Cis
the
Beachco m ber
Wikipedia
He knows the beach like no other.
Beachcombing is his passion, and passions
should be shared with other people. Are you
ready to become initiated in the mysteries o f
the strangest flotsam and jetsam?
NAVAL MINES,
DECORATIVE
AND DEADLY
The beach was la rge ly o f f lim its durin g World
War I (see M ahieu E. in this issue). It was a
dangerous place, p a rtly because a ll sorts o f
w ar m aterials, in p a rtic u la r naval m ines gone
ad rift, were washed ashore. M ines fo u n d on
the beach were deactivated and often used
as decoration.
T h e N o r t h S ea
BY M IN EFIELD S
c lo sed off
The w a rring parties extensively deployed
naval mines in the North Sea and beyond
du rin g WWI. The mines were cheap and
effective. The Germans targeted the routes
of m erchant and navy ships heading for
and depa rting from the United Kingdom.
The Allies tried to cut U-boats o ff w ith naval
mines in the Strait of Dover and the northern
part o f the North Sea and keep the German
fleet confined. As part o f this strategy, the
Americans and British developed the North
Sea M ine Barrage in the final years o f the
war by laying 70,000 naval mines between
the Orkneys and Norway. Earlier on (in 1915),
the Allies had blocked the entrance to the
English Channel w ith a chain o f m inefields
(the Dover Barrage, see map) to confine
German subm arines to the North Sea. In
all, some 235,000 naval mines were laid in
m inefields in WWI.
The best-known are the spherical m etal
devices w ith characteristic protuberances
(Hertz horns), but various types existed.
Quite a few o f these mines broke from th e ir
m oorings and went ad rift after a w hile. For
instance, the British M ark 3 naval mine,
which was ignited by a p ro tru ding floa t that
rotated upon contact w ith a ship, was not
very successful: hundreds o f these mines
washed up on the surrounding beaches.
Just like the N o rth Sea M in e Barrage constructed betw een the O rkneys a n d N o r w a y in 1918,
the D over B arrage consisted o f a chain o f m inefields la id b y the A llie s to keep the G erm an fleet,
in clu d in g submarines, co n ta in e d to the N o rth Sea as much as possible (W ik ip e d ia j
D e c o r a t io n
Once washed ashore and deactivated,
mines often got a second life. People enjoyed
posing next to them , as is s till customary
w ith o f other rem arkable objects such as
wrecked ships or beached marine mammals.
A fterw ards, they could be used as
decoration in the officers’ mess or as a flow er
tub in the garden. Naval mines from WWI can
s till be found in m any places as eye-catchers
or decoration. However sin ister these old
spherical mines w ith th e ir protuberances
may be, they do look the part. And being
cast-iron, they are solid in an old-fashioned
way. I pass by tw o such mines alm ost every
day, displayed at the entrance o f the Naval
M ine Warfare School (EGUERMIN or Ecole de
Guerre des M ines) in Ostend. I hadn’t noticed
them u n til now...
Francis Kerckhof
Sources
• h ttp://forum eerstew ereldoorlog.nl/view topic.php?p=3
2o684sid=3d47777ae6f8504fbd39d59
Posing next to a w ashed up n a va l m ine was v e ry pop ular. O n the left: three G erm an soldiers
b e h in d a British M a rk 3 n a va l m ine (Forum Eerste W e reldoorlog). O n the rig h t: a w ashed up
n a va l m ine in De Panne w ith young Belgian Prince Charles in Royal N a v y uniform . This picture
was taken b y Belgian Q ueen Elisabeth in N o ve m b e r 1 9 1 8 (Royal Palace Archives)
VLIZ
IDE GROTE REDEI
2013
•
36
97