KIEL CANAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19882, 8 March 1939, Page 5

KIEL CANAL

ENLARGEMENT PROJECT

HITLER’S BIG NAVY PLAN

BERLIN, Feb. 16.

The Kiel Canal, Germany’s short-cut between the Baltic and North Seas, is to be enlarged. Plans have been approved for the approximate doubling of its depth and width.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, all the world’s ’vessels were permitted to use the canal, but Herr Hitler announced in 1937 that foreign warships would be banned from its waters.

The projected vast reconstruction proves that Herr Hitler has an ambitious unannounced long-range building programme, and sees the necessity for battleships bigger than the newest 35,000 ton ships of the Bismarck class, the first of which was launched on Tuesday.

It is contemplated that operations will begin with the deepening and widening of the River Elbe for 51 miles at the approach to the western end of the canal, and that then the canal will be widened and deepened for the entire 61 miles of its length. The present depth is 37ft., and the width 144 ft. These dimensions will be increased to enable vessels ol the size of trans-Atlantic liners to pass through and to remove the present one-way traffic congestion.

The Holtenau Brunsbuettelkog locks, the largest in the world except for those of the Panama Canal, will be replaced. The widening will necessitate the construction of new bridges. The canal at present is navigable for ships with a beam of 131 ft. and a draught of 29Jft. The Bismarcks will probably draw 29ft. H.M.S. Hood, the largest warship afloat, draws 31^ft k and H.M.S. Nelson 30ft. Italy’s new 35,000-tonners draw 30£ft When “Jacky” Fisher (Admiral Lord Fisher) laid down the first Dreadnought, Germany accepted the challenge and built battleships of equal displacement. This compelled the enlargement of the Kiel Canal in 1907 to its present dimensions.

The work cost £11,000,000 and occupied seven years. It was completed five weeks before the outbreak of the Great War.

Germany has not yet replied to the challenge of the H.M.S. Lion and H.M.S. Temeraire, which are to be laid down in March. Herr Hitler announced in 1938 that he did not propose to build battleships of more than 35,000 tons unless other Continental Powers did so. There is no immediate sign of any such construction.