WHERE IS THE GERMAN FLEET?

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 699, 29 August 1914, Page 6

WHERE IS THE GERMAN FLEET?

SAFE HARBOURS ON THE NORTH SEA. "One of the best equipped naval Btations in the world" is how a very high English authority descrbed the harbour, which the Germans literally dug out for their famous High Seas Fleet.

For more than nine years the wind swept sand dunes of Wilhelmshaven and the desolate flats that almost isolate it from the North Sea were over-run by an army of German engineers, contractors, builders, and their more humble workers, all engaged in transforming this most unnatural Dort into the strongest naval base between Copenhagen and Cherbourg. And Wilhelmshaven is but one of a series of forts of immense strength behind which" the German Fleet can lie in impregnable safety. We speak of the "bottling-up" of the enemy, but on the other hand it would take something to "draw the cork." The pcturesque old days of the Grenvilles and Shovels are gone. W* shall never hear again of "cutting out the enemy's 'fleet from under hiß very guns," Modern fortifications and floating mineß have.altered all that. Under William 11. a mganificent system of coast defence, haa sprung up." says a German writer. "With amazement and dread the English see°its culmination yearly drawing nea"rer. By means of the chain of fortifications which reaches from Borkum to Heilogoland, the German Fleet is assured of so wide a manoeuvre area that at pleasure it can dßiappear under cover and reappear a hundred ,and fifty kilometres (ninety-four miles away). The enemy is therefore compelled to concentrate her forces, instead of scattering them, as she would prefer to blockade all our river mouths. Our

torpedo boats have, however, a safe route to their sallyport Borkum, whence they can appear in six hours on the English coast. The whole system, which ia entirely due to William Il'a initiative, doubleß the Btrength of our fleet. To make a breach in these fortifications, or even to estalish a possibility of making an attempt to. do eo—this is the idea at which the English clutch ever more deparingly. It ia not now sufficient to receive casual reports. Highly paid agents and their officers now devote their lives andr isk an end in a German prison in order to make expert surveys of the nwely erected fortifications. Twenty years ago the English War Office paid grudgingly in guineas for German information. For the knowledge of what has been done under William 11. they would willingly pay millions uf pounds.". Wilhelmshaven and Emden, Borkum and Heligoland form the greatest quadrilateral of navßl fortresses the world has ever seen. Commenting upon the transfer of the First Dreadnought Squadron from Kiel in the Baltic to Wilhelmshaven in the North Sea the Westminster Gazette said: "This transfer has formally announced to the military world that the great North Sea Quadrilateral is sufficiently complete to afford the requisite shelter to the inaugural division of tha high sea Dreadnought Fleet. It is the announcement that the fortified island of Borkum combines with Emden to accentuate the importance of the Ems estuary in the new scheme for the future; while Borkum connects with Heligoland through the impassable chain of the East Frisian Islands; and Heligoland —the Northern Gibraltar—closes the estuarieß )f the Weer and Elbe, and completes with the mighty fortressharbour of Welhelmshaven the vast quadrilateral—Emden, Borkum, Heligoland, Wilhelmshaven—which encloses in its enormous bastion-con-figuravcion—loo miles long on each of its faces and 60 on each of its flanks —a score of isles and islets, bristling with sunken citadels armed with innumerable monster guns, together with linking positions on the mainland of huge strength and extent " This chain of fixed defences has been augmented by a wonderful aystern of submarines mines and electric torpedo stations, bo that from all accounts a hostile fleet would have to pick its way very carefully. In fact, no commander would think of taking his ship into such a death trap. The length of thhe German coast line on the North Sea is about 350 miles. A long this attenuated shore there are no fewer than 10 naval stations, depots, or shipbuilding yards, an average of 1 to every 35 miles. On the Baltic, with a coast line of 850 miles in extent, Germany has nine more naval portß, raising the total to 19 on a coaßt 1200 miles long.