Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1919 — THE PASSING OF HELGOLAND [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PASSING OF HELGOLAND

The dismantling of Helgoland, in accordance with the decision reached by the supreme war council at Paris, marks the passing of the greatest fortress in the North sea and the final elimination of Germany as a contender for sea power. Since 1890. when Great Britaih ceded this square mile of crumbling dmrl and cliffs to Germany fcfr the protectorate of Zanzibar and Witu. the Germans have spent more than $5,000,000 a year in fortifying It. Available records show that Helgoland had a circumference of 120 miles in the year 800, But had crumbled away, at the rate of 100 square miles every century, until the Germans began to dream of world conquest. Large buttresses of granite were put up to protect the cliffs. Rifts and crevices were filled with ferro concrete. Breakwaters were constructed and a naval harbor built and 12 and 16-lnch Krupp guns were installed in steel and CQnCrete casemates and sunken battery positions. The Island was pierced, with a tun-

nel through which ammunition and other stores could be safely taken during a bombardment. During- the war sufficient stores and munitions were> maintained to withstand a three years’ siege by Its garrison of 2,200 men. The North sea for a radius of more than twenty-five miles was mapped in squares, each gun having ltSHSquare or squares upon which it could be trained Instantly should a hostile ship enter that little space of sea. " During the war Helgoland was further protected by wide mine fields stretching toward the possible approaches of Britain’s grand fleet. Behind these sea barriers, of which Helgoland was the center* Germany maintained naval, submarine, Zeppelin and airplane teases for the four years df~the wap. By the dismantling of Helgoland and the internationalization of the Riel canal the German “North sea porta and those of the nations bordering on the Baltic will be opened to the unrestricted coinmerce of the world.