What type of mine is this ?

[64EK26]

Hi

This has been lurking in my shed for some time...

A dummy mine (has been filled with concrete to give a more realistic weight) about 14" in diameter

What type is it? and is it saleable ?

 

Thanks in advance

Richard

 

[ploughman]

Quote

MK7 Anti Tank.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mk7+anti+tank+mine&rlz=1C1ONGR_en-GBGB1003GB1003&oq=mk7+anti&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgBEAAYFhgeMgYIABBFGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMggIAhAAGBYYHjIKCAMQABgKGBYYHjIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCAgIEAAYFhgeMggICRAAGBYYHtIBCjExMDc1ajBqMTWoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[64EK26]

Thanks

It will make a good doorstop

Cheers

Richard

 

 

[Adrian Dwyer]

Morning.  There are some additional photos and details on this post: <

>

[Adrian Dwyer]

I am clearly well out of touch with retail prices for concrete-encased in steel; but here are a couple of optimists at work . . . On the upside, yours still has the carrying handle (uncomfortable thing that it is).  All the best.  A

[Packhow75]

I have one similar except mine isn't filled with concrete, it is in the main made of concrete with the only metal pieces being the central bit and the carry handle.

IIRC I paid £50 for it about 7 years ago, which I thought fair for a nice door stop.

Regards

Tim

[ploughman]

I recall going on Salisbury Plain to a Dems range back in 1980.

We were practising with various targets and some improvised charges as well. 

One of the targets was a Ford Capri that had been ordered to be destroyed by the RSM as it's owner ignored posted orders to clear the square. A mk7 didn't do it much good

[Mark Ellis]

Well some people were clearly spoilt. Ours were all concrete, apart from the metal centre for the fuse - and a very short rope handle, designed to take your knuckle skin off on the concrete.

[Adrian Dwyer]

9 hours ago, Mark Ellis said:

Well some people were clearly spoilt. Ours were all concrete, apart from the metal centre for the fuse - and a very short rope handle, designed to take your knuckle skin off on the concrete.

Another example of a concrete mine (with a somewhat different purpose).  

 German Stock-Mine 43 consists of a small hollow concrete cylinder, made of weak cement mortar composition containing a shrapnel filling. An explosive charge of about 3.5oz was contained by the concrete cylinder, and the mine was mounted on a stake that was set in the ground.  <https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30019953#:~:text=mine the German Stock-Mine,was set in the ground.>  

[10FM68]

19 hours ago, ploughman said:

I recall going on Salisbury Plain to a Dems range back in 1980.

We were practising with various targets and some improvised charges as well. 

One of the targets was a Ford Capri that had been ordered to be destroyed by the RSM as it's owner ignored posted orders to clear the square. A mk7 didn't do it much good

Yes, I have spent a few draughty and damp days up at Casterley!  One particular occasion I recall - the civilian Bedford drivers used to refuse to go into the safety trench when we did the firing - they preferred to sit in their cabs eating their sandwiches.  They'd 'seen it all before' and, being 1000m away, were perfectly safe - taking cover was only for wimps and those who had to do as they were told.  Anyway, on this occasion a Mk7 underneath the remains of a Ferret went off.  A small black dot appeared in the distance. above the dems pit.  It grew bigger and bigger as we watched it - and as it headed towards the Bedfords.  In seconds, the drivers were out of their cabs and running like hell as a piece of armour plate, probably about a metre across, came spinning just over the top of one of the Bedfords with a sound like an express train and eventually came to ground several hundred yards further on!  I think one of the drivers even spilled his tea!

[10FM68]

On another occasion at Casterley, with a training squad from 3TRRE we were setting off various demolition charges using PE, a Bangalore torpedo, an improvised one out of 6’ pickets and, of course, a Mk7 AT mine.  As can so often happen, one ‘bang’ dislodges one of the others which then fails to detonate.  On this occasion there were to be 8 ‘bangs’.  6 occurred, there was a pause, then another.  ‘Oh dear’, only 7 of the 8 had gone off. 

On these occasions it is always the responsibility of the officer to go and find out what happened and put it right.  Inevitably, the young sappers are rather hoping something dramatic will befall him (with seriousness depending on their ghoulishness and his popularity) and so are watching with intense interest from the 1000m point as ‘Troopy’ sets off with his ‘blinds box’ to do the dirty.

Anyway, he gets down to the dems pit to discover that, what had happened was the charge inside the fuse well of the Mk7 hadn’t set off the main charge but had simply exploded upwards, leaving a hot and smoky, but otherwise unscathed, anti-tank mine.  So, our gallant young subaltern gets a bit of plastic explosive and a detonator out of his blinds box and makes up a charge to finish the job.  Now, he’s a tidy sort of chap (a Virgo in astrological terms) so likes to keep things organised: he has a short bit of safety fuse which is, really, too short, or a long piece which would need cutting, leaving him afterwards with two short pieces.  So, he decides he’ll keep the long piece for another day and use up the short piece, but, not to worry, yes, it will go off before he gets back to the safety point, but he’ll be far enough away for that to be of no consequence!

He lights the fuse, packs up his box and scrambles out of the pit to walk nonchalantly back to the rest of the Troop.  Or, at least, that is what is supposed to happen.  What actually happens is that he gets to the rim of the pit which is deep, steep and slimy chalk, and then… loses his footing and slips all the way back down into the pit ending up not far from the fizzing fuse on the mine!  This is not good news.

Now, it is absolutely NOT the done thing EVER to run on a demolition range – extremely bad form!  But, on this occasion, the young fella, after a quick glance at the mine, realises he has seconds to get clear.  He grabs his box, grabs his beret (I said he was a tidy chap) and comes out of that pit like a bullet!  Clearing the lip of the pit he throws himself to the ground covering his head with his blinds box (not that that would do much good as it is nothing more than a small, tin ammo box, just as ....

Back at the safety point all are watching, seeing nothing until the Troop Commander suddenly appears over the lip of the pit like a cork from a champagne bottle.  Now, the Troop Staff Sergeant was tall, gaunt, extremely cool and the spitting image of Lee Van Cleef in one of the Spaghetti Westerns (and I think he rather knew that and developed the persona just a bit).  He is standing, steady on his feet with a small cigar in his mouth.  One of the young sappers, well aware of the rules and seeing the Troop Commander clearly disregarding them at some speed, calls out, “Why’s he running, Staff?”

With that there’s a bloody great bang and about half a ton of chalk rises high into the air and, coming down, much of it lands on top of Troopy.  Staff takes his cigar out of his mouth and says, laconically, “That’s why he’s running, son!”

Happy to say, Troopy, pride notwithstanding, was undamaged and all had a more interesting tale of the day to tell their friends in the NAAFI that evening!