Schu-mine 42 (Anti-personnel blast mine)

[Louis]

The Schu-mine 42 (Shoe-mine), also known as the Schützenmine 42, was a German anti-personnel mine used during the WW2. It consisted of a simple wooden box with a hinged lid containing a 200-gram (7.1 oz) block of cast TNT and a ZZ-42 type detonator. A slot in the lid pressed down on the striker retaining pin, sufficient pressure on the lid caused the pin to move, releasing the striker which triggered the detonator.

The mine was cheap to produce and deployed in large numbers. As an early example of a minimum metal mine, it was difficult to detect with early metal detectors - the only metal present was a small amount in the mine's detonator.