The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-19
Serious Difficulty in De-
Tending Themselves in
Time of War
NO PROTECTION
ON LAND SIDE
Secretary of Navy Prepares Statement
in Answer to Recently Published
Article Respecting Land Side
Defense of Coast Cities

Washington May 1s.-Secretary Gar
rison, in prepared statement, today
discussed the preparedness of seaboard
cities to defend themselves against land
attack Mr. Garrison emphasized at the
outset of his statement that he had is
sued it because of recently published
article respecting the land side defense
of our coast defences."
Here is the statement;
MY attention has been directed to
a recent article respecting the land side
defense of our coast defenses.
1T is perfectly true that many of our
seacoast defenses would find serious
difficulty in defending themselves by
their own garrisons against a land at
tack by a numerous force; and 1t is
also true that they have been construct
ed in many instances without any ref
erence to an attack coming from the
land side, but. as was natural, in view
of their purpose, almost wholly with
view to giving protection to the cities
and harbors behind them against an
attack by a hostile fleet. This being
their principal function. pretty much
everything else was subordinated to
this end, and in many cases fortifica-
tions were so placed in the effort to
secure the best field of fire over the
sea front and channels as to render
their defense from land attack extreme
ly difficult. Tt can be said of many of
them in fact most of them Except
those which are on the islands,, that
their defense in case of any serious at
tack from the land side must rest upon
bodies of mobile troops assigned to this
duty Such mobile troops would prob
ably be drawn. to a great extent, from
the militia. The coast artillery troops.
while available for certain amount
of work as infantry, are primarily
trained for service with the hig guns
and cannot we'll be assigned to other
work without jeopardizing the eff
cheney of the work for which they are
maintained, so that as stated above,
in case of land attack 1t will be neces-
sary to assign considerable bodies of
mobile troops to defend these works.
Great Money Outlay
Before the advent of the modern gun
the common type of fortress construc-
ton was in the form of an enclosed
work, capable of defense against land
the advent of the modern gun and the
construction of works involving great
outlay of money. insufficient attention
was given to the problem of their de-
Tense from land attack. and as result
many of them are so situated and con-
structed as to be liable to successful
attack by even moderate forces land
ing from ships.
with a view to correcting this de-
feet, lines of land defense works have
been laid out and necessary instruc-
tions prepared for their prompt con-
struction in case of threatened war
In future construction it is believed
that more attention will be devoted to
making each individual group of works
reasonably secure against land attack,
even though unsupported by troops
other than its own garrison Certainly
the construction should be of such a
type as to enable defense sufficiently
long to permit arrival of assistance
from coast guard troops.
But after all, this whole question
brings UP very forcihly the folly of dc
pending upon fortresses alone. Their use.
funess Is very much restricted unless
there is an adequate mobile army The
real purpose of seacoast defenses is 20
prevent hostile fleets bombarding cities
behind them, occupying the harbors whose
entrance they are designed to close, or
bombardng fleets taking refuge in these
harbors. Their guns are of a heavy tyi @
too heavy in most instances
for work against troops. Their function
is to fight armored ships. Their flar,Ss
and rears must be protected by mobile
troops as must the cities which lie be-
hind them in case the enemy decides 70
land at point outside the range of the
guns and make his attack upon the city
from point over land 1t would not he
practicable with the present mounting TO
turn great guns constructed for this pur-
pose against bodies of troops operating
in the vicinity of cities. This is worl,
which can only be dcne by the mobile
army.
OF Little Real Use
I'm short, all systems of coast defenses
which look 10 seeuiity through fortlfi-
cations alone are destined to be of little
use in time of real war The fortifica-
tions are only a part of ,ne defense ard
while they are entirely adequate for the
purpose for which constructed they are
fixed defenses, effective only over the area
within range of the guns: beyond this
range an enemy is entirely free to opera te
unless he is opposed by mobile troops
1T was 10 demonstrate the fact that
the great mass of fortificat tions defend
ing Boston was helpless to prevent TIE
capture Of that city by land attack, that
the Massachusetts maneuvers of 1900
were held. The attacking troops were
landed at New Bedford and occupied Bos-
ton from the rear rms Is feasible Al
any of our seacoast cities unless the
coast defenses are supplemented by an