The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-05-24

lights rhrown their beams upon the
approaching vessels giving the whole
scene an effect of startling reality
The advantage OF coast defense, for
tifcations over vessels in open day
Right is obvious. The gunners on
board the vessels have to shoot from
the moving deck and often over Z.
rough sea However good their.
r1arkEmansh5p- the effectiveness OF
their fire depends largely upon
chance The coast defense guns, on
1he other hand, can almost unqueSs
tionably destroy anything thai comes
within their range and remains there
fore a reasonable length OF time Fur
Ihermore. each battleship opens
large vulnerable target. while the
coast defense fertilization might be-
battered for months and suffer com
pararveIy little.
For rhese reasons. ii is almost Ger
tan that an enemy would make IT'S
attack at night or in fog In thls
case. immense searchlights. 60 inches
in diameter, throwing their beams 70
a distance OF nearly FIVE miles. would
search OUT the .enemy's vessels and
the FIRE from the coast defenses would
be as deadly as ever.
But what II the enemy succeeded
N destroying these searchlightS! ms
must be admitted TO be one possTbll-
ity Of successful attack. But. IN or
der for It's bartIeships TO destroy our
sea-ch1iShts. the enemy must hit from
his moving ships a target five feet IN
d amete- at about thar many mIles.
There Is an extremely small chance
1dat it would succeed in destroying all
OF these SearchliGhts.
Its only other method of proceeding
no 20
stroverS and other small craft close
in to fire at the lights. These yes
sells. by reason of their shallow draft
might escape the mines. But the for
tifcations could send their own de-
strovers. 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, but his battlesnlps
would be kept out by the mines. Two.
methods of proceeding against mines
ihaye been considered by military ex-
perts One OF these consists in haV-
ing aeroplanes fly over the harbor. To-.
cate the mines, and drop upon them
counter mines which would explode.
This method represents possibility
which has never been used success
fully. The other method is to send
into the harbor shallow draft vessels
! which would lift the cables connect
! ing the mines with the fortifcat3ons
! and cut them so that the mines would
ibe Intellectual This was the method
used by Admiral Dewey in Manila
/ bay Our coast defenses. however,
with their contingent of patrol boats
and destrovers would hardly permit
| of its successful operation.
Thus. the coast defenses are seen to
be almost perfect, both in equipment
land operation. In case OF war they
would insure bases OF operation Tor
/ the navy. and protect our large ports
| from attack by sea They are not,
however. capable of defending them
selves from attack by land For com
plete defense against Invasion. both
the mobile army and the navy must
cooperate with the coast defenses. The
Japanese demonstrated in the Russo
japanese war that an army division
can be landed upon a shelving coast
| without a harbor in twenty-four
hours. A few soldiers are landed a
wharf is qu:ckyl built.
Once landed, there would be nothing
| 10 prevent an army from taking the
coast defenseS by land unless they
were adequately defended by our own
troops. Major General Wotherspoon.
chief OF staff. has estimated that 500
600 men would be necessary for the
defense of the Atlantic coast line
alone. Thus it is seen that our reg
ular army and militia would have to
| be largely supplemented by volunteer
troops before invasion could be sue
cessfully repealed. II the navy had
been defeated. For the purpose OF CO
operating With our navy IN preventing
the landing OF an enemy. however, our
coast defenses are we'll nigh perfect.
Bridges built of timber and partic-
ularlv those OF the Howe truss type