HELIGOLAND

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 47, 19 November 1920, Page 7

HELIGOLAND

GREAT FORTRESS IN MELTING POT.

"If Heligoland is not already quite useless as a fortress, nt any rate its teeth have boon drawn," says a London Telegraph." correspondent. "It is almost a pity that its fortifications could not jiavo been preserved as a curiosity of misapplied labour. Thev were a model of that Gruiv.llichkeit with which the Germans did the wrong thing. The constructors of tV' latter wdrks seem to have taken a battleship as their model. In fact, they transformed Heligoland into (something verv like a stationary ship of war. "From one' end to the other the island which' is little more than a mile long'and only about one-fifth of a square mile in area, was tunnelled and honeycombed with subterranean chambers. In tlieso there was accommodation for everyone, and everything needed to fight the fortress— living apartments for olhecrsand men, hospitals, engine-rooms, and store"Sho'rtago of special apparatus and the necessity for caution in the use. of high explosives are retailing factors m derao- ' "Though something like 10,01)0 tons of steel work has to be picked to pieces,, this is o joke in comparison with the breaking up of the concrete. Of this substance, which is reinforced with iron rods as thick as your finger, the tunnels and pits on the island contain 1J6,000 cubic yards, while a further 400,000 oublo yards wero used for tho construction of the war harbour, quays, and other works on tho bench level. "The demolitiorr has been put .out to contraot with German firms, which receive for it a 15 -per cent, addition o tapir wages bill. In the dissection of the guns and armour plates a new oxyhvdrogen process is being employed- 1) is I am told, a German invention, and m put into practice only a tew months n»o The liame by which the cutting is done is so hot that it bites its way through to tho centre of the breach; of a l°in gun in about a minute. ~"Bv this process the armour plates ot the turrets and cupolas are being cut iin into practicable sections, and the ems into lengths of threo or tour leet each. With steel at its present price the debris will realise a large sum, though Ihn cost of transport to tho mainland will be heavy. At the time of, my visit seven of the % howitzers and the southern battery of Uvelvo-inchers had been destroyed. Apart from the breech-block.-, whlich had l*e« removed the big guns at tho other end of tho island were intact, but th" greater part of tho'turrets had beon taken to pieces. "To get rid of the concrete will bp a much moro delicate operation. Unless the blasting i> done with small charges and great care, it may literally destroy Heligoland, f or the works are like a net spread over the whole of tho island.. Except for tho disengagement of metal work, the concrete* has as yot hardly been touched. "The tumults of the great world seem far away boyond the green seas which encirdo the rock, and there are tennis, occasional cricket, bathing, boatiug, and i fishing to while away tho leisure hours.