Polish mine detector

History

Before the war, the Department of Artillery of Poland's Ministry of National Defence ordered a device to locate duds on artillery training grounds. The AVA Wytwórnia Radiotechniczna designed the instrument, but the German invasion of Poland prevented its implementation. Little is known of this stage because the Battle of France and the evacuation of Polish personnel to Great Britain stopped the work. In late 1941 Lieutenant Józef Kosacki devised a final version based partly on earlier designs. He did not patent his invention, giving it as a gift to the British Army, and received a letter of thanks from the King. The design was accepted, and 500 mine detectors were sent to El Alamein, where they doubled the speed of the British Eighth Army. Over 100,000 of this type were produced during the war, along with several hundred thousand further developments (Mk. II, Mk. III, Mk. IV). The detector was used later in the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Invasion of Normandy. The British Army used this type of detector until 1995. An attempt was made to mount a version on a vehicle to protect sappers, resulting in "Lulu" (on a Sherman tank) and "Bantu" (on a Staghound armoured car). The detector mechanism was in non-metallic rollers on arms held away from the vehicle, indicating metal when passed over a mine. Prototypes were built but never tried in combat.