Evening star., 1939-11-21
Neutral Nations Seen
Chief Victims Of
Floating Mines
Years May Be Needed
To Clear Sea Lanes
After War Ends
BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER,

form of sea warfare. Toss a steel
ball containing 300 or 400 pounds
of TINT into the sea and it may
destroy a 20,0OO-ton vessel as sue
cessfully as a 5O0-ton ship.
In three days the German float
ing mine blitzkrieg has taken an
ominous toll. In what measure can
it be continued after the most is
made of its element of surprise?
How far can 1t affect the progress
of the war?
We know that, long ago, the
Hague Convention declared against
floating mines. One might bump
into a neutral ship on legitimate
business, or even into a ship carry
ing peace delegates after an armi-
stice.
Anchored mines were allowable.
They were set in definite areas.
Belligerents could warn their own
and neutral merchant ships where
a mine field had been laid as regu-
lation act of war. But the mines
must be so made that they would
not explode an hour after detach-
ment from their moorings. Hun
dreds of thousands of such anchored
mines were laid in the World War.
Germans Issue Denial.
The Germans deny they are
loosing any floating mines. They
say the British are the offenders.
Bearing ever in mind that a nation
at war is given to prevarication as
we'll as camouf1age and dissimula-
ton, it stands to reason that the
British, who command the surface
of the sea, would not endanger Brit
ish ships.
Obviously, if floating mines are
being laid, German submarines are
laying them. Any German surface
ship which undertook the venture
would be subject to fire from British
patrol ships, which might set off all
the mines on board.
These floating mines have air
chambers to aid in their buoyancy
and are attached to floats. In lay
ing them, there is no bother with
any anchorage wires or parapher-
MALTA 1t is only necessary to drop
them overheard.
In this case, the submarine does
not have to sight its target. as it
must when it torpedoes a ship. 1t
may be able to distribute the mines
at night in the sea lanes, or at least
in a fog, the winter fogs of the
North Sea favoring the operation
1t does not have to hunt for prey
for its torpedoes. The prey comes
to the mine.
Carried Beyond Sea Lanes.
A submarine may load with mines
instead of torpedoes, and once the
cargo is discharged, it returns for
more to port, which is relatively a
short distance when the vessel con-
fines its orbit to the North Sea
Or it may be that the Germans have
specially constructed submarines for
mine-carrying, or will find it worth
while to construct them.
Once the floating mine, always
alive until detonated, is set adrift,
the tides and currents may carry 1t
beyond the regular sea lanes. So
to depart from them is not to escape
danger. A submarine which could
get past the net protecting the Eng
llsh Channel, as some succeeded in
doing in the World War, might lay
mines which would be struck by q
British troopship bound for France.
But that is only presenting the
offensive possibilities. What of the
defense? The only way known is
sweeping" by fishing trawlers. Two
trawlers steam slowly on a cautious
lookout, dragging a wire between
them to pick up the mines, which
are then detonated by rifle fire.
When a trawler hits mine, there is
another ghastly tragedy, of which
there were many in the World War.
Any Ship Fair Game.
But, after trawlers sweep one
plotted section of the sea clear a
submarine may lay a fresh lot before
another day passes. The sweepers
know the area where anchored
mines are laid, but the floating
mines are widespread. So more of
the gallant crews who face the win
try North Sea to bring home food to
Britain will have to do a sterner
kind of fishing.
Should the German submarines
carry their cargoes all the way to
the Atlantic approaches to Britain.
she would yet be able to keep secure
the passage to France as a route
for food and munitions from abroad.
But the present object would seem
to be to make a no mans sea of
the North Sea.
Any ship under any flag wi be
fair game. The sinking of an iCal-
ian ship warns Mussolini that a
neutral partner of the Rome Berlin
axis is no exception.
Neutrals Chief Victims.
While the floating mines may
make Britain a lot more trouble, it
is the little neutral countries, bor-
dering on the North Sea, which will
be the principal sufferers under this
new form of pressure to make them
subservient. Their very economic
life will be ruptured.
Norway, which is so dependent
upon her shipping, will be hard hit,
but not harder than the Neither
lands, which will be shut off from
their rich East Indian colonies. These
little neutral countries may well re-
gret the period before the repeal of
our Embargo Act debarred the pro-
tective association of our ships in
the war zone. There being no Amer
lcan ships to sink, there need be
no discrimination.
1t took Britain year after the
World War to clear her mine fields
and Germany five years to clear
hprc Cho,11J 6or,,ooo, -> T. H.