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Music Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War, episode 155, the early naval war part five, danger above and below.

This week, a big thank you goes out to Blade for the donation

and to John, Jeremy, and Abir for becoming members. You can find out more about becoming a member

over at History of the Second World War.com slash members. This episode is going to focus on two

topics that I don't think get enough focus when it comes to the early war at sea during

the Second World War, mine warfare, and the early German air attacks against the Royal Navy.

In the case of both of these topics, I think they get generally overlooked in favor of

flashier topics, like the actions of German surface raiders and German U-boats.

But don't worry, both of those topics will be covered in good detail over the next seven episodes.

But for now, this episode is going to be a time to shine for mines in the early naval air war.

The action's responses and responses to those responses around both mines and the Luftwaffe

would shape the course of the naval war in important ways, especially during the early period of the

war when the Royal Navy was finding its footing and the German U-boat production capacity was

still ramping up.

Over the course of the war, tens of thousands of mines would be laid in the North Sea by both

...