from the book

'Great Battles of the Great War'

the Daily Chronicle War Library - 1914

 

the Fall of Fortress Liege

 

 

THE HEROIC DEFENCE OF LIÉGE

IT is impossible to over-estimate the service rendered to Europe by little Belgium in holding up for several days the head-waters of the vast and menacing tide of the German invasion. "Rapidity of action is the great German asset" said the German Imperial Chancellor to our Ambassador in Berlin. We owe it to Belgian courage and tenacity that that asset was seriously impaired. This small State, which had no quarrel with any one and only desired to live at peace with its neighbours, was suddenly exposed to a cruel ordeal. Two days before the receipt of the German ultimatum, the Belgian Government was informed by the German Minister in Brussels that Germany would respect the neutrality of Belgium. Two hours before handing in the ultimatum on that memorable Sunday evening, Germany's accredited representative repeated his assurance. Then suddenly Belgium was confronted with a peremptory demand for free passage through her territory for the Kaiser's legions.

If in her weakness she had given permission, who could have blamed her? But with sublime heroism of soul Belgium declined, though well knowing the risk, and then flung herself with splendid intrepidity athwart the path of the Teutonic host. She has suffered terribly by her heroic resistance. Her whole national life has come to a standstill. Her fields, tilled by a frugal, hard-working peasantry, have been laid waste; her prosperous industries are stricken with paralysis. Louvain, with its architectural glories, its peerless library, its exquisite colleges has almost been blotted out; Visé, Tirlemont, Aerschott have been reduced to ruins; the Government of the country was compelled to flee from the capital to Antwerp, and from Antwerp to the foreign but friendly city of Havre; hundreds of thousands of the Belgian people in town and country are homeless and have been reduced to beggary, and they have suffered, especially the women and the children, unimaginable horrors; thousands of Belgium's finest manhood of the country have perished on the battlefield. Half-a-million of her people have fled for refuge to Holland, to England, and to France. And yet through all the gloom of these horrors, these sufferings, this wicked destruction and these unavenged wrongs, the countenance of Belgium shines forth ‘with a radiant glow’.

 

SUFFERING AND ACHIEVEMENT

She has suffered much; yes, but she has achieved much. She mourns the loss of precious lives, the destruction of treasures, houses, crops, live-stock, merchandise. In a few short weeks she was reduced from wealth and prosperity to poverty and idleness. She has lost nearly everything, but she has found her own soul. And to-day in her ruin, Belgium confronts the world with a proud and an elate look. Through her capacity for sacrifice, through the valour of her sons, she has vindicated by a new and noble title her right to nationhood and independence.

The German General Staff prides itself on its skill in all that concerns the mechanism of war; but it cannot measure the soul of a people. It counted confidently on an easy, unopposed march through Belgium. It was rudely deceived. Belgium resisted with all its might. It is a small country with only seven millions of people and a total armed strength of about 300,000 men, most of whom had received very little training. But love of freedom and devotion to ones patrie can work wonders; and these militia-men fought like lions.

The upshot was that the carefully-prepared time-table of the Germans was deranged. Belgium's resistance robbed them of twelve days. This delay was an inestimable service to France, and it gave time to allow the British Expeditionary Force to take its place in the French fighting line on the north-eastern frontier. Belgium has placed France and England under an unforgettable debt. She has covered herself with glory. Her sons have fought with a grand heroism for their country against overwhelming odds. in the story of their achievements there is nothing more thrilling than the defence of Liége.

 

A ROMANTIC TOWN

Liége is a town with 250,000 inhabitants. It has an old and romantic history. It is the seat of a University and a famous musical centre. Situated in the heart of a great coal- mining district it is the home of many prosperous metal industries, among them the manufacture of explosives and small arms, particularly revolvers and sporting guns. The town is within a day's march of the German frontier. It nestles in a corner of the valley of the river Meuse, which flows from south-west to north-east. In spite of the smoke and grime inseparable from industry, the country round about Liége is full of charm and beauty. The town owes much to the Meuse, which is as wide here as the Seine is in Paris.

By express train Liége is three hours only from the French capital; and it is less than 20 miles from the German frontier.

The town itself has no military strength. But it is surrounded by a dozen forts, which were planned by the late General Brialmont, one of the most famous military engineers of the nineteenth century. As Liége lies in a hollow of the valley of the Meuse, surrounded by hills, the forts have a commanding position over the surrounding country. Mr. Hilaire Belloc, writing in Land and Water, says:

"The fortress of Liége is a modern ring fortress ; that is, it consists of an area roughly circular, almost, or rather less than ten miles in diameter, protected by a ring of forts (twelve in number) surrounding the great industrial town of Liége. The river Meuse runs right through Liége and through the middle of the ring. One of the main railways of Europe runs through the same circle and leads from the chief German bases of supply in the North to the Belgian plain; other railways also come in and effect their junction with this main line within the circle of the forts."

Since the Germans were determined to invade Belgium, in order to be able to deliver a staggering blow at France before France was ready. The possession of Liége, commanding all these important routes of communication, became of supreme importance to them. The German plan was, while containing the French along the rest of the Frontier, to enter France on the north-east and then to attempt a great turning movement pivoting on the powerful fortress of Metz. German strategy coolly took for granted the invasion of Belgian territory, although Germany was and is under solemn pledge to protect the neutrality of Belgium. To a successful invasion of Belgium the fortress of Liége blocked the way.

Of the twelve forts six are large and six relatively small. The largest fort is five-sided. Around it runs a deep ditch, of which the counter-escarp is a masonry wall, while the earthen escarp is simply the prolongation of the exterior slope of the parapet. Behind the Counter-scarp wall and running along almost the. whole of its length is a vaulted gallery, which at the angles of the ditch is pierced for machine-guns and rifles so as to sweep the floor of the ditch at the moment of the assault. From this gallery small galleries run outwards and downwards at right angles to enable the defenders to counter-attack besiegers' mining operations, and other galleries communicate with the part below the floor of the ditch.

 

GALLERIED AND PIERCED

In the rear of the fort the escarp is of masonry, galleried and pierced so as to command the flow of the ditch. The parapet of the fort is a plain infantry breast-work with steel gun-cupolas bedded in concrete at intervals. Within this pentagonal work and supported from it by an inner ditch is a triangular mass of concrete, galleried and pierced on its rear side so as to sweep the rear of the inner ditch; and on all sides so as to give fire upwards upon the interior of the outer fort and thus prevent the enemy who has stormed the front part from establishing himself solidly in the interior and to keep open a way for reinforcements by way of the rear side or gorge. Access from the outer fort to the inner ditch is obtained through a tunnel from a southern area, all parts of which are kept under fire by carefully sloping the earth on the inner side glacis-fashion, so as to bring it under the observation of the cupola in the centre of the triangular keep. The smaller forts, called "fortins," are triangular and contain no provision for interior defence. At the angles of the triangle are small cupolas for light quick-firing guns. The infantry parapet is traced in the shape of a heart. In the hollow of this heart is a solid mass of concrete on which are the shoulders of the gun-cupolas. Ditches add to the defensive power of the fortins.

In the whole fortress were 400 guns. Mr. Belloc estimates that for the full defence of the forts the services of 50,000 trained men are necessary.

Unfortunately when the crucial ordeal came so suddenly early last August, little more than 25,000 were available and most of these were composed of militia. But the men had plenty of pluck; and above all things, they had a born leader, General Leman, who conducted the operations with equal daring, judgment and resourcefulness.

 

THE WAR'S FIRST HERO

General Leman may be described as the first hero of the war. The fame of his defence of Liége will not soon be effaced from the memory of mankind. A fair-bearded, good- looking man, with kindling eyes and a high forehead, Leman was for several years Director of Studies at the Ecole Militaire, in Brussels. He was for some time a professor of mathematics and on many occasions gave proof of his skill as an engineer officer.

It was at seven o'clock on the evening of Sunday, August 2nd, that the German Minister in Brussels, without any previous warning, launched an ultimatum at the Belgian Government. Germany demanded the unopposed passage of her troops through Belgian territory; she offered to pay for everything she required, promised compensation for any damage that might be done and guaranteed that Belgium's independence would remain unaffected at the close of the war. Twelve hours were given for the reply. King Albert, - a monarch who in this cruel testing time has earned the admiration of the whole world by his personal bravery, his high patriotism, and the simple dignity of his demeanour at once joined his Ministers in conference. All night long the King and his counsellors sat in solemn deliberation.

Then at four o'clock, in the small hours of Monday morning, August 3rd, they met the German demand with an emphatic negative. When news of the refusal became known in the morning of that lovely summer's day, all Belgium was thrilled with patriotic pride.

"To arms” was the universal cry. Germany promptly declared war, and the 7th German Army Corps from Aix-la-Chapelle crossed the frontier on the Monday afternoon. Its instructions were to force the fortress of Liége. The attack began the same night. It was beaten back with heavy German losses. Next day more troops joined in the assault, but the forts were not to be taken. Repeated attacks by the Germans were repulsed with a heavy death-roll.

 

WHILE THE WORLD WONDERED

All eyes the world over were now centred on this desperate assault, and this stubborn defence. To the amazement of Europe, little Belgium was holding up the German legions and the forts of Liége were breaking the spell of German invincibility. On Thursday, August 6th, the Germans brought up two more Army corps. Liége was now assailed by 120,000 men, and the new reinforcements had brought with them heavy siege guns. A desperate attack was made that night. The small garrison, fatigued by their terrible exertions and loss of sleep, were unable to defend all the intervals between the forts against this simultaneous assault. Two of the chief forts were destroyed, and in the darkness a considerable force of Germans penetrating a wide gap, worked their way into Liége. The town was now in their hands, but several of the forts remained intact.

As long as they so remained, the advance of a large German army into Belgium was impossible, for the Liége forts commanded the junction of the main railways by which alone supplies could be transported from the Rhine valley. Unable to transport a large army into Belgium, the Germans determined to send on bodies of cavalry to sweep the Belgian plain and to live on the Country, and spread an atmosphere of terror. It was these roving bands of Uhlans, many of them suffering from the pangs of hunger, of whom we heard so much in the first ten days of the war,

So Liége, the fortress, still remained an obstacle to the German advance though Liége, the town, was in their hands. Right gallantly did the men in the remaining forts comport themselves. Airships hovered over the forts and dropped bombs upon them, but the spirit of the defenders was indomitable. Day and night the roar of the guns hardly ever ceased. The last forts were not silenced until August 15th.

 

"MAGNIFICENT, BUT NOT WAR !"

In their first attacks on the Liége fortress, the Germans, after preparing the way with artillery, hurled forward their infantry in close formation, expecting to carry the positions by sheer force of impetus and mass of weight. The besiegers were then simply mowed down in hundreds under the deadly fire of the Belgian guns. A Belgian officer gives a vivid account of the first attack on the night of Monday, August 3rd; an attack, be it remembered, that came so suddenly as to leave the garrison scanty time for preparation :

"Some of us late arrivals only managed to get to our posts when the German attack began. It was night time. We replied sharply with our guns. Until the dawn came we had no very distinct idea of what our practice was. Then we noticed heaps of slain Germans in a semi-circle at the foot of our fort. The German guns must have been much less successful, because they rarely hit us that night. They did better at daybreak. We did better still.

As line after line of the German infantry advanced, we simply mowed them down. It was terribly easy, monsieur, and I turned to a brother officer of mine more than once and said, 'Voila! They are coming on again, in a dense, close formation! They must be mad! They made no attempt at deploying, but came on, line after line, almost shoulder to shoulder, until, as we shot them down, the fallen were heaped one on top of the other, in an awful barricade of dead and wounded men that threatened to mask our guns and cause us trouble. I thought of Napoleon's saying - if he said it, monsieur; and I doubt it, for he had no care of human life ! 'C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre!' No, it was slaughter, just slaughter!

 

A BARRICADE OF DEAD

"So high became the barricade of the dead and wounded that we did not know whether to fire through it or to go out and clear openings with our hands. We would have liked to extricate some of the wounded from the dead, but we dared not. A stiff wind carried away the smoke of the guns quickly, and we could see some of the wounded men trying to release themselves from their terrible position. I will confess I crossed myself, and could have wished that the smoke had remained.

"But would you believe it, this veritable wall of dead and dying actually enabled those wonderful Germans to creep closer, and actually charge up the glacis? Of course, they got no further than half way, for our maxims and rifles swept them back. Naturally, we had our own losses, but they were slight compared with the carnage inflicted upon our enemies.

Mr. J. Byron Dolphin, British Vice-Consul at Liége, on his return to London after the fall of the town, said:

"The forts were subdued by the heavy siege guns of the Germans, two of the largest of which were of 42 c.m. calibre. Some of these guns were placed about one and a half miles from my house, and others were six or seven miles away. You could not see the effect of the firing; we only knew of the results from the statements of the soldiers who had been defending the forts.

"Several shells struck a large gasometer, but as the gas had been carefully filtered beforehand, so as to avoid any explosion, it simply burned itself out. Several shells fell close to the Vice-Consulate, and I was able afterwards to pick up pieces of shrapnel in my own garden. The noise of the bursting of these shells was absolutely deafening. It drove the women into a sort of frenzy. They were absolutely dumbfounded; they shrieked and vanished into the cellars. Everybody lived in a cellar, and few went to bed during the period of the bombardment of the forts. The heaviest attack on the forts was on the night of Wednesday, August 5th, and on August 6th, when the fighting around the Boncelles fort was terrific. This fort is three or four miles from the centre of the city. I was able, from my bedroom windows, to see the shells bursting throughout the whole night of Wednesday, and the sky was absolutely lurid blood-red, relieved by the green flames caused by lyddite."

 

A DEVOTED GARRISON

Fort Loncin, where General Leman was himself in command, was subdued by the enemy on August 6th. That day there was a tremendous attack on this fort. In spite of a terrific cannonade, and the constant crash of immense projectiles into the precincts, dealing death and destruction all around, the devoted garrison stuck to their posts. They had taken an oath with General Leman to die rather than surrender. From dawn on August 6th the bombardment continued with little intermission hour after hour. Then at 5 o'clock in the afternoon the powder magazine took fire, and there was an earthshaking explosion. The central part of the fort was shattered to fragments, vast concrete blocks were hurled into the air, and devastation was spread far and near. Many of the garrison lost their lives in this gigantic upheaval. After the roar and crash of the explosion came a silence as of death. Then the German soldiers ran forward eagerly into the fort.

In justice to them let it be said they did all they could to succour the injured men. General Leman, was discovered under a mass of debris, unconscious. He was tenderly removed. In one of the galleries the Germans found twenty-five men hardly to be seen in the thick smoke and fumes. They were as black as negroes. Their eyes were wild and bloodshot. Half asphyxiated, wounded, worn in body and mind, they had gathered in a corner of the gallery to meet uncomplainingly the death they had vowed. Profoundly moved by the spectacle the Germans hastened to their succour, and got the valiant band of mutilated heroes out into the fresh air, where they revived. Of 500 men in Loncin Fort, 350 were killed during the siege.

 

THE SHATTERING OF NERVES

A Belgian professor who conversed with several of the defenders says that they suffered quite as much from the heat, the smoke, and the nervous commotion, within as from the attack from without. "I met several men who had been fighting day and night in the forts. They complained of having had neither food nor sleep; and yet when food was now offered them they rejected it, and the lower jaw projected in an attitude of dogged determination, and they kept abusing the enemy who was no longer here. Although exhausted physically, they showed no sign of yielding or of fear, and they dragged their guns along though they could hardly stand, and thought only of obeying orders. These men were all heroes, worthy in spirit of their valiant commander."

The story of the last stand of the Loncin garrison is told in graphic language by a German officer who, though an enemy, did not conceal his admiration for tile bravery of General Leman. Here is the narrative of this chivalrous German:

“General Leman's defence of Liége combined all that is noble, all that is tragic. The commander of one fort, at the moment when the bombardment was heaviest, went mad, and shot his own men. He was disarmed and bound. The cupola of another fort was destroyed by a bomb from a Zeppelin. Other forts were swept away like sand castles on the seashore before the relentless waves of the oncoming tide.

 

THE DAILY ROUND

"As long as possible General Leman inspected the forts daily to see that everything was in order. By a piece of falling masonry, dislodged by our guns, both General Leman's legs were crushed. Undaunted, he visited the forts in an automobile. Fort Chaudefontein was destroyed by a German shell dropping in the magazine. In the strong Fort Loncin General Leman decided to hold his ground or die.

When the end was inevitable the Belgians disabled the last three guns and exploded the supply of shells kept by the guns in readiness. Before this, General Leman destroyed all plans, maps and papers relating to the defences. The food supplies were also destroyed. With about 100 men, General Leman attempted to retire to another fort, but we had cut off their retreat. By this time our heaviest guns were in position, and a well-placed shell tore through the cracked and battered masonry and exploded in the main magazine. With a thunderous crash the mighty walls of the fort fell. Pieces of stone and concrete twenty-five cubic metres in size were hurled into the air. When the dust and fumes passed away, we stormed the fort across ground literally strewn with the bodies of the troops who had gone out to storm the fort and never returned. All the men in the fort were wounded, and most were unconscious. A corporal with one arm shattered valiantly tried to drive us back by firing his rifle. Buried in the debris and pinned beneath a massive beam was General Leman.

‘Respectez le general, il est mort,' said an aide-de-camp.

 

GENEROUS MOMENTS

With gentleness and care, which showed they respected the man who had resisted them so valiantly and stubbornly, our infantry released the general's wounded form and carried him away. We thought him dead, but he recovered consciousness, and, looking round said, 'It is' as it is. The men fought valiantly,' and then, turning to us, added, 'Put in your despatches that I was unconscious.'

"We brought him to our commander, General von Emmich, and the two generals saluted. We tried to speak words of comfort, but he was silent-he is known as the silent general. 'I was unconscious. Be sure and put that in your despatches.' More he would not say. "Extending his hand, our commander said, 'General, you have gallantly and nobly held your forts.' General Leman replied, 'I thank you. Our troops have lived up to their reputations.' With a smile he added, 'War is not like maneuvers' - a reference to the fact that Genera] von Emmich was recently with General Leman during the Belgian manoeuvres. Then, unbuckling his sword, General Leman tendered it to General von Emmich. 'No,' replied the German commander, with a bow, 'keep your sword. To have crossed swords with you has been an honour,' and the fire in General Leman's eye was dimmed by a tear."

After his capture, General Leman addressed the following manly letter to the King of the Belgians

"SIR, - After honourable engagements on August 4th, 5th and 6th, I considered that the forts of Liége could only play the role of forts d'arret, I nevertheless maintained military government in order to co-ordinate the defence as much as possible, and to exercise moral influence upon the garrison.

Your Majesty is not ignorant that I was at Fort Loncin on August 6th at noon You will learn with grief that the fort was blown up yesterday at 5.20 p.m., the greater part of the garrison being buried under the ruins. That I did not lose my life in that catastrophe is due to my escort, who drew me from a stronghold whilst I was being suffocated by gas from the exploded powder. I was conveyed to a trench, where I fell. A German captain gave me drink, and I was made prisoner and taken to Liége.

"I am certain that I have shown carelessness in this letter, but I am physically shattered by the explosion at Fort Loncin. In honour of our arms I have surrendered neither the fortress nor the forts. Deign pardon, Sire.

"In Germany, where I am proceeding, my thoughts will be, as they always have been, of Belgium and the King. I would willingly have given my life the better to serve them, but death was not granted to me. - LIEUTENANT-GENERAL LEMAN."

It is the letter of a gallant man. General Leman's name will always be associated with the defence of Liége, a defence, let it never be forgotten, which arrested for several days the German advance, and so helped to save Western Europe.