Land of Mine (Danish title:Under Sandet; German title:Unter dem Sand) is a 2015 Danish-German drama film directed by Martin Zandvliet. After the surrender of the German Armed forces in May 1945, a group of young German POWs under the command of Sgt. Carl Rasmussen is forced to demine the Danish West Coast. Like so many of his fellow Danes, Sgt. Rasmussen has a deep hatred for the Germans after having suffered five years of hardships during the occupation.
The film is based on true events. Since the Wehrmacht feared an invasion by the Allies, it had a complex system of tank traps, guard installations, bunkers, and land mines built: the Atlantic Wall. The west coast of Jutland, where more than two million land mines were buried, seemed to be a very likely invasion area. These had to be cleared again at the end of the war. Although the Geneva Convention of 1929 forbade any kind of forced labor for prisoners of war, the British military, in coordination with the Danish government, declared some of its German POWs to be volunteer personnel of the enemy. Part of this clearing squad were boys between 15 and 18 years of age who had been drafted shortly before from the school bench into the Wehrmacht or Volkssturm. These had to defuse the landmines in Denmark as "volunteers". They were neither trained for this nor did they have the appropriate equipment. From May 11 to October 4, 1945, these POWs cleared 1,402,000 mines, according to military documents. There are no exact figures on the number of people deployed. Depending on the source, the number was between 2,000 and 2,600.
The following weapons were used in the film Land of Mine:
The Tellermine 42 anti-tank mine is the most used mine on the beaches which is also explained to the prisoners by Kaptajn (Captain) Ebbe Jensen (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard). All of Rasmussen's prisoners are seen handling them.
