View source for Minelayer

{{short description|Military vehicle built for process of deploying explosive mines}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2007}}
[[File:HMCS Sankaty.jpg|thumb|Canadian sailors with a mine aboard the minelayer HMCS [[Sankaty (steamboat)|''Sankaty'']] off [[City of Halifax|Halifax, Nova Scotia]] in [[World War II]].]]
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A '''minelayer''' is any [[warship]], [[submarine]], [[military aircraft]] or [[land vehicle]] deploying [[explosive mine]]s. Since [[World War I]] the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying [[naval mine]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/minelayer |title=minelayer |work=Definitions from Dictionary.com |publisher=[[Reference.com|Dictionary.com]] |access-date=6 October 2007}}</ref> "Mine planting" was the term for installing [[controlled mines]] at predetermined positions in connection with coastal fortifications or harbor approaches that would be detonated by shore control when a ship was fixed as being within the mine's effective range.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.militarymuseum.org/Mines.html |title=Submarine Mine Defense of San Francisco Bay |first=Gordon |last=Chappel |work=Historic California Posts — Forts Under the Sea |publisher=[[California State Military Museum]] |access-date=23 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fortmiles.org/intel/firepower/batteries/batt8.html |title=Principle Armament – Mine Field |publisher=FortMiles.org |access-date=23 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103014421/http://www.fortmiles.org/intel/firepower/batteries/batt8.html |archive-date=3 November 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

An army's special-purpose [[combat engineer]]ing vehicles used to lay [[landmine]]s are sometimes called "minelayers".

== Etymology ==
Before World War I, mine ships were termed [[mine planter]]s generally. For example, in an address to the [[United States Navy]] ships of Mine Squadron One at [[Isle of Portland|Portland]], England, [[William Sims|Admiral Sims]] used the term "mine layer" while the introduction speaks of the men assembled from the "mine planters".<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url= https://archive.org/stream/northernbarragem00annarich#page/106/mode/2up |editor=All Hands |year=1919 |chapter=Speech of Admiral W. S. Sims, U. S. Navy |title=The Northern Barrage, Mine Force, United States Atlantic Fleet, The North Sea, 1918 |location=Annapolis, MD |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute|Naval Institute Press]] |page=108 }}</ref> During and after that war the term "mine planter" became particularly associated with defensive coastal fortifications. The term "minelayer" was applied to vessels deploying both defensive- and offensive mine barrages and large scale sea mining. "Minelayer" lasted well past the last common use of "mine planter" in the late 1940s.

==Naval minelayers==
{{confuse|Mine planter (vessel)}}
[[File:Amiral Murgescu (side).jpg|thumb|''[[NMS Amiral Murgescu|Amiral Murgescu]]'' of the [[Romanian Navy]], a successful World War II minelayer that was also employed as a [[destroyer escort]]]]
[[File:HMS Älvsborg (M02).jpg|thumb|Swedish minelayer ''[[HSwMS Älvsborg (M02)|Älvsborg]]'' (1974)]]
[[File:FNS Uusimaa Helsinki 1.jpg|thumb|Finnish Navy [[Hämeenmaa-class minelayer|''Hämeenmaa''-class minelayer]] FNS ''Uusimaa'']]
The most common use of the term "minelayer" is a [[naval ship]] used for deploying [[naval mine|sea mine]]s. [[Amur-class minelayer (1898)|Russian minelayers]] were highly efficient sinking the Japanese battleships {{ship|Japanese battleship|Hatsuse||2}} and {{ship|Japanese battleship|Yashima||2}} in 1904 in the [[Russo-Japanese War]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Fitzsimons |editor-first=B |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare |page=104}}</ref> In the [[Gallipoli Campaign]] of [[World War I]], mines laid by the [[Turkish Navy|Ottoman Empire's Navy]]'s ''[[Nusret (ship)|Nusret]]'' sank {{HMS|Irresistible|1898|6}}, {{HMS|Ocean|1898|6}}, and the {{ship|French battleship|Bouvet}}<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyFrench.htm |last=Smith |first=Gordon |title=Naval War in Outline |work=World War 1 at Sea: French Navy }}</ref> in the [[Dardanelles]] on 18 March 1915.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A03E0DF153EE033A25753C2A9659C946496D6CF |title=Irresistible, Ocean and Bouvet Go Down, Hitting Mines in Strait. |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=20 March 1915 }}</ref>

In World War II, the British employed the [[Abdiel-class minelayer|Abdiel]] minelayers both as minelayers and as transports to isolated garrisons, such as [[Malta]] and [[Tobruk]]. Their combination of high speed (up to 40 knots) and carrying capacity was highly valued. The French used the same concept for the [[cruiser]] {{ship|French cruiser|Pluton||2}}.

A naval minelayer can vary considerably in size, from coastal boats of several hundred [[tonnes]] in [[Tonnage#Weight-based systems|displacement]] to [[destroyer]]-like ships of several thousand tonnes displacement. Apart from their loads of sea mines, most would also carry other weapons for self-defense, with some armed well enough to carry out other combat operations besides minelaying, such as the World War II Romanian minelayer ''[[NMS Amiral Murgescu|Amiral Murgescu]]'', which was successfully employed as a convoy escort due to her armament (2 × 105&nbsp;mm, 2 × 37&nbsp;mm, 4 × 20&nbsp;mm, 2 machine guns, 2 depth charge throwers).

[[Submarine]]s can also be minelayers. The first submarine to be designed as such was the {{ship|Russian submarine|Krab|1912|6}}. {{USS|Argonaut|SM-1}} was another such minelaying submarine. Although there are no modern dedicated submarine minelayers, mines sized to be deployed from a submarine's torpedo tubes, such as the [[Stonefish (mine)|Stonefish]], allow any submarine to be a minelayer.

In modern times, few navies worldwide still possess minelaying vessels. The [[United States Navy]], for example, uses aircraft to lay sea mines instead. Mines themselves have evolved from purely passive to active; for example the US [[CAPTOR mine|CAPTOR (enCAPsulated TORpedo)]] that sits as a mine until detecting a target, then launches a torpedo.

A few navies still have dedicated minelayers in commission, including those of [[Republic of Korea Navy|South Korea]], [[Polish Navy|Poland]], [[Swedish Navy|Sweden]] and [[Finnish Navy|Finland]]; countries with long, shallow coastlines where sea mines are most effective. Other navies have plans to create improvised minelayers in times of war, for example by rolling sea-mines into the sea from the vehicle deck through the open aft doors of a [[Roll-on/roll-off]] ferry. In 1984, the [[Libyan Navy#Actions|Libyan Navy]] was suspected of having mined the [[Red Sea]] a few [[nautical mile]]s south of the Suez Canal using the Ro-Ro ferry ''Ghat'', other nations suspected of having similar wartime plans include Iran and North Korea.

==Aerial minelaying==
[[File:178 Squadron RAF Liberator being armed with mines.jpg|thumb|A Royal Air Force [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|Liberator bomber]] loaded with [[parachute mine]]s]]
Beginning in [[World War II]], [[military aircraft]] were used to deliver naval mines by dropping them, attached to a [[parachute]]. Germany, Britain and the United States made significant use of aerial minelaying.

A [[Naval mine#World War II|new type of magnetic mine]] dropped by a German aircraft in a campaign of mining the Thames Estuary in 1939 landed in a mudflat, where disposal experts determined how it worked, which allowed Britain to fashion appropriate [[mine countermeasure]]s.

The British [[Royal Air Force]] minelaying operations were [[codename]]d "Gardening". As well as mining the North Sea and approaches to German ports, mines were laid in the [[Danube River]] near [[Belgrade]], [[Yugoslavia]], starting on 8 April 1944, to [[Oil campaign of World War II|block the shipments of petroleum products]] from the refineries at [[Ploiești]], Romania.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adkins |first=Paul |year=1997 |title=Codeword Dictionary |location=Osceola, WI |publisher=Motorbooks International |page=79}}</ref>  

"Gardening" operations by the RAF were also sometimes used to assist in [[Gardening (cryptanalysis)|code breaking activities]] at [[Bletchley Park]].  Mines would be laid, at Bletchley Park's request, in specific locations. Resulting German radio transmissions were then monitored for clues which could help deciphering messages encoded by the Germans using [[Enigma machine|Enigma machines]].

In the [[Pacific War|Pacific]], the US dropped thousands of mines [[Operation Starvation|in Japanese home waters]], contributing to that country's defeat.

Aerial mining was also used in the [[Korean War|Korean]] and [[Vietnam War]]s. In Vietnam, rivers and coastal waters were extensively mined with a modified bomb called a ''destructor'' that proved very successful.<!-- This is related to Aerial minelaying? -->

==Landmine laying==
[[File:Engineering reconnaissance and firing complex Zemledelie on the march.jpg|thumb|Zemledeliye remote minelayer]]
[[File:Minenwerfer Skorpion 04.JPG|thumb|Skorpion minelayer]]
[[File:JGSDF Type94 Beach Minelayer Vehicle 01.jpg|thumb|JGSDF Type 94 minelayer]]
Some examples of minelaying vehicles:
* [[Shielder minelaying system]]
* [[Zemledeliye (minelaying system)]]
* GMZ family of minelayers, which the [[2S4 Tyulpan]] is based on, using [[TM-62 series of mines|TM-62 series mines]]
* Minenwerfer Skorpion
* Type 94 Minelayer
* Istrice (M113 variant)

==See also==
*[[List of minelayer ship classes]]
*[[List of mine warfare vessels of the United States Navy#Minelayers .28CM.29|List of mine warfare vessels of the US Navy in the Second World War]]
* [[Mine Planter Service (U.S. Army)]]
* [[Minesweeper (ship)]]
* [[Submarine mines in United States harbor defense]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book |last=Hartcup |first=Guy |year=1970 |title=The Challenge of War |url=https://archive.org/details/challengeofwarbr00hart |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Taplinger Publishing Company |isbn=9780800814311 }}
*{{cite book |last=Hartmann |first=Gregory K. |year=1979 |title=Weapons that Wait: Mine Warfare in the U.S. Navy |location=Annapolis, MD |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute|Naval Institute Press]] |isbn=0-87021-753-4}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Jurens |first1=W.|title=Life in the Slow Lane: Some Thoughts on Minelayer and Netlayer Evolution |journal=Warship International |date=2016 |volume=LIII |issue=1 |pages=59–68 |issn=0043-0374}}

==External links==
*{{cite EB1922 |last=Dewar |first=Alfred |wstitle=Minesweeping and Minelaying|volume=31 |pages=949–995 |short=x}}

{{Warship types of the 19th & 20th centuries}}
{{WWII US ships}}
{{Camanche class minelayers}}
{{Chimo class minelayer}}
{{Linnet class minelayer}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Mine warfare]]
[[Category:Minelayers]]