World's War Events Volume I Part 5

[Sidenote: Troops in the forts.]

As for the forts, they were each occupied by a battery of artillery (250 men) and three companies (120 men), a total of 370 men. About 4,500 artillerymen for the twelve forts.

General Leman was shut up in Loncin, one of the chief forts, which commanded the road towards Waremme and Brussels. He had sent away all his General Staff with the division, in spite of the supplications of his officers, who begged to be allowed to share his fate. He continued to direct the longest resistance possible. The enemy was anxious to cut all the communications between the forts, but soldiers volunteered for carrying messages to the different commanders. Several succeeded, but many were killed, for the investment became steadily tightened. Indeed, certain gaps, where the ground was most broken, could not be swept by the guns from the forts, and, under cover of the night, troops ensconced themselves there comfortably. Moreover, the Germans, having received reinforcements and heavy artillery, undertook the siege systematically, first of Barchon, which it was unable to take by storm any more than Boncelles, but which it subjected to a formidable deluge of sh.e.l.ls.

Barchon could only reply haphazard to heavy guns the position of which it could not tell. It was, indeed, deprived of its observation posts, and was in the position of a blind man desperately parrying the blows of an adversary who could see where to strike.

[Sidenote: Fort Barchon taken.]

The struggle was not for long, and the fort, reduced to impotence, left a wide breach through which the invader scrambled. Through there he could also introduce his heavy siege guns, howitzers of 28, and even pieces of 42 cms.

[Sidenote: Forty-two centimetre guns.]

The enemy then followed a tactic which was to succeed rapidly. He attacked the different fortifications in a reverse way. Thus Loncin, Lantin, Liers, and Pontisse were bombarded by batteries placed in the citadel itself and to which the Belgians could not reply without sh.e.l.ling the town and doing frightful damage. A battery was also placed in a bend of ground up Rue Naniot, under the "Tomb," where some of those who fell in 1830 are buried, but it was discovered and had to be withdrawn. Forts Boncelles and Embourg were attacked by guns placed on the hill at Tilff, a pretty village, which would have been completely destroyed had the firing been responded to. Finally, along the line of the plateau of Herve, no longer dominated by Barchon and Fleron, now destroyed, the enemy was able to bring into the very centre of the town four of those howitzers of 42 cms. which were later to bombard Namur, Maubeuge, and Antwerp.

The following are the dates on which the different forts succ.u.mbed: Barchon and Evegnee fell on August 9th. Right from the 5th they had not ceased to be the object of continual attacks. They had valiantly resisted repeated a.s.saults and field artillery. The heavy pieces poured in a hurricane of fire.

Pontisse, which had so usefully barred the pa.s.sage of the enemy below Vise, did not give way till the 12th. On the 13th Embourg surrendered after a twenty-six hours' bombardment.

[Sidenote: Forts yield one by one.]

The same day saw the fall of Chaudfontaine and Nameche, where two accidents happened worthy of being related. A sh.e.l.l burst on a cupola gun as it was finis.h.i.+ng its movement after being loaded. The whole gun was shattered and ten men were wounded. A little while after, a sh.e.l.l entered the fort through the embrasure and set fire to the powder magazine. One hundred and ten artillerymen were terribly burned, fifty dying upon the spot. The 14th saw the fall of Boncelles, Liers, and Fleron. Boncelles from the 5th had offered an admirable resistance.

Commandant Lefert had been wounded on the 8th, when 200 Germans, presenting themselves to surrender, treacherously fired upon him.

Suffering greatly, he none the less went on directing the defence until his officers met together in a kind of council of war, and had him taken away in an ambulance. The unfortunate man was seized by a fever and became delirious. Boncelles was bombarded unceasingly for a whole day and the following morning. It was nearly destroyed, and may be considered as the fort which was the centre of the worst carnage of German soldiers. The enormous heaps of dead buried around it bear witness to the fact. Liers was put out of action by guns installed at Sainte Walburge.

[Sidenote: Loncin and Lantin fall.]

To get the better of the obstinate resistance of Fleron (Commandant Mozin), the Germans united twenty guns by an electric battery and fired them all off at the same time upon the fort, which trembled in its ma.s.sive foundations. No one can have an idea of how demoralising this rain of projectiles was. On the 15th, Loncin and Lantin fell, the defenders firing until they were overcome by asphyxia. On the 16th, it was the turn of Flemalle, and on the 18th, of Hollogne.

We know that it was at Loncin, which dominated the roads of La Hesbaye, where General Leman was shut up. Commandant Naessens and Lieutenant Monard had the honour of defending the fort under the General's eyes.

Electrified by the presence of the governor of the fortress, the soldiers of Loncin wrote with their blood the most heroic page of the heroic defence of Liege. Commandant Naessens modestly narrated the story when he had been wounded and transported to the military hospital of Saint Laurent. General Leman has also _resumed_ the different phases of the attack, while a prisoner at Magdeburg. We will listen to his clear and crisp recital.

[Sidenote: General Leman's story.]

He distinguishes four periods during the bombardment. The first commenced on August 14th at 4.15 p.m. The sh.e.l.l fire, directed with great exact.i.tude, lasted two hours without interruption. After a break of half-an-hour, some 21-centimetre guns opened fire. All night, at intervals of ten minutes, they rained sh.e.l.ls upon the fort, causing it considerable damage. The escarpment was damaged, the protecting walls of the left flank battery destroyed, and the shutters of the windows pierced. Another unfavourable circ.u.mstance was that all the places of the escarpment where shelter could be obtained were full of smoke from the sh.e.l.ls which had burst either in the protecting wall or in the ditches. The deleterious gases rendered it impossible to stand in the covered places, and forced the General to a.s.semble the garrison in the interior and in the gallery. Even in these refuges the stupefying effects of the gases allowed themselves to be felt, and weakened the fighting value of the garrison.

[Sidenote: Horrors of the bombardments.]

The third period of bombardment began on the 15th at 5.30 a.m. and continued until two o'clock in the afternoon. The projectiles caused fearful havoc. The vault of the commanding post, where General Leman was present with his two adjutants, was subjected to furious shocks, and the fort trembled to its foundations. Towards two o'clock, a lull occurred in the firing, and the general took advantage of it to inspect the fort.

He found part of it completely in ruins.

[Sidenote: Currents of poisonous gas.]

The fourth period is described as follows: "It was two o'clock when the bombardment recommenced with a violence of which no idea can be given.

It seemed to us as if the German batteries were firing salvoes. When the large sh.e.l.ls fell we heard the hissing of the air, which gradually increased into a roar like a furious hurricane, and which finished by a sudden noise of thunder. At a certain moment of this formidable bombardment, I wished to reach the commanding post in order to see what was happening, but at the end of a few paces in the gallery I was knocked down by a shock of violent air and fell face forward. I got up and wished to continue my way, but I was held back by a current of poisonous air which invaded the whole s.p.a.ce. It was a mixture of the gas from the exploded powder and of the smoke of a fire which had started in the rooms of the troops where furniture and bedding were kept.

[Sidenote: The fort blown up.]

[Sidenote: General Leman a prisoner.]

"We were thus driven back to the place whence we had come, but the air had become unbreathable. We were near to being asphyxiated when my adjutant, Major Collard, had the idea of taking off the top of the shutter, which gave us a little air. I was, however, obsessed by the idea of placing part of the garrison in safety, and I told my comrade I desired to reach the counter-escarpment. I managed to pa.s.s the gap and reach the ditch, which I crossed. What was my amazement when I perceived that the fort was blown up, and that the front was strewn with ruins, forming a quay reaching from the escarpment to the counter-escarpment.

Some soldiers were running to and fro upon it. I took them for Belgian gendarmes and called to them. But I was being suffocated, giddiness seized upon me, and I fell to the ground. When I came to, I found myself in the midst of my comrades, who tried to come to my aid. Among them was a German major, who gave me a gla.s.s of water to drink. As I learnt afterwards, it was then about 6.30 p.m. I was placed in an ambulance carriage and transported to Liege.

"I was taken, but I had not yet surrendered."

[Sidenote: Surrender of Namur.]

Following the capture of Liege the German armies made rapid progress through Belgium. After several sharp engagements with Belgian troops, which resisted with heroic tenacity, the Germans on August 19 took Louvain, and then began the deliberate system of atrocities which horrified the civilized world. The most valuable parts of the city, including many beautiful and important edifices, were burned, citizens were killed and tortured, and the utmost brutality was practiced, under the excuse that German troops had been fired upon by citizens of the town. On August 17 Brussels had been abandoned by the Belgian Government which withdrew to Antwerp. The former city was surrendered without resistance. In the meantime the French had hurried their armies to a.s.sist the Belgian forces and, joined by the available troops of the English Expeditionary Force, they encountered the Germans at Charleroi.

On August 23 the great fortress of Namur was surrendered under the fire of the heavy German artillery, and on the following day, the Allied armies were defeated at Charleroi, and began the Great Retreat toward Paris which was to continue to the banks of the Marne. The French armies were under the command of General Joffre, while Sir John French commanded the British Expeditionary Force. In the following narrative General French describes the heroic performances of his gallant troops during the terrible ordeal.

THE GREAT RETREAT

SIR JOHN FRENCH

The transport of the troops from England both by sea and by rail was effected in the best order and without a check. Each unit arrived at its destination in this country well within the scheduled time.

[Sidenote: Disposition of British forces.]

The concentration was practically complete on the evening of Friday, September 21st, and I was able to make dispositions to move the force during Sat.u.r.day, the 22d, to positions I considered most favorable from which to commence operations which the French Commander in Chief, General Joffre, requested me to undertake in pursuance of his plans in prosecution of the campaign.

The line taken up extended along the line of the ca.n.a.l from Conde on the west, through Mons and Binche on the east. This line was taken up as follows:

From Conde to Mons inclusive was a.s.signed to the Second Corps, and to the right of the Second Corps from Mons the First Corps was posted. The Fifth Cavalry Brigade was placed at Binche.

In the absence of my Third Army Corps I desired to keep the cavalry division as much as possible as a reserve to act on my outer flank, or move in support of any threatened part of the line. The forward reconnoissance was intrusted to Brigadier General Sir Philip Chetwode with the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, but I directed General Allenby to send forward a few squadrons to a.s.sist in this work.

[Sidenote: Advance on Soignies.]

During the 22d and 23d these advanced squadrons did some excellent work, some of them penetrating as far as Soignies, and several encounters took place in which our troops showed to great advantage.

2. At 6 A. M. on August 23, I a.s.sembled the commanders of the First and Second Corps and cavalry division at a point close to the position and explained the general situation of the Allies, and what I understood to be General Joffre's plan. I discussed with them at some length the immediate situation in front of us.

From information I received from French Headquarters I understood that little more than one, or at most two, of the enemy's army corps, with perhaps one cavalry division, were in front of my position; and I was aware of no attempted outflanking movement by the enemy. I was confirmed in this opinion by the fact that my patrols encountered no undue opposition in their reconnoitring operations. The observations of my aeroplanes seemed also to bear out this estimate.

[Sidenote: Attack on Mons line.]

About 3 P. M. on Sunday, the 23d, reports began coming in to the effect that the enemy was commencing an attack on the Mons line, apparently in some strength, but that the right of the position from Mons and Bray was being particularly threatened.

The commander of the First Corps had pushed his flank back to some high ground south of Bray, and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade evacuated Binche, moving slightly south; the enemy thereupon occupied Binche.

[Sidenote: Germans gain pa.s.sages of the Sambre.]

The right of the Third Division, under General Hamilton, was at Mons, which formed a somewhat dangerous salient; and I directed the commander of the Second Corps to be careful not to keep the troops on this salient too long, but, if threatened seriously, to draw back the centre behind Mons. This was done before dark. In the meantime, about 5 P. M., I received a most unexpected message from General Joffre by telegraph, telling me that at least three German corps, viz., a reserve corps, the Fourth Corps and the Ninth Corps, were moving on my position in front, and that the Second Corps was engaged in a turning movement from the direction of Tournay. He also informed me that the two reserve French divisions and the Fifth French Army on my right were retiring, the Germans having on the previous day gained possession of the pa.s.sages of the Sambre between Charleroi and Namur.