Second World War German mine detonated in Falmouth, UK.

[Bash]

Similar thing happened here in '95. Fishing Boat Evacuated After Netting Live Mine - SFGate

[minaret]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

no...mines should be carried.

BTW - another plus for a fiberglass boat over steel. although don't know if this one was magnetic.

WWII era German naval mines used magnetic pistols, especially the larger parachute mines like this one. Only a very large amount of ferrous material would cause it to detonate.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by minaret

WWII era German naval mines used magnetic pistols, especially the larger parachute mines like this one. Only a very large amount of ferrous material would cause it to detonate.

Something like the hull of the wreck of the Volnay which is sunk nearby then. Her cargo? 4.5" shells complete with timing devices. Spent many a hour recovering the timing devices and the lead shot which is all over the wreck.

Pete

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Something like the hull of the wreck of the Volnay which is sunk nearby then. Her cargo? 4.5" shells complete with timing devices. Spent many a hour recovering the timing devices and the lead shot which is all over the wreck.

Pete

That would do it. Many of these larger parachute mines were converted to time fuses and dropped on Leningrad during the 900 days. Incredibly destructive devices. They would shatter the keel of a large vessel, even though they were often sitting on the sea floor 50-100' below. If one went off near your boat for some strange reason, you would be atomized...

[tartansail]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

So speaking of the bottom, what's the best anchor?

I have an aluminum Spade I was thinking of selling. Maybe I'll keep it for anchoring in minefields. There should be plenty of swinging room.

[Astrid]

The Germans used a variety of detonators in mines--contact such as the Hertz horn, magnetic, pressure influence, and acoustic detonators, as well as some with timing devices.

[Eric50]

I will never stop in the beautiful Helford River with the same peace in mind anymore !

But the whole channel area is more or less the same in term of old mines...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Eric50

I will never stop in the beautiful Helford River with the same peace in mind anymore !

But the whole channel area is more or less the same in term of old mines...

Indeed!

The last time I was in the Helford River a chap fell overboard and drowned Not from my boat.

Cherbourg is haunted with the still ruined forts at the ends of the first breakwater (as far as I know, bombed by the Allies during the time when Cherbourg was held by the Nazis).

Southampton left a whole block in the bombed out state after the German bombing, as a reminder.

Mines everywhere and I'm amazed that no one has set one off with an anchor.

Can't get away from the War in La Manche . . .

[SabreKai]

There are more than a few places off the US coast that are dumping grounds for explosives, gases and other fun stuff. The charts will tell you where not to go.

However, it has been recently noted that a lot of stuff was dumped outside the zones by crews too lazy, or in a hurry to get home. Do a google search on it.

[Astrid]

There are also zones in the English Channel which had been designated as areas for bombers returning from missions in WW2 to dump whatever unexpended ordnance was still aboard. Those zones could have a fairly substantial unexploded/armed munitions presence even though most, but by no means all, bombs and such would have gone off on impact

[Eric50]

One of my friends use to be in the demining divers team of the French navy and he had to manage with wwII explosives nearly each month or so...including land mines found by the local farmer, as they have to take care of the onshore mines as well.

Few monthes ago, thzy had to evacuate a whole area of Caen city to remove a 500 kgs / 1000 lbs bomb from the sector...

Its sounds like a never ending story, even after nearly 70 years...we are talking about millions of bombs and mines.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

The Pacific theater of WWII was really amazing. I was googling around, check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_A...rijnssen_(1936)

If you look close in the picture it was a minesweeper that put foliage all over itself and stayed close to land during the day, operating at night. It appeared like a small island to overflying Japanese patrols.

Truk Lagoon(Chucck) was a"secret Japanise Navy base" during WWII and the lagoon is full of Planes ,Trucks, and anything else the Japanise could throw or push off of the stern of there ships as they were hightailling it out of there to avoid being hit by US forces..I know folks that dive down and get bombs that they open and remove the powder from to make "fish bombs",some dont have all of their fingers...some dive down and remove hand cranked generator type devices from war ships and drap cables over board as to electrocute fish rather than use explosives...Bombs ,rifles,granades,uniforms,small Mitsubishi two man tanks and lots of other war material litter places like Guam,Siapan,Yap,Palau etc

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Astrid

There are also zones in the English Channel which had been designated as areas for bombers returning from missions in WW2 to dump whatever unexpended ordnance was still aboard. Those zones could have a fairly substantial unexploded/armed munitions presence even though most, but by no means all, bombs and such would have gone off on impact

The deeps south of St Cathrines Point on the Isle of Wight was still being used my the MOD to dump demolitions when I was serving at Marchwood in the mid eighties. A tank landing craft would load up with a fork lift and out the boys would go for the day. Down ramp and fire up the fork lift, an hour later all done and home for tea.

Pete

[SaltyMonkey]

Does this thread really matter over mine?....

...Or is it mine over matter?

[David_Old_Jersey]

Still finding stuff from WWI up near the Somme etc.

Over here still find the odd bomb, not from folks dropping any on us (that stopped soon as the English buggered off) but munitions were heavily used as landmines - plus stuff was simply dumped off cliffs at the end of the war.

On the upside, I think the Jerries gave us half the concrete for the "Atlantic Wall" - global warming sea level rises? ha! ha! ha!