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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

What is it? Stranded mine?


centurion

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What is this? (and who are these guys?) >note the man standing to the right of the sailor holding the lid looks rather like Sammy Davis Jnr

post-9885-1277297222.jpg

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Well yes i would say a recovered mine as to the sammy davis bit well ?

MC

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Although the "mine " doesn't look any ware near the sea as such ?

MC

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And thats a big mechanism to be lifting out of a mine. BTW any ideas as to nationality of the guys - Bulgarian?

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Almost all the mines I looked up have 'horns' on the top for activating the device. Seems to me that this may fall under a different category? Is it even a naval mine?

shawn

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Almost all the mines I looked up have 'horns' on the top for activating the device. Seems to me that this may fall under a different category? Is it even a naval mine?

shawn

That would be a "contact mine", with "horns". I know for a fact that the RN used "observation mines" in the Balkans, which were moored and connected electrically, and an observer watched the mine or mines and detonated it when a ship was close. Such a mine would not have "horns", unless dual-purpose. I also know that the RN had to abandon that equipment when the Austrians and Germans forced the Sava and Danube at and below Beograd. There were RN, French Navy, and Russian Navy missions at Beograd (Belgrade) trying to keep the Austrian monitors from forcing the Danube with a defense of mines and naval cannon. Interesting story.

After a brief look most of those soldiers could be Germans of various sorts. The Germans might also have put in mine defenses at Constanza, Romania. I have details about them putting in coastal defense guns to keep the Russians from shelling oil installations.

Bob Lembke

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And thats a big mechanism to be lifting out of a mine. BTW any ideas as to nationality of the guys - Bulgarian?

Yup. Bulgarian. The shoulder straps and white ring on the cockades confirm it.

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Who says it couldn't be a sea mine, could be on an English beach. However there do not appear to be any provision for horns so it wouldn't be a contact

mine, and, what is the dipole leaning against the mine on the right ? Could be an antenna for radio contact as (nzef) stated. Notwithstanding all this I hope

the officers standing around the object were totally certain that it had been defused.

David

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Who says it couldn't be a sea mine, could be on an English beach.

Not with those uniforms it couldn't

I'd be inclined to go for mud flats in an estuary leading into the Black Sea.

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Is it just me or does 'Sammy' appear to be wearing a cap tally? Can we see that bit, erm, blown up?

-Daniel

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? Could be an antenna for radio contact as (nzef) stated.

Although there were experiments with radio controlled mines in WW1 none were deployed (the mine in nzef's extract is a contact mine). Controlled (observation) mines were detonated using a command wire. The first patent for a radio controlled mine was granted in 1942

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Is it just me or does 'Sammy' appear to be wearing a cap tally? Can we see that bit, erm, blown up?

Sorry the picture is the best definition I have, Lucky even to have this as the 'original' was in a very odd format and I had a job finding a bit of software that would display it let alone convert it to jpeg

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Sorry the picture is the best definition I have, Lucky even to have this as the 'original' was in a very odd format and I had a job finding a bit of software that would display it let alone convert it to jpeg

Ah, too bad. Glad you were able to save it from history's dustbin!

-Daniel

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Sorry Cent. I was referring to the landscape, now really where they were. I tried blowing up the sailors cap, and even with the excellent quality of the'

photo, it just blurrs up and stays unreadable. What is the end cap they are handling ? A plunger detonator ? I realized that a dipole a very long bow,

don't really think that dipoles were used until much later - aka ww2 - another possible use is a double handed wrench to unbolt the cap.

David

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another possible use is a double handed wrench to unbolt the cap.

I'd say that's exactly what is is; it's the key they have used to open up the mine

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It looks pretty much like the ones in this pic. The caption was Naval Mines.

post-19785-1277365069.jpg

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Hi

It is a British mine,

two rods (removed and lying at the feet of the soldiers) give ignition when touched and making a turning movement

Cnock

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