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The Magnetic Minesweeper

Heroes Remember

The Magnetic Minesweeper

Transcript
The mines in the early part of the war were contact mines. The ship had to hit them. Later on in the war, about ‘43 on, they came out with the magnetic mine. And all the steel hull ship had a positive or negative electric charge, and these mines were positive or negative and you didn’t have to hit them. You’d just go over them you’d detonate them. The magnetic minesweeper had a great big long tail out behind and a heavy generator aboard the ship and it pulsated alternately negative and positive. And that’s, you could tell when you blew up a mine because the tail would blow out of water. And you had a coil, I can’t remember the technical name of it . Now it went around the ship and it nullified this charge so you could go over a mine without detonating it and our minesweeper had that but something happened the time that it didn’t work, that’s why the mine exploded.
Description

Mr. Nordlund describes the operation at sea with the magnetic minesweeper and how mines were detected and detonated.

Hough Nordlund

Mr. Hough Nordlund was born July 17, 1922 in Kamsack, Saskatchewan. After his elementary school years, his family moved to Ponachi, Saskatchewan where he graduated from high school. Then Mr. Nordlund joined the Navy and trained on the HMCS Queen Regina. After initial training he was drafted to the ship, Prince Henry, doing offshore and inshore service around Vancouver Island. His main role aboard these ships was radio operator, receiving messages through morse code. During his service time in the navy, Mr. Nordlund sailed on other ships, the HMCS Kootenay and Alberni. Mr. Nordlund was an active soldier during the D-Day invasion and occupied the role of skipper onboard the landing craft LC3 taking troops to Omaha Beach. Mr. Nordlund finished his service onboard the HMCS Kootenay and had a few runs to the Murmansk before leaving the navy. After discharge Mr. Nordlund served with the militia and worked with the Federal Government in the Fisheries and Oceans Department, retiring with 38 years service.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
1:02
Person Interviewed:
Hough Nordlund
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
North Atlantic Ocean
Battle/Campaign:
Battle of the Atlantic
Branch:
Navy
Occupation:
Seaman

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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