German WW2 rocket propelled landmine

Wurger

ACCESS: Top Secret
Senior Member
Joined
25 October 2007
Messages
1,093
Reaction score
352
Hi,

the germans developed their own anti-personnel mine, the Schrappnelmine 35 (S.Mi.35), known to the allies as the "Bouncing-Betty" on account of its hability to "jump" and explode about 70cm to 1,5m above the ground. Fritz Hahn refered to this mine as well as to other variants unknown to me such as the "Stolperdrathmine", the "schleudermine" and the "Fussschlingenmine".

In Günther Nagel`s excellent book, "Himmlers Waffenforscher", page 241, we can find the drawing depicted under this post. It was a project of the "Technischen SS-und-Polizeiakademie" in Brünn, present day Brno, Czech Republic. It was a brainchild of Prof.Dr. Helmuth Gerloff and was to be launched by a crude 15kg frame structure up to 1500m using its rocket motor. It would explode 1 to 2 meters above ground.
 

Attachments

  • Digitalizar0001.gif
    Digitalizar0001.gif
    81.6 KB · Views: 427
Wurger can you add more details and photos regarding this advanced rocket land mine. Herr bitte.
And if there is more advanced weapons please. I am on an extensive research.
 
Wurger can you add more details and photos regarding this advanced rocket land mine. Herr bitte.
And if there is more advanced weapons please. I am on an extensive research.
Sorry, this is all I have on this subject.
 
Do you have a pdf form of the Himmler waffenforscher? if not.. please at least describe to me how this landmine works.. was it launched from a rack like a stuka then land where?
 
This was just a standard S-Mi 35 equipped with a 7,3 cm rocket engine (from 7,3 cm R.Sprgr or PrGs 41); the launcher is not described in any detail, save it was a simple device weighting 15 kg, with 1000-1500 m range). On impact, the nose fuze ignited an expelling charge of the mine, launching the mine with the engine back in the air, where the mine detonated at 1-2 m height. So it was very similar in operation to bouncing mortar shells, it was just rocket propelled.
Generally the mine itself operated like a regular bouncing mine, it was just activated by an impact fuze instead of a regular mine fuze.
 
Last edited:
Wurger. can you give me a pdf copy of your Himmler's waffenforscher please?
It's a paper book, I'm afraid, couldn't you just buy it? ;) And save for very few "treasures" like this poor man's fragmentation rocket, the book is rather disappointing as far as technical aspects of weapons are concerned - it can rather supplement solid knowledge gained elsewhere.
 

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom