GozUnderGozBang
An
anecdotal account of Mine Warfare in New Zealand.
Identifying
and recognising the naval service dealing with protection or defence
of waterways, harbours and sealanes – self protection Mining and
enemy Offensive Mining.
There
is plenty of material in book form and on the internet pertaining to
the Mine Warfare component of Naval service both in our country and
overseas. And a lot of those books deal with the specialty aspect of Mine Warfare, the facts, the figures and the history. To read all
those accounts you'd have to spend hours upon hours of research and
reading. Not such a bad thing but one that, in today's gadget driven
world, is becoming outdated. So hopefully this abridged account will
give some insight into Mine Warfare (MW) in our (NZ) region..
Yes,
some account is not worthy without history, but in our case it is
somewhat surprising. New Zealand never really had a navy until 1941
and since being rediscovered by James Cook, the occasional Royal Navy
ship was stationed here only. Not much history of these ships being
utilised in open warfare. In fact, the two major figures that shared
a maritime purpose were Te Rauparaha (Ngati Raukawa) and Te Kooti
(Ngati Maru hapu of Rongowhakaata
subtribe of Ngati Porou)
. The former was by aggressive deception, the latter through self preservation of he and his followers. What is known, there was no
form of mine warfare until much later (1st World war.)
Fair
to say New Zealand, a group of (underpopulated) islands in the bottom
of the world would not be a target for direct warfare and largely that is true. Through all european history there has not been a shot
in anger, from surface vessel, submarine, or aircraft. There have
been old wives tales about a Japanese Zero over Wellington and a
German submarine anchored off Hawkes Bay and replenishing food stocks
with local farmers animals and vegetables. And until not long ago
not many records were present for building a decent picture.
The
advent of maritime mine warfare manifested itself in the USA in the
late 1900's and was quickly utilised by all major nations with a
maritime component to their attack and defense capabilities. The 1st
World War and the use of submarines and Mine layers saw a rude
weaponry utilised. But we (NZ) lost our innocence in a peaceful
country. The German Raider "Wolf" mined areas around the country in
1917 (Off Farewell Spit and Three Kings Islands). These
minefields caused the loss of two steamers in NZ waters, the Port
Kembla,
4700 tons, off Farewell Spit on 18 September 1917, and the Wimmera,
3022 tons, off the Three Kings on 26 June 1918. Fishing trawlers Nora
Niven and
Simplon
were
requisitioned by the Government and equipped as minesweepers. They
swept seventeen mines off Farewell Spit and eighteen in the Three
Kings area.
So
that facet of warfare suggested that Germany and it's allies took as
a serious threat our ability to supply men, machines, and supplies.
Between
the Great Wars, war machinery advanced at a great rate and the
weapons of war became so advanced that other means to waging war were
evident. Just like the anti personnel and anti Tank mines and their
numerous production and eventually their laying. But what was
happening on land was also being readied in large numbers for further
combat reasons at sea. Special ships were being built to lay large
numbers of offensive minefields and also for deploying in defensive
minefields in important harbours and waterways. Early mines were
simply contact mines, laid at about 3-5 metres below the surface with
horns carrying the contact trigger. However as mentioned earlier
mines advanced in technological means. Contact mines were joined by
both Magnetic and Pressure mines and sailing on the oceans became a
hugely dangerous activity (and still is to some extent). At the
start of WWII New Zealand had one specialist Mine Warfare vessel (HMS
Wakakura) used as a MW and training ship for Reservists. In 1940 a
German Raider, "Orion", laid a field of Mines south and East of Hen And
Chickens Islands, and also between Little Barrier and Great Barrier
Islands.
The
minefield was only discovered when the Royal Mail ship Niagara hit a
mine south east of Hen and Chicken Islands. She eventually sunk but
all 336 personnel made it safely to lifeboats and were recovered in
good time. Two trawlers being converted to mine sweeping in Auckland
were tasked to seek out any other mines and made it to the sinking
zone and recovered a great number of mines. However the newly formed
RNZN suffered it's first uniformed loss when the CO and 4 ratings
were killed on mine sweeping duties over the area the Orion had been.
The Puriri exploded and sunk very quickly with 21 sailors being
rescued.
Second
world war saw the secondment of many fishing trawlers converted as
minesweepers and mine layers. The large defensive minefield serving
Rangitoto Channel in Auckland saw the laying of mines and also the
working of the Boom Defense (Loop) that stretched from Whangaparaoa
to Tiri Tiri Matangi, across to Rakino to Waiheke and also from
Rangitoto to Motuihe. Also at the time new vessels were on the
offing, purpose built minesweepers from RN.
Originally
purchased in 1939, HMNZS Tui, Moa, and Kiwi were laid down and
completed in 1941. Research suggests a lack of any evidence what
these vessels took a part in between 1941 and 1943 but they were
specialist Minesweeping vessels so one assumes that's what they did.
You would think! All three served as a flotilla in the Solomon
Islands but once again little evidence they were active in Mine
Warfare. But these little babies have a very rich story which you,
the reader, should entertain.
But
our largest loss of life did happen due to a sea of mines. RN
flagged ship HMS Neptune, officially our 3rd cruiser with
150 kiwi sailors, sank in the Mediterranean with the loss of all
hands. Personally I think that loss galvanised us as a nation.
Knowing that these, like most mines, are easily laid, easily hit and
easily activated, and the threat shows even after cessation of
wars/activities these insidious weapons still remain active (or a
threat).
After
WWII all defensive fields here (and as many offensive) were
deactivated through innovative means. As far as anyone was aware,
these minefields ceased to be a threat.
New
Zealand and her mine warfare capability to some extent were maintained
through the use of some vessels (Tui, Moa, Inverell and Kiama) who
spent most of their service as training vessels until 1976 when the
last,Inverell decommissioned. During the mid 60's, RNZN sailors
manned and served on HMNZ ships Hickleton and Santon in the Indonesia theatre and as the last “active” mine warfare manned ships.
From
1966 to 1993 the only Mine Warfare capability was conducted by The
Diving Team, usually dealing with mines dredged up in trawl nets from
Fishing boats and a small component set of Hydrographers. In the mid
90's an active MW unit was implemented where the Diving Tender,
Manawanui was retrofitted with a container complete with scanning and
recovery
identification equipment and working in conjunction with
Divers/Surveyors. At the same time, four vessels of the Reserve
(remember these – Kiwi, Moa and 2 newbies, Hinau & Wakakura)
were retrofitted for MW survey duties and the reserve trained and
tasked with tasks for targeted surveys. Interestingly enough, when
Hinau was involved in the Hauraki Gulf surveys her equipment found
and identified a number of round objects on the seabed, which, when
dived on later turned out to be mines from the defensive minefield
(no longer active) from WWII. All mines were recovered and disposed of.
It's
fair to say we have a rich history in Mine Warfare. Being a maritime
nation it's only just to say we get targeted. But with the change in
warfare, i.e. Long Range, Over the Horizon, I am assuming that Mine
Warfare is a thing of the past, unless submarines and aircraft
continue to stealthily lay them?
The
Famous Mokau “German” Mine (North Taranaki)
Researched and written by former CPOAHS Thane "Zaps" Zander (Survey and Mine Warfare 1975 - 2002)
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