I have been reading this site for quite some time, and find it to be one of the most informative on the web.Sunbury wrote:A WW2 book based on the British experience of rendering sea mines safe is "Softly Tread the Brave" by Ivan Southall.
It is detailed in how the Royal Navy defused mines that fell on land ie: magnetic, acoustic mines etc. The Mine Officer was told he had 17 seconds if the mine fuse started to run and in that 17 seconds he needed to be 400 metres away. None ever made that distance, chance saved some, a lot more died. Magnetic Mines meant the defusing Officer had to work with brass tools and remove all metal. Acoustic mines, meant 1 second of pure sound would detonate them (only 1 was ever defused successfully)
I just checked Amazon it is out of print but may be available through a library
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL20906382 ... _the_braveTaken from the preface, (4th para):
"It is a story of wartime, but not of combat. It is a tribute, however inadequate, to the gigantic stature of the human spirit, to an unparalleled brand of courage and self-sacrifice. In this there is no courage of the moment, no flush of passion; this was self-discipline past belief, courage truly deyond understanding, as ordinary men rendered safe live weapons powerful enough to level a city block and vapourize their own bodies."
Last para of the preface: " It is the modesty of these men that is most moving. They cannot see that their sustained heroism has not grown out of tradition, but has made it."
So when I saw the reference to an out of print book, I wanted to share one of the assets that I have found very useful for finding out of print books.
If ABEBOOKS has been mentioned before, I apologize, but there are several copies of this book available for purchase here....
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchR ... e&x=42&y=7