![]() Minesweeper's playing field is composed of nothing more than a square-shaped grid made up of several gray squares. After a few weeks blew by, I finally figured out that I could prosper by clicking the Help menu and reading about how to play. It seemed to be more based on luck than bingo and it was about as fun as staring into space with nothing on your mind. For months, I was included in the majority that had no idea about how to play the damn thing. ''I don't understand that game! All you do is click squares until you lose!!!''ĭoes that sound like you? If not, I bet you'll get that reaction if you ask at least two random people what they think of Minesweeper. More playable games like Solitaire and Wheel of Fortune took up my thousands of minutes of spare time when I was actually bored enough to check out what PC gaming had to offer. Upon receiving my very own computer many years ago, it took me over a year to finally decide to try out this explosive little title that's on every computer in the world. Minesweeper seems to be one of those games…at first. Some games aren't meant to be played unless you're just bored out of your mind with nothing to do but sit and stare at the detail of the walls around you. I've got too much time on my hands, and I don't know what to do with it all John Edwin Payne was born in Oxford on March 16 1925, but brought up at Lancing, West Sussex, where he received little schooling except in the Church Lads’ Brigade, and by the time he was 15 he was a newspaper delivery boy and a messenger in the Auxiliary Fire Service." I've got too much time on my hands, and I don't know what to do with it all" Payne was awarded the BEM for his valuable service in connection with mine clearance and disposal just before the close of the war and in the months that followed. Remarkably, there were few casualties and they became one of the most highly decorated units of the war, accumulating some 70 awards, including a George Cross, seven George Medals, two OBEs and numerous BEMs and Mentions in Despatches. Some were reached only hours after the retreating Germans, and P 1 also took prisoners of war.Īt Antwerp, in the winter of 1944-45, in the freezing water “rockets and shells were still coming over at times every three minutes … The Germans were doing a lot of shelling, but the Americans held them back.”Įventually, five P Parties were formed, comprising about 100 British, Commonwealth and Dutch divers. As the British and Canadian armies advanced, P 1 cleared the ports of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Some of the damage was due to Allied bombing. Payne helped to clear debris, booby traps and unexploded bombs before moving to Rouen – “though you could hardly tell it was a dock as it was blown to pieces so badly”. The men dived several times a day and worked round the clock in thick mud the days ran into weeks, and at one point the only rations P 1 received were American cigarettes – “which were pretty bad, but good for bartering”. ![]() ![]() Payne joined “P 1” (later formally renamed Naval Party 1571), and the first harbour he helped to clear was Cherbourg. Several P Parties were formed, each with about 12 divers and their dressers, drivers, maintainers, a sick-bay attendant and a cook. Though Payne did not know it at the time, the Germans had sabotaged the ports of north-west Europe and these urgently had to be opened up, so that the advancing Allied armies could be resupplied by sea. Payne recalled: “When he asked, ‘Does anyone want to back out?’ nobody did, which, I think, he was quite pleased with.” The diving kit consisted of a stiff rubberised canvas suit and a mask with limited visibility. There, an officer showed pictures of docks still in enemy hands, defended by barbed-wire entanglements and various mines. He found that he was to become a demolitions diver: only men who were unmarried were accepted.Īfter training in London docks which had suffered under the Blitz, Payne was issued with a khaki uniform, a rifle and five rounds of ammunition, and sent to the Admiralty. Able Seaman Johnny Payne, who has died aged 98, was the last known survivor of the “P” Parties, or “human minesweepers”, a secret navy formed during the Second Word War.Ĭalled up into the Navy when he was 18, Payne heard that volunteers for special duties were needed.
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