Evening star., 1915-05-24

Monroe. 1t has given the Coast Artfl-
lery Corps greater confidence than ever
IN the impregnability of these defenses.
Although some means of overcoming
these fortifcations from the sea have
been worked out in theory. 1t is ex-
tremely doubtful whether any of them
would be successful in practice.
This war game is played upon board
- by 40 feet in size. Miniature mod
els of dreadnaughts. cruisers, hattie-
ships. destroyers and all the other
units of a modern fleet are the pawns.
AT one end of the board one of our
coast defenses. with all of its equip
ment and its surrounding land fea-
lures. is represented in detail. Back
ducting the defense At the other end
of the board are those who direct the
attack. The game is carried on in IN
tense silence. When night attack Is
IN order the room is darkened and tiny
searchlights throw their beams upon
the approaching vessels. giving the
whole scene an effect of startling real
ity.
The advantages of coast defense for
tifcations over vessels in open day
light is obvious. The gunners on
board the vessels have to shoot from
the moving deck. and often over
rough sea. However good their marks
manship. the effectiveness of their fire
coast defense guns. on the other hand.
can almost unuuestionahly destroy
ANYTHING that comes within their range
and remains there for a reasonable
length. of time Furthermore. each
battleship opens a large. vulnerable
target. while the coast defense fortifi-
cation might be battered for months
and suffer comparatively little.
For these rea sons il is almost certain
that an enemy would make his attack
at night or in a
Guard Against fog. In this case
Night Attacks. 1inh.sI 1mmsnse sixtv search 1neh-
es in diameter, throwing their beams
to a distance of nearly five miles.
would search out the enemy vessels,
and the fire from the coast defenses
would be as deadly as ever.
But what if the enemy succeeded in
destroying these searchlights? This
must be admitted to be one possibility
of successful attack. But in order for
his battleships to destroy our search
lights the enemy must hit from his
moving ships target five feet in di
ameter at about that many miles.
There is an extremely small chance
that he would succeed in destroying
all of these searchlights.
His only other method of proceeding
against them would he to send his de-
stroyers and other small craft close in
to fire at the lights. These vessels. by
reason of their shallow draft. might
escape the mines. But the fortifica-
tions could send their own destroyers.
patrol boats and torpedo boats against
them.
Fog would give the enemy. perhaps.
the greatest advantage of all. Search
lights are effective for only short
distance in a fog. The enemy might
effect an entrance to the harbor in
these conditions, hut his battleships
would be kept out by the mines. TWO
methods of proceeding against mines
have been considered by military eX-
perts One of these consists in having
aeroplanes fly over the harbor. locate
the mines and drop upon them counter
mines. which would explode This
method represents a possibility which
has never been used successfully. The
other method is to send into the har
Dor shallow draft vessels, which would
lift the cables connecting the mines
with the fortifications and cut them. so
that the mines would be Intellectual.
This was the method used by Admiral
Dewey in Manila bay. Our coast de-
fenses. however, with their contingent
of patrol boats and destroyers, would
hardly permit of its successful opera
ton.