M-class minesweeper (Netherlands)
class of minesweepers of the Royal Netherlands Navy built after World War I
The M class were the first minesweepers of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The need for minesweepers for the Dutch marine came during the First World War when sea mines were laid in great numbers.
Design and construction
The Navy converted four tugboats into minesweepers. These ships had been built by three different shipyards; Van der Kuyk & van der Ree in Rotterdam, Fa. Koopman in Dordrecht, and J & A van der Schuyt in Papendrecht.
Service history
All M class minesweepers were still in service during the Second World War, but none of them was able to escape to the United Kingdom; three of the four ships fell in German hands (M 3 was scuttled). After the war M 1 and M 4 were returned to the Netherlands, and re-entered service as tugboats.
Ships in class
See also
List of minesweepers of the Royal Netherlands Navy
References
Netherlandsnavy.nl :: M class minesweepers (in English)
Mark, C. Schepen van de Koninklijke Marine in W.O. II Alkmaar: De Alk bv, 1997: 106-116
von Münching, L.L. (1978). Schepen van de Koninklijke Marine in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (in Dutch). Alkmaar: De Alk.
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This entry incorporates text from “M-class minesweeper (Netherlands)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.