On 30 November 1940, Lieutenant Harold Newgass RNVR successfully defuzed a German parachute mine that had landed on Garston Gas Works in Liverpool. To make his job more difficult, the mine had entered a gas holder and the parachute had become entangled in the hole in the roof. 6,000 residents were forcibly evacuated, the nearby railway and dock sidings shut and the gas supply to a large area of Liverpool was cut off. As the mine lay at the bottom of the gas holder in seven feet of slimy water and it was pitch-black inside the gas holder, Newgass had no idea what type of mine had been dropped.
Notwithstanding, he had the Auxiliary Fire Service lower him into the inky darkness at the end of a line. Owing to the lack of air and the gas fumes, he was supplied, too, with breathing apparatus from the Fire Service, but each cylinder could only supply 30 minutes’ worth of oxygen. As if the job wasn’t hard enough, working in the darkness in breathing apparatus, Newgass discovered that the mine’s fuze mechanism was leaning against a pillar and he had to engage help to turn the mine before he could access the fuze. It took six visits to the mine and six oxygen cylinders over two days before he was able to render the mine safe. It proved to be one of the Germans’ new magnetic mines. Had it blown up, it would have destroyed the whole of Garston Gas Works and much of the surrounding property. For his suicidal courage and supreme effort, Newgass was deservedly awarded the George Cross.
I describe this incident and many more similarly daring activities of the Royal Navy’s Rendering Mines Safe section in my novel, They Have No Graves as Yet. Unsurprisingly, given the content and explosive drama, the book has been rated 5* and received rave reviews. It is available on Amazon globally.
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