Mark XVII contact naval mine

Introduction

One of the techniques while defending/attacking waters was to deploy contact mines. These mines would explode as soon as they came in contact with a ship.
The Mark XVII naval contact mine, triggered through contact with a ship, was the standard British contact naval mine during World War II.

Approximate Values

Height: 122 cm
Weight: 145/204/227 kg(after filling the explosives)
Diameter: 102 cm
Operational depth: Max. 915 meter
Explosives: Most WWII British mines had a half mix of ammonium nitrate and TNT due to shortages of TNT and RDX, which resulted in a lower quality explosive. Later on, 20% more aluminium was added to improve the explosive.

Operation

Mechanism

The MK XVII contact mine was triggered by a ship coming into contact with its switch horns. These were placed all around the mine to increase its reliability. More switch horns around the mine would increase the chance a ship would come into contact with the mine’s horn triggers. When a ship would come into contact with a switch horn, the switch was activated and detonated the mine.

Minelaying

Laying mines was a tedious process, and required several naval personnel to work in unison. Check the ‘Demo‘ for a detailed explanation.

Demo

Usage

In WWII, British forces used mines offensively to mine enemy waters and sink enemy ships, such as in Operation Wilfred. British forces used mines defensively to stop enemy ships from accessing certain areas through the mined routes. An example of this is the British mines in the Iceland and Faroe passages which would have been used to deny access to these passages to German ships. Offensive mining in enemy waters had some success in blowing up enemy ships, but defensive mines completely failed in this regard with 170,000 laid defensive mines blowing up only one U-Boat. 

Disclaimer

The ‘Demo’ section might contain third-party images/videos/other multimedia. The author neither claims nor intends any infringement, and tries best to give credits to the original creators/owners. The only purpose of including the third-party material is to provide the readers as much information as possible, in an intuitive manner.