Modern/Post-War Photos

British MK17 destroyed

brummbar TSOservice

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.