This ‘wooden shoe’ was really a deadly anti-personnel mine

Sep 12, 2019 2:53 AM PDT

1 minute read

SUMMARY

Landmines have long been a fiendish weapon of war. Nazi Germany, though, developed one landmine that was particularly heinous. It was called a “shoe mine” by the Allies, but despite the innocent sounding name, it was one of the Nazis’ nastier pie…

Landmines have long been a fiendish weapon of war. Nazi Germany, though, developed one landmine that was particularly heinous. It was called a "shoe mine" by the Allies, but despite the innocent sounding name, it was one of the Nazis' nastier pieces of work.

Its actual name was the Schützenmine 42, and it more of a wooden box than a shoe. Inside the box was an ignition device, a detonator, and some TNT. This wasn't a particularly powerful mine — there were only about eight ounces of TNT — but it didn't need a big boom to be feared.

Though the blast wasn't huge, it would still do some real damage to the unlucky GI who stepped on it. He wouldn't be killed — but he'd be seriously wounded, and other GIs or a medic would have to get to him before he bled out. The Nazis made millions of this type of extremely simple mine. So, where there was one, there were probably more.

A look at the components of a "schu mine" - there was very little metal, making it hard to detect and easy to mass produce.

(US Army)

That wasn't even the most diabolical part. The mine was housed in a wooden box. This made it both extremely simple to make and extremely hard to detect. Aside from the detonator, there just wasn't a lot of metal, and most land-based minesweeping methods involved using metal detectors. This meant that the mine potentially could seriously wound (or kill) the specialists whose job it was to neutralize mines.

The best way to detect the "schu mine" was through the use of dogs, who could sniff out the explosives.

(Imperial War Museum)

Ultimately, the Allies turned to dogs to sniff out the explosives in these mines. Although Nazi Germany lost the Second World War, their design was copied and employed by a large number of countries after the war. While the "schu mine" wasn't the worst thing the Nazis did in World War II, it still ranks very high up among their foul deeds, and is one that still kills and maims to this day.

Learn more about this diabolical wooden box in the video below.