WIRELESS IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 75, 25 September 1914, Page 2

WIRELESS IN WAR

INFLUENCE ON STRATEGY STATIONS OF THE GREAT POWERS. Wireless telegraphy is the new force in modern warfare which has" changed all the old problems of communication. Formerly the aim was to capture and destroy the enemy's telegraph lines or submarine cables. Nowadays tie matter is not so simple, for the wireless zones cover Europe, and ships at sea may be in touch with the war offices in their capitals. Professor Frank Waldo, writing in the Boston Transcript, gives an interesting _ description of war-time uses of the wireless. "The usefulness of wireless in war time," says Professor Waldo, "has just been proved in the recall of certain ships after they had left port, war having been declared in the meantime. One ship was recalled to New York after proceeding over 500 miles on her way across the Atlantic, and the wireless has been active in reaching ships from the European stations either for purposes of recall or notification that the war is on. i "The stopping of all telegraphic and telephonic communication between the belligerents at the first breathings of war, and the partial stopping by control and censorship of such communications from nations at_ war to non-belligerents, has rendered invaluable messages by wireless across and around the regions controlled by the belligerents and es* pecially at sea and across the seas. But the bottling up of any place so that it cannot hold communication with the outside is a thing of the past. The fact that a wireless apparatus cannot be easily hidden prevents the surreptitious use which might be made of it in regions under control of the belligerents, although for short-distance communication, such as 'along frontiers or between close-lying countries, as in western Europe, a small wireless receiving apparatus might be secretively used, es«' pecially if it were temporarily strung under cover of the darkness, and taken down before daylight. In such work there will be a new field for signal-corps' works and scoutings. "As regards the more powerful land stations, those which will keep up communication 500 miles and upwards, these can be easily kept under Government supervision; but the use of wireless on ships for sending messages up to' from 250 to 500 miles, and receiving them at still greater distances from powerful land stations, will be subject only to suchan artificial interference as may be put in operation by the belligerents. There can be no doubt that the experience in the present war will result in the closer Governmental control of private and amateur wireless installa« tion. " Austro-Hungary has four important Government wireless stations : Cas,tel> nuovo Pola, and Sebinico, with a normal range of 250 miles by day and 500 by night, and Trieste, with a day range of 150 miles and a night range of 300. "Germany has 17 wireless stations, of which eight are lightships with small range of from 20 to 60 miles. The remaining stations are at Barkurn, range 100 miles ; Bremerhafen. range 200 miles ; Bulk (Kiel Bay), range 110 miles; Cuxhaven, day range 110 miles, night range 170 miles; Danzig, day range 330 miles, night range 600 miles ; Heligoland, range 110 miles; Norddeich, day range 420 miles, night range 830 miles ; Sassrutz (Rugen), range 110 miles; Swinemunde, day range 330 miles, night range 660. " France has 18 stations. : Bouloguesur'Mer, range 100 miles ; Bouscat, range 160 miles ; Brest, range 350 miles ; Cherbourg, range 350 miles ; Dieppe, range 55 miles; Dunkerque, jange 350 miles; Eiffel Tower, large range ; B Oueesant, range 380 miles; Port' Vendres., — ; Rochefort, range 350 miles; S. Maries de-la-er, range 380 miles; "Toulon. — ; several other stations are on the African coast. Russia has 28 stations, of which the following are on or near the Baltic bea :— Helsingfors range — ; Kronstadt, range — ; Libau, range — (170 miles); Preste, range — ; Reval, range 170 miles ; Riga, range 160 miles ; Rouno, range 70 miles ; Wiborg, range — . "Great Britain has 68 land stations. Literally thousands of shipß are provided with wireless outfits, and those on board men-o'-war usually have a range of 300 miles or more, and are thus equal to a< good land station. Servia has no land stations. '