Sea mines

[Ruotsinsalmi]

Hello Sturm78!

The ship is one of the finnish minelayers Riilahti or Ruotsinsalmi, laying the minefield named Rukajärvi A on 23.5.1942 at noon near Suursaari (Hogland) island. The only mention I could find about the mines, was one war diary mention of Ruotsinsalmi http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=2965539 saying "loading 91 mines of type S/38/II and 9 S/j". I do not know the types of finnish mines (one source is at the time not available), what I know, is that the big letter S means "saksalainen", that is "german"...EMC is one very good guess!

[Juha Tompuri]

The ship is one of the finnish minelayers Riilahti or Ruotsinsalmi, laying the minefield named Rukajärvi A on 23.5.1942 at noon near Suursaari (Hogland) island. The only mention I could find about the mines, was one war diary mention of Ruotsinsalmi http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=2965539 saying "loading 91 mines of type S/38/II and 9 S/j".

I think it is minelayer Ruotsinsalmi, and for me it seems that there are three different type of mines, so the photos might be from laying also another minefield (Rukajärvi B?)


EMC (Rukajärvi B?)
http://kotisivut.fonet.fi/~aromaa/Navyg ... etypes.htm
http://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/germanun ... es1946.pdf

[Sturm78]

Thank you for your answer, Juha,

I suppose that S/S1 was a Finnish designation, no ?? Do you know which was the German designation of this model?
Which was the Finnish designation for the EMC German mines?

On the other hand, I found this other image from SA-Kuva archive (91675). It is not a sea mine but a soviet depth charge.
Does anyone know his soviet designation and characteristics?

Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

I am not sure about these mines : UMA or UMB German mines ???

Image from SA-Kuva archive (93437)
Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Nobody for my last image ??

Well, here an image from EBay. I think a British Mark XIV mine, but I am not sure

Sturm78

[Natter]

I am not sure about these mines : UMA or UMB German mines ???

Looks like UMA (not UMB - ref the anchor).

[Natter]

Well, here an image from EBay. I think a British Mark XIV mine, but I am not sure

This type of cupola was used for several of the british systems, but given the lead acid-horns (or "hertz-horns"), I agree that this is most likely a Mk XIV (I assume we can't see the two horns on top as they have been crushed or just due to the angle of the photo).

[Sturm78]

Thank you for your answers, Natter

Regards Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Can somebody identify the model of these German mines ??

Image from SA-Kuva archive (98222)
Sturm78

[Natter]

It's not mines, but sweep-obstructors: "Reißboje" (RB) or "Sprengboje" (Spr. BD).

The Reißboje has no explosive charge, just wirecutters on the anchoringwire below the buoy that will catch and cut the sweepwire of a mechanical sweep towed by a minesweeper.

The Sprengboje is similar in appearance, but has no wirecutters - only a small charge that will detonate by the force of a sweepwire on the anchorwire and thus cut the wire.

Judging by the size of the anchor, I'm pretty sure the objects in the photo are RB's as the Spr. BD anchor has a smaller "square box".

These would be dropped in front of the minelines to protect the minefield against enemy sweeping.

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much for your help, Natter

I did not know these devices....

Are these cylinders, sea mines or another type of equipment ??

Image from SA-Kuva archive (98231)
Sturm78

[Natter]

German torpedomines (ie to be launched from a standard 533,4mm torpedotube).

Not TMA (lacking the stabilizer fins), so either TMB or TMC: It's hard to estimate their lenght from the photo, but judging by the one on the left where you can see the position of the openings for the hydrostatic clock/boostercharge/timerclock, I'd say it's the slightly longer TMC.

[Sturm78]

Thank you, again, Natter.

According to information I got on the net, the TMB have 2.3m long and the TMC measured 3.39m, so I think more in TMB model

Regards Sturm78

[Natter]

Yes, that's correct!

I was consulting the US Navy Ordnance Pamphlet 1673A German Underwater Ordnance, Mines. The TMA, TMB and TMC is described on one page each and I was fooled by a sketch accompanying the description for the TMC, just assuming it was the TMC mine. I see now that it's in fact a drawing of the TMB

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

UMA mines (I think) on Romanian minelayer

Image from EBay
Sturm78