MINESWEEPING IN WAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5330, 18 February 1947, Page 3

MINESWEEPING IN WAR

Any special heroism" attached to minesweepmg was disclaimed by . Captain Ralph Newman, C.B.E., D.S.O., K.N.Z.N.V.R., who commanded sweeper and anti-submarine units in the Englisli Channel, off the east coast of England, and in the Mediterranean, when he addressed the Canterbury J unior Chamber of Commerce recently. "Sweeping is oue of the most interesting jobs in the Navy," said Captain Newman, fand it is not any more dangerous. You get to know the various types so well that you have a hetter chance of staying alive during a war than those who never know what they are . really up against."

Describing his Channel experiences, in command of a fiotiila whose task was to sail two railes ahead of convoys — his ships served as esoorts, sweepers ancl anti-submarine patrois — Captain Newman said that the navigational hazards were the chief trouble, more than the chance of enemy attack. Routes h'ad to be changed so ofton, and sometimes tho course lay so close to the shore that it was vevy dangerous in thick weather. Onee their course lay only 800 yavds oif the Dover mole. Tides were unpredicta'ole, and he had never known the Channel tides to run tnae to the information supplied. Iixciting' Moments. "Once 1 got right uuder the Dovcr mole at low water — I thought I was off the South Foreland — and a dcvStroyer with the convoy had to go full astern to avoid hitting the mole. An M.L. scraped the mole in passing,'' he said. "We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We were shot up fairly freq.vently, but I have never known anything like the fteling of satisfaction when a convoy had got through. It was no. such a lovely feeling when you started out, so I suppose it was the reaction. s*-. «.jh A. a m

''Vv'e really didn't mind dive-bonib-ers so much — though we di'irrt like them-- !jeca;se we had something to IiIl bark with. Wnat we did not like was the shelling by the big guns on the French coast. With the tide agamst n >*, and a seven-knot convoy we woui 1 he in range of the^guns for several • hours. an dthat tised to shake people's nerves. Nerves Xo Disgrace. "•I had permission to shift any rnan ashore without any red tape, if there was the slightest sign of his nerves going. There was no disgrace abottt it. They were not a crew of har.l-bolled seamen; they were 40 per cent. fislier-* men and 60 per cent. conseripts from all oeeupations ashore. Yoa caivt expect everyone to react in the same way. These youngsters were not in my fortunate position, with the responsibility that g'ives you balance and makes you behave differently." At Hartlepool, Captain Newman had ■ command of 28 trawlers and drifters, working against magnetic and aeousiic mines. He deseribes mining raids by German aireraft, and the extreme difiiculty of deeiding just where Miines, attached to parachutes, had fallen, though they made "a considerable splash." Later he had a command in the Mediterranean, where the retreating enemy "had laid every kind of mine indiscriminately off Africa, Sicily and Italy. "Either the Admiralty was so sorely pressed for officers, or else we had sold ourselves so well that they thought we were supermen," said Captain Newman, describing his arriyal in England with the 2nd Eehelon, with 25 New Zealand R.N.V.R. officers. "Of ihe 25, 10 were at onee given cqmmands of small ships, though none had ever bef ore -been a full time officer on a ship. They told us there that there i was a war on and they must take the 1 risk, and that we were supposed to be ; properly trained." ' .. j