• U.S.

ARMY & NAVY: What Next?

1 minute read
TIME

Japs and Germans seemed never to tire of devising new kinds of booby traps and land mines. The latest:

¶ Coconuts emptied of milk and filled with explosive, which the Japs sowed along the route of their retreat in Burma. At first overlooked by detector squads, the coconuts blew the legs off infantrymen, the wheels off vehicles. Allied troops captured a Jap ammunition dump stored with thousands of them.

¶ “Castrator” mines planted by the Germans in Belgium and Holland. Small blocks of wood, fitted with a striker pin, hold a single rifle cartridge. When a man walking at normal stride steps on the trigger, the cartridge explodes, drives the slug violently upward.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com