TOT how not to DIY

[Nightjar]

Colin Bignell

[newshound]

So that was the propellant, presumably? I assume the detonator is fairly robust, to survive the acceleration during firing?

Made a pretty big hole!

[newshound]

Or perhaps they had an anti-personnel mine on top, as a trigger?

[The Natural Philosopher]

I THINK shells have some sort of delayed action thing so that the detonators is wired when the shell is fired.

I think many shells do not have propellant built in. That's still done as separate cartridges to allow for range adjustments.

[Nightjar]

As must have they planned to detonate it remotely, they would have replaced the original fuse with their own detonator. It amply demonstrates all the cautions about taking extreme care when handling detonators in my copy of the Home Guard Manual.

From the commentary, it was a 155mm shell. There is a picture of one here, to give you an idea of the size :

Colin Bignell

[ARW]

Listening to the commentary I wonder if it was deliberately set off.

[newshound]

My father used to blow things up (although he never talked about that) and later in WW2 used to teach people how to do it. He had a number of stories about mischief from the second period, fishing with gun-cotton, etc. A lot of that expertise is now gone in civilised countries, which is perhaps just as well.

Worth noting too that the current bunch of villains didn't actually invent IEDs

[Nightjar]

AIUI, it would have been, by canon fire from the gunship, but the blokes burying it beat the Americans to it.

Colin Bignell

[fred]

I was tempted to make a flippant remark along the lines of, "about 155mm dia I imagine" but that simple number belies the impressive scale of the object.

The only flaw in the report I could see was that I don't think that was thermal footage (as stated).

[harryagain]

I don't see how they never heard/saw the helicopter either. They could have expected to be shot up at the very least.

[Bill]

In message , newshound writes

So did mine, classified as an ammunition examiner.

One great story was of a Belgium farmer who was found to have used some det' cord he had salvaged to string his raspberries up with. Allegedly quite spectacular when fired off to remove it, also one very unhappy farmer.

As you say IEDs are nothing new, there were plenty of UK military devices produced that were along very similar lines.

My favourite quote, a very accurate and sobering one, from the front of many of my fathers manuals is "Remember, the purpose of an explosive is to explode" treat them with respect.

[Bill]

In message , harryagain writes

There was probably enough aircraft actively in the area that if they stopped every time they heard something they would never have planted anything, "from a mile or more away." so not exactly overhead.

[Andy Burns]

The video says an AC-130 which is a gunship version of a Hercules, so it'll be miles away circling in a pylon turn, with the camera (and weaponry) pointed out along a wing.

[tony sayer]

In article , harryagain scribeth thus

Read the text accompanying that vid above Harry...

********************************

The attached video of thermal footage was recorded from an AC-130 gunship from a mile or more away.

[Nightjar]

On 04/05/2014 07:42, harryagain wrote: ...

It was an AC-130 gunship, not a helicopter. They were developed during the Vietnam War to replace the Douglas AC-47 gunship (aka Puff the Magic Dragon) and the whole purpose of the aircraft is to attack ground targets from long range without being noticed.

Colin Bignell

[Davey]

In South Africa, I worked with a company that did blasting cleaning of industrial equipment, and was also an explosives license holder. One evening, in the built-in pub at the business' offices, the boss once talked about explosives as very simply "wanting to be instantly 200,000 times the volume they were a moment ago". I can't comment on the accuracy, but the concept makes you think. One of the company's businesses was creating instant ponds for new householders.

FWIW, the blasting process often used peanut shells as a medium for removing paint from equipment. They had railcars full of them coming in to and leaving the project I was at. Once the edges are rounded, they are no use any more.