NEW GERMAN MENACE
MINES BY PARACHUTES T • ] * ff >' V ' !• IN THAMES ESTUARY SEAPLANES LOW OVER RIVER - ' ■ i - (Per Press Association). * {Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 23. It is revealed that German ’planes flying low over the Thames Estuary just before the raid last night dropped mines by means of parachutes. It is understood that the mines were magnetic. It is believed that German seaplanes have also been experimenting with the indiscriminate sowing of highly-explosive minia- ’ ' ture mines at sea. The seaplanes are able to carry a number of these. British experts are devising a means of combating the menace. , The crews of tugboats on the Thames were eye-witnesses of : the dropping of mines by parachutes. One man said: “I was stag- " geired to see a. big German seaplane only 50 feet over the water, 1 about 100 yards from the shore, i saw something splash in the water as, it roared past. The ’plane was so close that I saw the silhouette of the men’s heads against a dim light burning in the cockpit. A machine-gun opened up as it passed.” . Other men described objects like open umbrellas that drifted down slowly, clearly visible in the moonlight. One floated down “■ the fairway and was exploded by rifle fire.
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Bibliographic details
Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 38, 24 November 1939, Page 5
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210NEW GERMAN MENACE Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 38, 24 November 1939, Page 5
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