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| Various Teller mines strapped to a tree |
The Teller mine was a German-made antitank mine common in World War II. With explosives sealed inside a sheet metal casing and fitted with a pressure-actuated fuze, Teller mines had a built-in carrying handle on the side. As the name suggests (Teller is the German word for dish or plate) the mines were plate-shaped. Containing little more than 5.5 kilograms of TNT and a detonation pressure of roughly 200 pounds, the Teller mine was capable of blasting the tracks off of any World War II-era tank or destroying a lightly armored vehicle. Because of its rather high operating pressure, only a vehicle or heavy object passing over the Teller mine would set it off.
Teller mines had two additional fuze wells (on the side and underneath) to enable anti-handling devices to be attached.
There were four models of Teller Mine made during World War II:
Teller Mine 43
Teller Mine 42
Teller Mine 35
Teller Mine 29
Approximately 3,622,900 of these mines were produced by Germany from 1943 to 1944.
