Why the US NAVY Needed Sacrificial "Guinea Pig" Ships to Counter Sea Mines - Deep Dive

During WWII the US seeded thousands of sea mines in Japanese ports harbors and waterways. Around 3,000 of these mines were the unsweepable pressure-magnetic triggered type. International law requires mine clean-up is the responsibility of the belligerent who seeded the mine. The US was responsible for mine cleanup. All of the pressure-magnetic triggered mines incorporated a sterilization feature which would render them inert 150 to 190 days after planting. To make sure they are harmless though, the US developed a fleet of 3 modified ships to act as Guinea pigs, sailing over mine fields to detonate the pressure-magnetic triggered mines. The ships completed 300 missions from November 1945 to May 1946. They only detonated a single pressure mine in Dec, 1945 during their missions.

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