Why were/are mines ever considered sensible as a weapon?
Upvote:2
I think one important point you didn't consider is that mines work long-term, without binding personnel. You spread them across as many access areas as you like, and walk away, and you are protected from attacks through there.
Any other such protection would bind personnel near the places, for an attack that might never happen.
So they are an indirect but significant 'increase' of available soldier count. Having double the soldiers obviously is a major advantage, for the cost of some cheap mines that do their work.
Upvote:4
Things might be clarified if you think of sea mines. There are command-detonated mines in your own ports, mines laid on enemy coasts, moored mines which might break free, and mines that were drift mines to start with.
The same princles apply to land mines:
In defensive use, mines will slow or block the enemy in just the right place for your weapon fire. Much like a field of concertina wire, except that mines are harder to clear. While the enemy tries to clear the mines, shoot him.
The other defensive use is for dead ground around your defensive positions. If you are on a hilltop, and there is a ravine where an enemy might place mortars, mine the ravine.
Those two sound halfway legitimate to me, provided the forces which emplaces the mines keeps accurate records of the minefields.
- Mines can also be scattered on important roads and crossroads to cover a retreat. That's called FASCAM by the US.
Slightly more iffy, because there can't be any accurate maps. Still, if it is done defensively on your own territory against an invader, it sounds somewhat justified. A big problem is that these systems are unreliable, some have self-destructs which might not work, some might be scattered off course.
- Offensively, mines can be placed in random places in the countryside, without any recognizable fields. That denies the use of that countryside to the population.
This bullet point is somewhere between immoral or a war crime, if you ask me.
More post
- 📝 What is known about the origins of the "western given-name-first-surname-last system"?
- 📝 How much did helping the American Revolution cost France?
- 📝 Was the Russian Black Sea fleet strong enough to help with land operations on the southern shore in World War I?
- 📝 Who first published Marcus Aurelius' Meditations?
- 📝 Did King George III turn his back on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson?
- 📝 Nazi-Germany unemployment?
- 📝 Who is this person depicted on a wall in Estonia?
- 📝 Are there sources that record ancient women in patriarchal societies' thoughts about patriarchy?
- 📝 Was there any mention in historical articles regarding Joan of Arc's physical appearance?
- 📝 How important was the war against Vercingetorix to the Romans?
- 📝 What was the impact of utilitarianism upon the development of psychiatric care in 18th-19th century England?
- 📝 Haredi (Orthodox Jewish) view on Zionism pre-1948
- 📝 Representative early Anglican hymns?
- 📝 Completeness of Old Parish Registers in the 1700s
- 📝 Did the defense of the Brest fortress make sense?
- 📝 Was an uppercase j used to replace an uppercase i letter on German monument inscriptions?
- 📝 Was Mimar Sinan of Greek Christian origin?
- 📝 Can someone help me identify this sword?
- 📝 Why didn't the discrepancy in the Kursk casualty ratio work against the Soviets?
- 📝 Why did manuscript production increase rapidly?
- 📝 Why do so many national flags contain the color red?
- 📝 How was Euclid's Elements likely written?
- 📝 Was Yahweh a god in a possible Edomite Pantheon?
- 📝 Did any of the 50 Destroyers swapped for bases with Great Britain in 1940 sink any Axis military vessels?
- 📝 Roughly how many people were in a Magdalenian group? (And Gravettian?)
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler live in Liverpool, as his sister-in-law Bridget Hitler stated?
- 📝 How would gender equality in WWI have affected UK population?
- 📝 What kind of knife is this?
- 📝 What coin is this and where is it from? Thai script, Thai arms. Rev: left facing portrait
- 📝 What is the extent to which Malcolm X's activism was influenced by his Muslim beliefs?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why were/are mines ever considered sensible as a weapon?
- 📝 Why are the French and Indian Wars / Seven Years' War not considered WW 1?
- 📝 Why are Vikings singled out for raids in Britain and Ireland when records may indicate most raids were by local rulers?
- 📝 Were the Quebecois ever considered higher-class because they spoke French?
- 📝 Why does Retsö claim that only members/clients of Arabian tribes were considered "real Muslims" in the Umayyad Caliphate before 750?
- 📝 Are there notes by the Founding Fathers which indicate why DC citizens were denied a vote in Congress?
- 📝 Were naval mines an underutilized weapon in WW2?
- 📝 Why are Turkish people and other Turkik people considered of Mongolic race if their language is not in the Mongolic language family?
- 📝 So why were medics ever shot at?
- 📝 Why are there no statistics on how many ships were sunk by carriers in Ww2?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 Why are Germans referred to so differently in different languages?
- 📝 Why were old fortifications shaped like stars and not like circles?
- 📝 Why were ships-of-the line not supposed to open fire on frigates during fleet actions?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
- 📝 Why are the German and French languages so different?
- 📝 Why are so many metros underground? Isn't that more expensive than an elevated system?
- 📝 Why were the Romans unable to conquer Germania?
- 📝 Why were so many more Jewish men than Jewish women killed during the Holocaust?
- 📝 Why were there no internment camps for German-American citizens in USA during WW2?
- 📝 Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?
- 📝 Why were there no nuclear detonations in 1959?
- 📝 Why were the Allies so much better cryptanalysts?
- 📝 Why were there no religious wars in Poland?
- 📝 Were there U.S. weapon restrictions during 19th century?
- 📝 Why were women targeted as witches?
- 📝 Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
- 📝 ‘Avoid sleeping on your back’ & ‘breathe in toilet smells’ were seen as precautions against the Black Death. Why did doctors think these would work?
- 📝 Why are many African nations poor?