The Fall of Antwerp
Men of the British Naval Brigades in trenches outside Lierre and Kontich
THE FALL OF ANTWERP
THE siege of Antwerp, one of the most famous and beautiful cities in Europe, the goal of innumerable ambitions and the victim of many wars, began on Monday, September 28th. Sacked in turn by Spanish and French, by Catholics and Protestants, occupied during the centuries by Spanish, French and Austrians, besieged by both French and British forces, its latest, and not least tragic, fate was to be bombarded by the Germans and to fall into the hands of the modern Huns. Believed to be almost impregnable, its defences were constructed by the most renowned engineer in Europe, General Brialmont. Nothing which concrete and iron could do to keep out the enemy had been left undone, though it is doubtful whether the armament of the fortress had been kept up to date.
THE PLAN OF DEFENCE
The city was protected by three groups of works, described by Mr. Hilaire Belloc in "Land and Water" thus : " First, immediately round its densely inhabited portion the old continuous ditch or enceinte . . . next, outside the suburb at ranges varying mg from 3,000 to 4,000 yards to the heart of the city, you have the ring of 'old forts,' the original works by which the modern city was defended. Strictly speaking, the scheme is not a ring, but three-quarters of a circle reposing upon the Scheldt, most of the country behind or to the west of which is not available for siege operations, because it can be flooded, and because the last portion of it is foreign territory and Dutch. Finally, a third set of defences, at an average of about ten to fifteen thousand yards from the centre of the city, consisting in a chain of modern forts, completes the scheme."
The river Nethe, a tributary of the Scheldt, runs eastwards between the inner and outer ring of the city's forts; the village of Lierre is on the river ; Lierre fort, Wavre St. Catherine, Waelhem, and the rest of the outer forts, are on the further side of the Nethe, so that when a breach in this outer ring was effected by the enemy, they had still to get across the river in the rear, the bridges across which had, of course, been destroyed by the Belgian garrison after it retreated across the stream.
THE OUTER FORTS
On Tuesday, September 29th, the German fire was chiefly concentrated on two of the outermost forts, Fort de Waelhem and Fort de Wavre St. Catherine, the eleven-inch howitzers being employed. The following day the attack extended to other forts in the outer ring, notably Lierre. Upon Thursday evening those forts were still replying, but the next day, October 2nd, a breach in the outer ring was so far effected that the besieging army was able to reach the River Nethe behind it, though, owing to the splendid courage of the Belgian soldiers, it was not until 4 a.m. of the morning of October 6th that the enemy succeeded in crossing the river and making good their footing between Lierre and Duffel. Thrice during that night small detachments had got across and were driven back or wiped out by the Belgians. From the 2nd to the 6th this effort to cross the river went on. On the 4th the Germans succeeded in getting a pontoon completed, and came down in solid masses 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 at a time; nevertheless, the masses of men still came on. At last the bridge was shattered to bits, and the enemy fell back.
MEN AND "BLACK MARIAS"
The attacking force was estimated at 125,000 men at this date, well provided with artillery, large numbers of field guns, some heavy pieces of Il-inch, and one of the famous 16-in "Black Marias." This force threw its whole weight upon the line of the River Nethe, from the confluence of the Grand Nethe and Petit Nethe at Lierre, to the junction with the Rubel near Rumbot, and, as already stated, crossed the Nethe on the 6th. On the 7th the Press Bureau issued the following significant statement:
"The Germans attacking Antwerp have pushed forward their positions against considerable resistance by the garrison." On the same day the Belgian Government removed to Ostend, the King still remaining with his soldiers, whom from the first he had led and inspired.
It was on Sunday, October 4th, that the British reinforcements, consisting of three Marine and Naval Brigades, with heavy guns, began to arrive; by nightfall our men were entrenched in front of the bridge which spanned the Nethe. Bearing the brunt of the German attack, they held these trenches until Tuesday morning. The following statement, issued by the Secretary of the Admiralty on October 11th, covers the whole movements of the British force from the time of its arrival:
"In response to an appeal by the Belgian Government, a marine brigade and two naval brigades, together with some heavy naval guns, manned by a detachment of the Royal Navy, the whole under the command of General Paris, R.M.A., were sent by his Majesty's Government to participate in the defence of Antwerp during the last week of the attack.
Up till the night of Monday last, October 5th, the Belgian army and the marine brigade successfully defended the line of the Nethe River. But early on Tuesday morning the Belgian forces on the right of the marines were forced by a heavy German attack, covered by very powerful artillery, to retire, and in consequence the whole of the defence was with-drawn to the inner line of forts, the intervals between which had been strongly fortified. The ground which had been lost enabled the enemy to plant his batteries to bombard the city. The inner line of defences was maintained during Wednesday and Thursday, while the city endured a ruthless bombardment. The behaviour of the Royal Marines and naval brigades in the trenches and in the field was praiseworthy in a high degree, and remarkable in units so newly formed, and, owing to the protection of the entrenchments, the losses, in spite of the severity of the fire, are probably less than 300 out of a total force of 8,000. The defence could have been maintained for a longer period, but not long enough to allow of adequate forces being sent for their relief without prejudice to the main strategic situation.
THE BRAVE BELGIANS
"The enemy also began on Thursday to press strongly on the line of communications near Lokeren. The Belgian forces defending this point fought with great determination, but were gradually pressed back by numbers. In these circumstances the Belgians and British military authorities in Antwerp decided to evacuate the city. The British offered to cover the retreat, but General de Guise desired that they should leave before the last division of the Belgian army.
"After a long night march to St. Gilles the three naval brigades entrained. Two out of the three have arrived safely at Ostend, but owing to circumstances which are not yet fully known, the greater part of the 1st Naval Brigade was cut off by the German attack north of Lokeren, and 2,000 officers and men entered Dutch territory in the neighbourhood of Hulst and laid down their arms, in accordance with the laws of neutrality. The retreat of the Belgian army has been successfully accomplished. The naval armoured trains and heavy guns were all brought away.
"The naval aviation park having completed the attack on Dusseldorf and Cologne already reported, has returned safely to the base protected by its armoured cars. The retreat from Ghent onwards of the naval Division and of the Belgian army was covered by strong British reinforcements.
"Vast numbers of the non-combatant population of Antwerp, men, women, and children, are streaming in flight in scores of thousands westwards from the ruined and burning city."
A TRYING TIME
The British troops in the line of trenches nearest to the river Nethe had a most trying time on Monday, October 5th, exposed as they were in wide shallow trenches to a continuous and searching shrapnel fire with never a chance to use their rifles. After a time the men retired to a new line less exposed and better constructed half a mile back from the river. This line they held until the following morning, when they, together with the Belgian soldiers, retired behind the inner line of forts. A British Reservist attached to H.M.S. "Pembroke," who was in the trenches, describes the Belgian fort guns as being "outranged and out-metalled;" the "huge German projectiles crashed through walls and destroyed fortifications as if they had been made of papier-maché."
Once within the inner ring of forts the British guns began to come into action, and realising that their prey was escaping from them, the Germans throughout the 6th made repeated and determined efforts to break across the Schelde along the line from Termonde to Wetteren, but were constantly repulsed by the Belgians. The following day the exodus from Antwerp began in earnest, and all Wednesday afternoon and during Thursday morning the Civic Guard went from house to house telling the inhabitants to flee. "I walked out," says The Times Special Correspondent, "on the main road to the Dutch frontier as far as Wilmarsdonck. For a month past I have grown accustomed to the sight of streams of refugees trailing over all the roads of Belgium until the queer illusion has grown up that they are always the same refugees. They look so pitiably alike. But all the scenes on all the roads for weeks past must be added together and multiplied twenty-fold to resemble the spectacle of the roads to Holland during the last two days. Hardly any migration in the history of the Israelites, Kalmucks, or Tartars can have equalled it.
"Two relieving features were the extreme kindness of the Dutch people at the frontier and the beautiful weather. These reduced the mortality to a minimum. But I saw terrible scenes, such as a woman in a wheelbarrow in a virulent stage of scarlet-fever, another with a child just born, and many aged and ill borne by frail members of their families quite unfit for the task."
ACROSS THE SCHELDE
On Wednesday, October 7th, the enemy at last succeeded in their effort to effect the passage of the Schelde at Termonde, Schoonvoorde and Wetteren, and at midnight the bombardment of the city began, the German summons to surrender having been disdainfully rejected by General de Guise. It was on Thursday the stampede of the population increased in volume and intensity with every hour. The Times correspondent above quoted re-entering the City at noon on that day, found it "almost empty." Besides the exodus by the roads to Holland "I had seen a crowd estimated at 150,000 blocking the ferry and the pontoon for the railway to St. Nicholas and Ghent earlier in the day. These all disappeared, the last trains being gone and arrangements were made for blowing up the pontoon bridge.
"It was an extraordinary experience walking through the deserted streets.
All the windows were shuttered, and many places along the roads were littered with the debris of shell-fire. Occasional figures were hurrying along under the shelter of the walls while shells still broke around. I saw a corner knocked off a house a hundred yards from the Cathedral. I saw a shell smash through the sheds on the water front, where the Harwich boat starts. I saw shells plough up the pavement of the street a little way in front of me, I saw a factory chimney break and crumble, crashing on other roofs fifty yards away.
"German shells could reach every corner of the city, and the chief characteristic of the bombardment was the haphazard way the fire was directed on all parts of Antwerp, and not concentrated anywhere, the object seeming to be rather to terrorize than to destroy. So until Thursday night no great damage was caused.
THE RIVER SPECTACLE
"No less wonderful than the scene on the roads or in the city was the spectacle on the river, where all day Thursday craft of every description were slipping down stream loaded with human beings until, as dusk fell, chiefly by the light of the burning oil tanks, I saw the Civic Guard sink half a dozen lighters, blocking the entrance to the inner basins of the docks. I myself boarded one of the last batch of lighters passing out, where, in company with a party of refugees and another correspondent, amid a cargo of gravel, corn, and poultry, and lying in mid-stream, I watched the indescribable scenes of Thursday night.
"The oil tanks still burned fiercely with dense masses of black smoke to the south of the city. As night fell other fires arose, some from shells, but most of them purposely started by the Belgians, destroying materials likely to be serviceable to the enemy. We could count some dozen or fifteen fires on the south-east side of the city. The glare of all was reflected on the overhanging clouds of black smoke against which the flash of exploding shells flickered constantly like lightning -' The lightning of the footsteps in the sky.' Much the heaviest cannonade I have heard in all the fighting in Belgium went on from ten o'clock till midnight on Thursday night, and the circumstances of the night and the flaring flames made a picture defying description."
During Thursday night the defence was discontinued, and the Allies withdrew from the city. Throughout the day the sufferings of the flying population were indescribable.
Here is another glimpse of the terror inspired by the approach of the representatives of German " Kultur."
A STREAM OF SUFFERING
From this moment onwards there was no cessation in the stream of wretchedness. We were assured that 25,000 fugitives from German ferocity had passed along one road, and that not the main road from Antwerp to Holland, and I can well believe it. For many hours I watched the pitiful procession. Every conceivable species of conveyances was utilized for this Belgian exodus. Roads were encumbered with cattle, Belgian cows and calves; so different in appearance from the black and white Dutch cows one sees in every pasture here, were present in droves. It is said that 200,000 cattle have thus entered Holland, and these are at least a source of milk supply for the homeless wanderers. Intermingled with them were people of both sexes and all ages afoot.
"Large country wagons were loaded with little children, much as one sees them going to a school treat in England; but, young as the children were, they realized the tragic character of the occasion, and journeyed in unchildlike silence. Many carts were drawn by donkeys, and others by dogs. In some all the household possessions had been hastily piled. One saw fowls, puppies, and canaries, jostling bandboxes, and bundles of clothing. Blankets and bedding were conspicuous among the possessions of the fugitives, who were totally ignorant of where their next night's lodging would be."
A CRESCENDO OF HORROR
The crescendo of horror reached its climax between the Thursday and Friday mornings, when the aspect of the doomed city resembled a scene from the Inferno of Dante. A heavy black pall of smoke "resembling some portentous awful eclipse," obscured the light, the darkness being emphasized by the flames from the burning buildings, and the bursting of the enemy's incendiary shells. To the thunder of the German guns and the shrieking of their bursting shells was added the detonations of the Belgians, as they blew up anything and everything likely to be of use to the besiegers, while the crash of falling masonry and the cries of the injured were punctuated by bombs exploding from aeroplanes, the crackle of musketry, and the rip of machine guns. "All over the southern section of the city," wrote the Daily News correspondent on the Thursday, "shells struck mansion, villa, and cottage indiscriminately, and the bright flashes of the explosion lit the sky.
"Then the fortress guns, the field batteries and the armoured trains opened out in one loud chorus, and the din became terrific, while the reflection in the heavens was seemingly one huge tossing flame. From the roof of my hotel the spectacle was an amazing one. The nerve-wracking screech of the shells, the roof-tops of the city alternately dimmed, then illuminated by some sudden red light which left the darkness blacker than before, and then the tearing out of roof or wall by the explosion, made a picture which fell in no way short of Inferno."
A DESOLATE RUIN
At 12.30 on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Lucien Arthur Jones, the Daily Chronicle correspondent, when the bombardment had lasted over twelve hours ascended to the roof of the cathedral, and from that point of vantage surveyed the city. "All the southern portion of Antwerp appeared to be a desolate ruin. Whole streets were ablaze, and the flames were rising in the air to a height of twenty and thirty feet. It was a scene of appalling grandeur, but I could not help thinking of the harrowing scenes that were. taking place almost as it were at my feet." The great oil tanks had been set on fire by four bombs from a German Taube, and a huge thick volume of black smoke was ascending 200 feet in the air. In all directions fire and flame and oil-laden smoke! It was like a bit of Gustave Dorés idea of the infernal regions."
At dawn on Thursday immense crowds of men, women and children gathered along the quayside and at the railway stations in the hope of escaping. " In the dimness of breaking day," says Mr. L. A. Jones, "this gathering of 'les miserables' presented as it seemed to me, the tragedy of Belgium in all its horror. I shall never forget the sight. Words fail to convey anything but a feeble picture of these depths of misery and despair. There the people stood in dumb and patient ranks, drawn to the quayside by an announcement that two boats would leave at eleven o'clock for Ostend. And Ostend looks across to England, where lie the people's hopes. There were fully 40,000 of them assembled 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 boats. Alas! for their hopes. The two boats did not sail, and when they realised this a low wail of anguish rose from the disappointed multitude." Family parties made up the largest proportion of this vast crowd, husbands and wives with their groups of scared children, old folk, grandmothers and grandfathers of the family, and "these in their shaking frailty and the terror which they could not withstand, were the most pitiable objects in the great gathering of stricken townsfolk."
A FANTASTIC SIGHT
On Thursday night the city presented a fantastic appearance, the glare from the fires that had burst out in all directions being visible for many miles. The bombardment continued furiously throughout the night, shells bursting in every direction at the rate of thirty per minute.
Throughout the night the Belgian soldiers passed in retreat through the city, the last contingent leaving at 6 a.m. on Friday morning. At 8 a.m. a shell struck the Town Hall, and a quarter of an hour later another shell shattered the upper storey, breaking every window in the place. At 9 a.m. the bombardment suddenly ceased; the city had capitulated, and at 10.30 proclamations were posted up on the walls of the town urging the citizens to surrender any arms in their possession. When the enemy entered he found a deserted city, the population had fled from the Germans as from a pestilence. On Wednesday afternoon there were probably 400,000 or 500,000 people still in Antwerp. By Thursday at noon all but a few hundreds had departed. One hundred thousand fled, it is estimated, by the ferry, and trains and highways to St. Nicholas, Lokeren, Ghent, Bruges and Ostend, and not less than 250,000, probably many more, pushed out by the roads by Wilmarsdonck and Eeckeren to the Dutch frontier. Nothing could exceed the kindness of the Dutch people, officially or individually.
A PITEOUS EXODUS
The Times correspondent thus vividly portrays this amazing and piteous exodus:
"Moving at a foot's pace went every conceivable kind of vehicle great timber wagons, heaped with household goods topped with mattresses and bedding, drawn by one or two slow-moving stout Flemish horses, many of the wagons having, piled upon the bedding, as many as thirty people of all ages ; carts of lesser degree of every kind from the delivery vans of fashionable shops to farm vehicles and wagons from the docks; private carriages and hired cabs; occasional motor-cars, doomed to the same pace as the farm team; dog-carts drawn by anything from one to four of these plucky Belgian dogs, the prevailing type of which looks almost like pure dingo; hand-trucks, push- carts, wheel-barrows, perambulators, and bicycles; everything loaded as it had never been loaded before, and all alike creeping along in one solid unending mass, converting the long white roads into dark ribands; twenty miles long, of animals and humanity. A happy thing it is that this is a flat country. Happier still that the weather has been perfect.
FOOT PASSENGERS
"Between and around and filling all the gaps among these vehicles went the foot passengers, each also loaded with bundles and burdens of every kind, clothes and household goods, string bags filled with great round loaves of bread and other provisions for the road, children's toys, and whatever possessions were most prized. Men and women, young and old, hale and infirm, lame men limping, blind led by little children, countless women with babies in their arms, many children carrying others not much smaller than themselves; frail and delicate girls staggering under burdens that a strong man might shrink from carrying a mile; well-dressed women with dressing bags in one hand and a pet dog led with the other; aged men bending double over their crutched sticks.
"Mixed up with the vehicles and the people were cattle, black and white Flemish cows, singly or in bunches of three or four tied abreast with ropes, lounging with swinging heads amid the throng. Now and again one saw goats. Innumerable dogs ran in and out of the crowd, trying in bewilderment to keep in touch with their masters. On carts were crates of poultry and chickens, and baskets containing cats. Men, women, and children carried cages with parrots, canaries, and other birds; and, peeping out of bundles and string bags - generally carried by the elder members of the families - were Teddy bears, golliwogs, and children's rocking-horses. It was impossible not to be touched by the tenderness which made these wretched folk, already overburdened, struggle to take with them their pets and their children's playthings."
A SATURDAY PARADE
Though a heavy German force had entered Antwerp on Friday night, the bulk of the army did not enter until late on Saturday afternoon, when 60,000 men passed in review before General von Schutz, the military Governor of Antwerp, and Admiral von Schroeder, who, surrounded by a glittering staff, sat on their horses in front of the Royal Palace in the Place de Meir. " For five hours," says Mr. E. Alexander Powell, correspondent of the New York World, in a remarkable description of the German entry, reprinted in The Times, "the mighty host poured through the streets of the deserted city, while the houses shook to the thunder of their tread. Company after company, regiment after regiment, brigade after brigade, swept past until the eye grew weary of watching the ranks of grey under the slanting lines of steel. As they marched they sang, the canyon formed by high buildings along the Place de Meir echoing to their voices roaring out the 'Wacht am Rhein' and 'A Mighty Fortress is our God.'
"Each regiment was headed by its field music and colours, and. when darkness fell and the street lamps were lighted the shrill music of fifes and rattle of drums and the tramp of marching feet reminded me of a torch-light election parade. Hard on the heels of the infantry rumbled artillery, battery after battery, until one wondered where Krupp found time or steel to make them. These were the forces that had been almost in constant action for the last two weeks and that for thirty-six hours had poured death and destruction into the city, yet the horses were well groomed and the harness well polished. Behind the field batteries rumbled quick-firers, and then, heralded by a blare of trumpets and the crash of kettledrums, came the cavalry, cuirassiers in helmets and breastplates of burnished steel, hussars in befrogged jackets and fur busbies, and finally the Ublans, riding amid forests of lances under a cloud of fluttering pennons.
UHLANS AND BLUEJACKETS
"But this was not all, nor nearly all. For after the Uhlans came bluejackets of the naval division, broad-shouldered bewhiskered fellows with caps worn rakishly and the roll of the sea in their gait. Then Bavarian infantry in dark blue, Saxon infantry in light blue, and Austrians in uniforms of beautiful silver grey, and, last of all, a detachment of gendarmes in silver and bottle-green."
Before the actual military occupation of Antwerp, says Mr. Powell, half a dozen motor- cars, filled with armed men wearing grey uniforms and spiked helmets, entered the Porte de Malines and drew up before the Hotcl de Ville. The doorkeeper, in the blue and silver livery of the municipality, cautiously opened the door in response to the summons of a young officer in a voluminous grey cloak. " I have a message to deliver to the Communal Council," said the young man pleasantly.
"The Communal Councillors are at dinner and cannot be disturbed," was the doorkeeper's reply. "If monsieur will have the kindness to take a seat until they finish?" So the young man in the spiked helmet seated himself on a wooden bench and the other men in spiked helmets ranged themselves in a row across the hall.
THE OPENED DOOR
"After a quarter of an hour's delay the door of the dining-room opened and a portly Councillor appeared, wiping his moustache. 'You have a message you wish to deliver ?' he inquired.
'The message I am instructed to give you, Sir,' said the young man, clicking his heels sharply together and bowing from the waist, 'is that Antwerp is now a German city, and you are requested by the General Commanding his Imperial Majesty's Forces so to inform your townspeople, and to assure them that they will not be molested so long as they display no hostility toward our troops.'
"The Burgomaster then went out to the motor-car to obtain the best terms he could. General von Schutz informed him that, if the outlying forts were immediately surrendered, no money indemnity would be demanded from the city, though all the merchandise in the warehouses would be confiscated."
A correspondent who visited Antwerp after the German occupation was struck by the comparatively small amount of damage done, his general impression being that little of the town was destroyed. The city itself he described as "dead." Blinds were down in private houses, and where there were no blinds the houses had their shutters closed.