""Can"t you help me!" I called to a French officer I caught sight of.
""You will never get to the Hotel de Ville like this," he replied, so I forced my wounded through the gateway of a private house and we managed to close the gates after us.
"They had been roughly handled, some of them, and they stayed there a day and a night before we could move them again."
[The damage done to the cathedral at Rheims, by the way, though by no means slight, inexpressibly sad and truly regrettable, was not nearly so great as was indicated by many early reports. The friends of architectural art and beauty hope to see the cathedral fully restored at no distant date.]
"SLAUGHTER" AT SOISSONS
Much of the fighting during the battle of the Aisne centered around Soissons. On September 16 a correspondent described the fighting there as follows: "For the last three hours I have been watching from the hills to the south of the town that part of the terrific struggle that may be known in history as the battle of Soissons.
"It has lasted for four days, and only now can it be said that victory is turning to the side of the Allies.
"The town itself cannot be entered for it still is being raked both by artillery and rifle fire, and great columns of smoke mark several points at which houses are burning.
"The center of the fighting lies where the British and French pontoon corps are trying to keep the bridges they have succeeded in throwing across the river.
"Men who have come from the front line tell me that the combat there has been a positive slaughter. They say that the unremitting and desperate firing of these four days and nights puts anything else in modern warfare into the shade, that river crossings are as great an objective on one side to take and keep as on the other to destroy."
SEVEN DAYS OF h.e.l.l
A wounded soldier, on being brought back to the hospital at Paris, after only one week in the valley of the Aisne, said in a dazed sort of way:
"Each day was like the others. It began at 6 o"clock in the, morning with heavy sh.e.l.lfire. There was a short interval at which it stopped, about 5:30 every day. Then in the night came the charges, and one night I couldn"t count them. It was awful--kill, kill, kill, and still they came on, shoving one another over on to us. Seven days and nights of it and some nights only an hour"s sleep; it was just absolute h.e.l.l!"
None of the wounded found another word to describe the battle and the sight of the men bore it out. Muddied to the eyes, wet, often with blood caked on them, many were suffering from the curious aphasia produced by continued trouble and the concussion of sh.e.l.ls bursting. Some were dazed and speechless, some deafened, and yet, strange to say, said a correspondent, no face wore the terrible animal war look. They seemed to have been softened, instead of hardened, by their awful experience.
CHAPTER XIX
FALL OF ANTWERP
_Great Seaport of Belgium Besieged by a Large German Force_--_Forts Battered by Heavy Siege Guns_--_Final Surrender of the City_--_Belgian and British Defenders Escape_--_Exodus of Inhabitants_--_Germans Reach the Sea._
When the battle of the Marne ended in favor of the Allies and the Germans retired to take up a defensive position along the Aisne, the Belgian army renewed its activities against the invader. With the fortified city of Antwerp as their base, the Belgians began (on September 10) an active campaign, having for its object the reoccupation of their cities and towns which had been taken and garrisoned by German troops. In some cases they were successful in regaining possession of points which they had been forced to abandon during the German advance in August, and there were many hot encounters with the Germans who were left to hold open the German lines of communication through Belgium, But the forces of the Kaiser were too numerous and too mobile for successful opposition, and soon the Belgian army, despite the most gallant efforts, was compelled once more to retire behind the outer forts of Antwerp and there await the coming of an enemy who was approaching in force.
Great credit must be given to the Belgian army for the patriotic manner in which it met the sudden invasion by the Germans, and for its continued resistance against tremendous odds. Inspired by the example of King Albert and his devoted Queen, who spent most of their time with the Belgian forces in the field, and shared with them the vicissitudes of war, the defenders of Belgium fought with the utmost pertinacity. The resistance of the Belgians when invaded, and the success of the Allies in halting the advance upon Paris and turning it into a retreat at the Marne, appear to have inflamed the German generals with a desire to crush Belgium completely under an iron heel. An object lesson of the power and possibilities of the great fighting machine must be given somewhere. Halted in France by the Franco-British armies and meeting with varying fortunes against the Russian hosts in the eastern campaign, Germany chose to make Belgium once more the international c.o.c.kpit and hurled an army against Antwerp. This move, if successful (as it proved to be) would serve two purposes--first, the further punishment of Belgium for her unexpected resistance, and second, the striking of a direct blow at Great Britain, the possession of Antwerp being strategically regarded as "a pistol leveled at the head of London."
THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP
In the third week of September the Germans, having ma.s.sed a force believed to be sufficient for the capture of Antwerp, brought up their heavy Krupp siege guns which had been used successfully at Liege and Namur, and planted them within their seven-mile range, so as to command the outer belt of forts east and south of the city. [See map of the fortifications of Antwerp on page 102.] These huge howitzers were reinforced by heavy siege guns furnished by Austria. The fortification system of Antwerp was believed by its builders to be practically impregnable, but they had not reckoned with the tremendous shattering power and great range of the latest Krupp siege guns. For Antwerp was destined to fall, her outer and inner defenses broken down, within ten days from the time the siege began in earnest.
BRITISH MARINES AID DEFENDERS
The number of German troops engaged before Antwerp was variously estimated at from 80,000 to 200,000. The siege proper began on Tuesday, September 29. For more than a week previously there had been daily engagements in the suburbs of the city and on several occasions the Belgians made a sortie in force, only to encounter overwhelming numbers of the German enemy, before whom they were compelled to retire behind the shelter of the forts. In all these engagements the Belgians gave a good account of themselves and inflicted severe losses on the enemy. But the odds against them were too great and then when the great siege guns began to thunder, it was soon realized that the city was in imminent danger.
King Albert did all in his power to encourage the defense and by his presence among his troops on the firing lines around the city added greatly to his reputation as a patriotic soldier. A force of several thousand British marines, coming from Ostend, aided the Belgian defense in the last days of the siege, but all efforts were unavailing. One by one the forts succ.u.mbed to the German fire with which the Belgian guns could not cope, and German troops penetrated nearer and nearer to the doomed city.
Finally, on October 9, when the inhabitants were in a state of terror as a result of the long-continued bombardment of the forts, and the sh.e.l.ling of the city, further resistance was seen to be useless, the defending forces, Belgian and British, made their escape to Ostend or into the neutral territory of Holland, the city formally capitulated through the Burgomaster, and occupation by the Germans followed immediately. The bulk of the British marines made their way back to Ostend, but a rearguard, consisting of 2,000 British, together with some Belgians, was cut off by the advance of the Germans across the Scheldt, and rather than surrender to them marched across the border into Holland and surrendered arms to the Dutch authorities. The men were interned and will be held in Holland till the end of the war. It is probable that this rearguard was deliberately sacrificed to enable the Anglo-Belgian army to make good its retreat.
The fate of Antwerp shows what might have happened to Paris had the Germans been able to bring up their great siege guns to the outer fortifications of the French capital and protect them while they performed their tremendous task of battering the defenses to pieces.
The wrecking of Antwerp"s outer and inner forts in ten days proves that solid, ma.s.sive concrete, chilled steel and well-planned earthworks afford little or no security against the monstrous cannon of the Kaiser"s armies. There appeared to be but one way of withstanding them.
As seems to have been demonstrated in the valley of the Aisne, they are apparently ineffective against field forces deeply intrenched in a far-flung line.
THE FIGHTING OUTSIDE ANTWERP
Early on Tuesday morning, October 6, one of the fiercest of the engagements outside Antwerp ended with the crossing of the River Nethe by the Germans and their approach to the inner forts. Monday had been the sixth day of the siege and the Belgian army was fighting with reckless courage to save Antwerp. As a precaution, the boilers of all the German ships lying in the harbor were exploded on Sunday, in order to prevent, if possible, use of these ships as transports for German troops across the North Sea or elsewhere. The detonation of the bursting boilers, resounding through the city, set the excited Sunday crowd very near to a panic. This was accelerated by the constant fear of airship attacks, and most of the population that was not already in active flight from the city sought safety in cellars.
The entire war has presented no greater picture of desolation than that of the hosts fleeing from the last Belgian stronghold. For forty-eight hours before the city fell great crowds of the citizens, dumb with terror as the huge German sh.e.l.ls hurtled over their heads, were fleeing toward England and Holland in such numbers that the hospitality of those countries was likely to be taxed to the utmost.
The suburban town of Lierre was bombarded early in the week, the church was destroyed, and a number of citizens killed and wounded. The next day; the village of Duffel was bombarded and the population fled into Antwerp. Many still had confidence in the ability of the Antwerp forts to withstand the German attack.
Although the Germans succeeded in crossing the Nethe, their repeated attempts to effect a pa.s.sage over the Scheldt were repulsed and they then concentrated their attention on an approach to Antwerp from the southeast. In their trenches the Belgians resisted gallantly to the last. "Most wonderful," said an American observer on October 7, "is the patient, unfaltering courage of the average Belgian soldier, who has been fighting for nine weeks. Tired, with hollow eyes, unkempt, unwashed and provided with hasty, though ample, meals, he is spending most of the time in the trenches.
"King Albert, the equal of any soldier in his devotion to duty, daily exposes himself to personal danger, while the Queen is devoting her time to the hospitals."
The effect of the German siege artillery was especially destructive near Vosburg. Several villages suffered heavily and the barracks at Contich were wrecked. The forts at Waelhem and Wavre-St. Catherines were totally destroyed by the terrific sh.e.l.l fire.
Most of the fighting around Antwerp was a battle of Krupps against men.
Every day and night the fighting continued with deadly effect against the forts, while the shrapnel and sh.e.l.l made many of the trenches untenable.
As fast as the Belgians were compelled to withdraw from a position the Germans moved up and occupied it. The Belgians fought stubbornly with infantry and frequently they repulsed the Germans, but these repulses always meant a renewal of the artillery attacks by the Germans, with the eventual retirement of the Belgians until the end of endurance was reached and the city defenses were evacuated by their brave garrison.
An instance of the tenacity with which the infantry stuck to their positions was reported from the Berlaere, where the commanding officer and his aid-de-camp were in one of the most exposed positions. Sandbags protected them for some time, but at last the aid-de-camp was struck by shrapnel and had his face virtually blown away. Unperturbed by this terrible proof of the danger of his position, the commanding officer stuck to his post, and for further shelter placed the body of his junior over his body. In this position he lay firing, whenever possible, from o"clock in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.
FIERCE FIGHT TO CROSS NETHE
The crossing of the River Nethe was attended by great loss to the Germans. They hurled their infantry recklessly against the Belgian trenches, and while they lost enormous numbers, eventually succeeded in crossing the river. One of the unsuccessful attempts was described by an independent observer as follows:
"The Germans succeeded in getting a pontoon completed and they came down to the river bank in solid ma.s.ses to cross it. As they came every Belgian gun that could be turned on the spot was concentrated on them and they were blown away, blocks of them at a time, and still the ma.s.ses came on.
"The Belgian officers spoke with enthusiasm of the steadiness and gallantry with which, as each German company was swept away, another pushed into its place. But it was a dreadful sight, nevertheless.
"At last the bridge went, shattered and blown to bits. The Belgian guns continued for a while to search the opposite river bank, but the Germans fell back and no more ma.s.ses of men came down to where the pontoon had been. Allowing for all exaggerations, there can be no doubt that the German loss must have been extremely heavy."
Near Termonde, on Wednesday, the 7th, the fighting was just as fierce.
The Belgians had four batteries of field guns there which succeeded in destroying the locks of the river (the Scheldt), thus flooding a part of the river and blocking the Germans. Later they engaged in a hot duel with the German artillery. Two of the Belgian batteries were completely destroyed early in the action and all of the men serving them were killed. Not until the last of the remaining guns were put out of action did the Belgians withdraw.
Of the casualties in and around Antwerp during the siege it is possible only to make an estimate. It was said after the Germans entered the city that their total loss in killed, wounded and missing was near forty-five thousand men. German officers were credited before the attack with saying that they would sacrifice 100,000 men, if necessary, to take Antwerp. It is probable that the German casualties numbered at least twenty-five thousand, while the Belgian losses in actual killed and wounded were probably five thousand The latter fought from entrenched positions, while the heavy German losses were sustained in the open and at the river crossings. The casualties among the British marines, who arrived only a day or two before the city capitulated, were comparatively insignificant. STORY OF AN EYEWITNESS--HARROWING SCENES ATTENDING THE FALL OF ANTWERP AND THE EXODUS OF ITS PEOPLE
A vivid picture of the pathetic scenes attending the fall of Antwerp was given by Lucien A. Jones, correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, who wrote on October 11th as follows:
"Antwerp has been surrendered at last. The bitterest blow which has fallen upon Belgium is full of permanent tragedy, but the tragedy is lightened by the gallantry with which the city was defended. Only at last to save the historic buildings and precious possessions of the ancient port was its further defense abandoned. Already much of it had been shattered by the long-range German guns, and prolonged resistance against these tremendous engines of war was impossible. Owing to this the siege was perhaps the shortest in the annals of war that a fortified city has ever sustained. Heroic efforts were made by the Belgians to stem the tide of the enemy"s advance, but the end could not long be delayed when the siege guns began the bombardment.
"It was at three minutes past noon on Friday, October 9th, that the Germans entered the city, which was formally surrendered by Burgomaster J. De Vos. Antwerp had then been under a devastating and continuous sh.e.l.l fire for over forty hours.