DIFFICULT TASK

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21188, 10 August 1940, Page 8

DIFFICULT TASK

COUNTERACTING MINE-LAYING GREAT WORK BY BRITISH CONVOYS HELD IN SAFETY (Official Wireless) (Received Aug. 10, noon) RUGBY, Aug. 9 One of the most important and certainly the most exacting of the multifarious duties carried out by the Navy is that of mine-sweeping. The force dealing with this problem is controlled by men who are putting to a practical and extended use the lessons in the last war. At the beginning, when counter-mining operations were in their infancy, the ships used to consist of trawlers, drifters, paddle-steamers and a certain number of specially-built navy sweepers. This force was continually growing and continually busy. The German activity in minelaying may be described as intense, and the occupation by the Nazis of the coastline from Norway to the Spanish frontier makes their task easier and that of the British minesweepers more difficult. It is expected that German mine-laying will increase as the nights become longer. The life of a crew engaged in antimine work is apt to be exciting, and their exposure to an air attack added one element of risk which was not present in the last war. Vessels are frequently attacked by aeroplanes, and some of them have been sunk, as has appeared from time to time in the Admiralty announcements. But for every attack resulting in the sinking of one of these little ships there are many in which the Nazi machine is beaten off by the accurate fire of the trawler’s anti-aircraft guns—victories which are all part of the day’s work and go unpublished and unsung. Very Few Casualties The casualties among the minesweeper craft have so far not been heavy, well under 30 having fallen, victims while engaged in this duty, although several of these vessels which were used as transports during the Dunkirk evacuation were sunk by bombs. Most of the force is engaged in searching for and sweeping up moored mines, and occasionally a newly-sown field is discovered in the path of an oncoming convoy. When this happens there is usually not the time to sweep “ according to the book,” and the system adopted is for the sweepers to go ahead of the convoy, which follows through the swept channels. On one such occasion there was only one sweeper—a small trawler—available for this duty, and the impressive sight was witnessed of a convoy of about 60 ships following a little vessel in line ahead. Exciting and straining to the nerves that this service is there is never any lack of recruits, neither is the work of these men unappreciated or unsuccessful. The trust reposed in them by convoy captains shows the first, and the fact that no major British port has been closed longer than 24 hours shows the second. The effect of enemy mine-laying on ports subjected to this form of attack was described today by an officer immediately concerned with the sweeping service as having the same effect as a “ certain amount of fog each day.”