One of the most dramatic examples of their use was during Operation Jaywick, a special operation undertaken in World War II. In September 1943, 14 Allied commandos from the Z Special Unit raided Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour. They paddled into the harbour and placed limpet mines on several Japanese ships before returning to their hiding spot. In the resulting explosions, the limpet mines sank or seriously damaged seven Japanese ships, a tonnage of over 39,000 tons.^[18]

An example of the use of limpet mines by British special forces was in Operation Frankton which had the objective of disabling and sinking merchant shipping moored at Bordeaux, France in 1942. The operation was the subject of the film The Cockleshell Heroes.^[19]

Another case was the 1941 raid on Alexandria by six Italian Navy divers, who attacked and disabled two British Royal Navy battleships in the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt using limpet mines, having entered the harbor on the Maiale "manned torpedoes".

Limpet mines were used by the Norwegian Independent Company 1 in 1944 to attack the MS Monte Rosa. On 16 January 1945, 10 limpet mines were placed along the port side of the SS Donau approximately 50 centimetres (20 in) beneath the waterline. These bombs were to detonate once Donau cleared Oslofjord and reached open sea; however, the departure time was delayed and the explosion occurred before Donau reached Drøbak.

In the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, limpets were used by rebels in Operation Jackpot. In Mongla seaport, Bangladeshi naval commandos damaged many Pakistani army support ships and gunboats.^[20]

Egyptian limpets were modified by the CIA for use by the Mujahadeen in the 1979–89 Soviet–Afghan War to be attached to Soviet trucks.^[21]

In 1980, a limpet mine was used to sink Sierra, a whaling vessel docked in Portugal after a confrontation with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.^[22] Later that year, about half the legal Spanish whaling fleet was sunk in a similar fashion. There were no deaths.^[23]

Limpet mines were to be used in the plan of Operation Algeciras in the context of the 1982 Falklands War. Argentine frogmen were to place limpet mines on British ships in Gibraltar but they were discovered and the plan was foiled.

Another use was the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by French DGSE agents in the Port of Auckland on 10 July 1985, killing one person.^[24][25]

On 12 May 2019, four oil tankers in the Emirati port of Fujairah suffered damage from what appeared to be limpet mines or a similar explosive device. Preliminary findings of the investigation by the UAE, Norway, and Saudi Arabia concluded in June 2019, show that limpet mines were placed on oil tankers to explode as part of a sabotage operation.^[26]

On 13 June two subsequent blasts in the Straits of Hormuz damaged a Japanese and a Norwegian tanker, and were blamed on Iran by the U.S. military. A video was released which, according to the United States, shows an Iranian vessel removing an unexploded limpet mine from the starboard side of the Japanese vessel, several meters forward of the damaged area.^[27] The implications of an Iranian attack are disputed by the owner of the Japanese vessel and the Japanese government. The mines seemed to have been placed many feet above the waterline.^[28] The vessel's crew reported an unknown object flying towards them, then an explosion and a breach in the vessel. After this, the crew witnessed a second shot.^[29]

On 24 February 2025, Reuters reported that two oil tankers in the Mediterranean, which had recently called at Russian ports, had suffered damage consistent with an explosive device such as a limpet mine.^[30]

On 27 June 2025, a Greek oil tanker suffered damage from a limpet mine after having left a Libyan port, the fifth ship to have been damaged in such a manner as of August 2025.^[31][32]