¬Ý
Any Ship Can Be A Minesweeper, Once.
¬Ý
There is this saying, ’ÄúAny ship can be a minesweeper, Once’Äù You have heard of Minesweepers before, but never one of this kind. Talk about ’ÄúGluttin’Äô for Punishment’Äù, this takes the cake. Mike McGuinn, who served on the LST 1126 during WWII, did not have enough points to go home after the Japanese surrendered. He heard of this duty where he would get extra points that would allow him to get home sooner. He volunteered and was placed on a converted APA ship operating out of Japan. This ship he was transferred to had been converted with a few safety modifications. During the conversion, everything not needed to operate the ship was removed. Part of the conversion consisted of installing controls in the Conn, which allowed the ship to be controlled from there. They padded the Conn and other areas on the upper decks. The degaussing system, an electrical magnetic system on the ship to repel mines, was reversed so it would do the opposite ’Ķ and attract magnetic mines. Everyone wore a helmet and a flak jacket... A skeleton crew ran the ship and they all kinda mingled on the upper decks during operation. The ship’Äôs job was to make systematic and detailed sweeping runs of the harbors of Osaka and Kobe, Japan. It seems the United States’Äô B29 Bombers had dropped quite a number of mines in those areas. They were of different types, pressure and magnetic, and were suppose to deactivate themselves after a set period of time. Those brilliant minds were not sure they had all deactivated as designed, so this ship was to make those sweeping runs back and forth to ’Äúhopefully’Äù cause any of the leftovers to detonate. McGuinn said they made many runs during his 60-day tour of duty and can only recall detonating one. Surely, that recollection is good and clear! Ironically, McGuinn, still on this volunteer duty, passed near the LST 1126 and heard they were heading back to the states’Ķ.ahead of him. The LST 1126 had run aground and sustained some hull damages in China, which is another reason he volunteered for other duty. ¬Ý Submitted for Mike McGuinn LST 1126 1945-1947 By CC Benton
Return to LST Home Porthttp://www.abiz4me.com/lst.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0
Copyright © 2007, Mershon, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
¬Ý