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Old 10-09-16, 05:41 AM   #218
Dowly
Lucky Jack
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Finland
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8 October 1941

Supply & Service ministry urges building managers and janitors to make sure windows are kept closed to save fuel on heating.

Finnish daily losses: 71


Sergeant Skyttä leading an assault on enemy positions in Honkaselkä.

***

9 October 1941

The prolonged war begins to cause growing problems in the national economy and the livelihood of the population.

Finnish daily losses: 86


Pommiansa M/41

Quote:
Pommiansa m/41 (bomb trap m/41) was first presented in 14th of May 1941 and Engineer Office II of Finnish Armed Forces General Headquarters ordered 5,000 of them only two months later. Production started swiftly and the first batch was issued to Finnish troops in autumn of 1941, but already by October of that year complaints about reliability of the mine started so surface. The early tests done in 1st Army Corps revealed that only about 30 % of the mines worked as intended and once larger tests were organised by Pioneeripataljoona 14 (Engineer Battalion 14) their reliability rate proved to be only staggering 20 %. Around 1,500 - 2,000 mines were manufactured before the production was halted. The investigation that followed revealed obvious neglect - while fuses used in the mines had been tested and manufactured mines quickly inspected for visible flaws, neither manufacturer nor organisation responsible acquiring them had properly tested the complete mines for quality and reliability. The already manufactured mines were returned to Tekko Oy, who tried to fix the problem, but failed to reach the now appearing unrealistically high quality demands. While the small scale testing of the fixed mines done in January of 1941 suggested that after fixing 60 % of the mines worked exactly as intended (exploded at correct height) and that about 87 % detonated, this still fell short of the now demanded 99 % reliability rate. The reasons for reliability problem proved to be a multitude. Many of the mines either failed to "bounce", or didn't explode at correct height, but also air bubbles in cast steel body of the mine, dud percussion caps and even stiffened felt gaskets caused dud mines. Since Tekko Oy failed reaching the demanded reliability rate, Finnish military decided to withhold payment of the already existing mines and cancelled rest of the order. Since both parties were somewhat guilty of neglecting the proper testing process, there doesn't seem to have been other ramifications.
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/landmines2.htm
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