DEFENCES OF KIEL CANAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17124, 27 October 1917, Page 5

DEFENCES OF KIEL CANAL.

SECRET TOUR

How about the defences of the Kiel Canal and the submarine bases of Germany, which Arthur Pollen, the English expert, would raid? And in the raid undoubtedly would be included Wilhelmshaven, most noted of all submarine bases. What are they like, how strongly fortified, how closely guarded from invasion? are the first questions that arise..

J. M. de Beaufort, a war correspondent for the London "Daily, Telegraph," has found out the answers. He personally visited all these places and kept his eyes wide open. "Behind the German veil/ published in England by Hutehinson, and m America by Dodd, Mead, and 00., gives some extremely timely facts about the., German naval situation, right from the inside. By special permission the Boston "Sunday Post" was enabled to take from advance sheets some of the nost interesting information, the writer having reached German shores on a neutral steamer which was carrying food to Germ&nv.

Wilhelmshaven now contains five distinct harbour^ and basins, says De Beaufort, connected .with each other by a system of locks 'and canals. The dry docks vary in- length from 330 to 620 feet—that is, long enough for the largest battleships. This harbour is surrounded by warehouses in which everything that is needed on a. ship is stored up in large quantities. He writes:—

GERMANS BEHIND THE VEIL

I passed through building after building, filled with clothes, foodstuffs, machinery, spare guns, rifles, torpedoes costing £500 apiece, compasses, field glasses, etc. There were also buildings containing spare parts, several of each kind for every ship in the North Sea division. They were placed in compartments, each of them labelled with the name of the ship to w<hioh it belonged. There was a system about it nothing short of marvellous. The three entrances to Wilhelmsbaven, with their large decks, are protected by long, massive moles. Entrance No. 3, the northern, and most recent one, consists of two large docks, whicii, in case of necessity can serve as dry docks. The whole' place is one vast complex of dry docks, machine shops, boiler factories, -iron foundries, etc. The water is surrounded on the land side by a huge stone wall, with entrances only through 14 strong iron gates. On the water side it is protected by earthen ramparts, 18 to 20 feet high, strengthened at regular intervals by gun embrasures, armed with heavy calibre ordnance.

Finally, the whole is surrounded by a ring of outer forts of modern construction. Everywhere I saw huge cranes, most of ttie.ii of sufficient power to lift a battleship's turret, or one of the new 15-inch guns, as if it were a bale of cotton. Noith-east of the parade grounds were two enormous Zeppelin sheds, each with room for two Zeppelins.

The location of the ammunition magazines greatly surprised me. Though they were placed well back from the other buildings; they were surrounded by conspicuous landniarks. In the first place, the peculiar shape of the fittingout harbour makes it easy to locate it. The magazines are immediately north of the ba&in. 4-bout an eighth of a mile north of the magazines stands tha naval observatory.

But the most surprising thing is the arrangement of u he railroad tracks. They go as far as the magazines, and there make a loop right through the centre of the buildings. What a place to bomb! But I was told that Krupp anti-aircraft, placed at all important points along the coast, are so formidable that an air attack is practically an impossibility.

My walk 'around Wilhelmshaven did not make me feel ti.-at. I was attending the last convulsions of an empire, in Government and private shipbuilding yards I learned that tnere were 90,000 :mpn, and tihe plaits were running on a 24-hour schedule. Who said the German fleet was inactive ? Ask the employees at the Kiel Canal locks how often they have to pass the fleet in and out. They will tell you of the interesting evolutions !of tlie German navy, under the watoh- ! ful eyes of the protecting muzzles of the coastal guns. ■, FLEET ALWAYS BUSY TRAINING. I must give you some idea of th 1 colossal dimensions of the canal. The new locks are 1075 feet long, 157 feet wide, and 45 feet deep. In other words, they are 80 leet longer, 50 feet wider, and 5 feet deeper ttan chose of the Panama Canal. The canal itself •

tibout 61 miles long. The cost ot building and improvements amounts to over £20,000,000. Apart from its strategic value, it saves skips from going from the Baltic to the North Sex. or vice a distance of 450 niiles.

It wal .-rtriy 1 o'clock before we finally maae our entrance into the canal. We entered with 17 other small ships, led by a tug and followed by a tug. At TatOTpfahl, about four miles beyond the locks, we passed underneath the first railroad bridge, a magnificent structure, standing well over 140 feet above the level of the canal. The stations on both sides are over a mile from tho canal.

Further on, « turn-bridge crossed the canal. I noticed a group of civilians, led and followed by two soldiers, crossing it. It looked like a transport of prisoners, but it was not. They were merely natives crossing 'from one side of the canal to the other.

At Quarnbeck, about 10 miles from the eastern entrance to the canal, we passed through Flemhuder Lake, which forms turning-basin No. 1. We reached the Baltic locks at Holtenau-Wik, ! which are exactly tne same type as those at the North Sea entrance. WAR ACTIVITY TREMENDOUS. • How hard are the 5 90,000 workmen labouring to build guns, keep the battleships in perfect condition, and protect the bases and coasts? Grand Admiral Yon Koester s adTice to his subordinates is: "Remember the day has 24 hours, and if you will find that is not enough—well, then take part of the night as well.'" The Kiel Canal is the most zealously gimrded waterway in the world. You might blow up a railroad bridge over it, but unless there happened to be a train on it at the time, the debris could be picked up and removed from the canal in, a short time. The supports stand well from the banks, and no amount of dynamite could blow them into the water-way. The more I saw of the German fleet and talked with its officers and men, the more I became convinced that this war is not going to see a naval battle fought out to the bitter end. My trips have proved to me that, in the widest sense of the term, the G^niTane st>oke the troth when they said: "We are not going to take any chances with our float." * , j Admiral Yon Koester says; "A nay-

al battle means 'Death or Victory.' and a fleet destroyed cannot be replaced during the course of the same war, even if the war should last for years. It is therefore absolutely essential that we 'should move carefully, with the greatest circumspection." The charge against England made by Yon Koester, viz., that she desires Va be present at the peace negotiations with a fleet intact, applies to Germany.. "Without a fleet England would be free1 to attack our coast." he adds, and no town would be spared. Oui fleet must protect us."