Halcyon Class Minesweepers

Halcyon Class Ships
Pre War Reports

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1st MSF 1936
1st MSF 1937
1st MSF 1938

 


Halcyon minesweepers Portland

Halcyon Class flotilla at Portland - Nelson and Rodney in background

 

Annual Reports  of Minesweeping

The three reports in this section show how the Royal Navy gradually shrugged off the lethargy of the inter-war years and prepared for the coming war. Mines posed a significant threat to the operation of Britain's ports. The Germans recognised Britain's dependence on imported goods and were preparing to use mines to strangle the country into submission.

Minesweeping was still relatively primitive and had to meet the challenge of increasingly sophisticated mines. As the Captain Fisheries Protection and Minesweeping, Portland said in his 1937 report:

"At present the minesweeper is in the position of a person walking in the dark who can only feel for obstruction by stretching his arms behind him. Modern science has done much for the protection and improvement of the mine but at present cannot provide any means of giving warning to the sweeper of the danger which is before him."

For an excellent study of the technical development of mines and minesweeping, read 'Allied Minesweeping in World War Two' by Peter Elliott.

 

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This site was last updated 17 Januar 2012