GERMAN DEFENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1938, Page 5

GERMAN DEFENCES

DEVELOPMENTS ON COAST. AERODROMES AND BATTERIES. Detailed reports of the new defences which Germany is erecting along the Schleswig frontier and the North Sea coast are published in the Danish and Norwegian Press, special attention being paid to the military development of Sylt, the northernmost island of the North Frisian group, writes Hector Bywater in the “Daily Telegraph and Morning Post.” Here, it is stated, underground hangars with space for hundreds of aircraft hjive been built and batteries of powerful guns, both coastal and anti-aicraft are mounted in armoured emplacements. While these reports are accepted in well-informed British circles as true in substance, the sensational conclusions drawn by the papers in question are deprecated. The German preparations, it is believed, are primarily defensive in character, even though they may constitute a potential menace to neighboouring States. Germany has always been rather sensitive about her North Sea coastline, which was heavily fortified in pre-war days. Under the Versailles Treaty most of the defences were dismantled, but one of the first acts of the Nazi regime was to restore them. FORTIFICATION OF SYLT. A beginning was made with Heligoland, which has again been converted into a well-armed stronghold. Borkum, Nordeney, and Wangeroog also have powerful defences of recent construction. The chain of outer defences is now apparently completed by the fortfication of Sylt, hitherto famous only as a bathing resort. With an area of 39 square miles, it is the largest German island in the North Sea, with a population of 6000. The principal village is Westerland, near which an extensive aerodrome was built, without any concealment, some years ago. It is considered very unlikely that Sylt would be chosen as a base for an air offensive against this country, from which it is distant about 310 miles. On the other hand, aircraft working from Sylt could 'perform valuable reconnaisance duties in conjunction with naval operations. There is, in fact, some evidence that the Sylt air station is a branch of the German naval air wing, known as Lutfbezirk Vl.—Air Section 6 —the headquarters of which are at Holtenau, in Kiel harbour. Aerodromes more conveniently placed for the purpose of overseas offensive operations abound in Oldenburg, Westphalia, and the Rhineland. Cologne, for example, is only 240 miles from the English coast and about 300 miles from London. ; It is probable that the establishment of strong air bases at Sylt and other points along the German North Sea Littoral, as well as on the Schleswig frontier and along the Baltic coast between Flensburg and Ruegan, is part Of a system intended to protect the great naval and. commercial ports, such as Welhelmshaven, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, and Luebeck from air attacks, to which they are scarcely less vulnerable than corresponding British ports. ,