The Tellermine 43 was a German circular

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

cased anti-tank blast mine used during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was a simplified version of the

Tellermine 42 The Tellermine 42 (T.Mi.42) was a German metal-cased anti-tank blast mine used during the Second World War. The mine was a development of the Tellermine 35 with improved resistance to blast. It was followed by the simplified Tellermine 43. The ...

, which enabled simpler production techniques. Between March 1943 and the end of World War II, over 3.6 million Tellermine 43s were produced by Germany. Copies of the mine were produced by several countries including Denmark (M/47), France (Model 1948) and

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

( TMM-1).

Description

The casing of the

Tellermine The Teller mine (german: Tellermine) was a German-made antitank mine common in World War II. With explosives sealed inside a sheet metal casing and fitted with a pressure-actuated fuze, Teller mines had a built-in carrying handle on the side. As t ...

is circular, rising towards the center with a large flat pressure plate. A rectangular metal carrying handle is fitted to the side of the mine. The pressure plate sits over the

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

well which can hold either a T.Mi.Z.42

shear pin {{unreferenced, date=September 2018 A shear pin is a mechanical detail designed to allow a specific outcome to occur once a predetermined force is applied. It can either function as a safeguard designed to break to protect other parts, or as a con ...

fuze or T.Mi.Z.43 ball release fuze. The mine is armed by removing the pressure plate, screwing a fuze into the fuze well, then screwing the pressure plate back on again. At the bottom of the fuze well is a

PETN Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT, PENTA, (ПЕНТА, primarily in Russian) TEN, corpent, or penthrite (or, rarely and primarily in German, as nitropenta), is an explosive material. It is the nitrate ester of pentaerythri ...

booster charge {{unreferenced, date=August 2011 An explosive booster is a sensitive explosive charge that acts as a bridge between a (relatively weak) conventional detonator and a low-sensitivity (but typically high-energy) explosive such as TNT. By itself, the ...

, surrounded by the

doughnut A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franc ...

-shaped main charge of

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

explosive. The mine has secondary fuze wells located on the side and base to enable

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, o ...

s to be fitted if required. Additionally, the T.Mi.Z.43 fuze features an integral

as standard: when the fuze is inserted and the pressure plate screwed down into place, it shears a weak arming pin in 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 (to remove the fuze) will automatically trigger

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 should be removed from a Tellermine. The Tellermine 43 can also be fitted with an optional

tilt-rod fuze Russian TM-57 mine with a tilt-rod fuze A tilt-rod fuze is a device used to trigger anti-vehicle landmines. Typically it consists of a vertical pole, normally around a meter high, which is connected to the top of a landmine. When the track or m ...

, which is screwed into the side fuze well. Anti-tank mines with this type of fuze were capable of inflicting much more damage to armored vehicles. This was demonstrated numerous times in the

Normandy Campaign Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...

. On June 8, 1944, a Sherman tank was accompanying the 2nd Ranger Battalion in an attack on the

Maisy battery The Maisy Battery is a group of World War II artillery batteries constructed in secret by the German Wehrmacht near the French village of Grandcamp-Maisy in Normandy. It formed a part of Germany's Atlantic Wall coastal fortifications and was t ...

. It ran over a Tellermine and was blown to pieces, with a total crew loss.Slaughter, John Robert (2009). Omaha Beach and Beyond: The Long March of Sergeant Bob Slaughter. MBI Publishing Company. pp. 127. . Sergeant John Robert "Bob" Slaughter describes the scene: "The explosive energy from that hidden teller mine sent the 32-ton Sherman tank into the ditch on its side. This scene echoed the bloody, grotesque carnage of D-Day. One minute they were healthy young men, and the next minute they were bloody arms and legs wrapped around bloody torsos. We found body parts and shoes with the feet still stuck in them twenty-five yards away."

Specifications

* Height: * Diameter: * Weight: * Explosive content:

(sometimes

Amatol Amatol is a highly explosive material made from a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. The British name originates from the words ammonium and toluene (the precursor of TNT). Similar mixtures (one part dinitronaphthalene and seven parts ammoniu ...

) * Trigger weight:

References

* Jane's Mines and Mine Clearance 2005-2006
TM-E 30-451, ''Handbook of German Military Forces''
{{WWIIGermanMines Anti-tank mines World War II infantry weapons of Germany Land mines of Germany Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1943