Fast warships could wait, while slow landing craft needed to leave first, but before any ships could leave their home port, the water needed to be swept of mines. Allied ships of all types, with all different missions, destinations, and speeds, needed to be coordinated to arrive off the coast of France at precise times. The best way to describe the naval plan is-it’s complicated. It is difficult to capture the complexity of the Operation Neptune plan in entire books, let alone a short article. Seems simple enough, however, this was not what was waiting for the ships of Mine Squadron Seven as they departed southern England on the evening of June 5, 1944. Through World War I, the best method for sweeping these types of mines was to drag a cable between two ships, cutting the mooring cables and causing the mine to float to the surface where it would be destroyed by gunfire. This type of mine rests below the surface, barely visible unless the water is clear and the weather is calm. The entire assembly was dropped to the sea floor where the anchor and length of cable keep the mine at a preset depth. These consisted of an anchor, cable, and mine.
Until the interwar years (1918-1939), most mines were moored and activated by contact. As long as mines have existed, so have countermeasures, each locked in a race to out class the other. The counterpoint to a minefield was the minesweeper. Offensive mine fields could be laid by aircraft, submarine, or surface craft in areas that were previously considered safe. Mine layers were capable of laying massive underwater minefields to protect coastal trade routes, harbors, or to prevent enemy surface ships and submarines from traveling in certain areas. Naval mines were used defensively and offensively. Bushnell’s sea mines were not successful however, they started a trend in naval warfare that continues to this day.īy the time the United States entered World War II, the naval mine was a terrifying and complex weapon. Additional ideas included “floating” similar mines in the water where physical contact with a ship would set off the explosive, culminating in the “battle of the kegs” in August 1777. The idea was to attach a wooden barrel filled with gunpowder to the underside of a ship and explode it. After receiving permission from General George Washington, Bushnell launched an attack on the British Fleet anchored in the Delaware River off Philadelphia, PA, with his newly invented submersible and sea mine. He was probably not the first person to come to this realization, but he was the first in the colonies to act on it by creating a sea mine. American Colonist David Bushnell discovered that black powder contained in a barrel could explode underwater. For Operation Neptune, the naval landing of troops during Operation Overlord, the first US Navy ships to cross the English Channel and penetrate the defenses were not the battleships of the bombardment force or the landing craft carrying the assault troops, instead, they were the specialized minesweepers of the US and British Royal Navies.įor the US Navy the modern naval mine had its beginnings during the Revolution. It is a difficult choice who to send in first, especially when the defenses are the beaches of Normandy, and the first in are the ships of the US and British Royal Navy. In turn, those assault troops are vulnerable to defensive structures that engineers are best capable of eliminating. In order to breach a defensive structure, engineers are usually required however, engineers often need protection of assault troops. Whether these structures are obstacles, walls, mines, or pillboxes, their existence always complicates the beginning of an operation. Since the beginning of warfare, defensive structures have been used to slow down or completely dissuade aggressors from attacking. Especially for offensive operations, the first units to advance almost always encounter some sort of defensive structures. Military firsts run the gambit of experiences from a bloodless surprise move, to stepping off into the jaws of horrific destruction. For military operations, the position of first is more often than not a terrifying honor: first on the beach, first over the top, first into an occupied land. Firsts are everywhere as the required beginning to anything.
Someone always has to be the first: first in line, first to open, first to attain a position or objective.
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