- Author
- Goldsworthy, Lieutenant Commander L V GC DSC GM RANVR
- Subjects
- History - general
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- January 1972 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
The products of their successes accumulated in cupboards, on tables and temporary benches and sometimes overflowed onto the floor. Bomb fuses, detonators, boosters, clocks, tail caps and parachutes presented one chaotic jumble to the eyes of other Admiralty inmates.
Vernon claimed Mould and Syme who had already become a naval tradition. Their names became associated with Ouvry, Lewis and Glenny in the ‘if at all possible render safe‘ rules of the Enemy Mining Section.
This redoubtable team assisted in the recovery of every form of nastiness the enemy dropped, fired or floated onto the British Isles. Syme dived (illegally, in the most unsuitable gear) and Mould searched the mud and quicksands of the tidal flats for mines of every type.
Syme on one occasion dived for a mine near Spit Sand Fort in the approaches to Portsmouth. His gallery, and almost his cortege, was a group of US and Canadian ‘learner’ officers. He sighted his quarry at the end of a wearisome search but was forced to surface by the increasing ebb without having the opportunity for close examination. The mine exploded as his handlers were swinging him into the landing steps. ‘Jeez, is that what it’s like?‘ asked a mud splattered North American.
The Admiralty team was now in new quarters in Charing Cross Road and renamed the Land Incident Section. It had acquired power, prestige and much paraphernalia. Whole trains were available to the section at an hour’s notice to whisk personnel and equipment anywhere in the United Kingdom. Humbers, festooned with blue priority lights, magnetically operated bells and fitted with War Office number plates had replaced the left hand drive Fords. Tools were now really magnetic. A secret telephone was installed with a priority only second to Cabinet.
L15 was still mainly a disposal force. Outposts were established in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol and markedly reduced the time taken to arrive on site. New mines were reported to Vernon whose privilege it was to attempt recovery.
The Barrow in Furness baby blitz saw two SMOs operating in the same area. They were working on two separate objects, unaware of each other’s presence until they made their safety runs and crashed into each other, well within lethal range of each other’s exploding mine. The presence of a string of railway trucks saved them, to live another day.
Mould, in the same area and working on a spotter’s report of one splash, recovered a parachute mine in the basin. ‘She’ll be right,‘ he called out to his section, whereupon all were knocked flat when the mine exploded prematurely. The explosion also sunk a Polish submarine, one of two survivors of a hazardous escape from the Baltic.
Jack Cliff, with an American observer, found and rendered safe a mine in the Belfast Town Reservoir. To reach the mine, he drained the reservoir and was thereafter dubbed ‘Contractor Jack.‘
Another recovery made by Cliff was on the noisy Great Western Railway Bridge just outside Plymouth Naval Depot. The author was his gadgetman on this job but was shortly afterwards posted to ‘Ouvry’s Boys.’
The original team was becoming scattered. Red Kessack was dead, Gosse was sweating it out in Madras and Rawson, the Boy Meets Girl cartoonist, was in Australia. Wally Dray and Grant were in training for the North African Invasion, Plowman was in Alexandria. Keith Upton, the man from Thursday Island, embraced a torpedo and disappeared into the Pacific. Dudley Reid, the author’s nurse on his ‘learner job‘ went to sea.
‘Ouvry’s Boys‘ were assured of variety. After a quick familiarisation run off Holing Island the author, with only a WRNS driver to watch his work, was rendering safe a dozen German moored mines which came ashore in a wild gale.
The Hague Convention stipulated that moored mines which break adrift should be safe while floating free. The Germans flaunted the code by attaching a weight below the mooring shackle which effectively remoored the mine in shallow water. This device was called the ‘lavatory seat.’
These errant mines created situations often not foreseen by the most conscientious RMSO. Occasionally the mines came ashore close to waterfront homes and the occupants were hurriedly evacuated. Very soon the RMSO was receiving requests to feed Mrs. Brown’s tomcat or Mrs. Jones’ canary.