IMPREGNABLE HELIGOLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16635, 18 January 1922, Page 4

IMPREGNABLE HELIGOLAND.

important factor in WORLD WAR.

BEING RAZED UNDER ARMISTICE TERMS. ( £< New York Herald. s ') Heligoland—the “ Gibraltar of the North Sea, 55 as it came to be known during the days of William Hohenzollern’s rising ambitions—is settling back/ again from an almost indescribable naval stronghold to a peaceful but remarkably picturesque little island, swept constantly by frigid winds, a harbour for quaint fishing smackp and a rocky roosflng-plnce for sea gulls. Disarthnment thero is being conducted! with tho help of dynamite and steam-operated cranes. Fortifications that took the Germans thirty years to build, at a cost of something like 2,000,000,000 dollars, are being ripped out and dumped into the as one of the penalties the Prussians had to pay for starting the war Heligoland to-day, after the dismantling of the fortifications has been in progress for more than two years, is more peaceful than it ever has been within the memory of the present generation. It will require five years more before the job of razing the things the Kaiser built will, he completed and the rubbish scraped up, but Heligoland now is out of commission as a highly effective naval base Heligoland, in the future, will be international. an island whose history is so varied that it really is entitled to such a distinction. The demolition of its fortifications and its internationalisation have come about as part of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. GREAT SUBMARINE BASE The island of Heligoland figured notably during the World War as one of the German naval strongholds, equally as safe a harbour for the Kaiser’s ships as tho Kiel Canal. Within its breakwaters the German fleet could anchor safe in the protection of the heavy guns of the land fortifications ; as a base for submarines and destroyers the location was ideal. A least one notable naval battle was fought within sight of the island and the waters adjacent were the scene of countless skirmishes. It was almost within the range of Heligoland that Admiral Beatty, won considerable distinction in ap engagement with the Germans durifig the early part of the war. It was a grim fact that almost exactly twenty-four years before to the day—it was in August—the British Government, for .considerations that were of relatively small importance, had turned Heligoland over to the Germans with a ceremony in which the Kaiser participated in the presence of his battle fleet. That, act, which was political in all t 3 aspects and which at the time arouse, l the ire of many of the militarists in England, now is accepted ns one of the mo9t gigantic blunders British diplomacy ever committed. There is not much to Heligoland. The surface area does not exceed threequarters of one square mile. From one end of Heligoland to the other it is exactly a mile. It is a slim sort of island, which, at its widest point, does not exceed 500 j’ards. STRATEGIC VALUE. But it does not take much study oi the map even by a novice to realise the importance of the inland in a naval way. Its strategic value lies in the fact that it covers the approaches to the Elbe and the Kiel Canal. It is thirty miles from the mainland, the coast of Schleswig-Holstein. Incidentally, the Germans, with their highpower guns, so arranged it that the firing arcs of the fortifications of the mainland and of Heligoland overlapped, a fact that added greatly to the strength of the position. It was the Kaiser, for years or more ago, who figured out the naval value of the island, which, for years and years had been regarded as of comparatively little importance. The British, or a large part of them at least, were glad to get rid of the place. Economically it was a bad investment. NATIONAL COLOURS. Even in the days of British ownership, which began in 1807, during the Napoleonic wars, Heligoland had its own national colours—green, red and white. How these were determined upon is aptly told in four rhyming lines that read : “ Green is the land, Red is the rock, White is the sand— These are the colours of Heligoland.” Virtually no other hue could be seen on the island, except in the autumn, when the leaves were turning gold. The residents of the island—there never were more than 2500 at one time—painted their houses white and trimmed i them with the foliage that developed the deep green so customary in that 1 latitude. As the poem recites, the rock which ii Heligoland is of deep red, rising abruptly out of the ocean to a height approximating 200 feet and spread out like a table, except at one end of the island, where there is a gentle slope to a wonderful sandy beach. There is little variation in the height of the rock, except at one spot, where there is a mound not more than fifty feet above the rest of the surface, but which is honoured by the erection of a tiny chapel. Just how they came to name it Heligoland nobody seems to know exactly, but the most likely of all the explanations is that there once lived on the island a monarch named King Helgo, along about the sixth century. Others think the island got its name

from “ Holy Island,” from its association with the worship of the Frisian inhabitants.

EARLY HISTORY. Little is known about the civil history of Jtteiigoiund in tne early days, except that in the lourteentli century the jJanes went there and built some forts and castles. But the island was quite independent of Denmark and there is evidence that when some of the early rulers needed spending money they borrowed it in tiie neighbourhood k usually from the province or .SchleswigHolstein, placing 'their island as a pledge for repayment. But the title always went back when the debt was paid, and it is recorded that early in the eighteenth century the island became the property of Denmark. It was September 4, 1807, when ViceAdmiral Russell of tho British Navy, sailing 4ilong with eight ships of war, captured the island in the name of his Majesty King George. The Napoleonic Wars were on and the British wanted the island as a naval base. It was intended to turn the j>roperty back to Denmark when the need for it no longer existed, but this never was done. There was nothing particularly spectacular the capture of the island by the British. The Danish garrison consisted of twenty-five gunners and the militia, complete amounted to 180 men. There were coast defences of two or three cannon mounted on the rocksHANDED OVER TO GERMANY. In the later years of British control the Germans in Schleswig-Holstein started an agitation that the island properly, by all natural arguments, belonged to that province. The inhabitants made German their official language, although among themselves they had an individual tongue. At any rate the islanders did not seem to mind what country they belonged to, and the agitation went far enough so that Germany negotiated a trade for the property, which was -consummated on August 4, 1890, the royal assent coming exactly twenty-four years to the day before the British declar ation of war against the German Empire. The actual transfer of tfie island took place five days later. Kaiser Wilhelm had the plans all ready for the fortification of the island. Such simple construction as the British had there he had completely torn away, substituting his own in every detail. The batteries were the finest the Germans ever built. The rifles were long range and the howitzers powerful. There were subterranean magazines and shelters for the gun detachments. The latest range finding and fire control apparatus was built and established on tho island. An arsenal was constructed ; there were machine shops—everything, in fact, that goes to make up a modern fortification of the most complete kind. Submarine bases were established. A harbour was built with steel and concrete, sufficiently large in size to accommodate most of the Kaiser’s fleet. Just what it all cost the German Government is a matter of speculation, but the outlay is estimated at not less than 2,000,000,000 dollars and probably twice that amount. The sea wall itself cost in excess of 30,000,000 dollars. It was completed in 1910, twenty years after the Germans took title to the island. The outer work on the harbour for tho accommodation of the German High Seas Fleet cost not less than 8,000,000 dollars. It is not difficult to imagine how heart-sick the British Navy wnsnt the German development and how, almost as soon as the deal was consummated, those who negotiated it were made the targets of public criticism. NAVAL FIGHTING NEAR THERE SOON AFTER WAR STARTED. Heligoland became one of the centres of activity almost from the opening of the.war. The day war v r as declared, in fact, the British Navy sent a submarine flotilla to the vicinity of Heligoland. It was within the month that an engagement occurred between British and German warships of the lighter types almost within range of the island fortifications. On numerous other occasions during the war Heligoland figured in the naval operations, but the base was so well protected with mines and heavy guns that the allied forces never were able to penetrate Tho native residents of Heligoland are indifferent to the devastation, as most of them were born under the British flag before the island was transferred bj' the British to tho Germans. During the war the civilian inhabitants were all deported-to Hamburg and were given papers showing them to be of English birth. There they were watched as spies. DISARMAMENT OF THE PLACE. When the armistice came it was one of the primary requirements that the fortifications of Heligoland he reduced to nothing, and so it was provided in the Treaty of Versailles that this be in charge of an allied commission of naval officers. The work of reducing the fortifications has been going on for the last two years, and while their destruction is now almost complete there is still much to do before the job is finished. Great sections of concrete and steel, forming the emplacements for the heavy guns, have to be blasted out; heavy cranes are required to convey the sections of armour plate to the harbour . which is to be filled in; altogether it is an engineering job of great magnitude. It is primarily in charge of the British, who naturally are taking their own peculiar interest m undoing what they might have done b\ut which the Kaiser did when he got control of the one time British possession.