The Teller mine () was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

-made

antitank mine An anti-tank or AT mine is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles. Compared to anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines typically have a much larger explosive charge, and a fuze des ...

common in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. With explosives sealed inside a sheet metal casing and fitted with a pressure-actuated

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates its function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fu ...

, Teller mines had a built-in carrying handle on the side. As the name suggests (''Teller'' is the German word for dish or plate) the mines were plate-shaped.

Design

Containing little more than 5.5 kilograms of

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

and a fuze activation pressure of approximately , the Teller mine was capable of blasting the tracks off any World War II-era tank or destroying a lightly armored vehicle. Due to its rather high operating pressure, only a vehicle or heavy object passing over the Teller mine would set it off. Of the two types of pressure-fuze available for Teller mines, the T.Mi.Z.43 fuze was notable for featuring an integral

anti-handling device An anti-handling device is an attachment to or an integral part of a landmine or other munition such as some fuze types found in general-purpose air-dropped bombs, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is designed to prevent tampering or disabling, ...

as standard: when the T.Mi.Z.43 fuze is inserted and the pressure plate (or screw cap) is screwed down into place, it shears a weak arming pin inside the fuze with an audible "snap". This action arms the anti-handling device. Thereafter, any attempt to disarm the mine by unscrewing the pressure plate (or screw cap) to remove the fuze will automatically release the spring-loaded

firing pin A firing pin or striker is a part of the firing mechanism of a firearm that impacts the primer in the base of a cartridge and causes it to fire. In firearms terminology, a striker is a particular type of firing pin where a compressed sprin ...

inside it, triggering

detonation Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with ...

. Since it is impossible to determine which fuze type has been installed, no pressure plate or screw cap can ever be safely removed from a Teller mine. The T.Mi.Z.43 fuze can be fitted to the Teller mine 35, 42 and 43 series. To hinder

demining Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By cont ...

, all Teller mines featured two additional fuze wells (located on the side and underneath) to enable

s to be attached, typically some form of pull-fuze.

Models

There were four models of Teller mine made during World War II: * Teller mine 43 * Teller mine 42 * Teller mine 35 * Teller mine 29 Approximately 3,622,900 Teller mine 43 mines were produced by Germany for the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' from 1943 to 1944.

Gallery

File:USA-A-Utah-p7b.jpg, Teller mine on Utah beach. Intended to explode against landing craft at high tide File:Operation_%27market_Garden%27_%28the_Battle_For_Arnhem%29-_17_-_25_September_1944-_Nijmegen_and_Grave_17_-_20_September_1944_B10174.jpg, British engineers removing the charges which the Germans had set to blow the

Nijmegen Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...

bridge, September 1944 Image:Tellermine 43 MN 2007.JPG,

Tellermine 43 The Tellermine 43 was a German circular steel-cased anti-tank blast mine used during the Second World War. It was a simplified version of the Tellermine 42, which enabled simpler production techniques. Between March 1943 and the end of World War ...

anti-tank mine

References

Anti-tank mines World War II infantry weapons of Germany {{Landmine-stub