Motor Minesweeper's were purpose built, wooden, shallow draft, minesweepers with both SA and LL sweeping capabilities. SA is Sweep Acoustic, a device similar to a Kanga Hammer which makes a loud thumping noise which explodes acoustic mines. LL (double L) is a pair of electric cables which are towed parallel to each other on floats and emit a strong electric pulse which generates a magnetic field which detonates magnetic mines.
Four Hundred and two Motor Minesweeper were built for the Royal Navy between 1940 and 1945.
Admiralty type; 1 to 118 and 123 to 313
Displacement 165 Tons
Length: 105 Feet (32 metres)
Beam: 23 Feet (7 metres)
Draft: 9 feet 6 inches. (2.9 Metres)
Engine: Diesel. 500 BHP.
Speed: 12.65 Miles per hour. (11 knots)
Complement: 20 Officers and men.
Armament: Two 20 mm Anti-aircraft guns
Two machine guns.
The last resting place of MMS 294. Mr. Brown owned the two vessels in the photograph and lived on near Milton Creek, Sittingbourne, opposite the Isle of Sheppey.
Motor Minesweeper MMS 294 would have looked the same as her sister ship, MMS 192. Note, the Acoustic “hammer” on the bow in the up position used to sweep for acoustic mines and the drum on the stern for the LL cables used to detonate magnetic mines.
MMS 294
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MMS 294, Built by Frank Curtis, Par. Cornwall.
Like many of the Wildfire III, Queenborough MMS 294 took part in the D- Day landings and “Operation Calendar Two”. Clearing the vital water way of the Scheldt Estuary of mines and opening up the port of Antwerp to resupply Allied troops with over stretched supply lines.
OFFICERS from the Navy List June 1943.
NOT ON LIST.
OFFICERS from the Navy List Dec. 1943.
Temp. Lieut. RNVR, B. E. Colechin. 13 Oct 41.
Temp. Sub-Lieut. RANVR, K. C. R. Hill. 5 June 43.
OFFICERS from the Navy List June. 1944.
Temp. Lieut. RNVR, B. E. Colechin. 13 Oct 41.
Temp. Lieut. RANVR, K. C. R. Hill. 5 June 43.
OFFICERS from the Navy List January 1945.
Temp. Lieut. RNVR, B. E. Colechin. 13 Oct 41.
Temp. Lieut. RANVR, K. C. R. Hill. 5 June 43.
OFFICERS from the Navy List July 1945.
Temp. Lieut. RNVR, B. E. Colechin. 13 Oct 41.
Temp. Sub-Lieut. RNZNVR, I. G. Wilson. 10 Jan 45.
Remains of MMS 294 near Milton Creek, the Swale. (Mainland side, between Sittingbourne and the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England,
LIEUTENANT BERNARD EDWARD COLECHIN by kind permission of his son Brian Colechin.
Lieutenant Bernard Edward Colechin assumed command of MMS 294 when she was being built by Frank Curtis Ltd. Par in Cornwall.
MMS 294’s lasting place in in the mud in the Swale between the Island of Sheppey and the north coast of Kent. A few years before his death Bernard spent a day with his grandson on the Isle of Sheppey and must have been within a couple of hundred yards of MMS 294 the minesweeper he commanded through WW2 and didn’t know it.
Watch these short videos about the Wildfire III Minesweepers.
Minesweepers: https://youtu.be/aTsYiZFzv5M
D-day minesweepers: https://youtu.be/ZjlA5LxCAsg
Clearing the Scheldt: https://youtu.be/8ELsc9T3Lbw
The Relief of Holland: https://youtu.be/GghYEFHmOfY