12 June 2010

Special boot attachments for clearing landmines

From the photostream of the Nationaal Archief.

4 comments:

  1. They might seem neat, but wouldn't really help. When I was in the military, I saw a cement-filled rubber boot being thrown about 40 metres in the air by an anti-personnel landmine. While those boot attachment might save the man's life, I suspect he will still lose his leg.

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  2. I frankly know nothing about landmines (beyond headlines) but I thought these boots were intended to make a smaller "footprint" (i.e., 4 dots rather than one man-sized foot) so a soldier was less likely to set off a landmine. Avoiding an explosion rather than saving a life/limb.

    Anyone who knows more -- correct me? Would it help? In any case, I wouldn't want to be in that position -- very brave, or desperate, man.

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  3. Oh, I think you're right, Vivi. Less likely to step on the plunger with those points than with his sole. And perhaps the person's weight is distributed to four points instead of one (the man in the photo also appears to be petite in size).

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  4. Haha, sweet. Boots based on the same principle are actually still being used in the Dutch army (the linked picture is also taken in The Netherlands). I've seen them on a show/demonstration event only a few years ago. They seemed to be made of a sturdy rubber, or at least at the surface.
    Back then I thought it looked like walking on top of large rubber spiders.

    And the story I was told then by the people who were showing them was roughly like Vivi's explanation.

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