The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-20
WASHINGTON

BY A C STINNETT

WASHINGTON, April -Whe the memoirs
of this war are written, our navy experts will
scour them for an answer to the question
Why, oh why, didn't the Germans mine the
Skagerrak and the Kattegat?
When news came that ships of the British
navy were blowing through the gray mists Of
the Skagerrak, navy men here goggled. Wher
70 word came that a single British boat haC
been blasted to the bottom by a mine, the navy
boys couldn't believe their ears and eyes.
With the report that the British not only
had crossed the threshold (Scandinavians cal
Skagerrak the 'sleeve") but had swung around
The Skaw and were headed down that foyer
of the Baltic, the Kattegat (the cats throat'O
the experts we're dumbfounded. The Nazis not
only had left the door wide open but hadn't
even bothered to sprinkle tacks on the door
Looked Like a Set-Up
What on earth had the Germans been VI
to? They must have known for weeks, maybe
months, that they were going to try for the
Scandinavian coup. With Denmark as a spring
board, they could have poured troops endlessly
across that narrow elbow into Norway and
Sweden. It's hardly more than a ferry boat
ride, and between ribbons of mines through
which the British navy could not cut. it would
have been as safe a ride as from New York's
Battery to Bedloe island.
The establishment of the folks in the navy
building at this one-more cockeyed fact in the
most cockeyed war in history, sent me to the
record. There's no real answer there but there's
an interesting phase of this mining business
which a study of World war reports and maps
brought out.
That is, that the business of laying mine
fields is about 10 per cent mines, 80 per cent
bluff.
Don't take this as an underestimate of the
value of the mine menace. But the undersea
garden is much more sparsely planted with
the tulips of death" than the warning nations
would have each other believe.
This bluff is part of the game. The navy
department has a collection of amazing maps
Solid pink squares, oblongs and %triangles show
ANNOUNCER mine areas. Here, said the Allies
or the Germans, are mined seas. If you dom
want your ship blown to smithereens, keep out
But on these self-samed maps is a smatterlne
Of pepper and salt-and these spots show the
areas ACTUALLY mined. That's what L mean
by 80 per cent bluff.
Made Shippers Wary
For example, the whole of the Baltic was
supposed to be mined in the World war. Ac-
tually there was a scattering of mines through
out this inland sea which could only nave tac'
cording to the experts) nuisance value" Some
occasional destruction was enough to make
captains wary of the whole area.
The announced mine areas in the World war
were Of staggering proportions. From the west
nrn coast of France, below the English chan
mel to the northern entrance to the North sea,
there was hardly an important channel that
wasn't mined. But many of these sections had
only a scattering Of death tulips"
One section mined thoroughly was the 23O
miles from Scotland to Norway, where the
United States and Great Britain in 1917 and
'1S laid 70, 900 mines to make a Maginot line
Of the entrance to the North sea. This project
was possible because the United States develop
ed a new 1line that could be laid at great
DEPTHS and exploded at the slightest touch.
For three years, the Germans had been cut
ting cables on Allied mines, emptying their
deadly innards, slicing them in half for soup
kettles and punch bowls. The new mines end
ed that.
Accent on Bluff
That greatest of all mining efforts taught
warning powers a new technique put naVal
authorities today are agreed that it has not
been duplicated in the present war. And the
concensus is that there is more bluff now
than there was in the World war.
There are some experts here who say that
the Germans had good reason NOT to mine
the Skagerrak and Kattegat. The Skagerrak
is deep (wall over 200 feet in some chan
nels) and the kattegat is narrow. In both the
currents are fierce. Also, it is said, the Nazis
wanted to leave their only channels to the
outside world open. Maybe these guessers are
the navy people.