a mine control station is camouflaged. The protected area of ​​the sea is divided into square sections, clearly visible from the shore. Modern stations do not have a keyboard or a panorama table.

How is the coastal control station "sighted" mines

Instead of a "piano" - an ordinary control panel with switches, and instead of a panorama - a periscope, like on a submarine. From the station, the cables stretch out to the sea, go under water, wind along a rocky or sandy bottom and crawl into a junction box.

Already several wires diverge from the box to the mines guarding a certain square of the sea. These mines are similar to anchor mines, but they can also be bottom mines and are designed so that the electric current, switched on from the station, blows up the entire group. Here comes the enemy ship. He approaches the mined area, where one of the groups of mines lie in wait for the gate. A few more minutes, and the ship is already over the lurking sighted mines. The "eyes" of these mines are there, on the shore, inside the camouflaged station. From there, through the periscope, everything is clearly visible, and observers accurately catch the moment when the mines need to be detonated. Turning the switch - electric current from a special coastal power plant instantly runs the distance to the junction box, from there it flows through the wires to the mine fuses and a powerful explosion destroys the ship.

And what will happen if not a well-visible surface ship approaches the protected area, but an enemy submarine stealthily approaching the shore? The submarine cannot be seen from the station through the periscope, but it will be heard: as soon as the submarine inevitably touches one of the mines or its minrep, a signal will sound at the station, and turning the switch will blow up exactly that group of mines, near which an invisible one is sliding under water at that moment enemy.

floating mines

Until now, we have been talking about such mines that exactly “know” their place under water, their combat post and are motionless in this post. But there are also mines that move, float either under water or on the surface of the sea. The use of these mines has its own combat meaning. They do not have minreps, which means they cannot be trawled with conventional trawls. You can never know exactly where and from where such mines will appear; this is discovered at the last moment, when the mine has already exploded or appeared very close. Finally, such mines, set adrift, entrusted to the waves of the sea, can "meet" and hit enemy ships on the way far from the place of setting. If the enemy knows that floating mines have been placed in such and such an area, this hampers the movement of his ships, forces him to take special precautions in advance, and slows down the pace of his operations.

How is a floating mine arranged?

Any body floats on the surface of the sea if the weight of the volume of water displaced by it is greater than the weight of the body itself. Such a body is said to have positive buoyancy. If the weight of the volume of displaced water were less, the body would sink, its buoyancy would be negative. And finally, if the weight of a body is equal to the weight of the volume of water displaced by it, it will occupy an "indifferent" position at any sea level. This means that it itself will stay at any level of the sea and will neither rise up nor fall down, but only move at the same level with the current. In such cases, the body is said to have zero buoyancy.

A mine with zero buoyancy would have to stay at the depth to which it was loaded when dropped. But such reasoning is correct only in theory. On the. in fact, at sea, the degree of buoyancy of the mine will vary.

After all, the composition of water in the sea in different places, at different depths is not the same. In one place it has more salts, the water is denser, and in the other it has less salts, its density is less. The temperature of the water also affects its density. And the temperature of the water varies at different times of the year and at different hours of the day and at different depths. Therefore, the density of sea water, and with it the degree of buoyancy of the mine, is variable. More dense water will push the mine up, and in less dense water the mine will sink to the bottom. It was necessary to find a way out of this situation, and the miners found this way out. They arranged floating mines in such a way that their buoyancy only approaches zero, it is zero only for water in a certain place. Inside the mine is a source of energy - a battery or battery, or a reservoir of compressed air. From such a source of energy, a motor operates, which rotates the propeller of the mine.

Floating mine with propeller 1 - screw; 2 - clock mechanism; 3 - battery chamber; 4 - drummer

The mine floats under water up to the current at a certain depth, but then it got into denser water and was pulled up. Then, from a change in depth, the ubiquitous hydrostat in the mines starts to work and turns on the motor. The screw of the mine rotates in a certain direction and pulls it back to the same level at which it floated before. And what would happen if the mine did not stay at this level and would go down? Then the same hydrostat would force the motor to rotate the screw in the other direction and raise the mine to the depth specified during installation.

Of course, even in a very large floating mine, it is impossible to place such a source of energy that its reserve is enough for a long time. Therefore, a floating mine “hunts” for its enemy - enemy ships - for only a few days. These few days she is “in the waters where enemy ships may collide with her. If a floating mine could stay at a given level for a very long time, it would eventually swim into such areas of the sea and at such a time when its ships could hit it.

Therefore, a floating mine not only cannot, but should not serve for a long time. Miners supply her with a special device equipped with a clockwork. As soon as the period for which the clockwork is wound up, this device drowns the mine.

This is how special floating mines are arranged. But any anchor mine can suddenly become floating. Its minrep can break off, fray in the water, rust will corrode the metal, and the mine will float to the surface, where it will rush with the flow. Very often, especially during the Second World War, the belligerent countries deliberately threw surface-floating mines on the likely routes of enemy ships. They pose a great danger, especially in conditions of poor visibility.

An anchor mine, involuntarily turned into a floating one, can give out the place where the barrier is set up, and can become dangerous for own ships. To prevent this from happening, a mechanism is attached to the mine that sinks it as soon as it floats to the surface. It may still happen that the mechanism does not work and the broken mine will swing on the waves for a long time, turning into a serious danger for any ship that collides with it.

If the anchor mine was deliberately turned into a floating one, then in this case it is not allowed to remain dangerous for a long time, it is also provided with a mechanism that sinks the mine after a certain period.

The Germans also tried to use floating mines on the rivers of our country, launching them downstream on rafts. An explosive charge weighing 25 kilograms is placed in a wooden box at the front of the raft. The fuse is designed in such a way that the charge explodes when the raft collides with some obstacle.

Another "floating river mine" is usually cylinder-shaped. Inside the cylinder is a charging chamber filled with 20 kilograms of explosives. Mina floats under water at a depth of a quarter of a meter. A rod rises from the center of the cylinder. At the upper end of the rod, just at the very surface of the water, there is a float with whiskers sticking out in all directions. The whiskers are connected to a percussion fuse. A long camouflage stalk, willow or bamboo, is released from the float to the surface of the water.

River mines are carefully disguised as objects floating on the river: logs, barrels, boxes, straw, reeds, grass bushes.

On land, mines never left the category of auxiliary, secondary weapons of tactical significance, even during their peak, which fell on the Second World War. At sea, the situation is completely different. As soon as they appeared in the navy, mines replaced artillery and soon became a weapon of strategic importance, often relegating other types of naval weapons to secondary roles.

Why did mines become so important at sea? The point is the cost and significance of each vessel. The number of warships in any fleet is limited, and the loss of even one can drastically change the operational situation in favor of the enemy. A warship has great firepower, a significant crew and can perform very serious tasks. For example, the sinking of only one tanker by the British in the Mediterranean Sea deprived Rommel's tanks of the ability to move, which played a large role in the outcome of the battle for North Africa. Therefore, the explosion of one mine under a ship plays a much greater role in the course of a war than the explosions of hundreds of mines under tanks on land.

"Horned Death" and others

In the minds of many people, a naval mine is a large, horned black ball attached to an anchor line underwater or floating on the waves. If a passing ship touches one of the "horns", an explosion will occur and another victim will go to visit Neptune. These are the most common mines - anchor galvanic impact mines. They can be installed at great depths, and they can stand for decades. True, they also have a significant drawback: they are quite easy to find and destroy - trawl. A ship (minesweeper) with a small draft drags a trawl, which, bumping into a mine cable, interrupts it, and the mine floats up, after which it is shot from a cannon.

The enormous importance of these naval guns prompted the designers to develop a number of mines of other designs - which are difficult to detect and even more difficult to defuse or destroy. One of the most interesting types of such weapons is sea bottom non-contact mines.

Such a mine lies at the bottom, so that it cannot be detected and hooked with an ordinary trawl. For a mine to work, it is absolutely not necessary to touch it - it reacts to a change in the Earth's magnetic field by a ship sailing over a mine, to the noise of propellers, to the rumble of working machines, to a drop in water pressure. The only way to deal with such mines is to use devices (trawls) that imitate a real ship and provoke an explosion. But this is very difficult to do, especially since the fuses of such mines are designed in such a way that they are often able to distinguish ships from trawls.

In the 1920s and 1930s and during World War II, such mines were most developed in Germany, which lost its entire fleet under the Treaty of Versailles. Creating a new fleet is a task that requires many decades and enormous costs, and Hitler was going to conquer the whole world with lightning speed. Therefore, the lack of ships was compensated by mines. In this way, it was possible to drastically limit the mobility of the enemy fleet: mines dropped from aircraft locked ships in harbors, did not allow other people's ships to approach their ports, disrupted navigation in certain areas and in certain directions. According to the plan of the Germans, by depriving England of a sea supply, it was possible to create famine and devastation in this country and thereby make Churchill more accommodating.

Delayed strike

One of the most interesting bottom non-contact mines was the mine LMB - Luftwaffe Mine B, developed in Germany and actively used during the Second World War by German aviation (mines installed from ships are identical to aircraft mines, but do not have devices that ensure delivery by air and drop from large heights and at high speeds). The LMB mine was the most massive of all German naval non-contact mines laid from aircraft. It turned out to be so successful that the German navy adopted it and installed it from ships. The naval version of the mine was designated LMB / S.

German specialists began developing the LMB in 1928, and by 1934 it was ready for use, although the German Air Force did not adopt it until 1938. Outwardly resembling an aerial bomb without a tail, it was suspended from the aircraft, after dropping a parachute opened above it, which provided the mine with a descent speed of 5-7 m / s to prevent a strong impact on the water: the body of the mine was made of thin aluminum (later series and completely from pressed waterproof cardboard), and the explosive mechanism was a complex battery-powered electrical circuit.

As soon as the mine was separated from the aircraft, the clock mechanism of the auxiliary fuse LH-ZUS Z (34) began to work, which, after seven seconds, brought this fuse into combat position. 19 seconds after touching the surface of the water or the ground, if by this time the mine was not at a depth of more than 4.57 m, the fuse initiated the explosion. In this way, the mine was protected from overly curious enemy deminers. But if the mine reached the specified depth, a special hydrostatic mechanism stopped the clock and blocked the operation of the fuse.

At a depth of 5.18 m, another hydrostat started the clock (UES, Uhrwerkseinschalter), which began counting the time until the mine was brought into combat position. This clock could be set in advance (when preparing a mine) for a time from 30 minutes to 6 hours (with an accuracy of 15 minutes) or from 12 hours to 6 days (with an accuracy of 6 hours). Thus, the main explosive device was not brought into combat position immediately, but after a predetermined time, before that the mine was completely safe. Additionally, a hydrostatic non-removable mechanism (LiS, Lihtsicherung) could be built into the mechanism of this watch, which blew up a mine when trying to remove it from the water. After the clock worked out the set time, they closed the contacts, and the process of bringing the mine into combat position began.

The picture shows an LMB mine equipped with an AT-1 explosive device. The parachute cover has been shifted to show the tail section of the mine. The shiny plates in the tail of the mine are not a tail, but a tube of resonators for a low-frequency acoustic circuit. Between them is a parachute eyelet. On the upper part of the hull there is a T-shaped yoke for hanging mines to the aircraft.

magnetic death

The most interesting thing about LMB mines is a non-contact explosive device that works when an enemy ship appears in the sensitivity zone. The very first was the device from Hartmann und Braun SVK, designated M1 (aka E-Bik, SE-Bik). It responded to the distortion of the Earth's magnetic field at a distance of up to 35 m from the mine.

By itself, the principle of M1 response is quite simple. An ordinary compass is used as a circuit breaker. One wire is connected to a magnetic needle, the second is attached, say, to the mark "East". It is worth bringing a steel object to the compass, as the arrow deviates from the “North” position and closes the circuit.

Of course, technically, a magnetic explosive device is more complicated. First of all, after power is applied, it begins to tune in to the Earth's magnetic field, which is available in a given place at that time. This takes into account all magnetic objects (for example, a nearby ship) that are nearby. This process takes up to 20 minutes.

When an enemy ship appears near the mine, the explosive device will react to the distortion of the magnetic field, and ... the mine will not explode. She will pass the ship peacefully. This is the multiplicity device (ZK, Zahl Kontakt). It will just rotate the death contact one step. And there can be from 1 to 12 such steps in the M1 explosive device - the mine will miss a given number of ships, and explode under the next one. This is done in order to hinder the work of enemy minesweepers. After all, it is not at all difficult to make a magnetic trawl: a simple electromagnet on a raft towed behind a wooden boat is enough. But it is not known how many times the trawl will have to be pulled along the suspicious fairway. And time goes by! Warships are deprived of the opportunity to operate in this area. The mine has not yet exploded, but it is already fulfilling its main task of disrupting the actions of enemy ships.

Sometimes, instead of a multiplicity device, a Pausenuhr (PU) clock device was built into the mine, which for 15 days periodically turned the explosive device on and off according to a given program - for example, 3 hours on, 21 hours off or 6 hours on, 18 hours off, etc. So the minesweepers only had to wait for the maximum operating time of UES (6 days) and PU (15 days) and only then start trawling. For a month, enemy ships could not sail where they needed to.

Beat on the sound

And yet, the M1 magnetic explosive device already in 1940 ceased to satisfy the Germans. The British, in a desperate struggle to free the entrances to their ports, used all the new magnetic minesweepers - from the simplest to those installed on low-flying aircraft. They managed to find and deactivate several LMB mines, figured out the device and learned how to deceive this fuse. In response to this, in May 1940, German miners launched a new fuse from Dr. Hell SVK - A1 that reacts to the noise of the ship's propellers. And not just for noise - the device worked if this noise had a frequency of about 200 Hz and doubled within 3.5 seconds. It is this noise that a high-speed warship of a sufficiently large displacement creates. The fuse did not respond to small vessels. In addition to the devices listed above (UES, ZK, PU), the new fuse was equipped with a self-destruct device for protection against opening (Geheimhaltereinrichtung, GE).

But the British came up with a witty answer. They began to install propellers on light pontoons, which rotated from the oncoming flow of water and imitated the noise of a warship. A pontoon in a long tow was dragged by a speedboat, on the propellers of which the mine did not react. Soon, English engineers came up with an even better way: they began to put such screws in the bow of the ships themselves. Of course, this reduced the speed of the ship, but the mines did not explode under the ship, but in front of it.

Kirov-class cruiser Displacement: 8,600 tons // Length: 1.91 m // Beam: 18 m // Speed: 35 knots // Armament: 9 180 mm guns | 8 100 mm guns | 10 37 mm guns | 12 heavy machine guns | 2 triple torpedo tubes | 170 min.

Then the Germans combined the M1 magnetic fuse and the A1 acoustic fuse, getting a new model MA1. This fuse required for its operation, in addition to the distortion of the magnetic field, also the noise of the propellers. The designers were also pushed to this step by the fact that the A1 consumed too much electricity, so that the batteries were only enough for a period of 2 to 14 days. In MA1, the acoustic circuit in the standby position was disconnected from the power supply. At first, the magnetic circuit reacted to the enemy ship, which turned on the acoustic sensor. The latter closed the explosive chain. The combat time of a mine equipped with MA1 has become significantly longer than that of a mine equipped with A1.

But the German designers did not stop there. In 1942, the AT1 explosive device was developed by Elac SVK and Eumig. This fuse had two acoustic circuits. The first did not differ from the A1 circuit, but the second reacted only to low-frequency sounds (25 Hz) coming strictly from above. That is, for the operation of the mine, only the noise of the propellers was not enough, the fuse resonators had to catch the characteristic hum of the ship's engines. These fuses began to be installed in LMB mines in 1943.

In their desire to deceive the Allied minesweepers, the Germans in 1942 modernized the magnetic-acoustic fuse. The new sample was named MA2. The novelty, in addition to the noise of the propellers of the ship, also took into account the noise of the propellers of the minesweeper or imitators. If she detected the noise of propellers coming from two points at the same time, then the explosive chain was blocked.

water column

At the same time, in 1942, Hasag SVK developed a very interesting fuse, designated DM1. In addition to the usual magnetic circuit, this fuse was equipped with a sensor that responded to a decrease in water pressure (only 15–25 mm of water column was enough). The fact is that when moving through shallow water (up to depths of 30-35 m), the propellers of a large ship “suck” the water from below and throw it back. The pressure in the gap between the bottom of the ship and the seabed drops slightly, and this is exactly what the hydrodynamic sensor responds to. Thus, the mine did not react to passing small boats, but exploded under a destroyer or a larger ship.

But by this time, the issue of breaking the mine blockade of the British Isles was no longer in front of the Allies. The Germans needed many mines to defend their waters from Allied ships. On long-distance campaigns, Allied light minesweepers could not accompany warships. Therefore, engineers dramatically simplified the design of the AT1 by creating the AT2 model. The AT2 was no longer equipped with any additional devices such as multiplicity devices (ZK), non-removable devices (LiS), tamper-evident devices (GE) and others.

At the very end of the war, German firms proposed AMT1 fuses for LMB mines, which had three circuits (magnetic, acoustic and low-frequency). But the war inevitably came to an end, the factories were subjected to powerful allied air raids, and it was no longer possible to organize the industrial production of AMT1.

Naval munitions included such weapons as torpedoes, naval mines, and depth charges. A distinctive feature of these ammunition is the environment of their use, i.e. hitting targets on or under water. Like most other ammunition, naval ammunition is divided into main (for hitting targets), special (for lighting, smoke, etc.) and auxiliary (training, blank, for special tests).

Torpedo- a self-propelled underwater weapon, consisting of a cylindrical streamlined body with plumage and propellers. The warhead of the torpedo contains an explosive charge, a detonator, fuel, an engine and control devices. The most common torpedo caliber (hull diameter in its widest part) is 533 mm, samples from 254 to 660 mm are known. Average length - about 7 m, weight - about 2 tons, explosive charge - 200-400 kg. They are in service with surface (torpedo boats, patrol boats, destroyers, etc.) and submarines and torpedo bombers.

Torpedoes were classified as follows:

- by type of engine: combined-cycle (liquid fuel burns in compressed air (oxygen) with the addition of water, and the resulting mixture rotates a turbine or drives a piston engine); powder (gases from slowly burning gunpowder rotate the engine shaft or turbine); electrical.

— according to the method of guidance: unmanaged; rectilinear (with a magnetic compass or a gyroscopic semi-compass); maneuvering according to a given program (circulating); homing passive (according to noise or changes in the properties of water in the wake).

- by appointment: anti-ship; universal; anti-submarine.

The first samples of torpedoes (Whitehead torpedoes) were used by the British in 1877. And already during the First World War, steam-gas torpedoes were used by the warring parties not only in the sea, but also on rivers. The caliber and dimensions of torpedoes tended to grow steadily as they developed. During the First World War, 450 mm and 533 mm caliber torpedoes were standard. Already in 1924, a 550-mm steam-gas torpedo "1924V" was created in France, which became the firstborn of a new generation of this type of weapon. The British and Japanese went even further, designing 609-mm oxygen torpedoes for large ships. Of these, the most famous Japanese type "93". Several models of this torpedo were developed, and on modification “93”, model 2, the charge mass at the expense of range and speed was increased to 780 kg.

The main "combat" characteristic of a torpedo - the charge of explosives - usually not only increased quantitatively, but also improved qualitatively. Already in 1908, instead of pyroxylin, a more powerful TNT (trinitrotoluene, TNT) began to spread. In 1943, in the USA, a new Torpex explosive was created specifically for torpedoes, twice as strong as TNT. Similar work was carried out in the USSR. In general, only during the years of the Second World War, the power of torpedo weapons in terms of TNT coefficient doubled.

One of the disadvantages of steam-gas torpedoes was the presence of a trace (bubbles of exhaust gas) on the surface of the water, unmasking the torpedo and creating an opportunity for the attacked ship to evade it and determine the location of the attackers. To eliminate this, it was supposed to equip the torpedo with an electric motor. However, before the outbreak of World War II, only Germany succeeded. In 1939, the G7e electric torpedo was adopted by the Kriegsmarine. In 1942, Great Britain copied it, but was able to establish production only after the end of the war. In 1943, the electric torpedo "ET-80" was put into service in the USSR. At the same time, only 16 torpedoes were used until the end of the war.

To ensure the explosion of a torpedo under the bottom of the ship, which caused 2-3 times more damage than an explosion at its side, Germany, the USSR and the USA developed magnetic fuses instead of contact fuses. The German TZ-2 fuses, which were put into service in the second half of the war, achieved the greatest efficiency.

During the war, Germany developed devices for maneuvering and guiding torpedoes. So torpedoes equipped with the "FaT" system during the search for a target could move "snake" across the course of the ship, which significantly increased the chances of hitting the target. Most often they were used towards the pursuing escort ship. Torpedoes with the LuT device, produced since the spring of 1944, made it possible to attack an enemy ship from any position. Such torpedoes could not only move like a snake, but also turn around to continue searching for a target. During the war, German submariners fired about 70 LuT-equipped torpedoes.

In 1943, the T-IV torpedo with acoustic homing (ASN) was created in Germany. The torpedo homing head, consisting of two spaced hydrophones, captured the target in the 30 ° sector. The capture range depended on the noise level of the target ship; usually it was 300-450 m. The torpedo was created mainly for submarines, but during the war it was also used by torpedo boats. In 1944, the modification "T-V" was released, and then "T-Va" for "schnellboats" with a cruising range of 8000 m at a speed of 23 knots. However, the effectiveness of acoustic torpedoes was low. The overly complex guidance system (and it included 11 lamps, 26 relays, 1760 contacts) was extremely unreliable - out of 640 torpedoes fired during the war years, only 58 hit the target. The percentage of hits by conventional torpedoes in the German fleet was three times higher.

However, the Japanese oxygen torpedoes had the most powerful, fastest and longest range. Neither allies nor adversaries were able to achieve even close results.

Since torpedoes equipped with the maneuvering and guidance devices described above were not available in other countries, and in Germany there were only 50 submarines capable of launching them, a combination of special ship or aircraft maneuvers was used to launch torpedoes to hit the target. Their totality was determined by the concept of a torpedo attack.

A torpedo attack can be carried out: from a submarine against enemy submarines, surface ships and ships; surface ships against surface and underwater targets, as well as coastal torpedo launchers. The elements of a torpedo attack are: assessing the position relative to the detected enemy, identifying the main target and its protection, determining the possibility and method of a torpedo attack, approaching the target and determining the elements of its movement, choosing and taking a position for firing, firing torpedoes. The completion of a torpedo attack is torpedo firing. It consists in the following: the firing data is calculated, then they are entered into the torpedo; the ship performing torpedo firing takes up a calculated position and fires a volley.

Torpedo firing can be combat and practical (training). According to the method of execution, they are divided into volley, aimed, single torpedo, by area, successive shots.

Volley fire consists of simultaneous launching of two or more torpedoes from torpedo tubes to provide an increased probability of hitting the target.

Aimed shooting is carried out in the presence of an accurate knowledge of the elements of the movement of the target and the distance to it. It can be carried out by single torpedo shots or salvo fire.

When torpedo firing at an area, torpedoes overlap the probable target area. This type of shooting is used to cover errors in determining the elements of target movement and distance. Distinguish between shooting with a sector and with a parallel course of torpedoes. Torpedo firing at the area is carried out in one gulp or at time intervals.

By torpedo firing by successive shots is meant firing, in which torpedoes are fired sequentially one after another at specified time intervals to cover errors in determining the elements of the target's movement and distance to it.

When firing at a stationary target, the torpedo is fired in the direction of the target; when firing at a moving target, it is fired at an angle to the direction of the target in the direction of its movement (preemptively). The lead angle is determined taking into account the heading angle of the target, the speed of movement, and the path of the ship and torpedo until they meet at the lead point. The firing distance is limited by the maximum range of the torpedo.

In World War II, about 40 thousand torpedoes were used by submarines, aircraft and surface ships. In the USSR, out of 17.9 thousand torpedoes, 4.9 thousand were used, which sank or damaged 1004 ships. Of the 70,000 torpedoes fired in Germany, the submarines used up about 10,000 torpedoes. US submarines used 14.7 thousand torpedoes, and torpedo-carrying aircraft 4.9 thousand. About 33% of the torpedoes fired hit the target. Of all the sunken ships and vessels during the Second World War, 67% were torpedoes.

naval mines- Munitions hidden in the water and designed to destroy enemy submarines, ships and ships, as well as to make it difficult for them to navigate. The main properties of a sea mine: constant and long-term combat readiness, surprise of combat impact, the complexity of clearing mines. Mines could be installed in enemy waters and off their coast. A sea mine is an explosive charge enclosed in a waterproof case, which also contains instruments and devices that cause the mine to explode and ensure the safety of handling it.

The first successful use of a sea mine took place in 1855 in the Baltic during the Crimean War. The ships of the Anglo-French squadron were blown up on galvanic impact mines, exposed by Russian miners in the Gulf of Finland. These mines were installed under the surface of the water on a cable with an anchor. Later, shock mines with mechanical fuses began to be used. Naval mines were widely used during the Russo-Japanese War. In the First World War, 310 thousand sea mines were installed, from which about 400 ships sank, including 9 battleships. In World War II, non-contact mines appeared (mainly magnetic, acoustic and magneto-acoustic). In the design of non-contact mines, urgency and multiplicity devices, new anti-sweep devices were introduced.

Sea mines were installed both by surface ships (minelayers) and from submarines (through torpedo tubes, from special internal compartments / containers, from external trailer containers), or were dropped by aircraft (as a rule, into the waters into the enemy). Antiamphibious mines could be installed from the shore at shallow depths.

Sea mines were subdivided according to the type of installation, according to the principle of operation of the fuse, according to the multiplicity, according to controllability, according to selectivity; by media type

According to the type of installation, there are:

- anchor - a hull with positive buoyancy is held at a given depth under water at anchor with the help of a minrep;

- bottom - are installed on the bottom of the sea;

- floating - drifting with the flow, holding under water at a given depth;

- pop-up - anchored, and when triggered, they release it and pop up vertically: freely or with the help of an engine;

- homing - electric torpedoes held under water by an anchor or lying on the bottom.

According to the principle of operation of the fuse, there are:

- contact - exploding in direct contact with the ship's hull;

- galvanic impact - are triggered when the ship hits a cap protruding from the mine body, in which there is a glass ampoule with an electrolyte of a galvanic cell;

- antenna - are triggered by the contact of the ship's hull with a metal cable antenna (used, as a rule, to destroy submarines);

- non-contact - triggered when the ship passes at a certain distance from the influence of its magnetic field, or acoustic impact, etc. Including non-contact are divided into: magnetic (react to the target's magnetic fields), acoustic (react to acoustic fields), hydrodynamic (react to dynamic change in hydraulic pressure from the target’s stroke), induction (they respond to a change in the strength of the ship’s magnetic field (the fuse only fires under a ship with a course), combined (combining fuses of different types). To make it difficult to deal with non-contact mines, urgency devices were included in the fuse circuit, delaying bringing the mine into a combat position for any required period, multiplicity devices that ensure the explosion of a mine only after a given number of impacts on the fuse, and trap devices that cause a mine to explode when trying to disarm it.

According to the multiplicity of mines, there are: non-multiple (triggered when the target is first detected), multiple (triggered after a given number of detections).

By controllability, they are distinguished: uncontrolled and controlled from the shore by wire or from a passing ship (as a rule, acoustically).

By selectivity, mines were divided into: conventional (hit any detected targets) and selective (capable of recognizing and hitting targets of given characteristics).

Depending on their carriers, mines are divided into ship mines (thrown from the deck of ships), boat mines (fired from submarine torpedo tubes) and aviation mines (thrown from aircraft).

When setting sea mines, there were special methods for their installation. So under mine can a minefield element was implied, consisting of several mines, set in a heap. It is determined by the coordinates (point) of the setting. 2, 3 and 4 mine banks are typical. Larger banks are rarely used. It is typical for setting by submarines or surface ships. mine line- an element of a minefield, consisting of several mines, set linearly. Defined by the coordinates (point) of the start and the direction. It is typical for setting by submarines or surface ships. Mine strip- an element of a minefield, consisting of several mines, set randomly from a moving carrier. Unlike mine cans and lines, it is characterized not by coordinates, but by width and direction. It is typical for setting by aircraft, where it is impossible to predict the point where the mine will fall. The combination of mine cans, mine lines, mine strips and individual mines creates a minefield in the area.

Naval mines during the Second World War were one of the most effective types of weapons. The cost of producing and placing a mine ranged from 0.5 to 10 per cent of the cost of clearing or removing it. Mines could be used both as an offensive (mining the enemy's fairways) and as a defensive weapon (mining their own fairways and installing anti-amphibious mining). They were also used as a psychological weapon - the very fact of the presence of mines in the navigation area already caused damage to the enemy, forcing them to bypass the area or carry out long-term expensive demining.

During the Second World War, more than 600 thousand mines were installed. Of these, 48,000 were dropped by Great Britain in enemy waters, and 20,000 were recovered from ships and submarines. 170,000 mines were laid by Britain to protect their waters. Japanese aircraft dropped 25,000 mines in foreign waters. Of the 49,000 mines installed, the United States dropped 12,000 aircraft mines off the coast of Japan alone. Germany put up 28.1 thousand mines in the Baltic Sea, the USSR and Finland - 11.8 thousand mines each, Sweden - 4.5 thousand. During the war, Italy produced 54.5 thousand mines.

The Gulf of Finland was the most densely mined during the war, in which the warring parties installed more than 60 thousand mines. It took almost 4 years to neutralize them.

Depth charge- one of the types of weapons of the Navy, designed to combat submerged submarines. It was a projectile with a strong explosive enclosed in a metal case of a cylindrical, spherical, drop-shaped or other shape. The explosion of a depth charge destroys the hull of the submarine and leads to its destruction or damage. The explosion is caused by a fuse that can be triggered: when a bomb hits the hull of a submarine; at a given depth; when the bomb passes at a distance from the submarine not exceeding the range of the proximity fuse. The stable position of a depth bomb of a spherical and drop-shaped shape when moving on a trajectory is attached to the tail - stabilizer. Depth charges were subdivided into aircraft and ship; the latter are used by launching reactive depth charges from launchers, firing from single-barreled or multi-barreled bombers and dropping from aft bomb releasers.

The first sample of a depth bomb was created in 1914 and, after testing, entered service with the British Navy. Depth charges were widely used in the First World War and remained the most important type of anti-submarine weapons in the Second.

The principle of operation of a depth charge is based on the practical incompressibility of water. A bomb explosion destroys or damages the hull of a submarine at depth. At the same time, the energy of the explosion, instantly increasing to a maximum in the center, is transferred to the target by the surrounding water masses, through them destructively affecting the attacked military object. Due to the high density of the medium, the blast wave does not significantly lose its initial power on its way, but with an increase in the distance to the target, the energy is distributed over a large area, and, accordingly, the radius of destruction is limited. Depth charges are notable for their low accuracy - sometimes it took about a hundred bombs to destroy a submarine.

Mine weapons in the war at sea

Captain 1st rank Yu. Kravchenko

Naval mines are one of the most important weapons in naval warfare. They are designed to destroy warships and ships, as well as to constrain their actions by creating a mine threat in certain areas (zones) of ocean and sea theaters and on inland waterways.

Mines were widely used by the opposing sides in military operations at sea in armed conflicts of various sizes. Their most massive use took place during the two world wars, which resulted in significant losses in warships and merchant ships.

During the First World War, about 309,000 mines were displayed in maritime theaters. The losses of the allies and neutral states from German mines (39,000) amounted to more than 50 warships, 225 auxiliary ships of the Navy and about 600 transports. The Entente countries were forced to invest huge amounts of money and make significant efforts to combat the mine threat. By the end of the war, the British Navy alone had over 700 minesweepers. The British fleet fielded 128,000 mines, half of them in German-controlled waters.

During the war, major minefield operations were carried out, including by the joint efforts of the allies in the coalition, in order to block the forces of the German fleet in the North Sea, primarily its submarines. Thus, the large northern barrier, created in 1918, had a length (from the Orkney Islands to the coast of Norway) of about 240 miles and a depth of 15 to 35 miles. Over 70,000 mines were fielded by the United States and Great Britain on it. In total, about 150 enemy warships, including 48 submarines, were lost on the Allied mines (195,000).

The Second World War was marked by an even greater use of mine weapons, both in terms of expanding the area of ​​their use and in terms of increasing the number of mines laid (over 650,000). New mines appeared according to the principle of operation, their power increased, the depth of setting increased from 400 to 600 m, the resistance of mines against trawling increased significantly. Only as a result of setting 263,000 mines by Great Britain in European waters (186,000 in its coastal and 76,000 in enemy waters), 1,050 ships and vessels were lost and about 540 were damaged. Germany fielded 126,000 mines in this war, mostly in European waters. Allied losses amounted to about 300 warships up to and including the destroyer, as well as over 500 merchant ships.

Submarines and especially aviation were widely involved in laying minefields. The increased capabilities of aviation have significantly expanded the scope of the use of these weapons. An example of the massive use of mines is Operation Starvation, when from the end of March 1945, US aircraft laid 12,000 mines on Japan's sea lanes in less than five months. On the night of March 27 alone, 99 B-29 aircraft from the 20th Bomber Command laid about 1,000 mines in the Shimonoseki Strait. This was the first time that such a massive staging of them by aviation was carried out. As a result, up to 670 Japanese ships were sunk or damaged, that is, almost 75 percent. the entire merchant tonnage available by the end of March 1945. During the operation, strategic bombers made 1529 sorties, while losing 15 aircraft. Minefields practically paralyzed merchant shipping in the coastal waters of Japan, which significantly affected the state of the country's economy. In total, in the Second World War, on 25,000 mines exposed by the United States, the Japanese lost 1,075 warships and ships with a total tonnage of 2,289,146 tons sunk and damaged. This type of weapon was widely used in subsequent local wars and conflicts.

There are many types of mines, but their design is basically the same. The mine consists of a body, an explosive charge (BB), a fuse, special devices (urgency, multiplicity, self-destruction and others), a power source, devices that ensure the installation of a mine on a given recess from the surface of the water or on the ground, and also for some types - her movement. The carriers (setters) of mines are surface ships, submarines (Fig. 1), and aviation. According to the principle of operation of the fuse, they are divided into contact and non-contact, according to the method of maintaining the setting place - into anchor (Fig. 2), bottom and floating, according to the degree of mobility - into self-propelled and stationary. Once laid, mines (minefields) may be unguided or guided.

Most of the modern sea mines in the arsenal of the fleets of the capitalist states have proximity fuses. They are triggered when a ship or ship passes at a certain distance from the mine under the influence of one or more physical fields (acoustic, magnetic, hydrodynamic, and others). According to this principle, non-contact mines are divided into acoustic, magnetic, induction, hydrodynamic.

At present, sea mines of various designs and purposes are being produced in the USA, Great Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Yes. research institutes and a number of other countries (Fig. 3). One of the most modern American mines is the Mk60 Captor. It is a combination of the Mk46 torpedo mod. 4 with a mine device and can be installed at depths up to 800 m; the range of the detection system is 1000-1500 m. An example of a self-transporting mine is the Mk67 SLMM (Submarine - Launched Mobile Mine), developed in the USA based on the Mk37 torpedo. After firing from the submarine's torpedo tube, it independently reaches the intended setting point, which can be located at a distance of up to 20 km from the carrier.

Rice. 1. Loading mines on the submarine of the French Navy

Fig. 2. Modern Swedish anchor mine K11 (explosive weight 80 kg, setting depth from 20 to 200 m)

Rice. 3. Tests of the ground mine G-2 jointly developed by Germany and Denmark

Rice. 4. Italian bottom mine MRP, created on the basis of the MR-80 mine (explosive weight 780 kg, length 2096 mm, diameter 533 mm)

Rice. 5. Setting mines from a military transport aircraft C-130N (can take on board up to 16 mines weighing about 1000 kg)

In the UK, bottom non-contact mines "Sea Uchin" and "Stone Fish" were created. The first is designed to destroy both underwater and surface targets. Its fuse can respond to changes in the magnetic, acoustic and hydrodynamic (or combinations thereof) zeros that occur in the mine installation area as a result of a ship passing over it. Depending on the size and nature of the targets against which these mines are exposed, they can be equipped with explosive charges of 250, 500 and 750 kg. The mine laying depth is up to 90 m, its carriers are surface ships, submarines and aircraft. The mass of "Stonefish", depending on the number of explosives, is 205-900 kg.

In Italy, the development and production of modern bottom mines is carried out by MISAR (MANTA, MR-80, Fig. 4), Voltek (VS SMG00) and Whitehead Motofides (MP900 / 1, TAR6, TAR16). A typical example of an anchor mine designed and manufactured in Sweden by Bofors is the K11, also known as the MM180. It is designed to combat surface ships and submarines of small and medium displacement. The mass of explosives is 80 kg, the depth of setting is from 20 to 200 m. The same company developed the original ROCAN bottom mine, which, due to special hydrodynamic shapes, can, after being dropped from the carrier, move away from it in a horizontal plane at a distance equal to twice the depth of the sea at this point (hull mines are designed for a depth of up to 100 m, the minimum setting depth is 5 m).

Recently, a mine was created in Denmark, similar in principle to the American Mk60 Captor. Its main elements are: a container with a small-sized torpedo, an anchor device and equipment for a target detection and classification system that responds to changes in acoustic and magnetic fields. After the detection and classification of the target (the main purpose of the mine is the fight against anti-mine ships), a torpedo is launched, which is aimed at the target by the radiation of the operating mine detection sonar. The adoption of such a mine by the fleets of the capitalist states can significantly increase the anti-sweep resistance of the minefields they have set up.
Along with the creation of new types of mines, considerable attention is paid to the improvement of outdated types of naval mines (installation of new fuses, the use of more powerful explosives). So, in the UK, old Mk12 mines were equipped with fuses similar to those on the modern Sea Uchin bottom mines. All this allows the previously accumulated stocks of mines to be maintained at a modern level * .

Mine weapons have an important combat property - they have a long-term effect on the enemy, creating a constant threat to the navigation of his ships and vessels in mined areas of the sea. It allows the release of forces for solving other problems, can reduce the size of the zone blocked by other forces, or temporarily completely close it. Mines dramatically change the operational situation in the theater of operations and give the side that used them an advantage in gaining and maintaining dominance at sea.

Mines are a universal weapon and are capable of hitting not only military targets, but also effectively influencing the country's economy and military production. The massive use of mine weapons can significantly disrupt or completely interrupt maritime and ocean transportation. Mine weapons can be an instrument of precisely calculated military pressure (in a certain situation, it is possible to block a naval base or a port for a certain period of time in order to demonstrate to the enemy the effect of a possible blockade).

Mines are quite "flexible" in terms of their use as a type of weapon. The side that lays mines can either openly announce this in order to exert a psychological impact on the enemy, or organize the laying of a minefield covertly to achieve surprise and cause maximum damage to enemy forces.

Foreign military experts believe that any issues related to mine laying should be considered in the context of the general views of the NATO command on the conduct of war, and in particular on the conduct of naval operations. With regard to the Atlantic theater of war, the main task that will be solved with the start of hostilities of the Allied Forces of the bloc in the theater will be to gain dominance at sea in the interests of ensuring the protection of transatlantic communications linking the United States of America with Europe. Violation of them will have the most serious impact on the possibility of waging war in Europe. As emphasized in the foreign press, without the timely transfer of reinforcement forces, weapons, military equipment and logistics to the continent, the NATO Allied Forces group will be able to conduct combat operations for no more than 30 days. It is also noted that during the first six months of the conflict in Western Europe, ocean transportation should ensure the delivery from the United States of more than 1.5 million personnel, about 8.5 million tons of weapons, military equipment and supplies, as well as 15 million. tons of fuels and lubricants. According to NATO experts, to achieve this goal, it is necessary that between 800 and 1,000 ships with military cargo and 1,500 with economic cargo (mineral raw materials, food, etc.) arrive in European ports every month.

This extremely important task for the Alliance must be solved by conducting a strategic operation in the oceanic theater of war. It will include a series of NATO operations interrelated in terms of goals, place and time to gain dominance in the Norwegian and Barents Seas (destruction of enemy fleet forces and prevent them from entering the Atlantic to disrupt communications), in coastal European waters (ensuring the arrival of ships with forces on the continent reinforcements), in the central part of the ocean (destruction of enemy force groups that have broken through) and in the waters adjacent to the US Atlantic coast (covering coastal communications, protecting ports, areas of loading and formation of convoys). In all these operations, mine weapons must play an important role. In addition, it will be widely used in solving other problems - the blockade of ports and naval bases of the enemy, strait zones and bottlenecks in order to disrupt the operational deployment of his forces, and primarily strategic ones; blocking enemy fleets in closed seas (Black and Baltic); violation of its sea and river communications; the creation of a regime unfavorable for the enemy in the theater, which makes it difficult for him to carry out not only operations, but also everyday combat activities and causes significant strain on forces and means, additional expenditure of material and human resources due to the need for constant implementation of mine defense measures; preventing the enemy from entering certain areas of the maritime theater, covering their ports and naval bases, landing-prone sections of the coast from strikes from the sea, and a number of others.

Minefields can be placed in the course of daily combat activities and during various maritime operations. If it is necessary to lay large minefields in a relatively short period of time, special minefield operations are organized and carried out.

According to the NATO classification, minefields, depending on the laying areas, can be active (placed in waters controlled by the enemy), barrier (in neutral waters) and defensive (in their own waters), according to the tasks being solved - operational and tactical scale, according to the number of mines in barrier - minefields and mine banks. Depending on the depths of the sea available for minelaying, there are shallow water areas (20-20.0 m), with an average depth (200-400 m) and deep water areas (over 400 m).

The role of mine weapons in the conquest of dominance by the combined NATO navies in the Barents and Norwegian Seas is highly appreciated. The laying of active minefields is supposed to be carried out 1-3 days before the start of hostilities in order to destroy the forces of the enemy fleet, primarily submarines, prevent the deployment of its ship groups to the Atlantic, disrupt coastal communications, create an unfavorable regime in the theater, and ensure landing operations. Anti-submarine minefields (active and barrier) will be deployed at the naval base and base points, at anti-submarine lines (cape North Cape - Bear Island, Greenland Island - Iceland Island - Faroe Islands - Shetland Islands - coast of Norway), as well as in SSBN combat patrol areas. Defensive minefields are planned to be used to protect coastal sea lanes, cover landing-accessible coastal areas in Northern Norway, unloading areas for convoys arriving at the North European theater of operations with reinforcement troops, weapons, military equipment and logistics equipment.

Foreign military experts believe that the enemy will widely use mine weapons in coastal European waters: in the North Sea, the Baltic strait zone, the English Channel, primarily with the aim of disrupting ocean transportation to Europe. The fight against the mine threat in these areas will be one of the main tasks for the joint NATO navies. At the same time, plans are being developed at NATO headquarters for the active use of mine weapons in operations and combat operations to disrupt the enemy’s sea lanes in the Baltic Sea, destroy fleet groupings of the Warsaw Pact countries, blockade the strait zone, and protect their lanes. For mine laying, it is planned to widely involve submarines capable of secretly laying mines in the immediate vicinity of the enemy's coast, as well as aircraft. Light surface forces (minesweepers, missile and torpedo boats), minelayers will be used to lay defensive minefields in order to block the strait zone to prevent the breakthrough of the Warsaw Pact fleets from the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic, to protect ports and coastal communications and cover the landing accessible coastlines. As emphasized in the Western press, in the conduct of hostilities in the Baltic and North Seas, "mine laying plays an important role as an effective element of the war at sea against the threat from a potential enemy."

The use of mine weapons in the Mediterranean Sea will be determined by the tasks solved by the strike and joint NATO naval forces in the theater of operations, the main of which will be the following: gaining and maintaining dominance in certain areas of the sea, establishing a blockade of the Black Sea and Gibraltar straits, ensuring the escort of convoys with reinforcement troops and various items MTO, conducting amphibious operations, protecting their communications. Taking into account the tasks to be solved, as well as the physical and geographical conditions of the Mediterranean Sea, the most likely areas for laying minefields are the Gibraltar, Tunisian, Maltese, Messinian and Black Sea straits, the Aegean Sea, coastal zones on the approaches to the naval base, ports and landing-accessible sections of the coast.

The laying of minefields can be carried out by aircraft, submarines and surface ships. Each kind of forces involved for these purposes has both positive and negative properties. That is why the laying of minefields should be carried out depending on the goals, tasks, place and time, either by one branch of forces or by several.

Rice. b. Loading mines on a submarine of project 206 and a container of the MWA-09 device

Rice. 7. Swedish clay layer "Elvsborg"

Rice. 8. Japanese mine layer "Soya" (full displacement of 3050 tons takes on board up to 460 minutes)

Rice. 9. Mining from a US Navy Knox-class frigate

Rice. 10. Setting mines from a boat

Aviation is capable of laying mines in enemy waters and areas of the oceans (seas) remote from bases in short periods of time with sufficiently high accuracy and regardless of meteorological conditions. It will be involved, as a rule, for massive mining of large areas of water.

The United States has the greatest capability among NATO countries for laying mines from the air. For this purpose, it is proposed to use aircraft of various types: strategic bombers B-52 and B-1B, carrier-based attack aircraft A-6E "Intruder" and A-7E "Corsair", anti-submarine aircraft S-3A and B "Viking", base patrol R- ZS "Orion", as well as to attract military transport aircraft C-130 "Hercules" (Fig. 5), C-141 "Starlifter" and C-5 "Galeksi", "modernized under the CAML program (Cargo Aircraft Minelaying).

The largest number of mines can be taken on board by strategic bombers B-52 (from 30 to 51 Mk52 and Mk36 bottom mines, respectively, or 18 deep-water anti-submarine Mk60 Captor, or 18 Mk64 and 65 of the Quickstrike family) and B-1B (84,250 -kg bottom mines MkZ6). The combat radius of such aircraft, taking into account one in-flight refueling, makes it possible to lay mines in almost any area of ​​the World Ocean.

The mine load of the base patrol aircraft R-ZS "Orion" is 18 mines MkZ6, 40 and 62 (weighing 230-260 kg each), or 11 Mk52 (about 500 kg), or seven Mk55, 56, 57, 60, 41, 64 and 65 (up to 1000 kg). The A-6E "Intruder" and A-7E "Corsair" carrier-based attack aircraft on underwing hardpoints deliver five and six mines weighing 900-1000 kg, respectively, to the setting area, and the S-3A "Viking" anti-submarine aircraft in the version of a minelayer takes on board two 1000-kg mines and four weighing up to 250 kg. When evaluating the capabilities of US Navy aircraft carrier aviation in laying minefields, foreign military experts proceed from the following factors: in the air wing based on a multi-purpose aircraft carrier (86 aircraft and helicopters), there are about 40 percent. carriers of mine weapons, including 20 medium attack aircraft A-6E "Intruder" and 10 anti-submarine aircraft S-3A and B "Viking", and the base patrol aviation of the US Navy (regular forces) includes 24 squadrons (216 machines).

Taking into account the long range and flight speed of aircraft, the speed of laying minefields, the ability to lay mines in areas inaccessible for a number of reasons to surface ships and submarines, as well as the ability to reinforce previously set obstacles in a fairly short time, aviation in the conduct of hostilities in modern conditions will be one of the main carriers of mine weapons. Among the shortcomings of aviation as a carrier of mines, foreign experts attribute the relatively low secrecy of its mine laying. To disguise the fact of mining approaches to ports, naval bases, bottlenecks, fairways, communications centers, it is possible to carry out simultaneous missile and bomb strikes against enemy targets located in the same area.

Submarines, due to their inherent qualities, have the ability to carry out covert laying of mines in the most important places, as well as, remaining in the area of ​​​​the minefield, to monitor it in order to determine its effectiveness and build on the success achieved by using torpedo weapons. Acting alone, they can be effectively used to lay small active minefields (cans) on the approaches to naval bases, ports, at enemy communications nodes, in narrow places, on anti-submarine lines.

For these purposes, it is planned to involve both nuclear multi-purpose and diesel submarines. They expose mines mainly with the help of torpedo tubes, it is also possible to use external attachments for this. American nuclear multi-purpose submarines (with the exception of Los Angeles-class submarines) can be used as minelayers, taking on board instead of part of the torpedoes, SABROK PLUR or Harpoon anti-ship missiles Mk60 Captor, Mk67 SLMM, Mk52, 55 and 56.

The main disadvantages of submarines as carriers of mine weapons is that they are capable of taking on board only a limited number of mines. To eliminate this drawback to some extent, special attachments have been created for some types of submarines. So, in the German Navy for submarines of project 206 there is a similar device, which received the designation MWA-09 (Fig. 6). It consists of two containers, with a capacity of 12 minutes each, which, if necessary, are attached by the crew to the base on the side of the boat's hull in its bow. The setting of mines can be carried out in a submerged position at speeds up to 12 knots. Using the MWA-09 device, the ammunition load of mines for submarines of this project should increase from 16 to 40 units, that is, by 2.5 times (provided that the mines are loaded into torpedo tubes instead of torpedoes).

Historically, surface ships have been the main carriers of mine weapons. According to the experience of armed conflicts, they put up primarily defensive minefields. This was due to the fact that the involvement of surface ships to lay mines in the waters controlled by the enemy required the allocation of special forces to provide cover, as well as the organization of navigation support.

In the fleets of NATO countries, in future conflicts at sea, it is planned to involve both minelayers of a special construction (Germany, Norway, see color insert, Denmark, Turkey, Greece) and warships of various classes, including auxiliary vessels, sometimes transports and ferries . Minelayers are also part of the Swedish Navy (Fig. 7) and Japan (Fig. 8). They are able to take on board a large number of mines, for example, the West German mine transport of the Sachsenwald type, with a total displacement of 3380 tons, can put 400 to 800 mines into the sea, depending on their type.

However, there are relatively few special minelayers, and therefore high-speed warships (destroyers, frigates), missile and torpedo boats will be involved in large-scale mine laying. Much attention is paid to the preparation of surface ships for their use as minelayers in the navies of European NATO countries. So, almost all warships and boats of the West German fleet are adapted for mine setting. New ships are also being built with this in mind. For example, high-speed minesweepers arriving at the fleet - searchers for mines of the Hameln type can take on board up to 60 minutes. On U.S. Navy surface ships there are no fixed rail tracks designed to receive and lay mines, but devices have been developed that allow you to quickly deploy places on the ship to store and release them (Fig. 9).

During the threatened period and with the outbreak of hostilities, the Naval Commands of the NATO countries plan to involve ships and boats (Fig. 10) of civilian departments and private owners to set up defensive minefields. So, in the USA, for example, activities for the selection of suitable ships (boats) and the training of crews for them are carried out as part of the COOP (Craft of Opportunity Program) program. or installation of mine-sweeping equipment specially designed for them (in the version of a minesweeper - a mine finder). COOP ships are assigned to a specific port, the crews for them are prepared from the reservists. Similar programs exist in a number of European NATO countries.

According to foreign military experts, the importance of mine weapons in military operations at sea will increase and they will be widely used both for offensive and defensive purposes. At the same time, it is emphasized that the greatest effect can be achieved with the massive use of mines in combination with the use of other combat means that are at the disposal of the fleets.

* The main performance characteristics of samples min. in service with the fleets of the capitalist states, see: Foreign Military Review. - 1989. - No. 8. - S. 48. - Ed.

Foreign military review No. 9 1990 S. 47-55

Mine weapons were the first to be used at the dawn of the appearance of submarines. Over time, it gave way to torpedoes and missiles, but has not lost its relevance to this day. On modern submarines, the following types of mines have been adopted:
- anchor
- bottom
- pop-up
- torpedo mines
- rocket mines

Anchor mine PM-1 is designed to destroy submarines. It is placed from 533-mm torpedo tubes (2 each) at depths up to 400 m, deepening mines 10-25 m. Explosive weight - 230 kg, acoustic fuse response radius 15-20 m. , adopted in 1965, are the same, but it can hit submarines and surface ships at depths up to 900 m.
Sea bottom mine MDM-6 is designed to combat surface ships and submarines. It is equipped with a 3-channel proximity fuse with acoustic, electromagnetic and hydrodynamic channels and devices for urgency, multiplicity, elimination. Caliber - 533 mm. Setting depth up to 120 m.

The MDS self-transporting bottom mine is also designed to destroy surface ships and submarines. Positioning occurs by firing a mine from a 533-mm submarine torpedo tube, after which it continues to independently move to the place of laying with the help of a carrier torpedo. The mine is detonated after the target approaches a distance sufficient to trigger a proximity fuse. Dangerous zone - up to 50 m. Can be placed in ocean, sea and coastal areas, the minimum setting depth is 8 m.

Anchor non-contact reactive-floating mine RM-2 is designed to destroy surface ships and submarines. It is used from 533-mm submarine torpedo tubes. The mine consists of a hull and an anchor. A jet solid propellant engine is attached to the body. Movement in the direction of the target begins after the proximity fuse is triggered by the influence of the physical fields of the target ship. There is also a contact fuse.

The PMT-1 anti-submarine torpedo mine was put into service in 1972. It is a combination of an anchor mine and a small-sized MGT-1 torpedo of 406 mm caliber. It is installed from 533-mm submarine torpedo tubes. Anchor anti-submarine mine-rocket PMR-2 is a combination of an anchor mine with an underwater missile. Consists of a launch container, a rocket and an anchor. The movement of the missile to the target begins after the detection system is triggered, caused by the impact of the physical fields of the submarine. The target is hit by detonating the rocket charge with a contact or proximity fuse.

Marine shelf mine MSHM is designed to combat submarines and surface ships in coastal areas. It is a combination of a bottom mine with an underwater missile. Mounted on the ground in a vertical position. The acoustic equipment of the mine provides target detection. An underwater missile launched from the MSHM hull is equipped with non-contact acoustic equipment, which makes it possible to effectively hit the target. Caliber - 533 mm.