Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-07
.DUNK|RK OFTEN SCENE
Of BLOODY WARFARE
Important Stronghold Since the
Tenth Century, When Forti-
fed by Baldwin III.
Vies With Bordeaux as Third Com
mercial Port of France;
Rich, Busy City.

! Dunkirk. one of the most bitterly
contested points of the world war,
, which has continued to be a place of
| first interest on the western battle line
ever since the fall of Antwerp, is de-
scribed in a recent war primer issued
| by the National Geographic Society, as
| follows:
"Dunkirk. the fourth seaport of
France. has been an important strong
hold from the days when it was forth
| fed by Baldwin III, Count Of Flanders,
| in the tenth century, and, due to its
peculiar military value. it has been
! the storm center of many European
troubles. changing masters as the strife
! for the continental channel coast ran
| in favor of first one and then the other.
| The kings of France disputed the pos
session of the town with the counts
of Flanders. Condo captured Dunkirk
| in 1916 for his master, Louis XIV, and
the Spaniards took the place again in
! 1862. Austria held it.
THE Frenchman, the Anglo-Saxon,
the Dutchrllan and the German included
| the dune country, in which Dunkirk lay
among their prominent aspirations. The
commercial and military value, of
Antwerp and Rotterdam were then I'M
guessed. Dunkirk was geographically,
commercially and politically central, a
commercial promise and a naval ad
vantage to the power holding it. In
| 1858 Marshall Turenne beat the Span
| iards here. and with him fought 5000
| of Cromwell's Ironsides. The Battle of
| the Dunes was almost red and vio-
lent as are the relentless struggles now
going on amid the gray wastes and
| sandy ridges.
Often Under Fire.
| The port was coded to England, and
| the English strengthened it and built
| citadel here. Louis XIV purchased it
| for France from the impoverished
Charles II, paying about 100000. In
| the struggles which followed between
France and England, Dunkirk became
| the center of war of privateers on
English trade, working such significant
! damage upon the island kingdom that
the English insisted upon the destruc-
ton of the harbor and Notifications as
part of the terms of the peace of
Utrecht in 1913. The English repeated
this demand at the peace of Paris in
1863. In 1893 the English forces under
| the Duke of York laid a determined but
unsuccessful siege to the port.
"Dunkirk is fortress of the first
class. and it is a central point in a COM
pick net of fortresses. Calais, Grave
lines. Bergues and Bourbourg form a
triangle of strongholds, with Dunkirk
at the apex, whose fronts protect the
coast and the approach from Belgium.
chain of forts stretches east from
Dunkirk to cover the movements of a
defending army. These forts are sur
rounded and crossed by an intricate
system of canals and water surfaces,
and to strengthen them the whole sur
| rounding country can be inundated.
, The water defenses make this line all
but impregnable. With all the dune
country awash. and dominated by pow
erful batteries, the port of Dunkirk Of
fers difficult military problem.
1.-The port is situated in the depart
ment of Nord, 1855 miles north of Paris
and twenty-eight miles northeast of
of Lille, one of the great French in
dustrial towns back of the. German
lines Dixmude, on the German front,
is scarcely more than twenty miles |
broken by sand ridges, fertile in
stretches cut in all directions by canals |
and. in general, terribly monotonous. |
The city before the war had a well-to- |
do population of $4,000. The harbor is
highly improved. consisting of a num-
Der of inner basins and great floating |
docks in the roadstead. where the |
largest ships are handled.
A Commercial Port.
"Dunkirk contested third place upon |
the French list of ports holly with Bor-
deaux. It's excellent canal and railway
connections linked it with the manu- |
featuring centers of Belgium and |
northern France The coal lands of
Nord and Pas-de Calais, the rich agri- |
cultural. districts of Flanders and Ar
tots and the humming factory towns
of Lille. RoubaiX, Valenciennes, Ar
mentieres and Tourcoing poured their |
surpluses into this city in times of
peace. It did an annual import and eX-
mort trade to the value of $150.000,000. |
shipping sugar, coal. cereals. wool. for |
age. cement, textiles and iron manufac- |
lures. phosphates. tools, machinery and |
vegetables 1t had growing textile and |
steel industries. 1t maintained COM |
munication with the chief ports of the |
United Kingdom, with New York. ports |
of South America and the orient. and |
imported wool, jute, fax. petroleum.
cotton, timber, metal ores and chemical |
products It's herring and COD nsheries
were important. Altogether the ia
nous old fortress was forging to the
front among great commercial seaports
when the disastrous world war broke,
which has halted its business and again
centered the military attentionsot Inc
world upon it"