Chapter 375: Mines
Mines are laid in the water and often attack ships by surprise, causing great damage to passing ships.
The earliest written record of "mines" can be found in the book "Wu Bian" compiled by Tang Shunzhi, a hero who fought against Japanese pirates in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. The chapter on firearms detailed the method of making this kind of mine: "Use a large wooden box, glue the seams with putty, and keep the fire inside. Use a rope to trip it from the top and three iron anchors to drop it from the bottom." This is the earliest written record of the structure of mines in the world.
In 1590, the 18th year of the Wanli reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, the earliest floating mine was invented - the "underwater dragon king cannon" with burning incense as a time fuse. Nine years later, the famous general Wang Heming invented the "underwater thunder" with a rope as a touch line fuse, which was detailed in "Questions and Answers on Fire Attack". Later, after many improvements, the touch line floating mine was born. In the "Heavenly Creations" by Song Yingxing, a scientist in the late Ming Dynasty, it was named "Hunjianglong".
Europe and the United States did not start using mines in actual combat until the 18th century. During the American War of Independence, in order to attack British warships anchored at the mouth of the Delaware River in Philadelphia, the North American people put gunpowder and mechanical percussion fuses in small beer barrels to make mines on January 7, 1778, and floated them down the river. Although it did not hit the warship at the time, it suddenly exploded when it was picked up by British sailors, killing and injuring some people. It was called the "Keg War" in history.
The first time modern mines were widely used during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the trigger mines used were round spheres with several tentacles. No matter which of its tentacles a ship touched, it would explode. This type of mine floats in shallow waters and is fixed in place by anchor chains. When the tide is right, they are just under the water surface, and when the ship touches them, they explode immediately. During the Russo-Japanese War, about 2,000 such mines were used to destroy 16 ships. An average of 125 mines were used to blow up a ship.
During World War I (1914-1918), modern mine warfare and minesweeping technology were developed. Thousands of mines were laid in the waters of the North Sea to form a defensive barrier against enemy movements. Mines could also be used offensively by quietly laying mines in known enemy shipping routes. More than 1,000 merchant ships and warships were lost as a result of the laying of 230,000 mines. It took an average of more than 200 mines to destroy a ship.
During World War II, the participating countries made great efforts to develop better minesweeping technology to deal with more mines. During World War II, a total of 100,000 offensive mines were used by various countries, destroying 2,665 ships. That is, an average of 37 mines were used to destroy a ship. In addition, about 80,000 mines were used defensively to block the enemy's advance and consume their resources.
After the war, countries fully realized the high "cost-effectiveness" of mines and stepped up the research and development of new mines. The more representative ones include Switzerland's "Storm" mine, Britain's multi-sensor "Stonefish" mine, the Soviet Union's directional attack mine, and the self-propelled mine developed by the United States.
However, due to the characteristics of easy deployment and difficult sweeping, and long underwater life cycle, mines presented a picture of new and old members competing on the same stage during this period. Especially for some countries with underdeveloped naval and air equipment systems, old mines still brought them unexpected results in local wars after World War II. In the Vietnam War, the USS Card light aircraft carrier was sunk by a mine. In the Iran-Iraq War, an old mine worth only $1,500 blew a big hole in the US new missile frigate "Roberts", causing nearly $100 million in losses.
Because of this, mines, like chemical weapons, are known as "atomic eggs of poor countries."
Yannick intends to emulate the "hunger campaign" carried out by the United States against Japan during World War II.
Japan is an island country with developed industry but poor resources. During World War II, Japan had to import 92% of its oil, 100% of its rubber and cotton, 87% of its iron ore, 90% of its coke, and 20% of its food and other strategic materials from abroad, and most of its domestic material transportation was also carried out through inland sea shipping.
It can be said that the sea transportation line is Japan's "lifeline". In view of this, the United States believes that as long as Japan's sea transportation line is destroyed, its economic production capacity can be weakened and its war machine can be destroyed.
The "Hunger Campaign" lasted for four and a half months from March 27 to August 15, 1946. During this period, the U.S. military dispatched 1,528 B-29 bombers and laid 12,053 mines, including 4,900 magnetic mines, 3,500 acoustic mines, 2,900 hydraulic mines, and 700 low-frequency acoustic mines (excluding aircraft dispatched and mines laid by the U.S. Navy). The mines sank and damaged more than 670 ships, including 65 warships such as the Seahawk aircraft carrier. Among them, 431 ships were sunk or severely damaged beyond repair, with a total tonnage of more than 1.4 million tons, equivalent to 75% of the total tonnage of Japanese ships at the beginning of the campaign.
The U.S. military's offensive mine laying effect was very significant. On average, one Japanese ship was sunk for every 21 mines laid, while the U.S. military suffered extremely minor losses, only losing 15 aircraft.
The successful implementation of the "Hunger Campaign" almost completely cut off Japan's vital maritime transportation. In August 1945, compared with March 1945, the transportation volume in the Shimonoseki Strait dropped by 98%, almost completely interrupted, and the Seto Inland Sea could only Small boats such as sailboats. In these four and a half months, imported materials dropped by 90%, and the supply of strategic materials such as petroleum, coal, and food that were urgently needed to maintain the war was almost interrupted; military industrial enterprises suspended production or closed due to the shortage of raw materials; a large number of aircraft and ships were forced to operate due to extreme lack of fuel. The forced grounding and suspension of sailings directly affected the combat effectiveness of the troops; due to the interruption of shipping, 2.5 million tons of rice were piled up in North Korean ports. However, the domestic food supply of Japan was extremely difficult, because the needs of the army had to be prioritized, and the food rations for the civilian population were reduced to a minimum. He has no food to eat and is struggling with hunger all day long.
In this strategic offensive to lay mines, the U.S. military was fully prepared, well planned, coordinated with sea and air forces, concentrated its troops, the vastness of the mined sea area, and the intensity of the mines were unprecedented, especially the last two stages. Within two and a half months, a total of 878 aircraft sorties were dispatched and 7,288 mines were laid. The results were remarkable, and the campaign's attempt to completely block Japan's maritime traffic was finally realized. It dealt an extremely heavy blow to the Japanese country both materially and spiritually, showing the great role of the ancient weapon of mines in modern warfare. Combined with strategic bombing, it greatly accelerated the complete defeat of the Japanese country.
The UK is also an island country and relies on overseas imports for more than 80% of its food and strategic supplies. An average of 2,500 ships sail on the sea every day. Moreover, the total length of the British coastline is about 11,450 kilometers, which is less than half of the Japanese coastline (the total length of the coastline is 29,751 kilometers). In addition, under the current situation, the more than 600 kilometers of coastline on the English Channel side is considered useless, and the UK has no use at all.
Moreover, mine clearance is a time-consuming and expensive technical job. It was not until the 1970s that Japan in the original time and space cleared 90% of the total mines deployed by the US military along the coast during World War II.
Therefore, Yannick was quite confident in this method and collected many mines from various European countries. Except for inland countries, the rest of the coastal countries will be equipped with more or less mines. Adding Germany's own inventory, the number of ordinary mines alone exceeds 10,000.