Hallo,

According the German book "Minenschiffe 1939-1945" this is what happened.

The German minelayers Roland, Cobra and Tannenberg sailed on 31 august 1940
at 11.00h from Cuxhaven to Rotterdam there on 1 September at 10.00h They were escorted by 3 destroyers and 8 torpedoboats. The same evening these ships with same escorts sailed from Rotterdam at 18.30h to lay minefield SW3 between the positions 51°40,2’N/2°27,5’E and 51°28,5’N/2°10,6’E. This field was actually laid in the night 2 September 1940 between 01.35 and 03.28h.
This means that this SW3 field has nothing to do with the loss of the
Esk and Ivanhoe. According the above mentioned book these destroyers were
lost a mine-barrage SW 1 laid in the of 8 August 1940 by the same German
minelayers Roland, Cobra und Brummer.
About 50 British sailors were rescued by vessels from 11 UJ.-Flottille.

From British (combined) sources:
On August 31st 1940, the Express, Esk, Icarus, Interpid and Ivanhoe from
20the Destroyer Flotilla, escorted by the Kelvin, Jupiter and Vortigern from
the 5the Destroyer Flotilla left Immingham to lay an offensive field off the
coast of the Netherlands. At around 23.00 hours almost to the point of
dropping mines, it was reported by radio that there was an enemy convoy near
at hand, which was to be attacked after the mines had been dropped. Before
any mines were dropped, three of the ships, Esk, Ivanhoe and Express, had
themselves struck mines. Esk and Ivanhoe sunk, Express was able to reach home.

Greetings from Holland, Hans Jehee