Thanks for the information. However, they improvised using TNT in a sock, which is not different from the actual Sticky bomb.

All of the materials they used where most likely to be available. They had it since D Day when TNT was used to clear out bar wire fences, bunker demolition, etc. So it is not that impossible that in desperate times, requires desperate mesaures. Im more than sure than a lot of things were improvised in WWII with whatever they had.

Although IED were already used since Civil War, they were most used in WWII.

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The Ranger Handbook, aka FM 21-76, has been around for a LONG time. I still have my severly beat up copy from once upon a time. Needless to say it is different from the one you linked to Garzon. That manual changes as doctrine and equipment changes over the years. As good a movie as SPR was, it has its' technical flaws. Shaped charges were in their infancy in WWII, and most demolition was done by more conventional explosive. Not to mention that Rangers were very much a temporary force being disbanded after WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Permanent Ranger units were not established until the mid 1970s.

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garzonh

Ah BTW there is a "Ranger Handbook of Field Expedient Devices" you can dowload the manual at:

www.milsci.ucsb.edu/.../Ranger%20Handbook.pdf

        Careful, the guvment is a watchin'.......

Ah BTW there is a "Ranger Handbook of Field Expedient Devices" you can dowload the manual at:

www.milsci.ucsb.edu/.../Ranger%20Handbook.pdf

Is named: Ranger Handbook, and look in section: 5.4 oh, it actually says: EXPEDIENT EXPLOSIVES--IMPROVISED SHAPED CHARGE. detailing:  

a. The versatility and simplicity of these charges make them effective against targets, especially those made of concrete or those with armor plating

Not too far from actually it could have been improvised in the field by Captain Miller.

Right, but it was based on this one:

www.dieselpunks.org/.../the-sticky-bomb

So, actually they were made, in millions an used.

"In Stockport Local Heritage Library's photograph collection are pictures of wartime production of these Sticky Bombs at the Kayborough Works in Reddish. All the 2 ½ million plus sticky bombs requisitioned by the Army were produced by Kay Brothers. They were used in North Africa, in Italy in street fighting and against pill-boxes and they were extensively used in France during the closing stages of the War."

And also:

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30023731

So, basically it was a sock with adhesive.

Not very difficult for someone to improvise the same device.

garzonh wrote: "I know it was not a "common" practice but Listed in the "Ranger Handbook of Field Expedient Devices", the sticky bomb/grenade/charge should have been familiar to all of Captain Miller's men.

Although the first attempt to use one of the sticky bombs failed, and the paratrooper holding the device was blown apart instantly, two other paratroopers successfully planted two sticky bombs on a German Tiger tank. The resulting explosions knocked off the tank's tread and succeeded in immobilizing the tank and blocking the street."

You're describing a scene from the SPR movie and you're quoting www.sproe.com, an entertainment website.  There is no such thing as the  "Ranger Handbook of Field Expedient Devices".    I'm pretty sure it's all the screenwriter's attempt to mimic the British Sticky Bomb

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

Actually, the Soviets kept the AT dogs as a weapons system, so to speak, all thru WWII and thru the Cold War. How effective they were is debateable, but when they were most in use in late 1941/early 1942, there were likely not too many T-34s or other diesel powered Soviet tanks around.

Yes, the Japanese used "lunge mines", magnetic mines on poles to attempt to knock out US armor in the Pacific. Hence the latewar practice of USMC tanks of putting wooden planks on the sides to defeat that threat.

I know it was not a "common" practice but Listed in the "Ranger Handbook of Field Expedient Devices", the sticky bomb/grenade/charge should have been familiar to all of Captain Miller's men.

Although the first attempt to use one of the sticky bombs failed, and the paratrooper holding the device was blown apart instantly, two other paratroopers successfully planted two sticky bombs on a German Tiger tank. The resulting explosions knocked off the tank's tread and succeeded in immobilizing the tank and blocking the street.

garzonh: I wouldn't cite that as any standard practice ---

I think the writers were trying to mimic the British "sticky bombs"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_bomb

Remember "Saving Private Ryan", they put explosives inside of socks, and got the socks all covered in petroleum which made them "stick" to any surface and just thrown them at any area of the tank, easier and safier.

Sorry I don't know much about the infantry anti-tank mines but I do recall some about the Soviet mine dogs. Seems the Soviets fed the dogs under their own tanks to get them to associate 'big metal object' with food. Either the Soviets didn't think about it or underestimated the fact that their tanks were diesel and the German ones were gasoline powered. So to the dogs super-sensitive noses German and Soviet tanks were completely different objects.  When turned loose the mine dogs ignored Panzer IVs and made a beeline for T-34s - needless to say the program was abandoned shortly afterward.

I think some of the Japanese suicide weapons were also meant to be used against the belly armour of a tank as well.

When I went thru Basic/AIT, they taught us to sit in the bottom of a hole then pop up after a tank rolled ovver and hit it in the backside with a LAW. Think the Kasserine scene in "The Big Red One". But yes, it's not too hard to hide in the bottom of a hole while a tank rolls over your head,,,scary as hades the first time, but get over that in training and that is a tactic to use to pop a magnetic mine onto the belly armor....

BTW, I believe the Soviet anti tank dogs had a tilt rod detonator on their explosives. At least that is how Zvezda portrayed it on their figure set. As soon as the rod is moved out of the vertical after being armed, it will set off the explosives, like on a tilt rod AT mine.  

thank you, that helps alot, I was thinking if a Russian tank was going over a barricade of debris a German soldiers could of attached it and rolled away.

Tankluver

Could the German magnetic mine be placed on the belly of a russian T-34 or Sherman tank?

Wikipedia

The Hafthohlladung (lit. adhesive hollow charge), also known as the “Panzerknacker” (“Tank breaker”, German connotation “Safe cracker”), was primarily used by Wehrmacht tank killer squads. Around its base were three metallic magnets, each provided with a pair of pole pieces that were configured to act as stand-off feet with a strong magnetic field across their gap. This allowed the infantryman using the device to attach it magnetically onto the steel enemy tank, no matter the angle of the surface on which it was placed, before arming it by pulling the ignitor at the rear of the mine. Because the device blast axis was normal to the armour at the point of placement, the degree to which the tank’s armour was sloped had no effect on the device’s penetration. However, this requirement for direct placement made use of the device very dangerous to the infantryman placing it, as that infantryman would be highly vulnerable to enemy fire. The Hafthohlladung device itself was very effective against armour, being able to penetrate around 140mm of RHA.

As I understand it, the dogs did what they were trained to do, they ran under the tanks. However, in training, they would have gotten a reward when they came back to their trainers. Thus they returned to their new handlers with live explosives, much like a dog returns a stick/bird  to his master because the behavior of returning is what has been reinforced. Serves them right!

I don't see why not if you could get under the tank. It would be high risk though, there's not a lot of room under a AFV.

HI, I guess it could, the dificult part will be trying to put it there. Russians tried using dogs to run under the tanks and explode, but it did not worked very well. Dogs were usually scared by noise, sound of tanks. I mean they were dogs, not robots!. Imagine being a dog and try to go under a Tiger or Panther tank while its moving.