THE CAPTURE OF ANTWERP
It is out of question for me to try to relate in full justice the
military events which attended the attack and capture of Antwerp by the
Germans.
Divers histories of the war, published in French and English since
1914, have reported the principal phases and details of the memorable
event. I will confine myself then to certain incidents which I
witnessed, and in which I participated.
Antwerp, as is well known, was reported to be impregnable. The city
itself is surrounded by walls and canals. In addition there was a first
chain of forts known as inner forts, and another chain of forts known
as outer forts.
About September 26 or 27, 1914, it became apparent in Antwerp that the
Germans were making a serious strategic demonstration against the city
on the side of Malines, situated half way between Antwerp and Brussels,
and only five or six miles distant from the outer forts of Antwerp.
The military critics have often discussed the reasons which prompted
the German high military command to undertake the conquest of the
famous fortified position. It appears that what decided the Germans,
more than anything else, to undertake the siege of Antwerp was the
necessity to offset, in the minds of the German people, the painful
impression created by the retreat of their army at the famous battle of
the Marne. The Germans, you will remember, were forced to withdraw from
both banks of the Marne between the 4th and the 12th of September, and
a few days afterwards plans were made by the enemy to attack Antwerp.
Malines and a few villages on the south-west were first occupied, after
which the attack was started against Antwerp through the outer forts on
the south and south-east of the city.
The question was asked several times why did the Germans concentrate
their first attack this way, when it would have been easier for them
to capture the city by attacking from the west, whence they might have
cut off any retreat of the Belgian army towards the North Sea. Between
Thermonde and the frontier of Holland there is only a narrow border
of territory which the Germans could have taken easily. It is still
unanswered.
I have been assured that the Germans, after taking possession of a
village named Hyst-Op-Den-Berg, had only to tear down the walls of a
house to find, ready for use, a concrete base for a heavy and powerful
piece of artillery.
Was this one of the numerous pre-war preparations of the Germans? No
one can tell now, but it is a fact from this point the German artillery
was able to bombard the forts of Waehlen, Wavre, Ste. Catherine and
Lierre, which were the first ones destroyed.
At that time a large number of wounded soldiers were being brought
to the hospital every day. Every time a new batch of wounded was
brought in the doctors would, after rendering first aid, gather round
in order to obtain some details of the progress of the battle. The
reports became more and more alarming. The Germans were making their
way steadily toward us. It was next reported that enemy detachments had
crossed the Nete river; that in a short while the artillery would be
able to bombard the city itself.
I remember particularly a lieutenant of artillery who was under my care
at the hospital. He described to me the scenes which took place during
the bombardment of the fort he occupied. He told me that although
accustomed to the tremendous detonation of the guns, he could not find
words to adequately express the effect of an explosion caused by the
firing of a shell from a 28-centimetre howitzer or a 42-centimetre gun.
I think it was on Saturday, October 3, that the news spread like
lightning that Mr. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty
of Great Britain, had arrived in Antwerp. A few hours later we were
told at the hospital that the English statesman had gone back, after
assuring the Belgian authorities that help would be forthcoming
immediately. As a matter of fact, on the days immediately following,
British Jack Tars arrived in Antwerp. They crossed the city from
l’Escaut to the forts on the south-west amid the indescribable
enthusiasm of the population, and took position in the Belgian trenches.
The confidence of the people in the besieged fortress, which had
become somewhat shaken, was at once restored and rose higher than
ever. And I desire here to express my admiration for the conduct of
the British naval squadrons, which was beyond praise. Their behavior
and courage were alike unequalled, and whatever criticism may have
been advanced in the British press at that time of sending these
naval forces into Belgium, it is my sincere belief that these troops
played an exceedingly important part. While they did not prevent the
fall of Antwerp, they succeeded, at all events, in holding back the
German advance for a time, and covered the Belgian army’s retreat,
first through the city, thence to the other side of the Escaut, in the
country of Vaes, toward St. Nocalos, Ghent, and Ostend. The British
marines were the last to leave Antwerp. During the night of October 8-9
a small number of them fell as prisoners into the hands of the enemy;
others evaded the Germans by crossing into Holland; the remainder
followed in the wake of the Belgian army.
Antwerp itself was bombarded for thirty hours unceasingly. The
bombardment started in the evening of Wednesday, October 7, and
continued until the following Friday morning. During this time it was
estimated that no fewer than 25,000 shells fell into the city, shaking
it to its deepest foundations.
We remained at the hospital until the following day, Thursday. We had
removed the majority of our patients to Ostend. Only a few remained
under the care of the brave nuns. I myself was preparing to leave, when
a shell burst right in the centre of the operating room close upon
the ward where I was occupied. I was slightly wounded, and I left the
hospital a few minutes later.
This was on Thursday, October 8, and as I rode on my bicycle through
the now deserted streets I could hear above my head the whizzing of
the shells fired by the enemy in the direction of the Belgian army
headquarters.
The Belgian army headquarters were then at the Hotel St. Antoine, on
the Marche aux Souliers (shoe market), a small thoroughfare which leads
from Place de Meir to Place Verte. On the day following the fall of the
city, I rode back to Antwerp on my bicycle, and to my great surprise I
saw that while every vestige of buildings on the opposite side of the
street had disappeared–blown into atoms by the German shells–the Hotel
St. Antoine had not been touched. The shells had merely grazed the roof
of the building before crashing down the opposite side of the street.
The night of October 8-9 was terrible and sinister. From the roof of
the house we lived in, at Capellen, we observed the city being devoured
by the flames. From the spot where we witnessed this awful scene,
it looked as though the whole city were on fire. The oil reservoirs
were burning at the same time that other parts of the city were being
consumed by the devastating element. In the midst of this horrible
carnage, we could see the tower of the great, magnificent cathedral
pointing, like the finger of God, toward heaven. It was visible for
a minute, then invisible–swallowed up in enormous tongues of fire.
In the distance toward the south, where total darkness prevailed, we
could observe from time to time flashes of the explosions caused by the
German artillery vomiting its volleys of shells on the burning city.
It was an appalling spectacle which lasted through the night. The
formidable vibrations caused by explosions repeated on an average
of 300 per minute was an experience which is still painful for the
imagination to dwell upon. Then on the morning of Friday, October 9, a
dismal silence followed the carnage on the fortified city. Antwerp as a
Belgian fortress was no more!