The Evolution of Naval Mine Warfare

236 pages

Chris O’Flaherty

Written in an engaging and colloquial style, this lovely book presents a new evaluation of many historical elements of naval minewarfare from the perspective of an experienced US Navy practitioner.

The chronological narrative takes the reader on a journey from the early days of 18th century naval mining development, through wars in Crimea, the United States (Civil War), Atlantic, Pacific, Korea, Vietnam and decades of conflict in the Middle East. Interspersed with vignettes that relate lessons from those conflicts into a contemporary context, this book is further proof that learning from the past really can help shape modern warfare.

Many of the lessons are written through a deeply specialist minewarfare lens, which makes the book particularly useful within that community. Such perspectives can then be placed into a wider context by other researchers as they look at the totality of a conflict that happens to include mining and mine countermeasures. His sections on evolution and deployment of helicopter MCM are especially noteworthy; helicopter minesweeping was developed in the 1950s using HRP-1 aircraft during the Korean war, and deployed en masse during the Vietnam wars, predominantly using RH-53 and MH-53 airframes.

The very detailed minewarfare research by the author shines through many of the chapters, with his codifying of exact mine numbers, locations and also MCM techniques adding to the corpus of minewarfare knowledge now in print. His use of colloquialisms when describing events outwith minewarfare ensure the readability of the script, but in parallel do dilute the effect of some assertions due to his loosening of language leading to dips in historical precision.

Overall, this book is a welcome addition to the body of literature on naval minewarfare – especially with current events in the Middle East refocussing minds on this pernicious threat.