Tellermine 43

The Tellermine 43 was a German circular, steel-cased anti-tank blast mine used in the Second World War. It was a simplified version of the Tellermine 42, redesigned so it could be made with simpler production techniques, and between March 1943 and the end of the war Germany produced more than 3.6 million of them. The casing is circular and rises to a large flat pressure plate over a fuze well that takes either a shear-pin T.Mi.Z.42 fuze or a ball-release T.Mi.Z.43 fuze. A booster charge sits at the bottom of the well, surrounded by a doughnut-shaped main charge of about 5.5 kilograms of TNT. The mine stands 102 mm high, is 318 mm across and weighs 8.1 kilograms, and it fires under roughly 100 to 180 kilograms of load. Extra fuze wells allow anti-handling devices, and a tilt-rod fuze could be fitted to hurt vehicles more badly. Finland used it as the m/43, and Denmark, France and Yugoslavia built copies.