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89-599: In the wake of the Armistice and the Appeal of 18 June , Charles de Gaulle founded the Free French Forces ( Forces Françaises Libres , or FFL), including a naval arm, the "Free French Naval Forces" ( Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres , or FNFL). On 24 June 1940, de Gaulle made a separate call specifically to servicemen overseas to join him, and two days later the submarine Narval entered Malta and pledged its allegiance to

178-504: A German Eagle impaled by a sword) was also destroyed and all evidence of the site was obliterated, except notably the statue of Ferdinand Foch ; Hitler ordered it to be left intact, so that it would be honoring only a wasteland. The railway carriage was later exhibited in Berlin, and then taken to Crawinkel in Thuringia in 1945, where it was destroyed by SS troops and the remains buried. After

267-533: A friendly fire incident. Other losses include the destroyers Léopard and La Combattante ; the submarine Narval ; the patrol boats Poulmic and Vikings , and the corvettes Mimosa and Alysse . Armistice with France (Second Compi%C3%A8gne) The Armistice of 22 June 1940 , sometimes referred to as the Second Armistice at Compiègne , was an agreement signed at 18:36 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne , France by officials of Nazi Germany and

356-600: A British fleet which included a few Free French units; at the same time, a cruiser force had been sent by Vichy France to reclaim African territories which had already announced their support to De Gaulle (notably Chad ). The resulting Battle of Dakar ended on a Vichyite victory. However, after the occupation of Vichy France by the Germans after the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, French West Africa also eventually joined

445-502: A French government in place would relieve Germany of the considerable burden of administering French territory, particularly as he turned his attentions towards Britain. Finally, as Germany lacked a navy sufficient to occupy France's overseas territories, Hitler's only practical recourse to deny the British use of them was to maintain a formally independent and neutral French rump state. According to William Shirer 's book Rise and Fall of

534-663: A German occupation zone in Northern and Western France that encompassed about three-fifths of France's European territory , including all English Channel and Atlantic Ocean ports. The remainder of the country was to be left unoccupied, although the new regime that replaced the Third Republic was mutually recognised as the legitimate government of all of Metropolitan France except Alsace–Lorraine . The French were also permitted to retain control of all of their non-European territories. Adolf Hitler deliberately chose Compiègne Forest as

623-590: A blast upon tipping. Several mine-laying ships were destroyed when their cargo exploded. Beginning around the start of the 20th century, submarine mines played a major role in the defense of U.S. harbours against enemy attacks as part of the Endicott and Taft Programs . The mines employed were controlled mines, anchored to the bottoms of the harbours, and detonated under control from large mine casemates onshore. During World War I , mines were used extensively to defend coasts, coastal shipping, ports and naval bases around

712-686: A day. A minimal French Army would be permitted. As one of Hitler's few concessions, the French Navy was to be disarmed but not surrendered, for Hitler realised that pushing France too far could result in France fighting on from the French colonial empire . An unoccupied region in the south, the Zone libre , was left relatively free to be governed by a rump French administration based in Vichy . The Vichy regime also administered

801-401: A harbour by hand. They can be inexpensive: some variants can cost as little as US $ 2,000, though more sophisticated mines can cost millions of dollars, be equipped with several kinds of sensors, and deliver a warhead by rocket or torpedo . Their flexibility and cost-effectiveness make mines attractive to the less powerful belligerent in asymmetric warfare . The cost of producing and laying

890-569: A major improvement for commando operations. However, Jacques Cousteau joined the FNFL only after the liberation of France . He had spent the entirety of the war in France and developed the aqua-lung in Paris during the German occupation. The merchant fleet of the FNFL suffered heavy casualties, amounting to one quarter of its men. A number of warships were lost, notably the submarine Surcouf , possibly sunk in

979-915: A mine is usually between 0.5% and 10% of the cost of removing it, and it can take up to 200 times as long to clear a minefield as to lay it. Parts of some World War II naval minefields still exist because they are too extensive and expensive to clear. Some 1940s-era mines may remain dangerous for many years. Mines have been employed as offensive or defensive weapons in rivers, lakes, estuaries, seas, and oceans, but they can also be used as tools of psychological warfare . Offensive mines are placed in enemy waters, outside harbours, and across important shipping routes to sink both merchant and military vessels. Defensive minefields safeguard key stretches of coast from enemy ships and submarines, forcing them into more easily defended areas, or keeping them away from sensitive ones. Shipowners are reluctant to send their ships through known minefields. Port authorities may attempt to clear

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1068-524: A mined area, but those without effective minesweeping equipment may cease using the area. Transit of a mined area will be attempted only when strategic interests outweigh potential losses. The decision-makers' perception of the minefield is a critical factor. Minefields designed for psychological effect are usually placed on trade routes to stop ships from reaching an enemy nation. They are often spread thinly, to create an impression of minefields existing across large areas. A single mine inserted strategically on

1157-463: A resource-intensive and time-consuming minesweeping effort, accept the casualties of challenging the minefield, or use the unmined waters where the greatest concentration of enemy firepower will be encountered. Although international law requires signatory nations to declare mined areas, precise locations remain secret, and non-complying parties might not disclose minelaying. While mines threaten only those who choose to traverse waters that may be mined,

1246-684: A safe distance. The submarine H. L. Hunley used one to sink USS  Housatonic on 17 February 1864. A Harvey torpedo was a type of floating mine towed alongside a ship and was briefly in service in the Royal Navy in the 1870s. Other "torpedoes" were attached to ships or propelled themselves. One such weapon called the Whitehead torpedo after its inventor, caused the word "torpedo" to apply to self-propelled underwater missiles as well as to static devices. These mobile devices were also known as "fish torpedoes". The American Civil War of 1861–1865 also saw

1335-567: A shipping route can stop maritime movements for days while the entire area is swept. A mine's capability to sink ships makes it a credible threat, but minefields work more on the mind than on ships. International law , specifically the Eighth Hague Convention of 1907 , requires nations to declare when they mine an area, to make it easier for civil shipping to avoid the mines. The warnings do not have to be specific; for example, during World War II, Britain declared simply that it had mined

1424-694: A sloop mined by the Peruvians. A similar fate occurred with the gunboat schooner Covadonga in front of the port of Chancay , on 13 September 1880, which having captured and checked a beautiful boat, it exploded when hoisting it on its side. During the Battle of Tamsui (1884), in the Keelung Campaign of the Sino-French War , Chinese forces in Taiwan under Liu Mingchuan took measures to reinforce Tamsui against

1513-604: A time when the Chilean squadron was blockading the Peruvian ports, formed a brigade of torpedo boats under the command of the frigate captain Leopoldo Sánchez Calderón and the Peruvian engineer Manuel Cuadros , who perfected the naval torpedo or mine system to be electrically activated when the cargo weight was lifted. This is how, on 3 July 1880, in front of the port of Callao , the gunned transport Loa flies when capturing

1602-503: A variable number of ships to pass unharmed before detonating. This made them a great deal harder to sweep. Mining campaigns could have devastating consequences. The U.S. effort against Japan, for instance, closed major ports, such as Hiroshima , for days, and by the end of the Pacific War had cut the amount of freight passing through Kobe – Yokohama by 90%. When the war ended, more than 25,000 U.S.-laid mines were still in place, and

1691-682: Is just one example of a ship that was struck by a magnetic mine during this time. On 21 November 1939, a mine broke her keel, which damaged her engine and boiler rooms, as well as injuring 46 men, one later died from his injuries. She was towed to Rosyth for repairs. Incidents like this resulted in many of the boats that sailed to Dunkirk being degaussed in a marathon four-day effort by degaussing stations. The Allies and Germany deployed acoustic mines in World War II, against which even wooden- hulled ships (in particular minesweepers ) remained vulnerable. Japan developed sonic generators to sweep these;

1780-460: Is the practice of the removal of explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that purpose. There are also mines that release a homing torpedo rather than explode themselves. Mines can be laid in many ways: by purpose-built minelayers , refitted ships, submarines, or aircraft —and even by dropping them into

1869-528: The Petropavlovsk struck them near Port Arthur , sending the holed vessel to the bottom and killing the fleet commander, Admiral Stepan Makarov , and most of his crew in the process. The toll inflicted by mines was not confined to the Russians, however. The Japanese Navy lost two battleships, four cruisers, two destroyers and a torpedo-boat to offensively laid mines during the war. Most famously, on 15 May 1904,

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1958-575: The English Channel . On 14 July, she ferried General Charles de Gaulle to France. Triomphant , under the command of Philippe Auboyneau was transferred to the Pacific theatre of the war, where in February 1942 it took part in the evacuation of European and Chinese civilians and military personnel from Nauru and Ocean Island before an anticipated Japanese invasion . Triomphant was later stationed along

2047-540: The Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaulle , the surrender of Metropolitan France ended any further attempts by the British to unite the two countries. By 22 June, the German Armed Forces ( Wehrmacht ) had losses of 27,000 dead, more than 111,000 wounded and 18,000 missing. French losses were 92,000 dead and more than 200,000 wounded. The British Expeditionary Force suffered 68,000 casualties, with around 10,000 killed. When Adolf Hitler received word from

2136-589: The French Third Republic . It became effective at midnight on 25 June. Signatories for Germany included Wilhelm Keitel , a senior military officer of the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces), while those on the French side held lower ranks, including general Charles Huntziger . Following the decisive German victory in the Battle of France (10 May – 25 June 1940) during World War II , this armistice established

2225-525: The Gulf of Finland during the Crimean War of 1853–1856. The mining of Vulcan led to the world's first minesweeping operation. During the next 72 hours, 33 mines were swept. The Jacobi mine was designed by German-born, Russian engineer Jacobi, in 1853. The mine was tied to the sea bottom by an anchor. A cable connected it to a galvanic cell which powered it from the shore, the power of its explosive charge

2314-584: The Korean War , mines laid by North Korean forces caused 70% of the casualties suffered by U.S. naval vessels and caused 4 sinkings. During the Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the belligerents mined several areas of the Persian Gulf and nearby waters. On 24 July 1987, the supertanker SS Bridgeton was mined by Iran near Farsi Island. On 14 April 1988, USS  Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine in

2403-781: The British to compensate for the lack of warships in the FNFL, among them, the Hunt-class destroyer La Combattante and the Flower-class corvette Aconit . The FNFL suffered their first loss when the patrol boat Poulmic hit a mine and sank on 7 November 1940 off Plymouth. Soon after the fall of France, Free France was but a government in exile based in England, with no land of its own to speak of and very few land or sea forces. In an attempt to establish his authority on an important French territory, General de Gaulle attempted to rally French West Africa by personally sailing to Dakar with

2492-420: The British. In 1855, 301 more Jacobi mines were laid around Krostadt and Lisy Nos . British ships did not dare to approach them. In the 19th century, mines were called torpedoes , a name probably conferred by Robert Fulton after the torpedo fish , which gives powerful electric shocks . A spar torpedo was a mine attached to a long pole and detonated when the ship carrying it rammed another one and withdrew

2581-541: The English Channel, North Sea and French coast. Naval mines were first invented by Chinese innovators of Imperial China and were described in thorough detail by the early Ming dynasty artillery officer Jiao Yu , in his 14th-century military treatise known as the Huolongjing . Chinese records tell of naval explosives in the 16th century, used to fight against Japanese pirates ( wokou ). This kind of naval mine

2670-601: The FFL. On 30 June, De Gaulle was joined by Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier , who had come from Gibraltar by flying boat . Muselier was the only flag officer of the French Navy to answer the call of De Gaulle. The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself or Alexandria in Egypt . At

2759-563: The Free French. When it did, important ships based in Dakar were obtained: the modern battleship Richelieu , the heavy cruiser Suffren , light cruisers Gloire , Montcalm , Georges Leygues , and a few destroyers, including cruiser-sized Le Fantasque -class destroyers. Captain d'Estienne d'Orves attempted to unite the French Resistance , became an inspiring symbol when he

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2848-464: The French government that it wished to negotiate an armistice , he selected Compiègne Forest as the place for the negotiations. Compiègne had been the site of the 1918 Armistice , which ended World War I with Germany's surrender. As an act of revenge Hitler held the signing in the Compiègne Wagon , the same rail carriage where the Germans had signed the 1918 Armistice. In the last sentence of

2937-624: The French; they planted nine torpedo mines in the river and blocked the entrance. During the Boxer Rebellion , Imperial Chinese forces deployed a command-detonated mine field at the mouth of the Hai River before the Dagu forts , to prevent the western Allied forces from sending ships to attack. The next major use of mines was during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Two mines blew up when

3026-655: The Navy proved unable to sweep them all, limiting efforts to critical areas. After sweeping for almost a year, in May 1946, the Navy abandoned the effort with 13,000 mines still unswept. Over the next thirty years, more than 500 minesweepers (of a variety of types) were damaged or sunk clearing them. The U.S. began adding delay counters to their magnetic mines in June 1945. Since World War II , mines have damaged 14 United States Navy ships, whereas air and missile attacks have damaged four. During

3115-536: The North Sea, the British East Coast, Straits of Dover, and Heligoland Bight is estimated at 190,000 and the total number during the whole of WWI was 235,000 sea mines. Clearing the barrage after the war took 82 ships and five months, working around the clock. It was also during World War I, that the British hospital ship , HMHS  Britannic , became the largest vessel ever sunk by a naval mine . The Britannic

3204-693: The Russian minelayer Amur planted a 50-mine minefield off Port Arthur and succeeded in sinking the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima . Following the end of the Russo-Japanese War, several nations attempted to have mines banned as weapons of war at the Hague Peace Conference (1907) . Many early mines were fragile and dangerous to handle, as they contained glass containers filled with nitroglycerin or mechanical devices that activated

3293-705: The Third Reich , French General Charles Huntziger complained that the armistice terms imposed on France were harsher than those imposed on Germany in 1918. They provided for German occupation of three-fifths of metropolitan France north and west of a line through Geneva and Tours and extending to the Spanish border, so as to give Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine access to all French Channel and Atlantic ports. All people who had been granted political asylum had to be surrendered and high occupation costs were demanded of France by Germany, approximately 400 million French francs

3382-467: The U.S. coast. Initially, contact mines (requiring a ship to physically strike a mine to detonate it) were employed, usually tethered at the end of a cable just below the surface of the water. Contact mines usually blew a hole in ships' hulls. By the beginning of World War II, most nations had developed mines that could be dropped from aircraft, some of which floated on the surface, making it possible to lay them in enemy harbours. The use of dredging and nets

3471-608: The United States loaded with a precious cargo of American fighter and bomber aircraft. Unwilling to return to occupied France, but likewise reluctant to join de Gaulle, Béarn instead sought harbour in Martinique , her crew showing little inclination to side with the British in their continued fight against the Nazis. Already obsolete at the start of the war, she would remain in Martinique for

3560-402: The approach of or contact with any vessel. Naval mines can be used offensively, to hamper enemy shipping movements or lock vessels into a harbour ; or defensively, to create "safe" zones protecting friendly sea lanes, harbours, and naval assets. Mines allow the minelaying force commander to concentrate warships or defensive assets in mine-free areas giving the adversary three choices: undertake

3649-692: The beginning of the merchant fleet of the FNFL. To distinguish the FNFL from the Vichist forces, Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red Cross of Lorraine , and a cocarde also featuring the Cross of Lorraine for aircraft of the Free French Naval Air Service ( Aéronavale Française Libre ) and the Free French Air Force ( Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres ). A number of ships were leased from

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3738-499: The central Persian Gulf shipping lane , wounding 10 sailors. In the summer of 1984, magnetic sea mines damaged at least 19 ships in the Red Sea . The U.S. concluded Libya was probably responsible for the minelaying. In response the U.S., Britain, France, and three other nations launched Operation Intense Look , a minesweeping operation in the Red Sea involving more than 46 ships. On

3827-676: The coasts of these countries. London P&I Club issued a warning to freight ships in the area, advising them to "maintain lookouts for mines and pay careful attention to local navigation warnings". Ukrainian forces have mined "from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea which banks the critical city of Odesa." Naval mines may be classified into three major groups; contact, remote and influence mines. The earliest mines were usually of this type. They are still used today, as they are extremely low cost compared to any other anti-ship weapon and are effective, both as

3916-504: The colonial empire and the fleet, and, by avoiding full occupation and disarmament, the remaining French rump state in the unoccupied zone could enforce a certain de facto independence and neutrality vis-à-vis the Axis. The Armistice site was demolished by the Germans on Hitler's orders three days later. The carriage itself was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war, along with pieces of a large stone tablet. The Alsace-Lorraine Monument (depicting

4005-577: The decade following 1868, Major Henry Larcom Abbot carried out a lengthy set of experiments to design and test moored mines that could be exploded on contact or be detonated at will as enemy shipping passed near them. This initial development of mines in the United States took place under the purview of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , which trained officers and men in their use at the Engineer School of Application at Willets Point, New York (later named Fort Totten ). In 1901 underwater minefields became

4094-589: The disadvantage of "sweeping" only a small strip. A better solution was found in the "Double-L Sweep" using electrical cables dragged behind ships that passed large pulses of current through the seawater. This created a large magnetic field and swept the entire area between the two ships. The older methods continued to be used in smaller areas. The Suez Canal continued to be swept by aircraft, for instance. While these methods were useful for clearing mines from local ports, they were of little or no use for enemy-controlled areas. These were typically visited by warships, and

4183-594: The east coast of Australia, where in early 1943 it was involved in the rescue of the survivors from SS  Iron Knight , which was sunk by a torpedo fired by the Japanese submarine  I-21 . After the rescue, Triomphant then searched for I-21 for a day, but without success. The FNFL also harboured technical innovators, like Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau , who invented the modern aqua-lung , and Yves Rocard , who helped perfect radar . The aqua-lung became

4272-470: The explosion. Ships that had successfully run the gantlet of the Atlantic crossing were sometimes destroyed entering freshly cleared British harbours. More shipping was being lost than could be replaced, and Churchill ordered the intact recovery of one of these new mines to be of the highest priority. The British experienced a stroke of luck in November 1939, when a German mine was dropped from an aircraft onto

4361-557: The failed "floating petard". Weapons of this type were apparently tried by the English at the Siege of La Rochelle in 1627. American David Bushnell developed the first American naval mine, for use against the British in the American War of Independence . It was a watertight keg filled with gunpowder that was floated toward the enemy, detonated by a sparking mechanism if it struck a ship. It

4450-485: The first stage of Operation Catapult , the ships in the British ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3 July 1940. The then-largest submarine in the world, Surcouf , which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. Other ships were

4539-502: The first to be so fitted were the carrier HMS  Ark Royal and the liners RMS  Queen Mary and RMS  Queen Elizabeth . It was a photo of one of these liners in New York harbour, showing the degaussing coil, which revealed to German Naval Intelligence the fact that the British were using degaussing methods to combat their magnetic mines. This was felt to be impractical for smaller warships and merchant vessels, mainly because

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4628-537: The force were several fireships , carrying 40 barrels of gunpowder and rigged to explode by a clockwork mechanism. In 1812, Russian engineer Pavel Shilling exploded an underwater mine using an electrical circuit . In 1842 Samuel Colt used an electric detonator to destroy a moving vessel to demonstrate an underwater mine of his own design to the United States Navy and President John Tyler . However, opposition from former president John Quincy Adams , scuttled

4717-535: The fuze of the naval mine. Although this is the rotating steel wheel's first use in naval mines, Jiao Yu described their use for land mines in the 14th century. The first plan for a sea mine in the West was by Ralph Rabbards, who presented his design to Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1574. The Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel was employed in the Office of Ordnance by King Charles I of England to make weapons, including

4806-475: The gear was not ready by war's end. The primary method Japan used was small air-delivered bombs. This was profligate and ineffectual; used against acoustic mines at Penang , 200 bombs were needed to detonate just 13 mines. The Germans developed a pressure-activated mine and planned to deploy it as well, but they saved it for later use when it became clear the British had defeated the magnetic system. The U.S. also deployed these, adding "counters" which would allow

4895-448: The globe. The Germans laid mines in shipping lanes to sink merchant and naval vessels serving Britain. The Allies targeted the German U-boats in the Strait of Dover and the Hebrides. In an attempt to seal up the northern exits of the North Sea, the Allies developed the North Sea Mine Barrage . During a period of five months from June 1918, almost 70,000 mines were laid spanning the North Sea's northern exits. The total number of mines laid in

4984-452: The insistence of Admiral Fyodor Litke . The Nobel mines were bought from Swedish industrialist Immanuel Nobel who had entered into collusion with the Russian head of navy Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov . Despite their high cost (100 Russian rubles ) the Nobel mines proved to be faulty, exploding while being laid, failing to explode or detaching from their wires, and drifting uncontrollably, at least 70 of them were subsequently disarmed by

5073-425: The landing sites : In addition the obsolete battleship Courbet was scuttled off Arromanches to serve as a breakwater for a Mulberry harbour . The cruisers Georges Leygues and Montcalm , along with the battleship USS  Arkansas provided fire support for the infantry until 10 June. La Combattante silenced German coastal artillery of Courseulles-sur-Mer . The next day, she started patrolling

5162-404: The majority of the fleet then underwent a massive degaussing process, where their hulls had a slight "south" bias induced into them which offset the concentration-effect almost to zero. Initially, major warships and large troopships had a copper degaussing coil fitted around the perimeter of the hull, energized by the ship's electrical system whenever in suspected magnetic-mined waters. Some of

5251-409: The military situation that France was in, Huntziger had "no choice" but to accede to the armistice terms. The cease-fire went into effect at 00:35 on 25 June 1940, more than two days later, only after another armistice was signed between France and Italy , the main German ally in Europe. The armistice did have some relative advantages for the French, compared to worse possible outcomes, such as keeping

5340-406: The mine and rushed it to the labs at HMS Vernon, where scientists discovered that the mine had a magnetic arming mechanism. A large ferrous object passing through the Earth's magnetic field will concentrate the field through it, due to its magnetic permeability; the mine's detector was designed to trigger as a ship passed over when the Earth's magnetic field was concentrated in the ship and away from

5429-434: The mine. The mine detected this loss of the magnetic field which caused it to detonate. The mechanism had an adjustable sensitivity, calibrated in milligauss . From this data, known methods were used to clear these mines. Early methods included the use of large electromagnets dragged behind ships or below low-flying aircraft (a number of older bombers like the Vickers Wellington were used for this). Both of these methods had

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5518-439: The mudflats off Shoeburyness during low tide. Additionally, the land belonged to the army and a base with men and workshops was at hand. Experts were dispatched from HMS  Vernon to investigate the mine. The Royal Navy knew that mines could use magnetic sensors, Britain having developed magnetic mines in World War I, so everyone removed all metal, including their buttons, and made tools of non-magnetic brass . They disarmed

5607-543: The next four years, her aircraft rusting in the tropical climate. As soon as the summer 1940, the submarines Minerve and Junon , as well as four avisos , departed from Plymouth. Towards the end of 1940, the destroyers Le Triomphant and Léopard followed. Le Triomphant sailed for New Caledonia and spent the rest of the war based there and in Australia . The ship saw action in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Civilian vessels and crew also rallied to de Gaulle, starting with four cargo ships in Gibraltar - they would be

5696-423: The occupied zones (other than Alsace-Lorraine ) to some extent, albeit under severe restrictions. This was envisaged as a temporary treaty until a final peace treaty was negotiated. At the time, both French and Germans thought the occupation would be a provisional state of affairs and last only until Britain came to terms, which they both thought was imminent. For instance, none of the French delegation objected to

5785-457: The orders of the Reagan administration , the CIA mined Nicaragua 's Sandino port in 1984 in support of the Contras . A Soviet tanker was among the ships damaged by these mines. In 1986, in the case of Nicaragua v. United States , the International Court of Justice ruled that this mining was a violation of international law. During the Gulf War , Iraqi naval mines severely damaged USS  Princeton and USS  Tripoli . When

5874-711: The possibility of activating a mine is a powerful disincentive to shipping. In the absence of effective measures to limit each mine's lifespan, the hazard to shipping can remain long after the war in which the mines were laid is over. Unless detonated by a parallel time fuze at the end of their useful life, naval mines need to be found and dismantled after the end of hostilities; an often prolonged, costly, and hazardous task. Modern mines containing high explosives detonated by complex electronic fuze mechanisms are much more effective than early gunpowder mines requiring physical ignition. Mines may be placed by aircraft, ships, submarines, or individual swimmers and boatmen. Minesweeping

5963-413: The preamble, the drafters inserted: "However, Germany does not have the intention to use the armistice conditions and armistice negotiations as a form of humiliation against such a valiant opponent", referring to the French forces. In Article 3, Clause 2, the drafters said that Germany did not intend to heavily occupy north-west France after the cessation of hostilities with Britain . William Shirer , who

6052-521: The project as "not fair and honest warfare". In 1854, during the unsuccessful attempt of the Anglo-French (101 warships) fleet to seize the Kronstadt fortress, British steamships HMS  Merlin (9 June 1855, the first successful mining in Western history), HMS  Vulture and HMS Firefly suffered damage due to the underwater explosions of Russian naval mines. Russian naval specialists set more than 1,500 naval mines, or infernal machines , designed by Moritz von Jacobi and by Immanuel Nobel , in

6141-453: The representatives of the defeated German Empire . After listening to the reading of the preamble, Hitler—in a calculated gesture of disdain for the French delegates—exited the carriage, as Foch had done in 1918, leaving the negotiations to the chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), General Wilhelm Keitel . The negotiations lasted one day, until the evening of 22 June 1940: General Huntziger had to discuss

6230-405: The responsibility of the US Army's Artillery Corps, and in 1907 this was a founding responsibility of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps . The Imperial Russian Navy , a pioneer in mine warfare, successfully deployed mines against the Ottoman Navy during both the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) . During the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), the Peruvian Navy , at

6319-440: The ships lacked the generating capacity to energise such a coil. It was found that "wiping" a current-carrying cable up and down a ship's hull temporarily canceled the ships' magnetic signature sufficiently to nullify the threat. This started in late 1939, and by 1940 merchant vessels and the smaller British warships were largely immune for a few months at a time until they once again built up a field. The cruiser HMS  Belfast

6408-482: The site to sign the armistice because of its symbolic role as the site of the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that signaled the end of World War I with Germany's surrender. The best, most modernised French armies had been sent north and lost in the resulting encirclement; the French had lost their best heavy weaponry and their best armored formations. Between May and June, French forces were in general retreat and Germany threatened to occupy Paris . The French government

6497-471: The stipulation that French soldiers would remain prisoners of war until the cessation of all hostilities. Nearly 1,000,000 Frenchmen were thus forced to spend the next five years in German POW camps. About a third of the initial 1,500,000 prisoners taken were released or exchanged as part of the Germans' Service du Travail Obligatoire forced labour programme by the time the war ended. A final peace treaty

6586-462: The successful use of mines. The first ship sunk by a mine, USS  Cairo , foundered in 1862 in the Yazoo River . Rear Admiral David Farragut 's famous/apocryphal command during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, " Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! " refers to a minefield laid at Mobile , Alabama. After 1865 the United States adopted the mine as its primary weapon for coastal defense . In

6675-413: The terms by phone with the French government representatives, who had fled to Bordeaux, mainly with the newly nominated defence minister, General Maxime Weygand . Adolf Hitler had a number of reasons for agreeing to an armistice. He wanted to ensure that France did not continue to fight from French North Africa , and he wanted to ensure that the French Navy was taken out of the war. In addition, leaving

6764-498: The two obsolete battleships Paris and Courbet , the destroyers Le Triomphant and Léopard , eight torpedo boats , five submarines ( Minerve , Junon ) and a number of other smaller vessels. 3,600 sailors operating 50 ships around the world joined with the Royal Navy and formed the nucleus of the Free French Naval Forces France's surrender found her only aircraft carrier, Béarn , en route from

6853-552: The war concluded, eight countries conducted clearance operations. Houthi forces in the Yemeni Civil War have made frequent use of naval mines, laying over 150 in the Red Sea throughout the conflict. In the first month of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately employing drifting mines in the Black Sea area. Around the same time, Turkish and Romanian military diving teams were involved in defusing operations, when stray mines were spotted near

6942-406: The war", a euphemism for Jews, and especially German Jews who until then had enjoyed asylum in France. Keitel also made one other concession, that French aircraft need not be handed over to the Germans. The French delegation—led by General Charles Huntziger —tried to soften the harsher terms of the armistice, but Keitel replied that they would have to accept or reject the armistice as it was. Given

7031-527: The war, the site and memorials were restored by German POW labour . 49°25′39″N 02°54′22″E  /  49.42750°N 2.90611°E  / 49.42750; 2.90611 Naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines . Similar to anti-personnel and other land mines , and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges , they are deposited and left to wait until, depending on their fuzing , they are triggered by

7120-674: Was the sister ship of the RMS Titanic , and the RMS ; Olympic . During World War II , the U-boat fleet, which dominated much of the battle of the Atlantic, was small at the beginning of the war and much of the early action by German forces involved mining convoy routes and ports around Britain. German submarines also operated in the Mediterranean Sea , in the Caribbean Sea , and along

7209-623: Was arrested, tortured by the Gestapo and executed. In the summer of 1944, the Invasion of Normandy took place. The FNFL took part in both the naval side of the operations, Operation Neptune , and the landing itself, with the Naval Commandos ( Commandos Marine ) of Captain Philippe Kieffer , climbing cliffs under fire to destroy German shore batteries. The ships of the FNFL were deployed off

7298-402: Was effective against this type of mine, but this consumed valuable time and resources and required harbours to be closed. Later, some ships survived mine blasts, limping into port with buckled plates and broken backs. This appeared to be due to a new type of mine, detecting ships by their proximity to the mine (an influence mine) and detonating at a distance, causing damage with the shock wave of

7387-738: Was equal to 14 kg (31 lb) of black powder . In the summer of 1853, the production of the mine was approved by the Committee for Mines of the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire . In 1854, 60 Jacobi mines were laid in the vicinity of the Forts Pavel and Alexander ( Kronstadt ), to deter the British Baltic Fleet from attacking them. It gradually phased out its direct competitor the Nobel mine on

7476-670: Was forced to relocate to Bordeaux on 10 June to avoid capture and declared Paris to be an open city the same day. The proposal of a Franco-British Union to shore up support for Paul Reynaud 's government following the fall of Paris split support. With many pro-Armistice ministers in the cabinet, such as the Deputy Prime Minister Philippe Pétain , and the commander-in-chief of the French Army General Weygand, Reynaud resigned on 16 June. Pétain became prime minister. While French resistance continued with

7565-459: Was further disguised by wearing dark clothes and a black cap. His task was to approach the French ship, hook the torpedo to the anchor cable and, having activated the device by removing a pin, remove the paddles and escape before the torpedo detonated. Also to be deployed were large numbers of casks filled with gunpowder, ballast and combustible balls. They would float in on the tide and on washing up against an enemy's hull, explode. Also included in

7654-468: Was loaded in a wooden box, sealed with putty . General Qi Jiguang made several timed, drifting explosives, to harass Japanese pirate ships. The Tiangong Kaiwu ( The Exploitation of the Works of Nature ) treatise, written by Song Yingxing in 1637, describes naval mines with a ripcord pulled by hidden ambushers located on the nearby shore who rotated a steel wheel flint mechanism to produce sparks and ignite

7743-695: Was never negotiated, and the free zone ( zone libre ) was invaded by Germany and its ally Italy in Case Anton following the invasion of French North Africa by the Allies in November 1942. Article 19 of the Franco-German armistice required the French state to turn over to German authorities any German national on French territory, who would then frequently face deportation to a concentration camp (the "Surrender on Demand" clause). Keitel gave verbal assurances that this would apply mainly to those refugees who had "fomented

7832-462: Was present on that day, reported, "I am but fifty yards from him. [...] I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. But today! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph." Then, on 21 June 1940, in the same railway carriage in which the 1918 Armistice had been signed (removed from a museum building and placed exactly where it was in 1918), Hitler sat in the same chair in which Marshal Ferdinand Foch had sat when he faced

7921-462: Was used on the Delaware River as a drift mine, destroying a small boat near its intended target, a British warship. The 1804 Raid on Boulogne made extensive use of explosive devices designed by inventor Robert Fulton . The 'torpedo-catamaran' was a coffer-like device balanced on two wooden floats and steered by a man with a paddle. Weighted with lead so as to ride low in the water, the operator

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