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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



GKXKKAL MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE MINE ElELDS 



The narrow Straits of Dover had been closed previously by mines and nets. With the 

 completion of the North Sea Barrage, stretching from Norway to the Orkney Islands, the 

 fate of the German submarine was sealed. 



tory faded. She knew it better than we, 

 and at once circuitously sent forth her 

 first proposals for peace, which developed 

 with such remarkable rapidity that a few 

 weeks later the Armistice was signed and 

 the war was over. 



Then came the period of reconstruc- 

 tion, with tasks almost as great as those 

 of the war itself. The havoc and devas- 

 tation had been frightful. Cities and 



farms without number must be rebuilt, 

 millions of starving people had to be fed, 

 and, perhaps most immediately serious of 

 all, the thousands upon thousands of 

 mines which had been laid must now be 

 cleared away, in order that the countless 

 vessels loaded with food and troops might 

 navigate in safety the long-obstructed 

 ocean highways. 



Concentrated in the North Sea Barrage 



