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
Iosif Stalin-class passenger ship strong survivors, although they had weapons and ammunition to put up a fairly good defense. The ship was raised on 11 July 1945 and towed to Tallinn, where it was scrapped, though part of the ship's bow remains aground. Launched on 17 August 1939. Mobilized as the military transport ship VT-509 after the outbreak of the war. The ship participated in the evacuation from Tallinn in the summer of 1941. She was damaged by a mine (which sunk the minesweeper T-201 Zaryad) and aerial bombing, and was towed back to Leningrad to be repaired. The ship was later used as