During the war years in Germany, many truly advanced types of weapons were created. This applies to both technology and manual means of warfare. So, for example, back in the first half of World War II, a gloomy German genius created cumulative magnetic mines that can smash most light and medium tanks, turning them into a heap of scrap metal. But for some reason, neither the engineers of the USSR, nor the engineers of the allied countries began to copy the ingenious German invention.
In 1942, the Wehrmacht command was faced with an extremely unpleasant fact: the Soviet Union could not be broken in the very first year of the war, and now the Soviet country is able to issue a representative number of medium and heavy tanks to the front. Vehicles such as the KV-1 and T-34 quickly became a problem for the German infantry, which at the time of the winter of 1942 did not have enough anti-tank weapons. The German Ministry of Armaments was instructed to develop some kind of infantry anti-tank weapon.
Very quickly, a hand-held cumulative mine "Hafthohlladung" was created in Germany. From German it is translated only as "glue charge". Tests carried out in the rear showed that a 3-kilogram shaped charge is quite capable of handling the armor of not only the T-34 tank, but even the KV-1, if placed in a potentially vulnerable area. The principle of operation was simple: the fighter removed the protective casing from the magnetic mine, then fastened it to the armor of the tank, pulled out the wick. After that, the soldier had 50 seconds to move away from the tank. "Hafthohlladung" were produced by the German industry in duplicate for 3 and 3.5 kg of explosives. The mine was first used in battle on the Volkhov front in the summer of 1942.
And all would be fine, but "Hafthohlladung" had many problems. Firstly, the mine could only be magnetized onto an area of armor that was not wet or dirty. That in real combat conditions was not always easy. Secondly, the mine had to be placed precisely on the vulnerable, sloping areas of the tank's armor. That, together with the first paragraph, made them even more difficult to use. Thirdly, neither the Soviet tank crews, nor the escort infantry were eager to see the Germans next to them. Therefore, a fighter with a magnetic mine in his hands quickly turned into a suicide bomber.
With the help of Soviet and Russian cinema, there is a cliché that a tank could be easily blown up by grenades. In theory, this is actually possible. But in practice, it is practically unrealistic. In this respect, the action of successful particular cases was only translated into general practice, thus becoming a real myth. If you read the memoirs of veterans, you can understand that tanks most often did not even try to stop them with grenades. This moment, by the way, is well reflected in the excellent Soviet film "Hot Snow", where a fighter trying to stop a German tank, thus predictably dies. Needless to say, with attempts to install magnetic mines on armor, the situation was even worse than with throwing bundles of grenades?
Actually, the deliberate danger of using magnetic anti-tank mines very quickly forced the Germans themselves to abandon their use. Both Soviet designers and designers from the USA and Great Britain understood this. Representatives of the Anti-Hitler coalition did not even try to make a similar weapon, realizing its meaninglessness. However, this does not mean that the cumulative mines of the Wehrmacht were not studied in the USA and the USSR. In addition, do not forget that the creation of "Hafthohlladung" was for Germany the first step towards the creation of anti-tank grenade launchers. The latter became a real problem for the tanks of all allied countries, but soldiers and officers quickly developed defense tactics against faustic detachments.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about SPG: short and eventful life of "tank hunters" World War II.