General Montgomery's M3 Grant at the IWM in London.

Monty's M3

Weeks ago while looking on the net for a good WW2 photo I found this photo of Sinaida Grussman.Over the years I have seen countless warphotos and read some horrible accounts so I'm not easily shaken by an image of war.This photo however got to me more than i would normally want to admit.And I can't explane why.I've been looking further and I came upon the site of the UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM.

http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=1684659&campaign_id=117313&enString=x

Please go to or read the 'Remember me' section.


http://rememberme.ushmm.org

Sinaida Grussman 

Divers who discovered a WW2 British type MK17 contactmine of the coast of Petten(Netherlands) warned the Dutch coastguard.They contacted the Dutch Royal Navy who in turn asked for the Belgian minesweeper M916 Bellis to go to the site.The minesweeper was at that time conducting excercises for  Belgian Royal Military School cadets.
Because of the danger for sport divers it was decided to neutralise the British mine.
The Belgian and Dutch Navy have been working closely together  for a mumber of years in the field of mine and explosives clearing.Fishermen discover unexploded mines or bombs from WW1 and WW2 on a weekly basis of the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands.After all these years the danger remains acute.On april 6th ,2005; three crew of a Dutch fishing boat died when a WW2 aircraft bomb exploded when hoisting up the nets on deck.After that accident the search and destroy policy was upgraded.Since 2005  no less than 1062 bombs,mines,grenates and torpedo's have been cleared.We have only a very small Navy but they do a valuable job ;)Btw,the photo is of another Belgian Navy minesweeper,the M921 Lobelia.