GERMAN MINES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1939, Page 8

GERMAN MINES

HEAVY TOLL OF SHIPPING. The indiscriminate mine warfare begun by the Germans may seem to be bringing large results, but it must be remembered that this phase of the attack on Britain was begun only after the submarine had been used and . had failed to achieve the results the Nazis hoped to gain. ~ The official figures covering the [ losses of British shipping in the first nine weeks of the war showed that wheras in the first week of the conflict 11 ships were lost, a total tonnage of G 4.000. and in the second week 16 ships of a tonnage of 67,000. in the eighth week seven ships were sunk, totalling 14,000 tons, and in the ninth week three ships, totalling 18,000 tons. Nor were these the lowest point of the submarine campaign, for in one week the U-boats sank only two ships of a total of 6000 tons. Comparison of these figures with those of the last war serves no, useful purpose because of the very different circumstances. But comparison with the rate of shipbuilding reveals that the Nazis have not been able to sink ships as fast as Britain can replace them. Figures recently cited by Sir John Gilmour, the Minister of Shipping. in the House of Commons, gave losses of only seven ships out of 3070 convoyed.

The’ peril of the magnetic mine is that it is more sensitive than the ordinary contact mine, and will explode without actual contact with the ship. . There is also some, though not conclusive, evidence that it is being dumped overboard without moorings. The new Nazi threat is a real one. But examination of the record, as far as it has been cabled, shows that from November 20 to November 24 a total of eight neutral vessels of approximately 43,000 tons were sunk by mines, and" in the same period six I British vessels, one of them a de- i stroyer and two mine-sweepers, of a [ total tonnage of about 13,000, wore I sunk by similar moans. One French I trawler" was also mined. Two British I ships, a mine-sweeper, and a cruiser, j were damaged. The total shipping I lost, as near as can be calculated, was thus about 56.000 tor ■ In 1917. when the Germans resum-1 ed their submarine operations against merchant shipping they increased their submarine mine-laying. In the course of the year they laid no fewer than 195 distinct mine groups, and the British campaign against the mine was conducted only at the cost of heavy losses. In the early part of the year the losses of minesweepers averaged one a day. The year closed with a total of almost 4000 mines swept up in home waters, at a cost of 170 Allied and neutral ships sunk and 23 I damaged. I As in this war. the German reguI larly laid fields in the effort to catch the Holland trade, and a new minei field oil' the Maas Light, first created | in April. 1917. and regularly renewed, gave considerable trouble. Out of 680 mines laid, however. 635 wore de- . strayed, the casualties caused by the field being 4 merchant ships and 8 minesweepers. On the other side of the ledger was

the loss inflicted on the Germans in carrying out the work. They lost 12 mine-laying submarines in the southern portion of the North Sea dining the year. The toll levied on German trained oersonnel was one of the things which handicapped the mining offensive of that war. and in 1918 only 27 Allied and neutral vessels were mined. The greater sensitivity of the magnetic mine also may prove to be its great weakness, and the suggestion that it will probably not be difficult to discover a way of ridding the watI ers of these mines is confirmed by a cable message stating that the question of using a powerful electromagnet for the work is now being considered.