The amount of luck that goes into winning a battle and summarily a war is insane. Here you have the United Kingdom desperately trying to get supplies into the ports and are stymied by these new magnetic mines.
Only through the absolute luck of a Luftwaffe plane ditching its cargo prematurely, the contact switch not being set, and the salt water not self-priming the mine because the air-dropped mine lands in a swamp does the United Kingdom short-cut research / spying efforts and address the magnetic sea mines.
The countermeasure tests being done through live tests must have been fun to volunteer for: "Take this plane, fly 35 feet off the water and when the mine goes off the blast will shoot you into the air."
Agreed. I try to put myself in the shoes of the person accomplishing a task and after reading about the mine not being set properly, gave me the same chill.
Only through the absolute luck of a Luftwaffe plane ditching its cargo prematurely, the contact switch not being set, and the salt water not self-priming the mine because the air-dropped mine lands in a swamp does the United Kingdom short-cut research / spying efforts and address the magnetic sea mines.
The countermeasure tests being done through live tests must have been fun to volunteer for: "Take this plane, fly 35 feet off the water and when the mine goes off the blast will shoot you into the air."