Minenplan St. Etienne

[Pablo]

I found this in an antiques shop and thought it was cool. Dated 26/7/44. I assume it is a minefield chart for Bois St Etienne, France.

[lebus12]

Hello, it is not in France but in Belgium.
At the left, you can read in French : legende X rien trouvé = X nothing found.

[drmessimer]

Pablo: That is one minefield chart of several that show the protective mine fields laid around the power transmission masts that carried power from the power works at Jupille to the Holland border. This chart shows the minefields around mast Nr. 420/55. The field consisted of 12 type 42 mines that had been laid so that they could not be lifted without exploding. The warning at the top of the inset says, "Removal forbidden, clearing only through detonation." In addition to the 12 live mines, 12 dummy or decoy mines were also laid. Four were simply empty mine boxes and eight were nothing more that dirt mounded to appear to be a mine. The entire field was surrounded with a 1.1 meter high, 3-strand barbedwire fence and posted with four warning signs. The field was laid on 8 June 1944. what appear to be astrericks were put there after the field was cleared and they indicate where the live and dummy mines were located. The live mines are indicated by darkened rectangles, the dummy mines in boxes are indicated by rectangles that is half darkened, and the dummy mine locations are indicated by empty rectangles. You can still make out the rectangles under the astricks. Dwight

[drmessimer]

The type 42 antipersonnel mine that was used here was known as the shoebox mine beacuse the 13 X 10 cm case (roughly 4 inches by 5 inches) was made of plywood. It required just six pounds of pressure to detonate and once laid could not be lifted without exploding. The type 42 was used on all fronts from 1942 to 1945. Here is a photo of one with its component parts shown on the left. The block at the top is the .4 pound explosive charge. Dwight

[Glenn66]

Interesting acquisition, well done!