2. DESCRIPTION.

a. All types of Land mines consist of a charge of high explosive and a device for deto-nating this charge under the proper conditions. In general, land mines are of the trap type; they relay on some action of the enemy for initiation. Some types are of compli-cated design, as the bounding mine which projects a shell 6 to 8 feet above the ground and explodes it there. Most types are simple, consisting only of a container of high ex-plosive and a firing mechanism.

3. CLASSIFICATION.

a. Land mines are classified according to the use for which they are designed as anti-tank and antipersonnel. However, either type may, on occasion, be used for the other and both types may be used for demolitions, just as either type may be improvised from demolition materials.

b. Antitank mines are also classified as high-explosive, practice, or dummy.

4. IDENTIFICATION.

a. General. Ammunition is identified by means of the painting and marking on the item itself and all containers. Complete identification is furnished by:

(1) Standard nomenclature which includes type, size and model.

(2) Lot number, which includes manufacture's lot number, manufacturer's initiales or symbol, and date of loading.

b. Standard Nomenclature. Standard nomenclature is established in order that each item supplied may be specifically identified by name. Its use, for all purposes of record, is mandatory except as noted is subparagraph c, below.

c. Ammunition Identification Code. To facilitate reporting, requisitioning, and record keeping in the field, each complete round and each item of issue is assigned a five-cha-racter code symbol. These symbols and information concerning their use may be found in Standard Nomenclature Lists and OFSB 3-14.

d. Mark or Model. To distinguish a particular design, a model number is assigned when the design is adopted. This designation becomes an essential part of the nomenclature of the item. It consists of the letter "M" followed by an Arabic numeral. Modification of the original model are indicated by adding the letter "A" and the appropriate Arabic numeral to the model designation. Formely, the word "Mark" was used. This was abbreviated "Mk." and followed by a Roman numeral.

e. Ammunition Lot Numbers. When ammunition is manufactured, an ammunition lot number is assigned in accordance with pertinent specifiaction. The lot number is marked or stamped on every item (unless the item is too small) and on all containers of the ammunition. Its use is required for all purposes of record, including reports on condition, function or accidents.

f. Painting. Ammunition is painted to prevent rust, to provide, by the color, an aid to concealment, and for identification as to type. Service land mines are painted lusterless olive-drab with marking in black. However, where it will not affect the concealment qua-ities, there is an area painted in accordnance with the ammunition identifiaction color scheme: yellow, high-explosive; blue, practice; black, dummy or drill.

g. Marking. When the size of the item permits, each item of ammunition is marked with the type, size, model, and lot number of the item. Each container is marked with the same information.

5. CARE AND PRECAUTIONS IN HANDLING.

a. Ammunition should be protected against moisture, heat, and shock.

b. Ammunition is packed to withstand all ordinary conditions encountered in handling and shipping. Items that are not waterproof are packed in moisture resistance contai-ners. Such containers should not be opened until the ammunition is about to be used or prepared for use. Items unpacked but not used should be repacked and the containers sealed. Such items should be used first in subsequent operations in order that stocks of opened packings may be kept to a minimum.

c. Damage packings should be repaired or the items transferred to new packings. Care should be exercised to see that all original markings are reproduced on the new parts of the container.

d. Mines planted in wet sorroundings should be waterproofed by treating the joints with gease, wax, cement, or sealing compound.

e. Ammunition should be protected against sources of excessive heat, including the direct rays of the sun. Boxes stored in the open should be covered by a paulin and piled so that there will be free circulation of air thoughtout the pile.

f. Fuzes, primer, and detonators are espicially sensitive to heat and shock.

g. Boxes of ammunition should not be dropped, dragged, or tumbled.

h. Boxes should not be opened in a magazine nor within 100 feet of a store of explosi-ves. Safety tools should be used in unpacking and repacking operations. Safety tool are those made of copper, wood, or other material incapable of producing sparks when struck.

i. No attempt will be made to fuze an item of ammunition closer than 100 feet to a ma-gazine or other such store of explosives or ammunitions.

j. No disassembly of ammunition or components thereof will be permitted except as specifically authorized.

k. Safety pins, safety forks and other safety devices are designed for the protection of planting personnel. They should be left in place until the last practicable moment before leaving and then removed. In picking up mines, they should be replaced first.

l. Care will be exercised to see that fuze cavities or detonator wells are clear of ob-struction and free of foreign material before attempting to assemble the fuze or detona-tor.

m. Blasting caps, detonators, and fuzes with detonator assembled should be protected from shock, heat, and frcition. By "shock" is meant such as is given by detonators knock-ing together when carried loose in the pocket or when dropped from any height what-ever; by "heat", such as prolonged exposure to the direct rays of the sun; by "friction", any abnormal friction such as sliding across a table or being forced into a tight or ob-structed well.

6. STORAGE AND PRESERVATION.

a. Explosive and ammunition should be stored in buildings designed, designated, and isolated for the specific purpose. Explosives and ammunition should not be stored in buil-dings which are used for other purposes, such as basement or attics of barracks, com-pany supply rooms, or general storehouses. When specially constructed magazines are not available, the buildings used must afford good protection against moisture and damp-ness and have means for adequate ventilation. They must be floored with approved ma-terial and may not be heated by open fires or stoves.

b. Boxes, cases, and other container of ammunition should be clean and dry before being storaed. Damaged containers will be repaired or replaced before storing, but the repairs or change of container will not take place in or within 100 feet of a magazine containing explosives. Powder dust or particles of explosive material from broken contai-ners will be carefully taken up as soon as spilled. All work will be suspended until this has been done. Ammunition containers should not be opened in a magazine nor should they be stored after having been opened unless they have been closed securely. No nails or tacks will be driven into a container of explosives or ammunition. Cases should be hand-led with care. Cases should be handled with care. Cases should not be dragged across the floor in magazines as this practice has resulted in starting fires where there was powder dust present.

c. Loose rounds or components will not be kept in a magazine. No empty container, no excess dunnage nor tools, should be permitted to remain in a magazine. No oily rags, paint, turpentine, etc., will be left in a magazine containing ammunition or explosives.

d. Ammunition should be piled by lot numbers in stable piles which are so arranged that the individual containers are accessible for inspection and offer no obstacle to the free circulation of air. The tops of ammunition piles will be below the level of the eaves to avoid the heated space directley beneath the roof. The bottom layer should be raised off the floor about 2 inches. Dunnage should be level; if necessary, shims or wedges should be used. Stacks should not be so high that ammunition or its containers in the lower layers will be crushed or deformed. Partly filled boxes should be fastened securely, mark-ed, and kept on the top of the pile.

e. Magazines should be built on well drained ground.

f. It is essential that explosives and ammunition be segreated in an area specifically set aside for their exclusive storage. This area need not be large, but it is important that it be segregated from inhabited buildings, public highways, and railroads. Individual maga-zines must be separated by distances adequate to prevent propagation of an explosion from one to another. Such distances are given in TM 9-1900.

g. Vegatation should be controlled and dry leaves, grass, and rubbish removed from the magazine area and burned.

h. Ammunition of trash, empty boxes, scrap lumber, or any such inflammable material should not be permitted.

i. A 50-foot firebreak should be established around each above-ground magazine.

j. Smoking, the carrying of matches, and the use of lights other than approved electric lights in magazines or explosives storage areas, are forbidden.

k. Interiors of magazines should be clean. Paint, oils, gasoline, waste, rags, and other inflammable material should not be left in magazines.

l. Except when they are issued in one packing, mines and fuzes will not be stored in the same magazine. This applies to the detonating element of fuzes such as detonator, blas-ting caps, and the like, and not to metal parts of fuzes or firing mechanisms when the detonating element is not assembled thereto.

7. DESTRUCTION OF UNSERVICEABLE MATERIAL AND DUDS.

a. General. Unserviceable material and duds will be destroyed only by authorized and experienced personnel. Safety precautions such as those laid down in TM 9-1900 and in Ordnance Safety Manual OO No. 7224, will be observed.

b. Burning. Unconfined explosives such as demolition blocks may be destroyed by spreading out thin on a layer of combustible material and burning. Small components may be burned in a covered trench or pit by preparing the fire, placing a quantity of the item to be destroyed on the pile, and igniting from a distance by such means as a train of excelsior. Lager items such as the FUZE, antitank mine, M1, may be burned in a covered pit by feeding one at a time down a baffled chute from behind a barricade.

c. Detonation.

(1) Larger items will be destroyed by detonation at safe distances from buildings, inha-bited areas, and magazine areas.

(2) Thin walled mines, such as the antitank mine or bangalore torpedo, will need only one demolition block to detonate a pile but, because the thin-walled mines contain such a larger percentage of explosive, care must be exercised to limit the number destroyed at a blast.

(3) Thick-walled mines, such as the antipersonnel mines, will need correspondingly more explosive and greater barricading to limit fragments.

(4) Blasting caps inserted in the fuze cavity or detonator well may be used to destroy an item, instead of using the cap and a block of demolition explosive.

d. Duds. Any land mine which failed to explode when its fuze or firing mechnism was operated and any unexploded mine that shows signs of having been operated (such as an antitank mine with vehicle tracks over its location or a mine with a half-pulled deto-nator wire) will be regarded as a dud. No attempt will be made to disarm, unfuze, or take up a dud. It will be destroyed in place with explosive.

8. PACKING AND MARKING FOR SHIPMENT.

a. Packing data for land mines and their components are given in Table I.

b. In addition to nomenclature and lot number, packing offered for shipment are marked with the Interstate Commerce Commission name or classification of the article, the na-mes and addresses of consignor and consignee, volume and weight, and the code sym-bol.

TABLE I

Item

Quantity

Dimensions
(in.)

Sq.
Ft.

Ca.
Ft.

Weight
(lb.)

BLOCK, demolition, M2 and

16

21 11/16 x 14 15/16 x 7 11/32

2.16

1.32

62

M3

BLOCKS, demolition,

2

21 11/16 x 14 15/16 x 7 11/32

2.16

1.32

62

chain, M1

CAP, blasting, tetryl,

500

22 x 15 x 9 1/2

2.29

1.81

54

electric

CAP, blasting, tetryl,

5,000

19 x 16 x 8

2.11

1.40

65

electric

CAP, blasting, special

500

22 x 15 x 9 1/2

2.99

1.81

34

electric

CAP, blasting, special

5,008

19 x 16 x 8

2.11

1.40

65

nonelectric

EXPLOSIVE, ammonium nitrate (cratering

In commercial size container

charge)

EXPLOSIVE, nitrostarch,

50

Quantities and dimensions

rectangular

pkg.

may very with different

manufacturers

---

---

---

EXPLOSIVE, TNT, rec-

108

17 3/4 x 12 x 9

1.48

1.11

65

tangular

FUZE, mine, antitank

100

27 5/8 x 14 3/4 x 8 23/32

2.83

2.06

96

H.E., M1A1

FUZE, mine, antitank

100

27 5/8 x 14 3/4 x 8 23/32

2.83

2.06

162

practice, M1

MINE, antipersonnel, M2

10

32 x 13 3/16 x 91 5/32

2.93

2.31

93

and M2A1

MINE, antipersonnel, M2,

10

32 x 13 3/16 x 9 15/32

2.92

2.31

93

M2A1, M2A3, M2A3B1,

and M2A3B2

MINE, antipersonnel, M3

6

17 7/8 x 8 11/16 x 9 1/32

1.08

0.81

72

MINE, antitank, H.E., M1

5

26 1/8 x 9 3/4 x 10 17/32

1.77

1.55

68

MINE, antitank, H.E., M1A1

5

26 1/8 x 9 3/4 x 10 17/32

1.77

1.55

71

MINE, antitank, H.E., M4

5

26 1/8 x 10 x 10 25/32

1.80

1.60

68

MINE, antitank, H.E., M5

4

26 7/8 x 11 3/8 x 12 1/8

2.54

2.58

78

MINE, antitank, practice, M1

5

26 1/8 x 9 3/4 x 10 17/32

1.77

1.55

64

MINE, antitank, practice,

5

26 1/8 x 10 x 10 25/32

1.80

1.60

37

M1B1

MINE, antitank, H.E., heavy

1

13 3/8 x 13 2/8 x 44 1/2

1.23

.460

30

T6E1

Mine, antitank, H.E., heavy

3

7 1/2 x 11 x 19 1/2

1.43

0.92

52

T7

COVER, mine, antitank, H.E.,

50/bundles

35 1/2 x 27 x 16

6.57

5.47

104

M1A1 and M4 and practice

49/bundles

M1 (also packed with anti-

(2000

tank mines)

covers/wire

?????-hole)

TORPEDO, bangalore, M1

10

63 3/8 x 15 7/8 x 5 3/8

6.99

3.13

168

TORPEDO, bangalore, M1A1

Kit/

10

63 3/8 x 15 7/8 x 5 3/8

6.99

3.13

168

Bez/

10

64 2/25 x 15 3/8 x 5 2/5

6.81

4.83

286