I want one

[cardboard_killer]

80 Years ago today.

 

"A converted Wellington Mk-I bomber fitted with an energized metal hoop to explode magnetic mines conducts its first successful trials. The apparatus is powered by a Ford V8 engine inside the bomber."

 

[AndyJWest]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that using this contraption was somewhat hazardous, as you had to fly very low over the water to reliably make to mines explode. ?

[cardboard_killer]

Mine-sweeping was without a doubt the shittiest job of the armed forces, land, sea, or air.

[Avimimus]

One is rather grateful to them though...

[cardboard_killer]

Gratitude can be acted upon by donations or work with The Halo Trust, a organization working to clear old legacy minefields around the world. Innocent people are killed and maimed each year from mines planted during wars that are now forgotten.

[cardboard_killer]

A beachcomber brought home what she thought was a rusty old plate. Months later, she learned it was a land mine

 

Quote

Back in April, Jayne Wilson found what she thought was an old plate lying on the beach. The truth is a bit more explosive.

Wilson, who works as a private home health aide, was walking her client's dog around sunrise on Indian River Shores beach, in Florida. The avid beachcomber likes collecting sea glass, so she examined the sea shell beds as she walked -- just in case something caught her eye.

 

And something did -- lying atop the sand that day was what looked like a plate, maybe lost long ago off a Spanish ship.

 

So, she took it home. For months she chipped away at the shells and barnacles crusted onto its surface, storing it in a lunch box cooler filled with water.

 

Then, on Tuesday, there was a post on a community web page about a man who found a land mine. A friend sent it over to Wilson, saying "Jayne, is that the thing you have in a cooler on your living room floor?"

 

That's when Wilson realized what she had stored at home. For the past nine months, she'd been chipping away at a land mine.