Invisible Campaigns: Assessing Bomber Command's Minelaying Operations 1940-1945

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Someone have it and can tell us what I think of it?



"Aerial mining by RAF Bomber Command was a vital part of the Allied war effort – claiming far more tonnage of Axis shipping destroyed than direct attack by either Coastal or Bomber Command itself. Minelaying operations commenced in April 1940 and expanded dramatically as the war progressed, yet today this vital campaign and its wide-ranging achievements against Axis merchant vessels, Kriegsmarine ships and U-boats are virtually unknown.

The Invisible Campaign, based on Air Ministry and Admiralty archival material, together with squadron records, veteran accounts and logbooks as well as contemporary publications and press releases, provides the most detailed account of Bomber Command’s minelaying operations and their effects ever written.

Historian Jane Gulliford Lowes looks at the aims of the campaign and how it was implemented, together with the measure of its success and how it compared against the mining operations implemented by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. The role of Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris in overseeing minelaying operations is assessed and the experiences of the men who delivered the campaign, particularly the hazards they faced, are explored.

Featuring a foreword by renowned historian James Holland, The Invisible Campaign - Bomber Command Gardening Operations 1940-1945 sheds new light on a little-discussed but important and ultimately highly successful aspect of Bomber Command and is a must-read for anyone interested the RAF’s in wartime bombing operations."

https://www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/book/...tions-19401945

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Seems to be an amazing work. Am keekping an eye on it for Xmas.....the cover is magnific and matches the tittle, capturing the futur reader....Let's hope the contents inside are of the same standards.

[MW Giles]

It is alright, competent but not inspiring

If you know the general story already it is not going to tell you much.

You will get far more from downloading the official histories - RAF Maritime War and the War at Sea series.

One point I disagree with is where it is stated that Blenheims carried out Gardening sorties in Bomber Command. I have never seen any evidence for this and suspect that a Blenheim would not have anywhere to put a 1940 or 1941 era vegetable.

Has anyone seen evidence of horticultural Blenheims in other theatres?

Martin

[Orwell1984]

Originally Posted by MW Giles

It is alright, competent but not inspiring

If you know the general story already it is not going to tell you much.

You will get far more from downloading the official histories - RAF Maritime War and the War at Sea series.

One point I disagree with is where it is stated that Blenheims carried out Gardening sorties in Bomber Command. I have never seen any evidence for this and suspect that a Blenheim would not have anywhere to put a 1940 or 1941 era vegetable.

Has anyone seen evidence of horticultural Blenheims in other theatres?

Martin

Some sources on Blenheims on mine laying sorties.

https://asnc.flightsafety.org/wikibase/409356

Narrative:
Blenheim L8789: Took off for mine-laying sortie to the Ijmuiden-Amsterdam canal. (NL). 06/07/1940
Crew were unable to reach their base due to bad weather following a night mine-laying sortie to the Ijmuiden-Amsterdam canal in the Netherlands. Subsequently the aircraft hit landing obstructions during an attempted forced-landing at a disused civil airfield near Ramsgate, Kent late afternoon.
Aircraft was damaged but repairable.
Crew:
F/Lt (25095) Ian Howard BARTLETT (Pilot) RAF Ok
Sgt. (517434) Robert Edward ALDRIDGE (Obs.) RAF Ok
Sgt. (551845) Edward Denis SHELDRICK (WOp/AG) RAF Ok.
Sources:

Blenheim production list
ORB 53 Sqdn RAF

From https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.c...raining-units/

Tuesday, 15 April 1941, was a normal day for this period. There was an Air Raid Warning Red alert issued between 02.55 and 04.28 hours. Six Bristol Blenheim aircraft from No. 18 Squadron at R.A.F. Wattisham called at R.A.F. Chivenor before leaving at 13.45 hours on an operational mine laying sortie over France. This was the first operational sortie carried out from R.A.F. Chivenor, albeit with visiting aircraft. Five of them landed on their return from their sortie, refuelled, and then departed for their home base. One Blenheim failed to return, R.3841, which was lost without trace. The pilot was the Commanding Officer of the squadron, W/C C. G. HILL, R.A.F., and the other air crew were F/Sgt J. FRODSHAM, R.A.F.V.R. and F/Sgt C. D. McPHEE, R.A.F., all of whom are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Another Blenheim loss on a minelaying mission:

https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/cras...ea-3-killed-58

[Orwell1984]

Interestingly there is another book on Gardening due out from Helion in 2025.

[Martin Gleeson]

I have to agree with Martin Giles when he states he has seen no evidence of Blenheims being used to sow (sea) mines or ‘vegetables’ as we know them, the subject of the books mentioned and which were laid by many other types of aircraft.

I believe the nearest weapon carried by a Blenheim would be the ‘W’ Bomb. I cannot recall ever seeing a good description of this device, but in 1940 I have seen many references to ‘W’ Bombs being used, especially by Hampden squadrons, against inland waterways. Many attacks were made with ‘W’ Bombs against canals, or more specifically I think against the canal locks. However, I have no idea how they functioned. Hopefully someone knows more on this topic. It seems a Blenheim could carry at least two ‘W’ Bombs, so these weapons were unlikely to have been very large.

On the subject of the three Blenheims mentioned above I have to query the reliability of the sources used.

1/ Blenheim L8789 of 53 Squadron on 6 July 1940. The 53 Sqn. ORB specifically records that five aircraft of the unit used ‘W’ Bombs against the Ijmuiden-Amsterdam canal (‘Operation 36’, during the night of July 6/7th).

2/ Blenheim R3841 of 18 Sqn. on 15 April 1941. The 18 Sqn. ORB records eight of their aircraft took off between 12.45 and 1.45 p.m. on anti-shipping sorties and it specifically notes the bomb load carried for all as 4 x 250 lb. and 2 x 500 lb. General Purpose bombs.

3/ Blenheim V6176 of 139 Sqn. on 30 July 1941. The 139 Sqn. ORB notes 12 Blenheims took off at 2.00 p.m. with the target for all described as ‘Towns and targets in NW Germany’. The eight surviving crews all abandoned their missions due to lack of cloud cover, but at least five of them attacked shipping instead. Four were lost to Bf 110s over the North Sea, including V6176.

Published works by Chorley, Warner and Boiten all record these aircraft were on anti-shipping sorties in daylight, with one Blenheim in one book described as being on a reconnaissance flight. Not one mention anywhere of mines or mine-laying.

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

https://martinaviationpages.com/

[Nick Beale]

Whatever the W Bomb was, I just checked the National Archives index and they have three files on it, covering 1940–41. One title describes it as ‘bomb for mining waterways’.

[Orwell1984]

W Bombs were early aquatic mines.

A type of drift mine in practice.

From http://www.etherit.co.uk/articles/level1/w_bomb.htm

W Bomb


These so-called bombs were in fact mines, designed to be dropped in Germany’s inland waterways to destroy barges and bridges. The origin of the bomb is obscure but it seems that some of the responsibility must go to a manufacturer of pipeless organs.

From the end of 1939 when a plan to attack Germany’s inland waterway traffic was devised by the War Cabinet, designs had been submitted and experiments carried out. Despite numerous experimental failures a meeting of the Air Ministry on December 29th 1939, gave the contract to a firm to produce 10,000 of the ‘bombs’ and containers.

By April 1940 a supply of the weapons had been sent to 18 Bomber and 8 Coastal Command stations. The ‘bomb’ was designed to be dropped between 300 and 1,000 feet at speeds of up to 250 mph. These height and speed restrictions were imposed to minimise the possibility of the bomb shattering on impact. It consisted of a cylindrical casing 16 inches high by 10 inches in diameter and carrying an explosive charge of 20 pounds of TNT, the total weight being 35 pounds. The main body, which had negative buoyancy, was maintained at a pre-determines depth by means of a number of corks attached to it by lines. A contact firing device, which was fitted to the top of the main body, was protected together with the corks and lines by a lid. On entering the water a soluble plug freed the lid after a lapse of two to three minutes and armed the bomb. The main body sank to a depth of two to three feet at which it was maintained by the floats and was carried downstream by the river current. Impact with the firing device completed an electrical circuit and fired the bomb. A soluble sinking plug was fitted, which operated in six, 18 or 48 hours according to which plug was fitted.



Volume I of the Air Historical Branch monograph ‘Armament, ‘W’ Bomb’ produced after the war states:

“The ‘W’ bomb is an example of a weapon conceived in great haste and developed so rapidly that weak points in design were inevitable. Its outstanding disadvantage lay in the fact that it could not be stored. Small batteries and soluble plugs deteriorated rapidly and were intended for immediate use. The bomb, too, was never completely safe. Dissolution of soluble plugs which formed part of the safety device and the possibility of electrical’ shorts’ made it a constant source of danger during carriage, storage or under preparation.”

So if Blenheims were dropping W Bombs as noted, they were engaged in mining sorties.

Rudimentary, not very effective and haphazard but still mining sorties.

[Carsten Petersen]

I bought Jane Gulliford Lowes book ‘The Invisible Campaign – Bomber Command Gardening Operaitons 1940-1945’ a few days ago. The foreword claims that Lowes did an extensive research that is overlooked by historians.


I wish that Lowes would have done a bit more research of her own. It looks as if the research consist of a few visits to National Archives in Kew. Most of the information comes from AIR 14, AIR 41 and Air 47 and contains conclusions made by British staff officers, that finished their research during the war. These officers did unfortunately not have access to the information, that we have today.


Lets look at a few ‘claims’. Lowes describes on page 231 a mine laying operation on the 14th of February 1945. She writes ‘on a minelaying operation over Kiel Bay, just of Stettin’. Well, that is like writing ‘Hull just off London’.


She uses information from Andy Andrews, who was shot down over Sjælland. There is nothing wrong with his part of the story, but Lowes gives no information why Andrews Halifax was shot down. She would be able to find this information within 10 seconds, if she wanted. Instead she makes a number of conclusions about what happened next, that is far from the truth. She also claims that Andrews ended up in a prison camp only a few miles from Dachau and that the smell from the chimneys was appalling. Well, Andrews was sent to Obersursel for questioning and from there to Stalag XIID, which was near Nürnberg. It would be very difficult to smell Dachau from Nürnberg. Andrews spent the last weeks of the war at Stalag VIIA Moosburg which is about 45 km from Dachau (and where the wind normally blows the opposite way).


Lowes tells on page 178 about a mine laying operation in the evening of 12/13 of May, 1944 where Mosquitoes were mining the Kiel Canal (Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal). One Mosquito did not return from the operation (Mosquito IV DZ638 from No. 692 Squadron). She claims that the Mosquito was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed near Eggstedt. It is very easy to find information about this incident and DZ638 was not shot down by a night fighter but by fire at 04.09 from Marine Flak Abt 274 (1., 4. And 5. Zug) and Marine Flak Abt 254 (1st and 2nd Zug).


Lowes claims that the Mosquito crew (P/O Burnett and P/O Hume) survived the crash and was executed afterwards by local nazi party officials. The truth is that P/O Burnett disappeared in the canal and is never found. P/O Hume was found dead floating in the canal with a head wound and a broken leg. He was buried in Neumünster and his grave was later moved to Hamburg. They were both killed during the crash and the Mosquito was completely broken up.


Lowes uses information from MEW that ‘the enemy losty three million cubic tons of citally important carto which had been stuck in a logjam on the canal and which then failed to arrive at its onward destination in time or at all’. This is a wild fantacy and it would have been nice if Lowes used some time to research the German naval KTB (Kriegstagebücher), which gives a very different picture.


Page 142 – 146 deals with a mining operations on the 28/29 April 1943 in the Baltic. Bomber Command lost 10.18% of the participating airplanes and Lowes uses de Mowbray’s report which Bomber Command ordered after the raid. De Mowbray did not have all the information about the mission (is was made shortly after the mission) and contains a lot of guessing and errors. It would have been nice if Lowes had used information from Theo Boitens Nachtjagd or Søren Flensteds Airwar over Denmark.


I hope that somebody some day will write the ‘real’ book about BC Gardening.

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Thank you for the review!

First time I've heard of Søren Flensted work, very interesting: https://www.flensted.eu.com/