Minefields Project

It's very easy to take minefields for granted when studying anti-invasion defences; I developed a tendency to just assume that the entire coastline of open beaches was covered by them.

It wasn't until I started finding a few map traces showing minefield dispositions in certain areas that I began to realise that I didn't really know anything about mine warfare. What did a minefield consist of in terms of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines? How were they arranged? What did a minefield actually look like?

Right: a Naval Beach mine (anti-personnel), also known as a mushroom.

Researching the answers to these questions revealed that minefields were not just randomly laid and forgotten about; they fitted into an overall plan just like any other defence work and not simply just an area marked with red lines and asterisks on a map.

Incidents and casualties

Even before I began this project I was well aware of various minefield incidents. An incident might involve:

• Casualties caused during the laying of a minefield
• People/animals straying into a minefield
• Mines being moved and detonated by the action of the sea
• Unexplained mine detonations

Any weapon of war is dangerous - it's obviously designed to be so. But minefields laid during 1940-41 were especially deadly and, tragically, many fatalities resulted from accidents during handling, warning signs being ignored or technical failure.

The following war diary extract gives an idea of the tasks (as grisly as any faced on the battlefield) that followed minefield tragedies:

Saturday: Information was received from HQ...that we were to remove the remains of a soldier...who had been blown up the day before in a minefield at Fairlight. This is to be started on Sunday morning. A detector for the job was drawn from Horley.

Sunday: A party consisting of Captain Turner, Lt. Love, Cpl. Rennie, L/Cpl Payes and four sappers proceeded to Fairlight...A search was made of minefields MB 50 and MB 74. Part of the remains of the Corporal who was blown up on Friday were recovered. A further search was made in the afternoon and more remains and sufficient of the victim's clothing to confirm identity were found.

I've already described some incidents at Newhaven and Cuckmere Haven that occurred within two days of each other in my blog.

Minefield Project
Research	Documentary Desktop Fieldwork
Purpose	To collate details of minefields laid in East Sussex in a database To record minefield incidents (explosions, casualties etc and identify the specific minefields in which they occurred)
Topography	Mainly coastal areas
Works recorded	117 minefields

Study method

The main bulk of this project will probably be a desk-top study, as most of the work will be to trawl through the numerous documents I already have, looking for minefield information and collating it.

A database is being compiled to collate the information; this is described on the database page.

I envisage fieldwork playing a slightly lesser role in this project than it does in others; a few visits to get an idea of the terrain will be necessary in order to understand how minefields fitted in with the local scheme of defence.

A more sombre form of fieldwork may entail visits to cemeteries.

Case study

I expect to be able to closely examine the use of minefields in at least one area with the data available. I already have sufficient information to study Cuckmere Haven in detail but may find I have equally good data to allow more than one case study - I'll have to see how things go.