January 16, 191$. 
LAND AND WATER 
iftnother, they were made very Trelconi3. But, of course, the 
enemy was thus fully apprised of our progress, and wlien we 
had approached near enough to mako a rush for the " pah," 
with axes to hack the screens down, they trained every old 
gun they could find down our line of approach, blazed off one 
volley into the brown of the assailants, then bolted into the 
bush to a fresh position, where the same game was played over 
again. 
This idea of a swinging screen, however, deserves tar 
more attention than it has yet received. We used to be taught 
— though I never saw it tried — that two folds of a blanket 
hanging loosely over a string, and kept about two inches apart, 
would stop a Snider bullet, and it is quite certain that it 
would suffice to stop all ordinary shrapnel bullets and small 
splinters of shell. Further experiments might well be made 
with the idaa. 
THE ZEPPELIN BASE ON HELIGOLAND. 
THE LOOK-GUT ON THE NORTH SEA. 
By L. BLIN DESBLEDS. 
THE Grerman airship base of Heligoland is situated 
in a sort of ditch, the Sa|)skuhle, which, a few 
weeks before the outbreak of hostilities, was being 
prepared for the erection of the most up-to-date 
Zeppeliu shed, and the necessary hydrogen fac- 
tory. The Heligoland shed, which is now com- 
pleted, at a cost of £20,000, is of the same type as that 
built near Cuxhaven and handed over to the German authori- 
ties towards the end of April, 1914. Like the one erected 
in Cuxhaven, the airship shed of Heligoland can shelter two 
modem Zeppelins, It is about 625 ft. long and 180 ft. 
wide, and is of the " revolving type," that is, being mounted 
on a pivot, it always turns so as to place itself in line with 
the wind. This type of shed makes the an try and exit of the 
airship safer, since these manoeuvres are thus rendered in- 
dependent of the wind. 
This ability to always place itself lengthwise ia the 
direction of the wind is not the only remarkable feature of 
the Heligoland airship shed. Being mounted on powerful 
hydraulic presses, the shed can be made to rise and sink in 
the ditch. When the airship is not in use it lies in its shed, 
which is then in its sunk position; but when needed for 
action, to allow the airship to emerge, the shed is brought 
to its raised position. The ditch is of such a depth that, 
when the shed is brought to its " down " position its roof 
ia just below the level of the ground. It is, therefore, im- 
possible to perceive the shed from the sea, this fact rendering 
its bombardment by our warships very difficult of accomplish- 
ment. 
So far as known, the shed just described is the only 
one on the island of Heligoland from which airships can carry 
out operations over the North Sea, and there is every indica- 
tion that the Heligoland airships are kept in constant readi- 
ness to saJly forth. We see, for instance, that, on the occa- 
sion of -the daring air raid which our seaplanes made on Cux- 
haven on Christmas Day, it was the two Zeppelins from 
Hcligolatnd, and not those stationed at Cuxhaven, that, at a 
moment's notice, came out, apparently, to try to resist the 
raid. 
BRINGING A ZEPPELIN INTO ACTION. 
In order to appreciate the rapidity with which a modern 
Zeppelin can be brought into action, it is necessary to have 
some idea of the method adopted to run it out of its shed. 
Inside the shed there are, for each airship, two rails 
running the whole length of the hangar and projecting some 
distance outside. On each pair of rails there are four small 
trucks used to facilitate the quick exit of the airship. Two 
Btrong ropes from the nose, and two more from the tail of 
ihe airship are attached to tlie four tnicks, there being one 
rope to each truck. The trucks are so placed that there are two 
of them towards the forepart of the airship and two others 
towards its aft. To each of these four main ropes are at- 
tached a number of smaller ropes weighted by ballast when 
the airship is at rest, but held by a number of trained men 
vhen it is in readiness to come forth. 
To get an airship out of its shed the motor in the aft 
nacelle is started, causing the trucks to run along the rails, 
and the airship thereby issues under its own motive power. 
The men, holding the ropes, run along the rails, and when 
the two aft truclcs, which are near and below the nose of the 
airship, reach the extremity of the rails, the four main ropes 
are unfastened from the trucks, and the airship is held by 
the men only, until the order " Let go! " is given. 
When the airship returns to ils shed, the main ropes 
are attached to Uie truolts which have been brought outside the 
•bed. The nft engine is started, and the airship enters under 
ita own poweri The sacks of ballast are quickly fastened to 
the airship, and trestles, covered with felt, are placed under 
the cars of the dirigible. The diSerent balloons are then 
refilled with hydrogen, and tlte water pockets, placed between 
the balloons, inside the envelope, are filled with watec, which 
is the ballast employed on board a modern Zeppelin. The 
airship is then ready for its next trip. 
THE ZEPPELIN AND TORPEDO ATTACKS. 
Although there is a report to the eSect that the Zeppelin 
airship has recently been fitted with some apparatus whereby 
a Whitehead torpedo can be discharged from it with complete 
success, it is not yet as a fighting weapon wherein lies its 
greatest value to naval operations. It is, nevertheless, just m 
well not to ignore this new fighting element of the Zeppelin 
on the score that, the German airship having, up to the pre- 
sent, failed under certain conditions, it must necessarily fail 
under all conditions. Such a method of reasoning, in spite 
of its illogicality and danger, is that which has generally 
been adopted in the Press, even by qualified writers. It is, 
however, satisfactory to note that the Admiralty does not 
look at things in tEe same light, and is, therefore, in a better 
position to foresee all eventualities. 
There are, of course, no details available as yet of the 
means whereby the Zeppelin can be used to discharge torpe- 
does, but it may be presumed that, for such a purpose, the 
Airship is brought down to very near the sea level, and then 
the torpedo is fired. And, if it be remembered that the 
modern torpedo has a range of action of over two miles, it 
will be recognised that the Zeppelin is provided with a new 
means of naval attack that cannot altogether be left out of 
account. It is true that, in order to discharge its torpedo 
with some chance of success, a Zeppelin must come within a 
range of two miles from the battleship or cruiser against 
which it may be operating, and that, at such a distance, the 
airship would be very exposed to gun firo from the warships. 
However, when all has been said on the subject, the fact 
remains that this new potentiality of the Zeppelin, especially 
at night, introduces another factor into naval fighting which 
cannot fail to add considerably to the strain to which a fleet 
is aJready subjected. 
The grealiest importance of the Heligoland airships, how- 
ever, lies in the means of reconnaissance they can afford Ut 
the German fleet, and may have been the means which ren- 
dered possible the recent raid on our East Coast. In compar- 
ing the respective values of sea soouts and airships, one miglit 
say that there is between them the same difference as exists 
between a short-sighted man and one whose sight is' keen. It 
is important to remember this fact. It explains the ap^parent 
anomaly of our naval airmen bravely carrying out operations 
over larid, to the Swiss frontier at Friedrichshafen, to well 
into German territory at Diisseldorf and Cologne, and, over 
•Belgium, to Brussels. In all these instances' our naval air- 
men were taken from their usual naval duties in order to 
attack the airship sheds at. those various centres. The object 
of the Admiralty in thus sending its valiant airmen over land 
was not to try to deprive the German armies of their Zeppe- 
lins, which, as we know, are quite unfit for land warfare, but, 
in all probability, was to ensure that the German navy should, 
if po.ssible, not have better eyes than our own. 
TJiere aro few people ao well qualified to write on Belgium and ita 
people as Dr. Sarolca, who, in hia book, Ifaw Belgium Saved Europe, 
1*113 the story of the Bt-lgian tragedy, and forecasU, in eome degree, th« 
place 'Mi-T-t the Belgian Jiation will take in EuropeaJi civilisation when 
PriiAsiaibi&m is br.lh dead aiKl damned. Published at 28. by Messrs. 
William ireinemann, this book is nno that will have a parmanpnt intorost 
and will occupy a notowoithy place among tUo literature of the great 
war. 
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