Italian anti-personnel mines are operated by pressure or trip wires. They were often diffi-cult to detect, especially those operated by pressure in which only a portion of the lid or igniter may appear above the ground. The Italians used bakelite and wood in the cons-truction of some mines to prevent detec-tion by magnetic instruments.

Anti-tank mines vary in appearance. They are tubular, rectangular, or circular in shape. Some are made of bakelite or wood to prevent detection.

Improvised mines seem to have been the Italian specialty in the field. They used a ma-jority of the improvised mines in Abyssinia, since the supply of standard mines was appa-rently limited. Most of these mines were of wooden construction and used blocks of TNT for the explosvie. Sometimes shells were used for explosive and shrapnel for mines.