His Majesty's Minesweepers
One of a series of illustrated pamphlets about the various arms of the British Services published during World War II. It describes, with many illustrations, the history of naval mines and mine-sweeping, and the role of the minesweepers and their crews during WWII. It includes detailed explanations of many of the techniques used for building mines and how to remove them although, as the war was still in progress, some of the details remained secret. One chapter looks at the part the minesweepers played during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.
A fascinating read that really brings to life the vital role played by the minesweepers and their crews during WWI to keep the shipping lanes open and allow the convoys to bring in food and supplies. For a publication written during war-time it is remarkably open and honest, even though there was presumably an intention to help morale of the population. It would be interesting to read an updated version written after the end of hostilities when a more complete story could be told.
The original copy of this was contributed to Lloffion by Stephen Benham
Digitised by: Nigel Callaghan and Stephen Benham, May 2006
Digitisation note: Scanned at 300dpi greyscale on Canon MP750 flatbed scanner. OCR by Finereader 7.0, un-corrected. Web images resized to jpeg at 50% quality, max dimension 900px.
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