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The land mine is one of the most destructive and indiscriminate weapons of war ever devised. The history of this insidious explosive device can be traced back to China and the invention of gunpowder, and it's since been described as the perfect soldier: "ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses."
How much do we know about these violent, hidden weapons, and where in the world are they most prolific? Click through and read more about the explosive history of land mines.
Before the use of explosives, the nearest device resembling a mine was that used by the Romans—the caltrop. Best described as an area denial weapon, a caltrop is made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base. They were used en masse throughout antiquity to deter troops, horses and chariots, and war elephants. The modern-day caltrop, such as the example pictured here designed to puncture car tires, is based on its ancient counterpart.
The arrival of gunpowder in China in the 13th century enabled the manufacture of the first bombs used in warfare. The 14th-century Chinese military treatise known as the Huolongjing outlines a crude land mine system known as the "divine ground damaging explosive ambush device."
The 17th-century Chinese military handbook Wubei Zhi describes the effect of an explosive device used earlier in the 13th century as "underground sky soaring thunder"—a land mine connected to weapons above ground.
The invention in 1573 by German military engineer Samuel Zimmermann of the fladdermine ("flying mine") effectively saw the introduction of a buried cluster-bomb mine, activated by stepping on it or tripping a wire that made a flintlock fire. The fladdermine was used widely over the next couple of centuries in conflicts across Europe, including the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871).
Zimmermann's weapon was modified as an improvised mortar, known as a fougasse. Constructed by making a hollow in the ground or rock and filling it with explosives, this device was well known to military engineers by the mid-18th century. One of the best surviving examples is found in rocks near the Madliena Tower in Malta (pictured).
Advances in explosives technology and military know-how in the 18th century included the invention of the safety fuse. Later use of electricity to detonate a charge greatly promoted the deployment of land mines. The percussion cap (pictured), developed in the early 19th century, made them much more reliable.
The first pressure-operated mines using percussion caps were deployed on land and sea in the Crimean War (1853–1856).
Precursors of the modern-day mine were used during the American Civil War. In fact, the development of the first modern mechanically fused high explosive anti-personnel land mine was attributed to Gabriel J. Rains (pictured), a general in the Confederate Army.
Rains pioneered the use of "torpedo" or "subterra shells" consisting of munitions with pressure caps. They were detonated either by direct contact with the friction primer of the buried shell, or movement of an object attached to the primer by strings or wires. These explosive booby traps made their debut at the Battle of Yorktown in 1862.
Many on both sides of the conflict were appalled by the use of such an arbitrary weapon, and considered the use of mines barbaric. After the war ended, General Sherman and other high-ranking Union officers ordered Confederate prisoners to remove and deactivate mines, a task seen in this illustration where prisoners of war are clearing mines set in front of Fort McAllister in Georgia.
Guncotton, up to four times more powerful than gunpowder, was used from the 1870s to the First World War as the primary explosive component in the manufacture of mines. Pictured in 1901 is an employee of a cordite works using a rope screen for protection while pressing guncotton.
The destructive power of the mine was put to the test during the Great War when on June 7, 1914 no less than 19 mines were placed underneath German positions near Messines in West Flanders by the British. The resulting blast killed approximately 10,000 enemy soldiers with the explosion heard as far away as London and Dublin. The salvo remains one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions of all time. This rare color Autochrome Lumière shows the bomb crater, its diameter 116 m (380 ft) and depth 45 m (147 ft).
The First World War saw the widespread appearance of minefields as a way of killing and maiming the enemy. In this image, another rare Autochrome Lumière, the "Death's Head" warns of laid mines in a Flanders' poppy field. The warning was left by rapidly retreating Germans who didn't have time to remove the notice before Allied troops entered the area. Had the sign been taken down, advancing soldiers would have no doubt strayed into the deadly meadow.
Between the wars, victorious nations did little work on land mines. The German, however, were developing a new range of weapons, including anti-tank mines and the S-mine, the first bounding mine ever manufactured. When triggered, this dreadful device jumped up to about waist height and exploded, sending thousands of steel balls in all directions within 853 sq-m (2,800 sq-ft). The Americans modeled their M16 anti-personnel mine on the S-mine design. Both were used throughout the Second War War, with both proving particularly lethal.
Entering service in 1944, an entirely non-metallic mine, the German topfmine, was much more difficult to detect. It was a pressure-activated device meant to be buried so that its top would be flush to the ground's surface.
To counter increasingly sophisticated mine detectors, the Germans developed the Schu-mine 42. This anti-personnel mine was housed in a wooden casing, its kill count so effective it became the most widely used mine in the Second World War.
The North Africa Theater saw the most mines laid of any campaign during the conflict. Here, a British officer, clutching a funeral cross, digests a macabre warning, noting a sign that reads: "IF GOING MUCH FURTHER PLEASE TAKE ONE." Beyond the board is a German minefield, laid across the El Alamein battlefield in North Africa.
The "Devil's gardens" was the name given by German field marshal Erwin Rommel to the defensive entanglements of land mines and barbed wire built to protect Axis defensive positions at El Alamein. Pictured are Italian infantry soldiers defusing anti-tank mines that the British Army had placed before the Second Battle of El Alamein in late 1942.
The main method of breaching minefields involved prodding the dirt with a bayonet or stick at an angle of 30 degrees (to avoid putting pressure on the top of the mine and detonating it). This proved laborious and dangerous. Furthermore, German mines were set within wooden housings, thus fooling most detectors. British and American tanks were soon fitted with a flail comprised of chains and weights fitted to a rotating drum that would sweep the area ahead of advancing infantry. Pictured is a Matilda scorpion tank equipped for mine clearing.
During the Korean War, American forces developed the M15 anti-tank mine (pictured) and the M24 anti-personnel mine. These were designed as anti-handling devices, set to detonate if someone attempted to lift, shift, or disarm them.
One of the most recognized anti-personnel explosive devices in the the world is the Claymore mine. Developed for the United States Armed Forces, the Claymore first appeared in 1960 and was soon being laid in the Korean Demilitarized Zone and sown across the jungles and fields of Vietnam and Cambodia. Pictured is the M18A1 Claymore.
Many countries have developed and used mines like the Claymore. American forces last used anti-personnel land mines in 1991 during the Gulf War. The United States has not signed or ratified the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, but has not sold mines to other countries since 2002. The US currently reserves the right to deploy land mines in defense of South Korea in the event of invasion by North Korea.
To date, 164 nations have signed the Mine Ban Treaty, also known informally as the Ottawa Treaty. Non-signatories besides the US include Russia and China.
According to Land Mine Free, Egypt remains the most mined nation in the world, a terrible legacy of the Second World War. An estimated 23 million unexploded mines are buried under the desert sand, mostly around border areas.
Angola in Africa has anywhere between 10-15 million mines hidden within its borders. On January 15, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales paid a well-publicized visit to the country to promote the work of the mine clearing charity The HALO Trust.
Iran has 16 million of these devices yet to be cleared, laid during the disastrous Iran-Iraq War. And the deadly roll call also includes Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Cambodia, Mozambique, Bosnia, Croatia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan, all in the millions.
Egypt, Angola, and Iran account for more than 85% of the total number of mine-related casualties in the world each year. The most common injury associated with land mines is loss of one or more limbs.
Overall, about 80% of reported land mine casualties are men, many of whom are soldiers. But numerous civilians, many of them women and children, also fall victim to these insidious weapons.
According to Human Rights Watch, Russian forces in Ukraine have used at least seven types of anti-personnel mines in at least four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Sumy. Pictured is a mine-warning sign installed near a lake and field in the village of Horenka.
Besides pressure-activated devices, mines are set for detonation by trip wire, as seen in this photograph, the green wire camouflaged by foliage. Human Rights Watch adds that while both Russian and Ukrainian forces have extensively used anti-vehicle mines, "There is no credible information that Ukrainian government forces have used anti-personnel mines in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty since 2014 and into 2022."
Sources: (Minesweepers) (International Campaign to Ban Landmines) (The HALO Trust) (Smithsonian Magazine) (The Washington Post) (Defense News) (Human Rights Watch)
See also: History's most important peace treaties
The complex history of land mines
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messages.DAILYMOMENT War
The land mine is one of the most destructive and indiscriminate weapons of war ever devised. The history of this insidious explosive device can be traced back to China and the invention of gunpowder, and it's since been described as the perfect soldier: "ever courageous, never sleeps, never misses."
How much do we know about these violent, hidden weapons, and where in the world are they most prolific? Click through and read more about the explosive history of land mines.