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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0791.PDF
I 'TIT ^AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD . FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY : BIRMINGHAM, 2 • 8-10, CORPORATION ST. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, Telegrams: Autocar,Coventry. Vl, * L ! *!..- T ' °DN • I T> _, „ JTTI telegrams: Autopress. Birmingham. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines) Telephone: Waterloo 3313 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 t 260, DEANSGATE 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : lliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : lliffe, Glas£ow. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. Telephone: Central 4857. No. 1843. Vol. XLV. Registered at the C.P.O. as a Newspaper. April 20th, 1944. Thursdays, One Shilling. C The Outlook Mine Laying /% PRIL 13th this year was an anniversary; on that /~\ day in 1940 Bomber Command first began to lay , mines in enemy waters. In the four years which ,^have elapsed since the first flight by a mine-laying Hampden from a Group commanded by Sir Arthur Harris (as he now is) mine laying has been responsible for roughly one-tenth of the total effort of Bomber Command. Considerably more than 13,000 sorties have been flown, and it is known that as a result more than 500 enemy ships, probably totalling over one million tons, have been sunk or damaged. In fact, the actual sinkings may well be something like twice as heavy as that, for definite news of sinkings only comes in slowly by various routes, and many cases may never come to Allied ears at all. The average weight of British mines is i*,500 lb. They are ground mines, and may be either magnetic or acoustic. It is not easy for newspapers to do justice to the work of the crews of the mine-laying aircraft, for there is nothing spectacular or sensational about the work. Occasionally the public hears of some outstanding result, such as the blocking of the Kiel Canal for several months through a ship laden with iron ore striking a mine in the canal. That the work calls for meticulous accuracy in navi gation by night, so as to ensure that the mines are laid in the right places, is known, but it is not common knowledge that the work is very dangerous. Actually the percentage of missing aircraft engaged in mine laying is little, if at all, below that of the average rate of losses among bombers engaged in the attack on Germany's production centres. Many of these losses must be due to the fire of the enemy, for the Germans have had to devote a laige number of /?<z£-ships to the special task of trying to counter our mine-layers. But it is also probable that at night not a few of our aircraft have hit the water when rrfanceuvring in the dark at a very low altitude. Which of these causes has been respon sible for most of our losses cannot be stated, for lost machines cannot report the cause of their own fates. The least that the British public can do is to honour the crews. They deserve as much credit as those who face the fiery defences of Berlin or Essen. The Dividends M INE laying from the air is a novelty of the present war. Of course, it takes many aircraft to lay as many mines in a given time as can be laid by one surface craft or submarine; but against that the aircraft can reach waters to which even a submarine cannot penetrate, and it is possible to " top up " a mine field before it has been thoroughly cleared by the enemy minesweepers. As an instance of the effects of our efforts, the waters round Kiel are no longer used by the enemy for train ing and practice cruises by U-boats and other vessels. They have been driven away to the Gulf of Danzig, and even that is not beyond the reach of Bomber Command. Germany has done much to develop her coastwise traffic so as to ease the strain on her railways, and the present modus operandi is for one or two cargo ships with a strong escort to slip from port to port along the shores of the occupied countries, keeping well inshore. Mines drive them out from the coast into more open waters, where the light ships of the Navy can attack them by night and Coastal Command can get at them by day. Convenient ports have sometimes been made unusable tor days at a time by mines laid from the air, and neutral vessels in particular have shown a strong reluctance to enter harbours whose safety is in doubt. Mine laying has always remained a function of
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