An unexploded German magnetic mine which has been recovered from shallow water. Note the scale ...

An unexploded German magnetic mine which has been recovered from shallow water. Note the scale bar graded in inches which gives an aproximation to the size of the mine. This image is from the collection of Lieutenant (Lt) Hugh Randall Syme, GC, GM and Bar, Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve who was based at HMS Vernon, Portsmouth, from 1940 to 1942. Lt Syme rapidly developed a reputation for bravery, especially in delousing the unfamiliar German magnetic mines. He was awarded the George Cross and the George Medal and Bar for a string of successful mine recoveries. In January 1943 he returned to Australia and was appointed as the Commanding Officer of a bomb disposal section at HMAS Cerberus. He left the Navy in 1944, returning to the family business of running The Age newspaper in Melbourne.

This photo is one of a couple of historic photos that exist of the very first magnetic mine that was defused on the mudflats near Shoeburyness, Essex by Lt Cdr John Ouvry and his team from HMS Vernon Portsmouth. The mine was dropped by parachute from a German seaplane on the evening of 23rd November 1939. This photograph is of the mine before it was defused (it was disarmed on the low tide the next day). The magnetic fuse was recovered intact and forwarded to the physicist Albert B Wood, who, with two assistants (W F B Shaw and H W Kelly), dismantled the fuze at Portsmouth the following day and discovered its internal induction magnetometer which commenced a train of events which within five or six weeks led to the first flight of the minesweeping Vickers Wellington DWI Mk1. Lt Cdr Ouvry and his assistants were awarded DSOs and DSMs for their brave defusing. The first crew of the Wellington were successful in destroying a magnetic mine on their very first sortie on the 8th January 1940 (aircraft was P2518 piloted by test pilot "Bruin" Purvis, navigator Lt Cdr "Ben" Bolt with Sq Ldr John Chaplin operating the gear in the fuselage) this aircrew were also decorated for their efforts. Shortly after this the anti-magnetic minesweeping method (using two vessels) developed by Charles Goodeve came into being - again based off the information gleaned from the fuze successfully recovered by Ouvry.