"SUICIDE SQUAD."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 236, 4 October 1940, Page 5

"SUICIDE SQUAD."

ROYAL NAVY'S WORK.J PROBING GERMAN MINES. i ! The "suicide squad," the bomb dis-j posal section of the British Army ha** been called. The navy also has aj "suicide squad." Enemy mines drift aground with, every other tide—sinister bobbin™!, canisters of death. Many explode when i a half-submerged rock snaps off one of : the protruding horns. Inside each horn'i is a glass tube. As the horn breaks the! glass is shattered, releasing chemicalsii which generate an electric current; the current heats a wire coated with inflam- , mable substance attached to the deto- , nator—then the local glazier is busy for days on end. ( A Call to Portsmouth. > Perhaps the mine drifts gently ashore , to be left high and dry by the tide. A call to Portsmouth by the coast- ( guards, and the navy's "suicide squad" 1 go into action. i Brave men these, with nerveless fingers. They take a spanner to death. The mine mJglit be a new type, fashioned with the scientific but dia- ' bolical cunning peculiar to the German. { The group from H.M.S. Vernon first » examine the mine—without touching it. Then the leader takes paper and • writes out what he proposes to do in ' the dismantling process. j Moves Numbered. j< Each move is numbered. ( His men retreat to a safe distance and he begins his dangerous job, a tinvi figure on a deserted beach probing into 1 ; 7001b of high explosive. As each step isli completed he signals to his men. If tlvev'i see him wave the detonator above hi«j head they know that another Germane secret is no longer a secret. 11 If he disappears in a blinding explo- i sion they begin next time from the step whiA caused his death. \ First naval decorations for bra vermin this \va> were presented by the King . to the men fr- "* M.S. Vernon. Thevjs

discovered the secret of the Nazis' mag! netic mine dropped from a Heiiikel 115 in the Thames Estuary last November. J (One of them, Potty* Officer Baldwin, {has since been killed carrying out his 'hazardous duties.) Different Types. As the enemy and our own naval experts are constantly improving the |different types, there are many differ-' !ent sorts of mine. I The most common is a round metal ,ball 3ft 6in in diameter with soft leadi iprotruding horns. j Th Nazis' magnetic mine is shaped like an aerial bomb, Bft long, weighing .about 12001b. A magnetic needle bal-' 'anced like a see-«aw is attached to the [detonator. Theoretically, the magnetic 1 I field of a ship's hull should attract one! end of the needle, jerk it upwards, and! jtip down the other end to complete thej [circuit necessary to cause the explosion.) But Britain's mine experts and the; degaussing girdles of our ships have' upset theory. Belts of wire round a ship, carrying! an electric current, cancel out the mag- J netic vibrations, and vessels so fitted] can steam safely over the largest magnetic minefield. The ordinary mine costs about £200. Germany's magnetic mines are estimated to cost £600. They can be laid by sub- : marine or from the sky. Vast Minefields. If you stick a pin Into a map of the world and prick the sea it is not such! great odds against the pin point hind-' ing in a minefield. From the northern tip of Norway' right down the North Sea, through t'o: the Mediterranean, around the coasts of Africa, near Australian harbours, back up to the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea there are hidden fields of waiting death. : The North Sea barrier is the greatest minefield ever sown. From R.A.F. planer and along the Tom Thumb railways of minelayers thousand* have been dropped ' into their scheduled places. •' From a point on the Dutch coast - opposite Scliillinp the field extend* 42OJi miles northwards to 60 miles south- f west of Bergen. To lay the additional three fields off i the Norwegian coast cost Britain a £533.000. about £2665 a square mile, r And we will reap a harvest oi German* t-hips thin winter —if they venture out.|f