DATED 1938.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1940, Page 5

DATED 1938.

GERMAN MAGNETIC MINES EXAMINED BY NAVAL INVESTIGATORS. SOME LEADING FEATURES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, March 1. A highly-placed official revealed that parts of German magnetic mines which the Navy has taken to pieces bear the date 1938. The mines are entirely constructed of non-magnetic aluminium and are fitted with an impact detonator outside, enabling the mine to be used like a bomb, ensuring an explosion if it hits the deck of a ship. The impact detonator is not very sensitive, and for this reason the mine does not explode when it strikes the water. A parachute attached also arrests its speed. There is another detonator inside, where springs hold a pivoted magnet horizontal. When a magnetic body, such as a ship, passes sufficiently close, the magnet’s ends are drawn up, making contact and firing seven hundred pounds of explosive. Magnetic mines have mostly been dropped from seaplanes. It is not considered that they are effective beyond fifty fathoms. In contrast to moored mines, they lie on the bottom, their effectiveness depending on the degree of sensitivitv at which they are set and also on the size of ships, which must pass directly overhead.