99. Plastic-Can Mine (Schützendosenmine Kunststoff; Schü.Do.Mi.K.)

a. Description. The antipersonnel plastic-can mine (fig. 118) is a copy of the British tire-burster or "ointment box" mine. It is 2 3/8 inches in diameter and 1 5/8 inches high. A small, black, cylindrical bakelite case with an overlapping lid houses a doughnut-shaped main charge, a built-in spring-loaded striker held by a shear wire, and a threaded percus-sion-cap-and-detonator assembly. The pressure lid is held to the case by adhesive tape. This mine weighs 4 ounces, including 2.5 oun-ces of explosive.

b. Employment. This mine is scattered along airfields runways, paths, roads, and road shoulders to injure personnel and to destroy the tires of vehicles and aircraft.

c. Functioning.

(1)

Pressure on the top or bottom of the mine compresses the striker spring, causing it to bear on the pressure disk in the hollow striker shaft.

(2)

Further pressure causes the pressure disk to shear the shear wire, releasing the spring-loaded striker against the percussion-cap-and-detonator assembly and firing the main charge.

d. Installing and Arming.

(1)

Remove the shipping plug from the detonator well in the bottom of the mine.

(2)

Screw in the percussion-cap-and-detonator assembly.

(3)

Place the mine on the ground or in a hole with the pressure lid slightly above ground level.

e. Neutralizing. Unscrew the percussion-cap-and-detonator assembly being careful not to exert any pressure on the pressure lid.

f. Packing. Two hundred of these mines are packed in a zinc-lined wooden box with a desecriptive label on the lid.

Figure 118. Plastic-can mine.