Winston Churchill records... "A vast output of materials and money was lost... and many thousands of men risked their lives in Minesweeping alone."Operation Sweep was born in 1939. Hundreds of officers and men of the Royal Naval Reserve were called to man requisitioned fishing trawlers. This became Known as The Mickey Mouse Flotilla.British and enemy scientists found themselves in a duel of wits to blow up ships, putting these trawler-men through a long hard slog. There were more than 1,000 minesweepers in action and they were charged with clearing the seas in appalling weather, while under bitter attack from torpedo, bombing and strafing.Hitler introduced his first secret modern mine - the Magnetic. It caused great havoc and very nearly brought our merchant shipping to a standstill. Then his team invented the Acoustic mine, which in turn was followed by the Delayed Action mine. And remember that in defusing them, our men were working in the North Sea, where fishing trawlers could roll 45Es to left and right for many long, uncomfortable, wet hours."Three Japanese Kamikaze suicide planes flew fast and low from Phuket Island, making for The Sussex. The cruiser shot down one, the Ameer another, but the last suddenly veered sharply over minesweeper Plucky and crashed down on to Vestal." Lieutenant Willby, on Pincher astern of Vestal, saw the expression of its pilot! "The fanatical expression on his face is something I have never forgotten. Nor the degree of our helplessness, with all our sweeps out, in the face of such an attack. On the Vestal, sub Lieutenant D'Arcy said:"Through the portal I saw the plane coming in very low, apparently to machinegun us. I ducked down. There was a lot of noise a lurch and a thud. I went on deck, to the shock of my life the whole of the centre of the ship was a blazing, gaping crater." In researching these different aspects of naval warfare with the men who were in the midst of it all, Paul Lund and Harry Ludlam capture the reality of living through these amazingly difficult times and conditions.
