Glasmine 43

The Glasmine 43 was an anti-personnel mine with a glass body that Nazi Germany used during World War II. It was an early minimum-metal mine, meant to lower the chance of detection by the Polish mine detector then used by Allied forces, and using glass instead of metal also saved valuable war materials. The mine is a glass bowl about six inches across holding an explosive charge and a detonator, covered by a sheet-glass disk and a molded glass pressure plate. Stepping on it shattered the disk and fired the detonator, which set off a 200 gram demolition charge. Early versions used a mechanical Hebelzunder 44 percussion igniter and later ones used a Buck igniter built around an acid ampoule. In 1944 and 1945 eleven million were produced and 9.7 million were still in stock at the end of the war. Glass fragments are hard to see on X-rays, and mines of this type still lie buried in the Eifel National Park.