At readers’ request, another example of an IED attack from the 1500s. I showed this to then Col Joe Votel when he set up the IED TF (the predecessor to JIEDDO) a few years ago. This image below shows a complex IED attack from the early 1580s, I believe from the Spanish war against the Dutch rebels. Here we have a foreign Army (the Spaniards) invading a country and the locals (with a different religion) objecting. The locals (the Dutch) have secret help from a neighbouring country (England) with similar religious beliefs who also regard the Spaniards as enemies, but don’t yet want to engage directly, so they provided explosive expertise to the local rebels. (Get my drift?)
The image is clearer in its original form but this is the best I can do on this blog page. This is a complex IED attack of three command initiated IEDs against a military convoy. The attacks is well planned and carefully constructed with IEDs functioning at the front of the convoy (upper right), rear (upper left) and centre. Note that the firing point for all three is across the river preventing the convoy’s soldiers from counterattacking. The enemy convoy are marching on foot from left to right.
From reading the WIT report on CIDNE (!) I can see that each IED consisted of a barrel of gunpowder buried under the road. In each barrel is embedded a wheel-lock mechanism, triggered by the terrorist across the river pulling a string. You can see the string in the image if you look carefully.
The effect of the explosions is interesting, if you look carefully. There is a large explosion in each case and rocks and soldiers are thrown in the air and the river, with smoke billowing from each location. Only two of the “terrorists” at the firing points are pictured, one on the left hand edge half way up, the other on the bottom right corner. (the third is out of the picture to the right). Each firing point is concealed in bushes with a good view of the road, and safe from counter-attack.
There are then cannons set up to subsequently engage the survivors, four in total. So a good example of a complex attack on a convoy/foot patrol. Despite the primitive technology I venture to suggest not much has changed and indeed the technology in theaters at the moment isn’t all that much further forward.
Comments welcome.