GREAT MINEFIELD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1940, Page 5

GREAT MINEFIELD

ALONG GERMAN AND NORWEGIAN COASTS Laid by British Bombing Planes HEAVY TOLL TAKEN OF ENEMY SHIPPING (By Telegraph.—Press Association.— Copyright.) ■ LONDON, July 7. Units of the Royal Air Force bomber command have mined the whole German and Norwegian coastlines in the North Sea and Baltic. „ This immense minefield has already taken a heavy toll oi German shipping. Five German ships are reported to have been sunk in one field, and one German warship has been damaged. Planes of the bomber command have been engaged on this task nightly for some time and have flown more than 250,000 miles in completing it. OUTSTANDING RESULTS Mines Extended Into Baltic TWELVE ENEMY SHIPS SUNK IN THAT AREA LONDON, July 7. The Air Ministry states that R.A.F. bombers have obtained outstanding results in mining the Baltic and the Great and Little Belts. The eastern-most port to North Norway is unsafe and no passage exists. There is no fiord, no estuary and no harbour in German or occupied territory useable without risk. R.A.F. relays lay minefields as fast as the Germans sweep the passages. The bomber command, the fleet air arm and the coastal command dealt similarly with the enemy’s North Sea ports, estuaries and harbours. In the two Baltic minefields alone Germany is known to have lost twelve ships sunk and many others damaged. One field sank five ships in 36 hours. At least one German warship is reported to have been seriously damaged. The minelaying planes worked at night after the invasion of Norway and the increase in the size, number and density of the minefields is creating a serious peril against which the enemy is forced to exert a desperate and continuous effort. The minefields revealed by the loss of ships are heavily protected against further minelaying by anti-aircraft ships, searchlights, balloons, warships and motor-boats, but these waters are admirable for mining and all the time varied and additional fields are laid in every main navigable route the Germans can use. One unit has flown 250,000 miles on this task. The minelayers need the highest navigational and piloting skill and the crews often fly the extreme range of their planes against the hazards of the weather and the most concentrated and most determined enemy defences. The actual and potential material and moral damage inflicted is out of all proportion to our losses. The minefields have disorganised the Germans’ seaborne traffic and compelled them to provide defensive and minesweeping forces on an ever-increasing scale which has incalculably affected their morale.