The Barrier Against Mine-Layers
It is possible that we shall not know till the war is over all the devices which the Government is using to counter the danger of mines indiscriminately laid by the Germans in the North Sea. But one of them from the nature of the case has had to be widely advertised—the laying of a broad mine- barrier some 500 miles long from near the north of Scotland to the Straits of Dover, at a distance of about eight miles from the coast, thus providing an eight-miles-broad channel for shipping off the eastern coasts with only three exits, one to the north, and two (east and south-west) from the Thames Estuary. The protection against mines laid by submarines in this channel is almost complete, since it is virtually im- possible that they should get through the barrier. Aero- planes endeavouring to lay mines in this closely watched area will be given an uncomfortable time by R.A.F. patrols, but their occasional successes should not be very profitable to the enemy, since the passage will be regularly and methodi- cally cleared by mine-sweepers. Neutral vessels plying between British and Scandinavian ports will have a longer voyage, but a safer one whilst they are west of the mine-field.
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