History of Military Demolitions - Essay Example

Running Head: HISTORY OF DEMOLITIONS History of Demolitions Modern theory of demolition absorbed the centuries old experience, creative pursuits, fruits of hard work and talent of craftsmen, inventors, technicians, engineers, scientists, whose efforts constantly synthesize, refine and enrich the legacy of military, technical and scientific expertise of many millions of people. The first “low explosive” invented by man was black powder - a mechanical mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulfur, usually in ratio of 75:15:10.

There is a widespread opinion that these compositions appeared in ancient times and were used mainly as incendiary and destructive means. However, there is no reliable documentary evidence of it. In nature, nitrate deposits are rare, and potassium nitrate, necessary for production of sufficiently stable compositions cannot be found at all (Bull, 2004, p. 84). For hundreds of years since the invention of gunpowder, and before 1863 mankind had no idea about the real power of the explosion hidden in explosives.

All blasting operations were conducted by putting in place of some amount of gunpowder then lit by a flame, spark or a wick. With significant external explosive effect of such an explosion, a destroying (crushing) effect was practically equal to zero. In 1863 a brilliant Swedish engineer Alfred Nobel created an igniter of nitroglycerin based on the black powder, which allowed applying nitroglycerin (nHz) in mining. In 1865 Nobel invented a detonator containing fulminate of mercury, with which one could make a full-scale detonation explosion of almost any high explosive.

In 1867 Nobel created dynamite (from the Greek “Dynamis” – “strength”). In 1875 Nobel invented blasting gelatin, otherwise known as “gelatinized dynamite”, and so far this “high explosive” is one of the most powerful explosives. By the end of the 19th century armies found ways of practical application of dynamite, picric acid, TNT; in the early 20th century also tetryl, RDX, and many others. Modern explosives are called “high explosives” (Zukas et al, 2002). It is not known who and when first proposed to use the energy of the explosion of gunpowder to destroy fortifications.

But there is documentary evidence of application of powder charges in an underground cavity in the war of Pisa and Florence. Florentines, who had found a tunnel inside the city walls of Pisa, used a powder charge and blew it up, destroying a big section of wall. Still, the use of underground explosive mines since their introduction and up to the 18th century was of a random nature. It was used when all other methods of capturing the fortress did not give a positive result. The second half of the 17th century was characterized by the appearance of regular armies in Europe.

There appeared manning tables – documents that regulate the size and composition of subunits, units and formations. Mining units were present in the tables of all European armies. The founder of the regular use of explosives in demolition purposes was a French military engineer, Marshal Sebastien de Vauban. He first formed the terminology of explosion craft, divided explosives into categories, turned the empirical art of war into a strictly-defined military science. Thanks to him the army got first calculation tables that allowed to calculate the required amount of powder for the desired effect of powder charge.

Mining in the 18th century played such a significant role that with the development of fortresses in Europe the presence of countermine tunnels prepared in advance was as a mandatory part of the fortress, as walls, towers and cannons. In the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century tunnel mines continued to be applied. The tunnel mines were used by the soldiers of General Grant in the American Civil War (1861-65), Russian-Japanese War, the First World War, WWII, and in the war in French Indochina.

For example, during the Civil War the Northern Army during the siege of Pittsburgh made three mine galleries under Elliott’s redan and on July 30, 1864 exploded 3.2 tons of gunpowder. The explosion created a crater 30 ft. deep, 88 ft. wide and about 130 ft. long. The fortification was completely destroyed. In the First World War on the Western Front, when the war finally came to a dead end, and breakthrough of carefully fortified in engineering terms, saturated with machine guns and artillery defense was nearly impossible, the military of the opposing countries began to seek ways to break through the defense.

English-French Army several times put powerful charges under the line of defense. Miners loaded up to 40 or more tons of dynamite, lyddite or guncotton. Thus, by June 7, 1917 in Flanders at Messina the British created under the German positions 22 galleries with total length of 7312 meters, where they put about 600 tons of explosives. In 19 of the 22 galleries the explosion took place successfully, but the success was purely tactical. In the Second World War explosives were widely used to blast railroads, bridges, bunkers and permanent fire positions.

Despite the development of other, more effective means like artillery or air bombs, small targets were difficult to hit without destroying everything around it. In this case explosion charges prepared by engineers were the only means. Today, with appearance of modern highly accurate weapons, application of explosive charges is rare. However, there are some examples of its application. On the night of 27 to 28 June 2004, in Israel, the Gaza Strip, Palestinian militants dug a tunnel a few hundred meters long below the checkpoint of Israeli army and loaded about 170 kg of TNT; the checkpoint was destroyed along with several Israeli soldiers in it.

In general, since the 20th century one can quite clearly distinguish two trends in the use of mines. The first trend fits into the idea that the mines are used when all other means of warfare were tried and did not bring to the desired result. The second trend partly follows the first one – the mine is a weapon of the weaker party (not necessarily weak in general in the scale of the war, but rather the weaker party at certain place, at certain time). References Bull, S. (2004). Encyclopedia of Military Technology and Innovation.

Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Walton, S. (2005). Instrumental in War: Science, Research, and Instruments Between Knowledge and the World. Boston: Brill. Zukas, J., Walters, W., Walters, W. (2002). Explosive Effects and Applications. New York: Springer