YMS: FIRST IN - LAST OUT: WORLD WAR II's WOODEN WONDERS

Clearing channels in normal seas was at best a laborious, time-consuming chore involving the use of many different types of equipment. In stormy weather and under enemy fire the courage and tenacity of mine sweeping crews was soon demonstrated to be beyond measure. Deployed to every Atlantic and Pacific war zone, the YMS sailors found themselves immediately thrust into action clearing the way for the headline-making invasions of the amphibious assault forces. Arriving too late to participate in the North African campaign many YMS crews underwent their baptism of fire at Sicily in the Atlantic, and Hollandia in the Pacific. The Salerno and Anzio landings saw the little YMSs further battle tested. Nowhere was the mine sweeper crewmen's coolness under fire better exemplified than in the greatest invasion of all time: The D-Day assault at Normandy.

A BEACH TOO FAR

Though the US Navy would play a somewhat subordinate role to the Royal Navy in the vast mine sweeping program associated with the invasion of Normandy, this mother of all assaults proved a severe test of the capabilities of the 136-ft sweepers serving both navies.

If an invasion force intending to land 350,000 troops via 9000 assault vessels against a well-fortified beach 40 miles long was a precarious undertaking, ways to combat the awesome Nazi mine barrage were equally daunting. With little in the way of a Navy to oppose the vast Allied armada German defenses were forced to rely heavily on mine warfare. Despite the dominance of Allied airpower the Germans managed to maintain an unrelenting program of continual mine sowing in the English Channel not only prior to D-Day but for weeks afterward. Utilizing high speed "E" and "S" torpedo boats, plus U-boats and aircraft to plant fields of mines, the Germans sought to wreak havoc upon thin-hulled landing craft, transports and battleships alike.

To offset the enemy coastal and Channel mine laying effort the Royal Navy mustered a veritable fleet within a fleet; a force of more than 300 mine craft of all types from danlayers to converted gill neuters, new BYMS and fleet sweepers. The area to be kept clear consisted of all of England's southern coast from Plymouth to Dover, plus a cross channel path almost 90 miles long and 30 miles wide - nearly 2800-sq-mi of open water, much of it well within the range of concentrated German shore batteries. In addition to securing this cluttered seaway the sweepers were charged with clearing ten new channels south from the Isle of Wight directly to Normandy's beaches. Guiding the invasion fleet in its navigation through this maze were ten underwater sonic buoys marking the entrance to each seaway from a mid-channel rendezvous point known as "Piccadilly Circus." For the invasion to succeed these channels would have to be marked and cleared to the very highest standard of accuracy.

With most of the new YMSs deployed to the Pacific, only 21 of the 32 US Navy sweepers involved in the D-Day operation were of this class, the balance of the American contribution being Raven/Auk-class fleet sweepers. The Royal Navy manned 52 American-built BYMS. In addition, in the American sector 18 wooden-hulled 110-ft SC-type sub-chasers were equipped as mine sweeping surface skimmers which would go in ahead of the YMS. The Brits would employ Fairmile launches for this equally dangerous role.