MINWARA
The Mine Warfare Association
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THE
GERMAN S-MINE (BOUNCING BETTY)
October
10, 1944: Probing the Sigfried Line defenses; first encounter with the German
S-Mine. Lt.
George Wilson, 4th Division, after nine weeks of combat since St.-Lo: "By
now I had gone through aerial bombing, artillery and mortar shelling, open
combat, direct rifle and machine gun firing, night patrolling and ambush.
Against all of this we had some kind of chance; against mines we had
none. The only defense was to not move at all." After
the war Lt. Wilson flatly declared that the S-mine was "the most
frightening weapon of the war, the one that made us sick with fear."
From "Citizen Soldier", Stephen E. Ambrose, 1997, page 143-44. Whether
on land or sea, the demoralizing effects of mines, and their consequent impact
on morale, tactics and timetables, is given far less credit than deserved.
Ask any veteran of the land, river and canal war in Vietnam.
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