Working with SNMCMG1 HMS Grimsby destroyed a WWII mine found in Seine Bay, off Normandy
Grimsby is currently assigned to NATO’s Mine Countermeasures Group 1 alongside flagship FGS Donau, BNS Bellis, HNLMS Willemstad, HNoMS Otra.
Earlier this month, Grimsby located 18 pieces of unexploded ordnance – 15 British mines, three British bombs – in the approaches to Oslo as part of a concerted effort by the NATO group.
The locations in which the 38 wartime munitions discovered in total were found meant they could not be blown up, even in controlled explosions, so all the minehunter teams could do was mark their locations and inform the Norwegian authorities.
There were no such issues as the group shifted to the Seine Bay – between the Cherbourg peninsula and Le Havre – where 5,000 Allied warships mustered in June 1944 to liberate France… and the Germans tried to stop them.
The waters were heavily mined and bombed – by both sides – during the six years of conflict between 1939 and 1945 and although thoroughly swept and cleared down the decades, wartime ordnance continues to be found; roughly one in three mines laid in World War 2 remain unaccounted for.
There is at least one fewer sea mine in the Seine Bay thanks to Grimsby’s efforts – one of several munitions located by the NATO force and neutralised and the threat to fishermen removed.
Grimsby’s clearance divers plunged into the chilly waters (just 4°C) and placed a charge on the mine, then fell back a safe distance and detonated it – triggering the explosive in the aged ordnance, and throwing up a huge fountain in an otherwise calm sea.