DEMONING DIVER: A TRADE, A PASSION

During the Second World War, as early as November 1942, the Germans were thinking of seizing the Toulon fleet; they crossed the line of demarcation and, 18, they were at Sanary. An operation to occupy the port was considered. Entrusted to the Army, with air support, poorly conducted, it will end, the November 27 5h 30 morning, the reaction of Admiral De Laborde, which will give the order of scuttling. Scheduled in advance, it will be done in less than an hour. More than a hundred ships will be scuttled, including 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 1 aviation transport, 15 destroyers, 14 torpedo boats, 4 avisos, 12 submarines, plus 30 miscellaneous vessels (fighters, patrol boats, anchor boats). nets, oil transports, bondage buildings) and 4 cranes and lifting docks, for a total of over 232 000 tons. Only four submarines (Casabianca, Marsouin, Iris and Glorieux) will manage in-extremis to escape this hell.

At the end of the conflict, the harbor is littered with wrecks, ammunition, explosives that will have to be neutralized. Thus will be born the famous GRS (Underwater Research Group), animated by the Mousquemers (JY Cousteau, Philippe Tailliez et Frédéric dumas), which is entrusted by the Naval Staff, this heavy task, among other underwater activities. His first mission will be to release two torpedoes from a German submarine aground in front of St Mandrier. Frédéric Dumas, in Anguishes in the sea we tell the story:

"I dipped on the back of the submarine and put my head through the torpedo loading panel. In the dim light of the compartment, I saw two long cylinders ... I noticed that the submarine was moving under the action of the swell, which was not done to reassure me ... Watching the torpedo with one eye, I made a little search without finding anything remarkable; the tug recovered the torpedo. "

De-mining teams are then trained to intervene on all war machines and assigned to the KMA section (Katymines). These divers are called "Minesweeper Divers". The material used is rather heteroclite: German scuba apparatus Draeger M 40, English Siebe-Gorman or closed circuit Davis. In 1949, the General Staff decides to carry out a demining mission of the Languedoc coast, which receives an official Testimony of satisfaction from the Ministry of the Navy. In addition, on this occasion, demining divers will be given a 'wet anchor' bonus, as well as a risk premium, in the same way as the heavyfooters who had started demining.

Since that heroic time, the job has of course changed a lot. Now recruited from the diver's certificate holders, applicants must complete an initial 9 training course during which they will learn to use all open, closed and semi-closed regulatory breathing apparatus. Their qualification will allow them to dive up to 60 meters in the air, and up to 80 meters with ternary mixtures (trimix) composed of nitrogen, oxygen and helium. They will also be trained in the research, identification and destruction of submerged explosive devices, underwater work (cutting, welding, moving large objects, photo and underwater video). A few years later, the access to the superior certificate of diver minesweepers will allow them to complete their knowledge in the field of neutralization of explosive devices. They will serve in specialized units (GPD : Groups of Minesweeping Divers and mine hunters mainly) whose diving and submerged explosive intervention are the essential missions.

What about today ? We followed Christopher, Minesweeper Diver at 3ème GPD during a training mission off Toulon. Three ordinary days in the life of an ordinary diver. We reach the arsenal where after the inevitable security checks, we are greeted by Christopher, Romain and Julien, who take us to the building that houses the premises of the 3ème GPD. It is surrounded by a rich collection of explosive objects of all kinds: mines, rockets, missiles, cannons, etc ... Since their creation, the three GPD have developed one or more areas of excellence. For example, the GPD Manche, based in Cherbourg, specializes in assault clearance in the context of maritime counter-terrorism, while the GPD Atlantic Brest operates on unknown mines and interventions in polluted water. The Mediterranean GPD in Toulon is involved in underwater works and VSW (Very Shallow Water), which consists of port clearance operations, accompanied by channel tracing to secure access to a mooring area. case of conflict for example.

Today, as part of an exercise, a research mission is scheduled. After having boarded all the necessary equipment, we leave the platform on a powerful tire and after having crossed the large roadstead, we arrive 20 mn later on the research area, not far from the Mejean cove, on sandy bottoms of ten meters, scattered with herbaria. After rigging their "crabs", the new equipment that the company Aqua Lung We now equip the demining divers, our "models" are quickly approaching the bottom and we follow them without delay. We are in July, the water is lukewarm, and the visibility is good, about ten meters. Sangués by two, our divers carefully rake the area, and eventually discover a bomb with his empennage half buried in the sand.

In reality, it would of course be forbidden for any non-specialist diver to approach it and even less touch it, the explosive charge being able to be always dangerous. Only professional deminers can handle them. If the object is too close to the coast, our divers will have to set up safety beams as a priority in order to ensure the safety of the mine, the lifting of the explosive device using a "cow" (parachute intended to lift a heavy machine) then its displacement towards a point of firecracking in safety at a certain distance from the coast, this one varying according to the load. But, even if it is their primary specialty, deminers do not intervene only in the marine environment, and depending on the theaters of operations, the procedures sometimes differ radically, as the 1st Master Sylvain B told us: “When from the Libyan conflict, we located an unexploded plane bomb in a building in Tripoli; before we could implement any procedure, they had lowered the bomb (250 kg anyway ...) by the stairs, had put it on a mattress in their pick-up and had left jolting in the desert to blow it up… ”.

It must be remembered that, as a serious threat to maritime forces and commercial traffic on the oceans, mines have been used intensively during the last two world conflicts. In addition, they were also used during the wars of Korea and Vietnam and during the conflicts in the Middle East. If these conflicts have ended for more or less long, for the mine-clearing divers, they are not finished, and the task to be accomplished remains considerable ... Anyway, there is a procedure to apply in case of fortuitous discovery by particular, which consists in alerting the emergency stations that will relay information to the relevant services (police, semaphores, Crossmed, etc.). If possible, and without putting yourself in danger, find the place, or even mark it to find it, which will facilitate the work of specialists.

But back to our mission: the second part will consist of finding a large caliber exercise shell that our divers will have to sling and go back on board the zodiac with a parachute before returning to their base. The exercise goes off without a hitch after a short survey and we return to the 605 post for debriefing.

In the afternoon we will accompany our guests for a very different mission, because this time it is to make measurements of thickness of hull on the frigate ASM (Anti Under Marine) Montcalm in the port of Toulon. The waters of the harbor are not really transparent, and we get into the water between the dock and the hull of the ship with two mine clearance divers accompanied by two divers aboard the frigate.

When we return from diving, Philippe will tell us that the atmosphere was special: "It reminds me a bit of Brittany; we even meet some beautiful mules and sars of respectable size; the working conditions are not easy, you have to juggle between settings and particles. In a green and murky water, all is only diffuse shade and light. The forms are fading, ghostly, we quickly lose their bearings, stuck between the platform and the dark mass 140 meters long. A few seconds were enough for me to lose sight of the team, and I had some difficulty finding it, the divers having meanwhile passed under the hull to examine the starboard side. Under this gigantic mass, my only landmark was the pale reflection of the sun on the muddy bottom. With a vision of less than one meter, making images in these conditions was a real challenge, especially since the time allotted for the mission was counted; we then realize the versatility necessary for the profession of deminer ... »

The next day, return to the arsenal for another mission. A mine in orin exercise has been deposited in the same area as the day before, and it must be found before being carefully examined before handling. To do this, the deminers have a sophisticated tool, the DUPM 2A sonar, capable of relocating the position of objects encountered.

Christopher and his usual partner, Julien, quickly rig their "crabs" and rock towards the bottom, where we follow them. Christopher is on a compass, while Julien scrutinizes the echoes displayed on the sonar screen. After a serious kicking session, they find the mine hanging on his toad in about ten meters of water and recover it. Here too, the somewhat James-like atmosphere of the dive surprises us: "It feels as if you were attending a 007 shoot ... Except here, there are no gadgets; they are real working tools that only perfectly trained professionals are able to implement. And the technology used has a very distant relationship with that of amateur diving. But she would make any diver fantasize ... "

Back at the base, greeting the PAN Charles de Gaulle: the crew in full force and in full dress on the flight deck waiting for the visit of the Admiral on the occasion of the transfer of the commander of the building ... On our part, we will visit the support building of our divers, the BBPD (Pluto Deminers Base Building) Pluto; moored not far from the premises of the GPD, it is certainly smaller in size. It is equipped with a multi-seat recompression box that deminer divers are able to implement. The ship is in service from 1986 and equipped with all the necessary equipment to allow dives up to 80 meters, including a large rear deck, which facilitates the quick launch of its zodiacs with the hydraulic crane. It can ship 12 divers, 1 doctor and a nurse, spin over 13 nodes and own a 2 200 ch machine. Its maximum autonomy is 13 700 km (7 400 nq) to 9 nodes. For the anecdote, one of the last ships of the Navy to bear the name of Pluto was ... a minesweeper ...

Our third day of reporting will be devoted to the "Trasum", in other words the underwater works, which not only fall within the remit of the GPD, but of which it is also the specialty. We join the pier at the foot of which different welding and oxycutting work must be done. Once again, the atmosphere is surreal: the crackling of the torch interspersed with lightning and the almost deafening rumbling of the bubbles compose a completely unusual scenery. Yet another facet of the business, and missions in this area are many and varied. It should be noted that, in addition to the actual demining activities, the use of explosives (for countermining, for example), underwater works, mine clearance divers also intervene following shipwrecks and participate in the search for missing persons at sea, as well as the destruction of drifting containers presenting a danger for navigation, or the elimination at the request of the Maritime Prefect of cetacean carcasses stranded or killed during collisions with ferries for example .

In conclusion, an interview with the commander of 3ème GPD provides the answers to the questions we still asked ourselves:

- “As you have seen, the occupation of mine clearance diver has many facets; it is constantly evolving, and will change again in the coming decades. Even in the face of the sometimes rapid advances in technology, we will always need men. And we must never forget that zero risk does not exist, as evidenced by the anecdote of the Pegasus, well known in the world of mine clearance: A few years ago, the mine hunter Pegasus, on a mission in the Manche, had located a bomb on a small tumulus at the back; the surroundings were clear, and the planned handling should not pose any problem with the usual precautions. What everyone was unaware of, an extremely rare fact in the annals of demining, is that this bomb was in fact resting on the wreckage of a barge which, for its part, contained ten tons of ammunition. The explosion was not quite what we expected ... Nevertheless, no injuries were to be deplored. Certainly, some progress has been decisive, such as the hydro-abrasive cutting of certain types of ammunition, or the use of robots which are more and more similar to submarine “drones”. But they are not yet completely autonomous. Hazard analysis, interpretation and decision making cannot be done by machine as it is. Perhaps one day we will see a generation of “master drones” appear? The future will tell. But the profession still has good years ahead of it, knowing that currently, we unfortunately still produce and launch more ammunition around the world than we can handle. On the other hand, I do not worry about the motivation of my men: all are deeply convinced of the usefulness and the merits of their profession. Far from the spy clichés of the 7th Art, they are above all men, professionals, competent, discreet ... and passionate. "

The authors would like to thank the Commander and all the divers of the 3ème GPD in Toulon for their friendly welcome, their availability and for the facilities granted to the realization of this report.

Text and photos BLUE PASSION
Alain Ponchon and Philippe Joachim, with the help of Philippe Lecomte.