Clearance Diving Frogman Suit and Mine

Displayed here are a range of weapons which highlight the development of underwater warfare from the late 1880s up to the present day.

Suspended overhead is a moored sea mine. Minefields came into their own during the First World War when long stretches of the coast of Britain, Germany and France were sown with extensive fields to limit the operations of the opposing forces. Moored mines could also have a ‘friendly fire’ effect, making it difficult for users to access home locations and ports after the closure of hostilities. It was also quite common for mines to break loose of their moorings and drift into sea lanes, creating hazards  not only for Naval, but also commercial and passenger vessels.

When submarine warfare began in the First World War two things became obvious. Firstly, attacking shipping from a submerged position made the attacker invisible, and therefore difficult to locate and counter-attack. Secondly, being submerged, there was no weapon with which to counterattack even if you did know the location of a submarine. Thus, depth charges were developed, to provide a weapon which could be used to attack submarines at whatever depth they may be located. However, once submarines became as fast as a surface vessel, depth-charges became useless. This then led to the development of weapons such as the Australian Ikara missile system.