Morning Jba,
Well actually afternoon now. There were a lot of different types of mine but the two most common were contact mines and magnetic mines.
Contact obviously blew up when you bumpted into them and magnetic were set off by the magnetic field of a ship passing them. There were some unusual ways of protecting against them, and although I don't know much about them ships were rigged with a thick electrical cable all around the hull to fool them. I think I've got that right but not being a technical sort of person may be wrong.
There have been a couple of interesting programmes on the TV about the counter measures they had to employ.
The Germans also dropped parachute mines which were like long cylinders, I cant remember if they were contact mines or just progammed to expolde after a certain time.
It's an interesting subject, but I haven't seen any plans or drawings. Would make a useful AM product both for 1/35 scale and smaller.
The spiky type had anchor chains attached to hold them in position but many broke free and floated around with the tide. For many years there was one one the Pier back home in Bangor, don't know if it is still there now. They are a substantial size when you see them out of the water and would certainly sink a ship.
There are probably a few still floating around the worlds oceans as thousands were laid both by the Germans and the Allies.
Cheers
Al
