Britain Clears Away Mines From Coastline

Chronicle (Levin), 31 March 1948, Page 5

Britain Clears Away Mines From Coastline

- — . — — r OUR coastline is nearly mine-free again, writes Bernard Drew in aii airmail despaitch from London. By summer, hclidayrmakers should be able fo wander around the ccast of Britain at will for the first time sinpe 1939> ■ except for three black spots. ' v- ^ , •

German prisoners who took over mine clearance from British sappers have freed some 20 areas. Of the 2000 minefields sown with 350,000 mines nine remain. These include the black spots, chief of which is at Mundesley (Norfolk), now officially "a permanently fenced area." Here 1000 land mines have become lost in a three-jnile-dong ledge, through the cliff being washed into the sea. Experts cannot find a way to recover these mines. So with two small areas at Folkestone and Hastings (where hundreds of tons of refuse were tipped on to a minefieM ) , Mundesley has been banned from public use for a lifetime. Three of the last six minefields now being eleared are in Borset — at Worbarrow, Kimmeridge and Swanage Bay, where the action of the -water is washing the mines out! to'sea.

in the dunes Biggest area is at Saunton Sands, near Barnstaple (Devon) , where 50 mines are embedded in sand dunes. The other fields are on the Yorkshire coast, six miles south Qf Filey, and at Mabelthorpe (Lincs) . In each place there are only about half a ^doaen mines to be got out. At Weybourne (Norfolk) — the heaviest minefields were laid in East Anglia — where 4000 mines have just been eleared from a fourmile stretch of beaeh, 14 armoured bulldogers were blown up . during the work. plans were eost The last mine stronghold ■ to go in Scotland was • nehr Hattrgy Point. . "One of our main difficulties has J

, been to locate minefields exactly," jan officer said. j TMany wer,e laid in a hurry at ; the height of the invasion scare. jThen units went overseas and-plans •were lost." , Freedom of the beaches has not jbeen cheaply won. British casualty jroli to date is: Killed, 19 officers, 1 129 other ranks; wounded, nine : officers, 37 other ranks. One Geri man, too, lost his life. Described ias "the keenest man on the job," he ignored his British N.C;0.'s warning, returned to eheck a spot —and stepped on a mine. Minesweeping in home waters is Ulso entering its final phase. 1LIVE n YEARS But the menace to our shipping lanes may last till 1956— or even longer. It has been found t»iat the life of German magnetic mines dropped from planes may be 12 years. In addition, thonsanfis of mines broke away from their moo.rings in the North Sea and East Atlantic.

J How many are adrift today is anybody's giiess. . When 'British sweepers went to elear one moored minefield, only one mine was found where 200 had been laid. Britain sowed some 200,000 moored mines in the North Sea and Westprn Approaches, Gsrmany 120,000. | Up to the present 7000 have been 'eleared. The majority, corroded and weightd down by marine growth, have gone to the sea bed. i 1000 STIEE THERE Enemy planes dropped „ 12,000 magnetic and acoustic mines in home waters. The Admiralty has swept 6543. M-O.re " than 1000 may stlll lie in Thames Estuary shallows.