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TEE scorn NORWALK swam. WI.
German North Sea Fortress, Menace to Great Britain, Scandinavia,
Holland and Belgium, Being Razed' Under Armistice Terms
Preparatory to Internationalization—Cost Kaiser More Than
$2’,000,000,000and Was Important Factor in \Vorld War
—Peaceful Inhabitants Keep Alive Lore of ‘Ages
11‘ DONALD MacGREC-OR.
Special Correspondrnrr‘,
Vi’lsmxorox, D. V.
ELIGOLAND— the "Gibraltar of the
' North Sea,'as it came to be known
during the days of William llohen-
toilet-us rising ambitions» is settling bat-k
ngain from an almost indescribable naval
dronghnid to a peaceful but remarkably
wicturesuus little island. swept constantly
Iby frigid “inlet. a harbor for quaint fish-
fing snm- its and a rocky roosting place for
uea gniis.
Disaintament there is being conducted
with the help of dynamite and steam-
mporated cranes. Fortifications that took
9.110 Germans thirty years to build. at a
cost of something like $2,000,000.000, are
being ripped out and dumped into the sea.
as one of the penaltiesthe Prussiaus had
£0 pay for starting the war.
llelimriz'nd today. after the dismantling
lot the f'iltlllt‘ullOIlS has been in progress
for more than two years-is more peaceful
than it i‘VOl‘ has been within the memory
of the prusent generation. it will require
five yours more before the job of razing
Nov. 5.
file thing's the Kaiser built will be com-
:pletcd :thd the rubbish scraped up. but
Eeligoiut‘vl now is out of commission as a
111 hi) vi"..-.‘tive naval base.
ilelif'nldml. in the future, will be inter-
mti0:.l an inland whose history in an
varied V"" H i“‘ill_\' is l'll'lll‘ i til ""'
«1’
distinction. The demolition oi its tortiti
mtlons and its internationalization have
come about as part of the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles. \
Figured Much in World War
As Great Submarine Base
The island of lleligoland figured notably
during the World War as one of the Ger-
man naval strongholds, equally as safe a
harbor for the Kaiser's ships as the Kiel
Canal. Within its breakwaters the Ger-
man fleet could anchor safe in the protec-
tion of the heavy guns of the land fortifi-
cations; as a base for submarines and do
.troyers the location was ideal.
At least one notable naval battle was
tough: within sight of the island ‘aud the
waters adjacent were the scene of count-
less skirmishes. It was almost within the
range of Heligoland that Admiral Beatty.
the dapper British naval officer who now
is the guest of the United States, won con-
siderable distinction in an engagement
with the Germans during 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 pres-
ence of his battle fleet. That act. which
was political in all its aspects and which
at the time aroused the ire of many of
the militarists in England, now is accepted
as one of the most gigantic blunders Brit-
ish diploinacy ever committed.
There is not much to Heligoland.
count it. every foot of every jagged rock-
the surface area does not exceed three.
quarters of one square mile. From one
and ot‘ lleligoland to the other It is exactly
0 mile. It is a slim sort of island.-whlch,
at its widest point. does not exceed 600
yards.
But it does not take much study of the
map Men by a novice to realize the im-
portance of the island in a naval way. no '
Strategic value lies in the fact that it
an“ “13 fiDDroacbes to the Elbe'aud the
Rio] Canal. It is thirty miles from the
mainland. the coast of Schleswig—Holsteln.
Incidentally. the Germans, with their
ugh-power guns, so arranged it that the
.Mng arcs of the fortifications of the main-
land and of Helixoiand overlapped, a fact.
>If‘.u’/‘ 4.
.. ”we" “1/ ‘
To;
Elbe in the North Sea.
but now is being made harmless.
Birdseye vicvv of the island of HeligOiand off the mouth of the
Under German rule it was made a fortress,
Map shows its strategic importance.
4
M
Above at left shows the salving of armor
armored gun turret is only one of many
tqoublesome submarine, airplane and Zeppelin base throughout
that made the German
the war.
plates in-the disarming of Heligoland by the Allies.
fortress practically impregnable.
The great
It was a
that added greatly to the strength of the
position.
It was the Kaiser, forty 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 imporo
terms. The British, or a large part of
them at least. wore glad to get rid of the
place. Economically it was a bad invest-
ment. A fellow had to be of unusual turn
of mind to enjoy himself there, even dur-
ing the pleasant ten weeks in fifty—two,
when an effort was made to attract crowds
to the surf bathing and to hear the fisher-
men spin their yarns about the ghosts and
the fairies who Were supposed to infect
the island. ‘
In addition to the stories of thatch-lee
and ghosts, the occasional visitor to Bell-
goland—ln the days before the Germans
acquired title to the island and built of it
a masterpiece of fortification—could inter-
est himself in the wealth of natural beauty.
such as it was, and in the more authentic
history of the place.
Even in the days of British: ownership;
which began in 1807, during the Hapoleémic
wars, Hellgoland had its own national col-
ors—green, red and white. How thesewere
determined upon is aptly told in four
thyming‘lines that read:
"Green is the land,
Red is the rock.
White is the sand—-
These are the colors of Hellgoland.”
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
2,500 at one time—painted their houses
white and trimmed them with the foliage
that developed the deep green so customary
in that latitude. .
As the poem recites, the rock which is
.Heligoland is of deep red, rising abruptly '
out of the ocean to a. height approximat-
ing 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 60
feet above the rest of the surface, but.
which is honored by the erection of a tiny
chapel. '
Just. how they came to name it Heligo-
land 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
igot its name from -"Holy Island," from its
association with the worship,“ the Frisian
inhabitants. '- . .
Little is known about the civil history or
Hellgolaud in the early days, except that
in the fourteenth century the Danes went
there and built some tom and castles. But »
the island was quite independent of Del»
- mark and. there is evidence that when
... 0mm!- 3291- 57 1'! 321.3%} Hem ‘
some of the early rulers needed spending
money they borrowed it in the neighbor
hood, usually from the province of Schles-
wig-Holstein. 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 Vice—
Admlral Russell of the British navy, sall-
ing along with eight ships of war, cap-
tured 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 property back to Denmark when
the need for it ‘po longer existed, but this
never was done.
There was nothing particularly spectac-
ular about the capture afjhe island by the
British. The Danish garrison consisted of
twenty-five gunners and the militia com-
plete amounted to 180 men. There were
coast defenses of two or three cannon
mounted on: the rocks. ‘ ' ‘ .
Iu'the later-Eyes” of British control the
Germans in SCbleswig-Holstein started an
agitation that. the island properly, by all
,natural‘argumenta, belonged to that prov-
inch. The inhabitants made German their
0 lat language, although among them-
ve'ii they linden individual tongue. At
any rate-the. islanders did not seem to
mindwhat country they belonied to. and
.o
.311
M
IMPRECNABLE HELlGOLAND BEING DIS A
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11, 1922.
TLE j
Two of the great 1 inch guns mounted in heavy armored turrets that helped to make Heligoland m:
pregnable. The armor 3 being removed and the guns made harmless.
one of, the wrecked mortars.
Below are children playing ~ix. 4
k;
« ’rlerfitfiali‘
.5.
the zicitotirin went far enough so that Ger
man}- negotiated a trrde for the property,
“bit it We: consummated on August 4. 18540.
the royal assent coming exactly twenty-
four years to the day before the British
declaration of War against the German
Empire. The actual transfer of the island
took plate five days later.
Kaiser “'iihelm had the plans all ready
for the fortification of the island. Such
simple construction as the British had
there he had completely torn away. sub~
ctituting his own in every detail. The. hat
teries were the finest the Germans ever
built. The rifles were long range and the
liowitzcrs powerful.
There were subterranean magazines and
shelters for the gun detachments. The
latest range finding and fire control ap-
paratus was built and established on the
island. An arsenal was constructed: there
“are machine shops—everything. in fact.
that goes to make up a modern fortifica-
tion of the most complete kind. Submarine
bases were established. A harbor 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 Govern-
ment is a matter of-speculation, but the
outlay is estimated at not less than $2,000.-
000,000 and probably twice that amount.
The sea wall itself cost in excess of $30,.
000.000. It was completed in 1910, twenty
years after the Germans took title to the
island. The outer work on the harbor for
the accommodation of the German High
Seas 'Fleet cost not less than $8,000,000.
It is not difficult to imagine how heart-
sick the British navy was at the German
development and how, almost as soon as
the deal was consummated. those who nego-
tiated it were made the targets of public
criticism.
Naval Fighting Near There
' Soon After War Started
Heligoland became bus of the centres
of activify almost from the opening of
the war. The day war was declared, in
fact, the British navy sent a submarine
flotilla to the vicinity of Hellgoland. It
was within the month that an engagement
occurred between British and German war-
ships of the lighter types almost within
range of the island fortifications.
The British owAugust’ZG sent the eighth
submarine flotilla, comprising eight sub-
marinesutwo ,destroyer flotillas and “the
flag cruisers and tenders, to reconnoltre
in the vicinity of Heligoland. These were
followed at a distance of between twenty
and thirty miles by the first light cruiser
squadron and a group, of battle cruisers.
It was two days later, on August 28.
that the destroyer flotillas, when about
twenty-fire miles from Heligoland and
about the weenie distance, from Wilhelms—
haven, found woollen}? inksuperior force.
In consequence the British. destroyers fell
back. jAdintral Beatt'y‘JJnmedldtely sent
out th. light crulier sduadron and followed
it clogsly with the battle cruisers.
The advent of the battle cruisers decided
the ‘é’ntif‘e” engagement. Within’an hour '
(In (it rmzm \(“rl’lS were reiiling along 1’! 9
“Min li‘l‘lll. The ci'uiw r~ f‘ialiiz. Knit;
and Ariadne were Funk, as “as me d.-
s:royer \Vlfi'l'. None of the British \essils
was lost, although the Arethusa. the flat;
ship (it lilo tll’Slf‘t‘K'Cl‘ fleet. st-uin'"
damaged and haddo bt towed back to En...
land.
Admiral Heiitty. when the lighter vex“ "2
were sai'ci} withdrawn. hauled l‘a'ii 1"
battle cruisers. owing to the mite {inf
and the fact that they were expvw-l
attatk by submarines. During the '9'
rient the Queen Mary was attackei "at
and tly Lowestoft once, but thwir 3 L
speed saved them. it was during i! N _
gagement that the short range tom. 5
the (Zei‘mans was first obserrcd.
On numerous other occasions du‘" .._- 1‘
war He'igoland figured in the
erations, but the has“ was so
tected wit]: mines and heavy runs: 1
allied forces never were gable to p
he native residents of Hell . e
indifferent to the devastation. as r J
them were born under the llrzi'stt "w .4
fore the island was transferred i:-
liritish to the Germans. During the car
the civilian inhabitants Were all depuriri
to Hamburg and were given pa per: shes-
ing them to be of English blah. '11an
they were watched as spies.
Disarmament of the Place
Part of the Armistice Terms
“’hen the armistice came it was one vi
the primary requirements that the t‘« z-iiti»
cations of Heligoland be reduced to 1w
ing. and so it was provided hi the '
of Versailles that this be in t'llzil‘gt‘
allied commission of naval officer~ i
work of reducing the fortificativiw V“
been going on for the last two years. i
whilethelr destruction is now almost ~
plete there is still much to do bet’cw
Job is finished.
Great sections of concrete and e" V
forming the emplacements for the 2»
guns, have to be blasted out; heavy «'IML *
are required to convey the sections Y
armor plate to the harbor. which is iv
filled in! altogether it is an Guglili‘siil.»~
Job ,of great magnitude. It is our
in charge of the British. who naturaih am
taking their own peculiar interest in Uli'i’”
ing what they might have done but r b1 it
the Kaiser did when he get control of ’i-e
cne time British possession.
Due to the refusal of the I'nited Stow“-
Senate to ratify the Treaty of \‘ez‘sziIZ-‘i
the interest of the American Governmei-t
in the destruction of the German fox-tiiiva'
(ions is slight. There is no American moi?"
ber of the commission that is in Charge of
the work, and all the Government hilt us
officially about-what is going on is {Jim
ot " r_ sources.
0 story of lleligoland just now cm-
,vdp- but be of concern to lllOFt: “in
are, kings study of what may he dirt-'9
about; the limitation of armaments THE
bit of rock, ‘protrudlng without com ital-1"“
island, typified naval warriors in at] its
modern precision. The stripping of its for
tiflcatlons n0w is an object lesson that
cannot help but be impressive.
“as
I...
'11!
mu}
:
Norwalk Chronicler