The Shitotsubakurai or lunge mine was a suicidal anti-tank weapon developed and used by the Empire of Japan during the Second World War. It used a HEAT type charge. This weapon was used by the CQC units of the Imperial Japanese Army. The weapon itself was a conical hollow charge anti-tank mine, placed inside a metallic container and attached to the end of a wooden stick. The weapon was officially adopted by the Japanese Army in 1945; in that year it caused its first victims in the Pacific Theater, where it commonly saw action against American armour. Later that year, some Japanese Imperial Army manuals of the weapon were discovered by US troops.
A drawing of a lunge mine and its operation
Schematic of the mines components.
Viet Minh soldier Nguyen Van Thieng holding a lunge mine at Hàng Đậu Street in December 1946.
Statue of an anti-tank lunge mine being used by Nguyen Van Thieng in 1946. Military History Museum, Hanoi, Vietnam.
On December 19, 1946, Viet Minh soldiers detonated explosives in Hanoi, and the ensuing battle, known as the Battle of Hanoi marked the opening salvo of the First Indochina War.
Viet Minh soldier Nguyen Van Thieng holding a lunge mine at Hàng Đậu Street on December 1946.
Viet Minh artillery in Hanoi
Document "The word of the National Assembly of War Resistance" handwritten by Hồ Chí Minh on December 19, 1946.
The youngest in the winter of 1946.
