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Oldsweat -> RE: DDs finding and destroying mines? (1/18/2006 7:34:27 PM)
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Actually it's worse than 1950s, the Orepesa sweep that most of you are probably thinking of (paravanes, serrate wire, cutters) was introduced in the form of modified trawling gear around 1916[:)]. Normal sweep speed is around 4 knots, faster and an encounter with a mine cable will wreck your gear. Even at four knots the stress on the cables is formidable. Tensiometers are attached to the sweep cable to indicate when a mooring cable is struck, the change in tension is on the order of 10s of thousands of pounds. The cable is severed in one of two ways: the serrated portion of the sweep wire saws through it or it hits a cutter and a blank rifle cartridge (.45/70) drives a chisel through it. The mine case is then sunk by gunfire, typically rifle or machine gun since you don't really want cannon caliber shells ricochetting around. This works fine with most moored mines (there are antisweep mines around and the Soviets were big on systems designed to attack the minsweepers themselves). The sweepers usually move in an echelon or vee formation with the lead sweeper's sweep overlapping the path of the next ship in formation. Typically one moves in from the edge of a mine field and nibbles a path through it rather than plowing through per most depictions of the method. We had a picture, from the Korean War, in the wardroom of the sweeper I was on demonstrating the result of failing to follow proper technique. The photo capturesd the two halves of a minesweeper rising on the plume of a mine they had just run over.
Part of the problem with mine warfare in a game is the level of complexity you want to depict. By 1943 the US would have ground mines, which sit on the bottom and can't be swept with the various Oropesa methods, both sides would have some sort of magnetic mine and the US would have acoustic and automotive mines. The automotive mine is a modified torpedo that carries the mine to it's desired location, they are often used from submarines to foul the safe lanes, or Q routes, through an enemy's mine field. On the sweep front as well as the net and boom tenders already mentioned mineseeping boats (MSB) would be expected for use in sheltered harbors and shallow water areas and the US would field UDT swimmers. I suppose unit types in the vein of barges could be created to fill these roles. I am assuming that the minefields represented in the various ports at game start are controlled mine fields which were popular from the Endicott fortifiaction era through the beginning of WWII. There should probably be a different degree of hit probability for these against surface ships vice contact or influence mines (several Scandanavian countries still field controlled mines).
While the old gear (sweep wires, noisemakers, magnetic sweep tails) is still in use (there are lots of old design mines around, especially with various former and current client states and lower tier naval powers)most of the emphasis now is on ROV methods and AUV are being experimented with.
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