SYLT FORTIFICATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1938, Page 7

SYLT FORTIFICATIONS

SENSATIONAL CONCLUSIONS DEPRECATED .. PART OF DEFENSIVE CHAIN. .. PRINCIPAL AIRCRAFT BASES ELSEWHERE. (Recd This Day, 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, April 11. Mr H. C. Bywater, writing in the “Daily Telegraph,” says British circles deprecate sensational conclusions regarding Sylt Island, which is considered to be a defensive couple with a chain of fortifications including Heliogoland, Borkum, Norderney and Wangeroog. Germany’s aerodromes for overseas operations are more conveniently placed at Oldenburg, in Westphalia and in the Rhineland. A London cablegram on April 7 stated: Although it is most difficult to secure authentic information, there have been frequent reports in the last two years that Germany is constructing a secret fortress on the Island of Sylt, in the North Sea, only 400 miles from Britain. The “Daily Mirror,” in a special dispatch from Denmark, asserts that Sylt has become the strongest fortress in the world, gravely menacing Britain. It contains giant aeroplane hangars camouflaged as gardens, flanked by gun emplacements disguised as farmhouses. Ships are ceaselessly unloading guns and munitions from Germany.

Sylt is the largest German island in the North Sea, and is about 38 square miles in area and 23 miles long. It is however, very narrow, being generally about half a mile wide, except in the middle, where it sends out a peninsula to the east seven miles across. It lies from seven to twelve miles off the Schleswig coast. During the war of 1864 it was in Danish hands, but was occupied by the Prussians later in the year.