Naval mine ship, HMHS "Britannic", which was the sister ship of the RMS "Titanic." During World War II, the U-boat fleet, which dominated much of the battle of the Atlantic, was small at the beginning of the war and much of the early action by German forces involved mining convoy routes and ports around Britain. German submarines also operated in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the U.S. coast. Initially, contact mines (requiring a ship to physically strike a mine to detonate it) were employed, usually tethered at the end of a cable just below the surface of the
German training ship Bremse that the "Nigeria" was damaged by a mine and "Bremse" sunk by gunfire.) 160 men, over half of her crew, died. German training ship Bremse Bremse was built as an artillery training ship (Artillerieschulschiff ) of Nazi Germany's "Kriegsmarine" with a secondary function as a testbed for new marine diesel engines later installed in German panzerschiffs. During World War II, she operated as an escort ship until her sinking in September 1941. "Bremse" was commissioned on June 14, 1933 and attached to the artillery training school at Kiel, to replace older predecessors. In 1933 she underwent repairs and a complete