EVERY AVAILABLE MINESWEEPER of the Royal Navy and the Royal Naval Patrol Service was at her war station by the end of August, 1939. During the summer, the Admiralty had bought 67 trawlers and had ordered twenty new ones from the shipyards. Others were taken over as they returned from the fishing grounds. As one naval officer said, " They threw the fish out and threw us in."

In every war since the days of Elizabeth, Britain has suffered from an initial shortage of small ships. But whereas the emergencies of 1914 had demanded improvisation, in 1939 those lessons had been learnt and plans had been made from the experience garnered. There was, moreover, an invaluable nucleus of officers and ratings who returned to the Service with practical knowledge of mine-sweeping in war, and also a number of patriotic and enthusiastic R.N.V.S.R. amateur yachtsmen who had learnt the elements of minesweeping during their holidays with the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla at Portland.

The Minesweeping Division at the Admiralty once again became responsible for all vessels and material. The Director and his staff collected and disseminated intelligence regarding enemy minelaying, gave advice on tactical counter-action, and laid down the searched channels through which shipping might pass. In the Operations Room a permanent watch plotted the movements of the sweepers and recorded the position of every mine that the enemy was known to have laid, and of every ship known to have been mined.

At each Naval Base a Port Minesweeping Officer took command of the trawlers which swept the new War Channel. On a mine being reported or swept, the position was buoyed, the local traffic diverted, and, if necessary, the port closed. If mines were found in the War Channel, the convoys were kept back until the dangerous area had been cleared.   A priority message was sent to the

Minesweeping Division, where its information was checked and then broadcast to all shore stations and ships at sea. Patrol vessels were posted near the dangerous area to warn merchantmen which might not have received the message. Whenever possible, the masters of sunk or damaged ships were interviewed as soon as they came ashore.

The first ship to be mined in the present war was the British steamer Magdepur, which blew up and sank off the East Coast on   10th  September,   1939.    Six days later