Errolwi
Monthly Donor
Like several things that happened in WW2, using POWs for mine clearance was banned by the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
- Thread starter fester
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Happened a lot - someone has to do it, it may as well be the buggers who planted them.
Derek Pullem
Donor
As opposed to US conscripts being forced to do this? Best thing would be not to use mines at all but that ship has sailed.
Story 2885
Miyazaki, Japan May 24, 1945
The recently promoted 3rd class petty officer chivvied his men to pay attention on the gun mount. The stern most Bofors on the port side of USS North Carolina had yet to fire in the morning. The men were ready to be the goalkeepers of the fleet. Overhead dozens of Corsairs orbited even as Hellcats roamed over the southernmost Japanese Home Island in aggressive sweeps. The chatter on the speaker suggested that the flyboys were scoring kills but no big raids had yet to form up.
Even as his thoughts wandered, the gong sounded and soon the five inch and sixteen inch rifles roared as the fleet continued their bombardment of the medium size city. Jaroshek took his eyes off the horizon for a moment to see almost forty tons of steel complete their journey from the Minnesota mines to the enemy's soil. Bursting charges exploded and threw up dirt and wood. One charge, from another ship in the bombardment line, connected to something flameable. Soon a large black pyre was scarring the landscape.
The recently promoted 3rd class petty officer chivvied his men to pay attention on the gun mount. The stern most Bofors on the port side of USS North Carolina had yet to fire in the morning. The men were ready to be the goalkeepers of the fleet. Overhead dozens of Corsairs orbited even as Hellcats roamed over the southernmost Japanese Home Island in aggressive sweeps. The chatter on the speaker suggested that the flyboys were scoring kills but no big raids had yet to form up.
Even as his thoughts wandered, the gong sounded and soon the five inch and sixteen inch rifles roared as the fleet continued their bombardment of the medium size city. Jaroshek took his eyes off the horizon for a moment to see almost forty tons of steel complete their journey from the Minnesota mines to the enemy's soil. Bursting charges exploded and threw up dirt and wood. One charge, from another ship in the bombardment line, connected to something flameable. Soon a large black pyre was scarring the landscape.
Story 2886
Stettin, Germany May 25, 1945
The little pathbreaker gingerly moved forward. Her sweeps were out. It advanced at a steady four knots at the edge of a recently cleared channel. The half dozen Royal Navy men aboard the ship had a simple goal of doubling the channel's width before coming back to the pier in the evening. Dozens of German sailors kept working at the tasks that they had performed for years now. They could get the craft working but as soon as a mine was caught on a sweep, a shout went up and two Royal Marines advanced with the only weapons aboard. Once the moored mines had been cut free from their chains, the two Marines waited for it to float away from the sweeping gear before they started to plink away at the new target. Three dozen shots and several holes, the mine sank.
Even as that mine was cleared, a large explosion was heard to the north. A Wellington with a magnetic sweep coil had been successful and the pilot waggled his wings at the fleet of little ships beneath him.
The little pathbreaker gingerly moved forward. Her sweeps were out. It advanced at a steady four knots at the edge of a recently cleared channel. The half dozen Royal Navy men aboard the ship had a simple goal of doubling the channel's width before coming back to the pier in the evening. Dozens of German sailors kept working at the tasks that they had performed for years now. They could get the craft working but as soon as a mine was caught on a sweep, a shout went up and two Royal Marines advanced with the only weapons aboard. Once the moored mines had been cut free from their chains, the two Marines waited for it to float away from the sweeping gear before they started to plink away at the new target. Three dozen shots and several holes, the mine sank.
Even as that mine was cleared, a large explosion was heard to the north. A Wellington with a magnetic sweep coil had been successful and the pilot waggled his wings at the fleet of little ships beneath him.
Derek Pullem
Donor
Legally I get the reasoning - morally it's difficult to say why an American can be ordered to do it but a German can't.
Indeed, in France and other areas of the Western Front, they have this thing called the Iron Harvest where they recover UXO.
Hell, if your living in then "Zone Rogue" aka the Red Zone, going to work in your garden or do some digging / farming takes a whole new meaning. And don't forget that it is not only explosives, but a lot of those UXO contain mustard gas or other 1st generation chemical weapons......
Story 2887
Ascension Island, May 26, 1945
"Fire in the HOLE"
The sapper counted to five before pressing down on the detonator.
A moment later a PBY built in 1942 was shattered in half a dozen pieces. The King's obligation continued to shrink throughout the afternoon.
"Fire in the HOLE"
The sapper counted to five before pressing down on the detonator.
A moment later a PBY built in 1942 was shattered in half a dozen pieces. The King's obligation continued to shrink throughout the afternoon.
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Were they surreptitiously stripped of anything useful before destruction?
Driftless
Donor
I realize those actions made financial sense at the time, but it's still a crying shame many of those planes were turned into stardust, one way or the other, after the war.
Heh, Aviano AB in Italy in the 1980s there was (always) this huge mound near the north end of the runway. One summer we had a California Air Guard ground radar unit deploying to the base so they decided to cut a road into the mound (along with some base defense fighting pits) and station the group on the top to give them more advantage.
Cue an exercise a couple of weeks later and a couple of auxiliary guards digging into the side of the pit out of boredom, (always a bad thing
) where they find several bits of ammo an odd metal piece or two here and what looks like a tin can on the end of a stick... One person recognized that one and set off an alarm that clears the pit and shortly there after everyone off the mound.Come to find out when the Brits took the base during WWII they dug a pit and piled all the on-base weapons into it, then buried it and then finally shoved a large mound of dirt over the whole thing... And forgot to tell the Yanks when they took over the base
Almost as much fun as finding that during WWII someone had flown all the way to Italy to drop a concrete filled practice bomb on the base that we also found while tearing down a building in the 80s...
Randy
No they wouldn't officially remove anything unless it was UK supplied equipment but to be honest they would likely just write it off it wasn't worth the effort. The RN Pacific Fleet were pushing Corsairs over the side all the way home from Japan.
I think that one was sunk, iirc they scuttled it as it was on fire and they didn't want another Halifax.
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