Hello Mish, nice you also have some Beton mines for your collection.by kiwiwreckdiver
Original spikes can sometimes be found, especially over on your side of the world. But if you cannot find one, to replicate a spike is not hard to do.....if you can find some old wood that "would"look best and look original like the spike Ande shows....
Below I show another original spike also but it is shorter than most and also has traces of green paint which was not normally applied to spikes. Also the spike shown earlier in this thread that has a large eagle marking is definitely not original, spikes were not inspected and marked....The spikes were normally 13 inches long most of the time and usually always unpainted rough wood..... but I have seen them also 10.5 inches like the one I have and also other lengths, but most manuals of the period describe 13 inches as the most common length.
The spikes were shipped separately from mines in bundles of 12 tied together with rope-string. The Beton mines (Stockmine 43) were shipped separately in wooden crates of 12 mines. These concrete mines were factory made believe it or not, they were not made in the field as improvised mines as many think they were. I have in my files I will try to find and post sometime a photograph of an original bundle of spikes and a factory made wood crate of these Beton mines. It is a well made crate with a paper label on inside of top cover of crate just like many other German ordnance items.
Hello Ande, nice Beton mines! I see you also have both types! and you also have a great looking original spike !
The hole in the end of your spike you ask about is very odd, I've not seen that before. I don't think it was put there to keep it in the mine when it explodes or for any specific reason. This hole would not make any difference in the function of the spike.
I believe the hole in your spike was from a type of tool used on a lathe to secure the wood in the lathe for turning it when made. I have a couple M43 stick grenade handles with similar "holes" on the end that are definitely from when they made-turned the handles on a lathe.
Spikes were used obviously to anchor the mines in location, but yet the spikes also served the purpose to hold the 100gram Bohrpatrone in place up inside the mine. Normally the German engineers-pioneers-sappers would apply a sealant around the fuse at top to weatherproof the charge, and also sometimes seal around the bottom after arming-loading before placing the mines in position.
Here are photos of my mines, both types, early green conical bottom, and later war yellow-tan paint with flat bottom.
Also shown is the 100gr Bohrpatrone charges used in these mines. Pictured is one common modern reproduction with the 10mm standard threads used for all fuzes installed, these are just wooden dowels with repro labels and wrapping.....but also shown is a quite hard to find original 100% INERT Bohrpatrone.
The original wax paper wrapper and labels were carefully removed and then placed over an empty cardboard tube. This is a very hard to find item and one of my rarest little bits in my ordnance collection.
I'm sure there are others out there in collections, probably in Europe and maybe here in the US, but I've not run across any except this one in my many years of collecting INERT WW2 ordnance items.
Shown for size etc comparison is an all orig. WW2 Soviet POMZ stake mine with scarce original grey paint, it's orig. spike and MUV fuze, type 2-rolled steel. The POMZ mines painted grey or green and in good condition are also not an easy item to find! They were usually unpainted. They used a slightly smaller 75 gram cylindrical Trotyl charge.[ATTACH=CONFIG]609856
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