German S-Mine

[WWIIBUFF]

hello, this is an interesting piece and something I would like to have but have never seen one and don't know anything about them. it is a S-Mine (Bouncing Betty) and could anybody comment on its authenticity
thanks
john

[inka]

Love it.Want one of them too

[guns ltd]

Yes it is real.. I have one of these in my collection. Hope you bid on it. I looked at it earlier and thought. WOW!! it has the ball bearing with it too. It seems to be in the right price range right now. I gave a little more for mine. It is complete from what I can tell.
It is amazing how many of these were produced and so very few showing up for collectors.

John

[Danmark]

EBay often has bits of these turn up.
Never a complete one however.

[timothy]

Yes it is a real one I had one years ago and there was three didget code marked and waa on top I think of mine. That is unique as it has ball bearings with it they were used for schrapnel effect I can't vouch for them as I have never seen them. US did make training models of them in WW2 but that isn't one of them as I was once offered one of them would be a nice addition to a ordance collection. My dad often stated that the "Bouncing Betty" as the GI called them was one of the most feared mines in ETO. timothy

[Charles R]

[QUOTE=WWIIBUFF;1057278]hello, this is an interesting piece and something I would like to have but have never seen one and don't know anything about them. it is a S-Mine (Bouncing Betty) and could anybody comment on its authenticity
thanks
john [QUOTE=WWIIBUFF;1057278]


Hi John, yes, that's an original S-Mine / Bouncing Betty, proper German nomenclature was the S.Mi.35 The paint appears to be in very nice condition, and with an oxalic acid cleaning, it would even look better!! The mine is also in complete condition with most all it's little bits and pieces including the shrapnel....the only thing I see missing are the three small shear screws that go through the bottom of outer case to hold the inner "projectile" plate in position, and are designed to break-shear when the mine is ejected upwards from the outer casing by the small black powder charge.
I have a few of these mines of different makers and dates and have seen many dozens of others over the years. They never cease to amaze with the combinations of features, markings, re-markings, ink stamps etc. found on them.

This particular mine is interesting as it has some late, and early features such as the 3 spring loaded screw caps that hold the 3 Sprengkapsel detonators in place, but yet it has later cardboard det tubes instead of the earlier brass tubes. It also appears to have an earlier feature found on some but not all S-mines, that's a thin sheet metal band soldered around the top edge of the outer casing and top cover to help waterproof the mine, I can see a shadow where this band would have been around the top edge....also this mine has early round ball shrapnel, later mines usually but not always had shrapnel made from metal rods rough angle cut into various sizes, sometimes even defective bullet tips were mixed in too...A freind in Germany has glass jars displayed with 6 different types of shrapnel he's found in these mines.....This mine also lacks the small "groove" by the center hole in the top cover, which "usually" signifies a later war cover ......Many early features with this mine yet the ink-paint stamping on top that tells the loading date, seems to be "Dt. 27.11.44 A1" - November 11, 1944....although what looks to be a '44 could be a '41 ?...it's hard to tell from the photo. This one you've shown is an interesting S mine.
I would be interested to see a picture of the 3 letter maker code & date and/or other marks on the top that would be either 1. directly stamped into top cover (a machined metal top cover)
or 2. "cast" into the top cover when it was made. They made both machined & cast metal top covers, but only (usually) the machined metal tops would have stamped maker code-dates etc as cast metal is (usually) too brittle to stamp.....

The Germans also made a simplified version later in the war, the S.Mi.44 that you can see in the first link below if you've not seen one before......this website Lexpev.nl is a great site to learn about and see many types of grenades, mines etc...it's a site owned and run by an old friend of mine in Holland. Unfortunately he had some family issues a while back and has not been updating the site for well over a year now, but someday we all hope he may get back into tending and updating the site.
Unfortunately the page for the S.Mi.35 disappeared and is blank now... The first link I provided below shows the '44 & '35 model in the middle of the page to see the difference between them. '44 models are not that easy to find, but there are some that come up for sale once in a while. The second link is the section with all the other very interesting German mines.... the Germans had a lot of mines, more than any other country, many are very ingenious, ahead of their time & deadly.

I hope you get to acquire the S-mine you've shown...but also hope you don't become too addicted to collecting WW2 ordnance....it's pretty easy to do! But if so...welcome to the club......

S-Mine 44

German mines and charges :

Here's a wikipedia to see also: S-mine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A few pics from my photo files....








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[harryamb2]

what is known as a debollocker.

[WWIIBUFF]

Thank you all for your help

john

[Wiegand]

Hi Charles,
I have read your post about this S.Mi.35. I have been a casual collector of this addictive hobby - you're right about that!
I recently got an smine and have discovered something you may say is another variety in manufacturing. I'd like to post a couple photos for you to take a look at.
Thanks for your comments here; they've been helpful.
Regards,
David

- - ------- - -

hello, this is an interesting piece and something I would like to have but have never seen one and don't know anything about them. it is a S-Mine (Bouncing Betty) and could anybody comment on its authenticity
thanks
john

Hi John, yes, that's an original S-Mine / Bouncing Betty, proper German nomenclature was the S.Mi.35 The paint appears to be in very nice condition, and with an oxalic acid cleaning, it would even look better!! The mine is also in complete condition with most all it's little bits and pieces including the shrapnel....the only thing I see missing are the three small shear screws that go through the bottom of outer case to hold the inner "projectile" plate in position, and are designed to break-shear when the mine is ejected upwards from the outer casing by the small black powder charge.
I have a few of these mines of different makers and dates and have seen many dozens of others over the years. They never cease to amaze with the combinations of features, markings, re-markings, ink stamps etc. found on them.

This particular mine is interesting as it has some late, and early features such as the 3 spring loaded screw caps that hold the 3 Sprengkapsel detonators in place, but yet it has later cardboard det tubes instead of the earlier brass tubes. It also appears to have an earlier feature found on some but not all S-mines, that's a thin sheet metal band soldered around the top edge of the outer casing and top cover to help waterproof the mine, I can see a shadow where this band would have been around the top edge....also this mine has early round ball shrapnel, later mines usually but not always had shrapnel made from metal rods rough angle cut into various sizes, sometimes even defective bullet tips were mixed in too...A freind in Germany has glass jars displayed with 6 different types of shrapnel he's found in these mines.....This mine also lacks the small "groove" by the center hole in the top cover, which "usually" signifies a later war cover ......Many early features with this mine yet the ink-paint stamping on top that tells the loading date, seems to be "Dt. 27.11.44 A1" - November 11, 1944....although what looks to be a '44 could be a '41 ?...it's hard to tell from the photo. This one you've shown is an interesting S mine.
I would be interested to see a picture of the 3 letter maker code & date and/or other marks on the top that would be either 1. directly stamped into top cover (a machined metal top cover)
or 2. "cast" into the top cover when it was made. They made both machined & cast metal top covers, but only (usually) the machined metal tops would have stamped maker code-dates etc as cast metal is (usually) too brittle to stamp.....

The Germans also made a simplified version later in the war, the S.Mi.44 that you can see in the first link below if you've not seen one before......this website Lexpev.nl is a great site to learn about and see many types of grenades, mines etc...it's a site owned and run by an old friend of mine in Holland. Unfortunately he had some family issues a while back and has not been updating the site for well over a year now, but someday we all hope he may get back into tending and updating the site.
Unfortunately the page for the S.Mi.35 disappeared and is blank now... The first link I provided below shows the '44 & '35 model in the middle of the page to see the difference between them. '44 models are not that easy to find, but there are some that come up for sale once in a while. The second link is the section with all the other very interesting German mines.... the Germans had a lot of mines, more than any other country, many are very ingenious, ahead of their time & deadly.

I hope you get to acquire the S-mine you've shown...but also hope you don't become too addicted to collecting WW2 ordnance....it's pretty easy to do! But if so...welcome to the club......

S-Mine 44

German mines and charges :

Here's a wikipedia to see also: S-mine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A few pics from my photo files....

See msg below...

[rbminis]

Hi Charles,
I have read your post about this S.Mi.35. I have been a casual collector of this addictive hobby - you're right about that!
I recently got an smine and have discovered something you may say is another variety in manufacturing. I'd like to post a couple photos for you to take a look at.
Thanks for your comments here; they've been helpful.
Regards,
David

Hello David and welcome to the forum!
I have edited your post to clear up all of the misquotes.
Please feel free to post some photos, if you read the first 4-5 posts of this thread, you will understand how to do so.
New picture posting feature - How to guide !
Ralph.