1. A mine explodes when you take your foot off it
Fragment of the movie "Kingsman: Golden Ring."
There is a common misconception found in every other war movie. An anti-personnel mine is supposedly activated when a nearby soldier steps on it. Then it waits for him to remove his foot. And only then decides to explode.
This design feature of movie detonators creates extremely tense scenes. Some hapless fighter accidentally stands on a mine and at the last moment notices it. And he has to remain motionless until the bomb squad rescues him. Sometimes this translates into several hours of waiting. Or the hero may sacrifice himself after his comrades leave the kill zone. Naturally, they don't have to be in much of a hurry.
In the movie "Kingsman: Golden Ring" special agent Merlin, standing on a mine, managed to sing the entire Country Roads. This is how he drew his enemies closer to take them with him to the afterlife.
In reality, however, Land Mine Goes "Click!" / TV Tropes are designed not to make enemies stand still, but to kill and maim them. When a person activates the fuse, the charge detonates regardless of whether the soldier stays put or tries to run away. The only way to increase your chances of survival is to fall face down on the ground away from the mine and cover your ears and head with your hands. This way, there is a small chance that you won't get hit by shrapnel too much.Many people misunderstand how mines work. Anti-personnel shells do detonate with a slight delay - 3-5 seconds: so that during this time more soldiers walking in a chain will be in the impact zone. But if you freeze on a mine, it will still detonate after the same interval.
And yes, load-release charges do exist. For example, the MS-3 ("surprise mine"). But they are not used against infantry, but against the enemy's sappers. We shove such a thing into a hole, and place an anti-tank landmine on top of it. The miner approaches to clear a path for the equipment, removes the landmine, and the trap under it goes off. The bomber goes to a better world, and those who laid the "present" giggle wickedly and rub their hands together.
2. We have to cut the red wire.
Fragment of the movie "Fight Club."
Usually in popular culture, the process of defusing a mine or bomb looks like this. The deminer cautiously picks at its insides while the others restlessly shift from one foot to the other. Then the professional finally gets to the wires hidden in the bowels of the explosive device. He cuts the red one, and the device deactivates.
If this solution seems too obvious to you, remember: the enemy knew that you would think so. So don't touch the blue wire. Cut the red one!
In reality, there is no P.F. Bubnov, I.P. Sukhov. Means of initiation. A short course of no official regulations, how and what elements in explosive devices to mark. The normal mines are not equipped with any colored wires, puzzles and, all the more so, with dials counting down to the explosion. Instead of all this good there is a usual mechanical or chemical detonator. The task of the designers is to make it difficult to disarm the shell, not to test the skills of a sapper.
3. All mines are necessarily disarmed
Humanitarian deminers who clear areas of abandoned munitions after an armed conflict is over do so. But military demolition workers don't handle mines much.
Some structures cannot be opened at all, because they have pressure sensors or other means of protection inside them. So, contrary to what we are shown in the movies, in most cases when demining the terrain, the devices are simply detonated In-Situ Landmine Neutralization by Chemical versus Thermal Initiation Deminer Preferences / USA Army with special charges or mine trawls.
In addition, detected mines are sometimes not touched at all, so as not to attract the attention of the enemy. Otherwise, the enemy can put new "presents" on top of the already defused ones. So they leave the shells, and then just mark them on the map. For the personnel to know where to go and where they shouldn't go.
Interesting fact: the coasts of the Falkland Islands since the 1982 war between Argentina and Britain were for a long time just strewn with mines. Because of that, those places became uninhabited and were populated by Penguins Find Peace in Falklands War Minefields / ENN penguins, who multiplied beyond measure.
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