"It was difficult to ascertain precisely how the German attack was planned, but the final a.s.sault consisted of a continuous bombardment of two hours" duration, from half past 7 o"clock in the morning to half-past 9. During that time there was a continuous rain of sh.e.l.ls, and it was extraordinary to notice the precision with which they dropped where they would do the most damage. The Germans used captive balloons, whose officers signaled the points in the Belgian defense at which they should aim.
GERMAN GUNS CONCEALED
"The German guns, too, were concealed with such cleverness that their position could not be detected by the Belgians. Against such methods and against the terrible power of the German guns the Belgian artillery seemed quite ineffective. Firing came to an end at 9.30 on Friday, and the garrison escaped, leaving only ruins behind them. In order to gain time for an orderly retreat a heavy fire was maintained against the Germans up to the last minute and the forts were then blown up by the defenders as the Germans came in at the gate of Malines.
"I was lucky enough to escape by the river to the north in a motorboat.
The bombardment had then ceased, though many buildings were still blazing, and while the little boat sped down the Scheldt one could imagine the procession of the Kaiser"s troops already goose-stepping their way through the well-nigh deserted streets.
MANY HARROWING SCENES
"Those forty hours of shattering noise almost without lull seem to me now a fantastic nightmare, but the sorrowful sights I witnessed in many parts of the city cannot be forgotten.
"It was Wednesday night that the sh.e.l.ls began to fall into the city.
From then onward they must have averaged about ten a minute, and most of them came from the largest guns which the Germans possess, "Black Marias," as Tommy Atkins has christened them. Before the bombardment had been long in operation the civil population, or a large proportion of it, fell into a panic.
"It is impossible to blame these peaceful, quiet-living burghers of Antwerp for the fears that possessed them when a merciless rain of German sh.e.l.ls began to fall into the streets and on the roofs of their houses and public buildings. The Burgomaster had in his proclamation given them excellent advice, to remain calm for instance, and he certainly set them an admirable example, but it was impossible to counsel perfection to the Belgians, who knew what had happened to their fellow-citizens in other towns which the Germans had pa.s.sed through.
FOUGHT TO GET ON THE BOATS
"Immense crowds of them--men, women and children--gathered along the quayside and at the railway stations in an effort to make a hasty exit from the city. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. Family parties made up the biggest proportion of this vast crowd of broken men and women. There were husbands and wives with their groups of scared children, unable to understand what was happening, yet dimly conscious in their childish way that something unusual and terrible and perilous had come into their lives. "There were fully 40,000 of them a.s.sembled on the long quay, and all of them were inspired by the sure and certain hope that they would be among the lucky ones who would get on board one of the few steamers and the fifteen or twenty tugboats available. As there was no one to arrange their systematic embarkation a wild struggle followed amongst the frantic people, to secure a place. Men, women and children fought desperately with each other to get on board, and in that moment of supreme anguish human nature was seen in one of its worst moods; but who can blame these stricken people?
APPALLED BY THE HORROR OF WAR
"They were fleeing from _les barbares_," and sh.e.l.ls that were destroying their homes and giving their beloved town to the flames were screaming over their heads. Their trade was not war. They were merchants, shopkeepers, comfortable citizens of middle age or more; there were many women and children among them, and this horror had come upon them in a more appalling shape than any in which horror had visited a civilized community in modern times.
"There was a scarcity of gangways to the boats, and the only means of boarding them was by narrow planks sloping at dangerous angles. Up these the fugitives struggled, and the strong elbowed the weak out of their way in a mad haste to escape.
"By 2 o"clock Thursday most of the tugboats had got away, but there were still some 15,000 people who had not been able to escape and had to await whatever fate was in store for them.
A GREAT EXODUS OF INHABITANTS
"At the central railway station incidents of a similar kind were happening. There, as down by the river, immense throngs of people had a.s.sembled, and they were filled with dismay at the announcement that no trains were running. In their despair they prepared to leave the city on foot by crossing the pontoon bridge and marching towards the Dutch frontier. I should say the exodus of refugees from the city must have totaled 200,000 men, women and children of all ages, or very nearly that vast number, out of a population which in normal times is 321,800. "I now return to the events of Thursday, October 8th. At 12.30 in the afternoon, when the bombardment had already lasted over twelve hours, through the courtesy of a Belgian officer I was able to ascend to the roof of the cathedral, and from that point of vantage I looked down upon the scene in the city.
"All the southern portion of Antwerp appeared to be desolate ruin. Whole streets were ablaze, and the flames were rising to a height of twenty and thirty feet.
"From my elevated position I had an excellent view also of the great oil tanks on the opposite side of the Scheldt. They had been set on fire by four bombs from a German Taube aeroplane, and a huge thick volume of black smoke was ascending two hundred feet into the air. It was like a bit of Gustave Dore"s idea of the infernal regions.
CITY ALMOST DESERTED
"The city by this time was almost deserted, and no attempt was made to extinguish the fires that had broken out all over the southern district.
Indeed there were no means of dealing with them. For ten days the water supply from the reservoir ten miles outside the city had been cut off, and this was the city"s main source of supply. The reservoir was just behind Fort Waelthen, and a German sh.e.l.l had struck it, doing great mischief. It left Antwerp without any regular inflow of water and the inhabitants had to do their best with the artesian wells. Great efforts were made by the Belgians from time to time to repair the reservoir, but it was always thwarted by the German sh.e.l.l fire.
KILLED BEFORE HIS WIFE"S EYES
"After leaving the cathedral, I made my way to the southern section of the city, where sh.e.l.ls were bursting at the rate of five a minute. With great difficulty, and not without risk, I got as far as Rue Lamoiere.
There I met a terror-stricken Belgian woman, the only other person in the streets besides myself. In hysterical gasps she told me that the Bank Nationale and Palais de Justice had been struck and were in flames, and that her husband had been killed just five minutes before I came upon the scene. His mangled remains were lying not one hundred yards away from where we were standing.
"Except for the lurid glare of burning buildings, which lit up the streets, the city was in absolute darkness, and near the quay I lost my way trying to get to the Hotel Wagner. For the second time that day I narrowly escaped death by sh.e.l.l. One burst with terrific force about twenty-five yards from me. I heard its warning whirr and rushed into a neighboring porch. Whether it was from the concussion of the sh.e.l.l or in my anxiety to escape I caromed against the door and tumbled down, and as I lay on the ground a house on the opposite side crashed in ruins. I remained still for several minutes, feeling quite sick and unable to get up. Then I pulled myself together and ran at full speed until I came to a street which I recognized.
TAKE REFUGE IN CELLARS
"How many of the inhabitants of Antwerp remained in the city that night it is impossible to say, but they were all in the cellars of their houses or shops. The Burgomaster, M. De Vos, had in one of his several proclamations made many suggestions for safety during the bombardment, for the benefit of those who took refuge in cellars. Among the most useful of them, perhaps, was that which recommended means of escape to an adjoining cellar. The power of modern artillery is so tremendous that a cellar might very well become a tomb if a sh.e.l.l fell on the building overhead.
"Sleep was impossible that night, in the noise caused by the explosion of sh.e.l.ls in twenty different quarters of the town. About 6 o"clock I was told that it was time we got out, as the Germans were entering the city. We hurried from the hotel and found the streets completely deserted. I walked down to the quay-side, and there I came across many wounded soldiers, who had been unable to get away in the hospital boat.
"On the quay piles of equipment had been abandoned. A broken-down motor-car, kit-bags, helmets, rifles and knapsacks were littered in heaps. Ammunition had been dumped there and rendered useless. The Belgians had evidently attempted to set fire to the whole lot. The pile of stuff was still smoldering. I waited there for half an hour, and during that time hundreds of Belgian soldiers pa.s.sed in the retreat.
Just about this time a pontoon bridge which had been the means of the Belgian retreat was blown up to prevent pursuit by the Germans.
"At 8 o"clock a sh.e.l.l struck the Town Hall, and about 8:15 another sh.e.l.l shattered the upper story and broke every window in the place.
BURGOMASTER PARLEYS WITH GERMANS
"That was the German way of telling the Burgomaster to hurry up. A quarter of an hour later M. De Vos went out in his motor-car toward the German line to discuss the conditions on which the city should be surrendered.
"At 9:30 o"clock the bombardment of the city suddenly ceased, and we understood that the Burgomaster had by this time reached the German headquarters. Still we waited, painfully anxious to learn what would be the ultimate fate of Antwerp. Belgian soldiers hurried by and at 10: proclamations were posted on the walls of the Town Hall urging all in the city to surrender any arms in their possession and begging all to remain calm in the event of the Germans" occupation. A list was also posted of several prominent citizens who were appointed to look after the interests of those Belgians who remained.
"The "impregnable" city of Antwerp had fallen, but without dishonor to its gallant defenders."
GERMAN MILITARY GOVERNOR OF ANTWERP APPOINTED--GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORTS
On October 10 Baron von der Schutz was appointed military governor of Antwerp. It was expected that the city would become the base for Zeppelin attacks upon England and also for a German naval campaign in which mines and submarines would play an important part. This was intimated in dispatches from Berlin following the German occupation of the city.
The German General Staff, in announcing the capture, added that they could not estimate the number of prisoners taken. "We took enormous quant.i.ties of supplies of all kinds," said the official statement.
CHAPTER XX
THE WOUNDED AND PRISONERS
_Typical Precautions Used by the German Army_--_The Soldiers" First-Aid Outfit_--_System in Hospital Arrangements_--_How Prisoners of War Are Treated_--_Are Humane and Fair to All Concerned_.
Modern armies take the best possible care of their wounded and none has brought this department of warfare to greater perfection than the Germany army. One detail of this work shows the German army at its best.
Every soldier has sewn under a corner of his coat a strip of rubber cloth. Under this strip is a piece of antiseptic gauze, a strip of bandage and plaster and cloth for the outer bandage. This cloth bears in simple pictures directions for dressing every sort of wound.
When a soldier is wounded either he or some comrade rips open this package and applies at once the life saving dressing, which will last at any rate until the soldier is brought to a station, where the first scientific attention is given.
Through this simple and inexpensive device thousands upon thousands of German soldiers, who have been slightly wounded in battle, have returned to their comrades within a few days completely well and have taken their places in the ranks once more. Without this care a large percentage of the wounds would become inflamed, as has been the case with hundreds of wounded French prisoners captured by the Germans.
The ordinary procedure of caring for the wounded in the German army is for the sanitary corps, which is well provided with stretchers and bandages, to gather up the wounded on or near the firing lines and bring them to a gathering point a little way behind the lines.
Here the army surgeons are ready to begin work at once upon the most urgent cases. They are a.s.sisted by members of the corps, who remove the temporary bandages, and put on dressings which will last until the soldier reaches a hospital. Then from this first gathering point the wounded soldiers are put on stretchers in Red Cross wagons and carried to the field hospitals a few miles farther back, where doctors and nurses are at work.
HOSPITALS IN VILLAGE CHURCHES
These hospitals are usually established in village churches or town halls. One room is cleared and arranged for an operating room, where bullets and pieces of sh.e.l.l are removed and amputations are made if necessary.