Loch Ewe mine hunt exercise ends with a real bang

The remains of the wartime defence battery overlooking Loch Ewe at Cove.

A NAVAL mine-hunting exercise off the Wester Ross coast has just ended with a real bang, after a multi-national mine countermeasures force swept up two live mines dating from World War II.

One of the mines discovered is thought to have been laid by the German submarine U-31, in an operation which caused damage to one of the Royal Navy’s most famous warships and sank two smaller vessels.

The U-boat, operating from Wilhelmshaven under the command of Johannes Haberkost tried to enter Loch Ewe in October 1939, as ships of the Home Fleet lay at anchor, but it was repelled by anti-submarine nets and is thought to have laid its cargo of mines instead the entrance to the loch.

On December 23 of the same year, some of these mines damaged the battleship HMS Nelson and sank the mine-sweeping trawlers HMS Promotive and HMS Glen Albyn.

The latest chapter in U-31’s exploits came earlier this month during Exercise Joint Warrior – the twice yearly maritime exercise hosted by HM Naval Base Clyde. While practising minesweeping in and around Loch Ewe, the mine countermeasures force – consisting of mine hunters from the Royal Navy, Netherlands and Norway – discovered the items lying on the seabed.

After getting rid of one of the items, a US Mark 12 mine, the force finished off the exercise by disposing of the German mine, conducting the controlled explosion of the 70-year weapon.

Dutch vessel HNLMS Willemstad was given the honour of disposing of the German mine during the exercise, a task which dive supervisor, Petty Officer Anke van der Velde, took to with relish. "It was extraordinary to be able to touch this ordnance," he said. "It is staggering to think that it was last handled by the armourer of a German U-boat."

During the war Loch Ewe was used as a departure point for submarines working in the Atlantic and as an assembly point for convoys heading to West Africa, North America and Russia.

"Port A", as it was known then, would have been a valuable target for the enemy and the Royal Navy used anti-submarine nets to protect its assets.