UNDERGROUND FORTS IN BELGIUM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2605, 23 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNDERGROUND FORTS IN BELGIUM.

' In a recent number of La Nature, Colonel Hennebert, of the Belgium Army, describes underground forts, which have come into nee in Belgium, as one of the principal methods of national defonco. One of these forte is like an enlarged molehill, and ie built of concrete. Measuring 50 metres in length, from 30 to 40 metres in width, it is about 12 motr n s below the surface of the ground, and its greatest height abore the earth ie no more than 4or 4 J metres. It presents the appeal anoe of an elliptical cap placed on the ground, and it is scarcely visible to the eye. At the centre of thie artificial rook are three armoured towers, each with two heavy prune. There are also four email forts, which are pulled in and run out at pleasure,eash armed with two rapid-firing guns. At three suitable places, there are armoured points of observation, from two of which at night, the electric light can be flashed to watch the operations of the enemy. Below this surface the earth is hollowed out in the form of a huge well, with armour on both sides, which is divided up into sections, each part protected with heavy armour, one part for provisions and ammnnitioD, another for machinery, which includes the dynamos and accumulators for the lighting of the whole fort, hydraulic machines for working the inoreable turrets and sending them ammunition, pumps for supplying these engines with water, and a series of ventilators to keep the air pure. Communication with the outer world is made by a subterranean garlery, the length of which varies according to surrounding circumstances. The ceiling of thie gallery in from eight to ten metres below the surface. To guin access to the fort a hydraulic piston ie worked. This raises a ladder which runs the whole length of the forte, and lowers the door of the outlet, which i* proteoted by the moveable forte. All movement*, euch as changes of guard, arrivals of supplies, &c, are reported by telephone or telegraph. The guard does not work the hydraulic piston, except at command, and when the sentries in quo of the moYoable forts have reconnoitred the visitors. Finally the gallery com- : municating with the outer world is strongly fortified by an armoured door defended by two mitrailleuses. Ono of the greatest objections by generals to' forts that absorb numbers of men who are wanted in the field, cannot be urged against these subterranean fort*, for the garrison consists of thirty or forty mechanics and specialists only, whose absence would not appreciably weaken the regiment from which they are drawn. The cost of one of these forts is, we are told, about £100,000.