HOW LIÉGE WON THE LEGION OF HONOUR.
On the next page you will see a map of Belgium. I want you to examine it
carefully. You will notice that Belgium's real line of defence on the
south and east is the river Meuse. After the war of 1870-71 the great
military engineer, Brialmont,[186] was called upon to fortify the Meuse
valley in such a way that an enemy advancing from the south or east
might at least be delayed until other nations could come to the help of
Belgium. He had already made Antwerp the chief citadel of the country.
In the neighbourhood of Liége the Meuse runs in a deep wide trench
between masses of upland. On the north lies a tableland which extends
for fifty miles to the neighbourhood of Louvain. On the east and south
is the hill country of the Ardennes, a land of ridges and forests seamed
by swiftly running streams, and sinking eastwards to the plains of the
Rhine. The tableland to the north is flat, and is covered with fields of
beetroot and cereals. An invader can cross it with ease. But the hill
region to the east and south is too rough and broken for large armies to
traverse without considerable difficulty. From the map you can readily
see that the easy road from Germany into Belgium lies between the
northern limit of the Ardennes and the Dutch frontier. Here stands
Liége, and Brialmont naturally chose it as the site of a great fortress
which should bar the way from Germany.
[Illustration: Map illustrating the War in Belgium (Aug. 9-20).]
The sides of the wide valley in which the Meuse runs are sharply cut,
and are clothed for the most part with scrub, oak, and beeches. Here we
find the Black Country of Belgium, the chief coal-mining district of the
country, where the smoke from many factory and colliery chimney-stacks
darkens the sky. The chief centre of this Black Country is Liége, which
stands in a strikingly picturesque situation on the lofty banks of the
broad Meuse not far from its junction with the Ourthe. Most of the city
stands on the left bank of the river, and here we find noble public
buildings, stately churches, pretty parks, broad boulevards, and
spacious streets. On the right bank is the industrial quarter, with many
factories and the homes of the workers. There is an island in the river,
by means of which several bridges unite the two portions of the city.
Firearms are largely manufactured by the people in their own homes; and
zinc foundries, engine shops, motor-cycle works, a gun factory, a cannon
foundry, and flax-spinning mills give employment to thousands of other
workmen. The inhabitants are Walloons, who have always been renowned for
their independence and love of freedom.
Brialmont fortified Liége by building around it a series of twelve
forts in a ring some ten miles across. From the little plan on page 236
you will see that these forts were at distances varying from 6,500 yards
to 10,000 yards from the centre of the city. In the old days forts were
strong castles, usually built on a high rock or hill; but when guns of
great range and force came into use, engineers sank their forts into the
earth as much as possible. To outward appearance a Liége fort seemed to
be nothing but a low, grassy mound rising from a deep ditch. The mound
was cased in with concrete and masonry, and its top was broken by a pit
in which was fitted a "cupola," or gun-turret, which could be made to
slide up and down by means of a piston. When the cupola was down,
nothing was visible but the low mound; when it was up, the muzzles of
the guns were seen sticking out of portholes. Inside this great molehill
were the quarters for the garrison, the machinery for moving the guns
and cupolas, the ammunition and supply stores, the electric-lighting
arrangements, and the ventilating fans. The engineers and gunners
entered and left the fort by means of a tunnel. You will see a diagram
showing the structure of one of the most powerful of the Liége forts on
page 229.
Brialmont meant the various forts which defended Liége to be joined to
each other by means of trenches and gun-pits, so as to prevent the enemy
from rushing in between them at night or in misty weather. Unfortunately
these lines of trenches were never completed. Nevertheless the position
was thought to be one of the strongest in Europe. Five years ago a
German general reported that his army had no gun strong enough to
destroy one of the Liége forts, and added that such a gun must be made.
We shall soon see that his advice was taken.
* * * * *
Turn to the map on page 226, and find the position of
Aix-la-Chapelle,[187] which the Germans call Aachen. It is an important
military centre of Germany, and is on the great railway route from
Berlin to Paris. Follow the railway, and you will see that it curves
round by way of Verviers, and then runs along the valley of the Vesdre
to Liége. As the crow flies, Aix-la-Chapelle is only twenty-five miles
from Liége. About the same distance south of Aix-la-Chapelle is
Malmedy,[188] the German Aldershot, where several army corps are always
in training. About three years ago the Germans persuaded the Belgian
Government to let them make a branch line connecting Malmedy with the
Belgian railway system at the little town of Stavelot.[189]
* * * * *
On the morning of Tuesday, 4th August, German advance guards suddenly
seized Stavelot and began to march upon Liége from the south-eastward.
At the same time, troops from Aix-la-Chapelle crossed the frontier and
occupied Verviers.[190] Picked soldiers in motor cars were also hurried
across the plain towards Visé.[191] The invasion of Belgium had begun.
Before the vast armies of Germany could advance, Liége must be captured.
The eastern forts of the city commanded all the railways, and all the
roads but one, and that was the road leading from Aix-la-Chapelle to
Visé. The Germans expected little opposition from the Belgians, and
believed that they had an easy task before them. There were no Belgian
soldiers on the frontier to oppose them, and they advanced unmolested.
They tried to make friends with the people in the towns and villages
through which they passed; but many of the townsfolk and villagers at
once fled by road and rail into Holland or towards Brussels.
[Illustration: Diagram of a Liége Fort.]
At this time the Belgian army was mobilizing along the line of the river
Dyle,[192] to the east of Brussels. At midnight on the 4th of August the
church bells were still ringing to call the soldiers to arms, and dogs
were being collected to draw the machine guns. When news arrived that
the Germans were marching on Liége a division and a brigade were hurried
to the city; but, along with the Civic Guard of the town, they did not
number more than 20,000 men. It had long been known that at least 50,000
men were needed to hold the forts and the intervals between them. It was
a "scratch" force that attempted the task--infantry of the line, in
their blue and white dress; cavalry in their peaked caps, green and
yellow uniform, and flowing capes; and the Civic Guard,[193] in their
high round hats and red facings. Already gangs of colliers and navvies
were at work digging trenches and throwing up breastworks, and already
houses, spinneys, and even churches in the line of fire from the guns
of the forts were being levelled to the ground. Engineers were also at
work blowing up bridges, viaducts, and tunnels in the Belgian Ardennes,
so as to prevent the enemy from using the railways. By the afternoon of
Wednesday, 5th August, the Belgians held in strength the line of the
south-eastern forts, and cavalry covered the gap between the most
northerly of these forts and the Dutch border. The army was under the
command of General Leman,[194] an officer of Engineers, who had worked
under Brialmont. He was a grave, silent man, more than sixty years of
age, and was highly respected by his fellow-countrymen. Every Belgian in
the trenches was a patriot, eager to defend his country, his wife,
children, and home with his life.
Wednesday morning (5th August) dawned hot and rather dull. Soon the
sound of firing was heard north of Liége. It came from the neighbourhood
of the little town of Visé, where Belgian troops were holding the
crossing of the Meuse. Watchers on the high ground above Liége saw black
clouds of smoke drifting along the river. German guns were pounding the
little town, and the shells had set fire to the houses. The Belgians,
however, held the bank of the river and the houses near it with great
bravery. They had blown up the bridges, and the enemy was forced to
build others. In one place a number of Belgian troops lay concealed
while a pontoon was being erected, and just as the work was completed
they opened fire. The bridge was destroyed, and with it many of the
engineers who were building it. After fierce fighting the Belgians were
obliged to withdraw, and the Germans entered Visé.
[Illustration: General von Emmich, commanding the German Army in
Belgium.]
Every one expected that the main attack on Liége would come from this
direction; but it began after dark next day on the southern side, along
the wooded heights broken by the course of the little river Ourthe.
About 11.30 p.m. shells came screaming through the darkness, and burst
over the southern forts. The German guns were some three miles away, and
they were firing in the blackness of the night at targets which they
could not see. Nevertheless, by means of large-scale maps, they were
able to aim their guns with great accuracy, and shell after shell
exploded on the ramparts of the forts. Their heavy siege pieces had not
yet come up, and they were using their field guns. The shells fired from
them were filled with some high explosive which gave forth a bright
greenish light as they burst. The guns of the forts replied to the
German fire; but they probably did little damage, as the enemy's guns
were carefully concealed. For nearly three hours the bombardment
continued.
Towards three in the morning of 6th August a rattle of infantry fire was
heard in the woods on both sides of the river Ourthe. The Germans were
advancing to attack the trenches between Fort Boncelles and Fort
Embourg. Parties of Belgians were sent forward to check them, but were
driven back, and just as dawn was breaking the Germans bore down on the
trenches in dense masses, shoulder to shoulder, believing that they
could carry them by sheer force of numbers. Upon these closely-knit
ranks the Belgians poured volley after volley, cutting wide lanes
through them until the dead were heaped high before the trenches. "It
was death in haystacks," said a Belgian soldier, who played his part in
the fight.
Again and again, like sheep driven to the slaughter, the Germans
advanced, while the Belgian rifles cracked and the guns of the forts
thundered. Again and again they were driven back, and more than once,
when the Germans were but fifty yards away and the whites of their eyes
could be seen, the Belgians left their trenches and swept the foe before
them at the point of the bayonet. At the sight of the gleaming steel
many of the Kaiser's men turned and ran or held up their hands and
surrendered. At eight in the morning they withdrew, and the wearied
Belgians cheered and cheered again, for they had won a victory.
Meanwhile, however, the fort of Fléron[195] had been silenced. A shell
had burst on the turret, and had smashed the machinery of the cupola. A
furious bombardment was also kept up on Fort Chaudfontaine,[196] at the
point where the railway line from Aix-la-Chapelle passes through a
tunnel. The German artillery fire reduced the fort to a heap of ruins,
but it never surrendered. Its heroic commander blocked the tunnel by
causing railway engines to collide within it, and then, in order that
the German flag should never fly over even the broken remains of his
fort, he set fire to his ammunition magazine, and thus completed its
destruction. The fall of Chaudfontaine opened up the railway to the
invaders.
* * * * *
Long ago Julius Cæsar wrote, "Bravest of all peoples are the Belgæ." One
who knows the Belgian soldier well says: "Greater even than my
admiration of his careless courage is my liking for the man. For all his
manhood, he has much of the child in him; he is such a chatterbox, and
so full of laughter; and never are his laugh and his chaff so quick as
when he has the sternest work in hand. Unshaven, mud-bespattered,
hungry, so tired that he can hardly walk or lift his rifle to his
shoulder, he will bear himself with a gallant gaiety which I think is
quite his own, and altogether fascinating." No doubt in the eyes of the
Germans the Belgian soldiers, almost untrained, clothed in a quaint
jumble of curious uniforms, slovenly in appearance, and without any of
the smartness of the drill-ground, appeared absurd; but they were
patriots, every man of them, fighting freely, and indeed gladly, for all
that they held dear.
During the fighting which I have just described, a lad of nineteen
actually managed to capture a German general single-handed. When the
general surrendered, his captor found that he was carrying a satchel
containing not only papers but six thousand pounds in notes and gold.
The young Belgian handed over the money to the Red Cross Society, to aid
it in its splendid work of tending the wounded. He kept for himself,
however, the satchel and the general's silver helmet.
While the forts were being bombarded, an examination was going on at the
university. Most of the candidates finished their papers, and then
trooped from the hall to the battlefield, where many of them lay dead a
few hours later.
* * * * *
During that day and the next the Germans tried to "rush" the forts by
hurling dense masses of men against them. Let me tell you the story of
one of these attacks, from the lips of a Belgian officer.
"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, 'Voilà![197] 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, 'It is magnificent, but it is not war.' No, it was
slaughter--just slaughter!...
"But, would you believe it, this wall of dead and dying actually enabled
these wonderful Germans to creep closer, and actually charge up the
glacis! They got no farther than half-way, for our Maxims and rifles
swept them back. Of course, we had our own losses, but they were slight
compared with the carnage inflicted upon our enemies."
* * * * *
On Thursday, 6th August, most of the forts were still holding out; but
the Germans had brought up two more army corps from the south and
south-east, and it was now clear that the garrison of Liége was too
small in numbers to hold the forts and the intervals between them. At
nightfall, though the forts remained intact, bodies of German troops
pushed through the spaces between the two forts which look south-east
towards the German frontier. On the morning of the 7th it was discovered
that a considerable force of Germans had got within the ring of forts,
and was in the town of Liége itself. Nevertheless, until the forts were
silenced the roads and railways which they commanded could not be used,
and the German advance was, therefore, held up.
General von Emmich,[198] who was in command of the German forces, now
brought up 8.4-inch howitzers, and probably one or two still heavier
mortars, and began a furious cannonade of the forts. These guns fired
shells which burst with such terrible power that they crashed through
twelve feet of concrete, and crushed the sides of the forts as though
they were sand castles on the seashore. They howled through the air,
exploded with a terrific thunderclap, and then gigantic clouds of dust
and smoke arose above the trembling ground. Nothing could resist them;
the forts of Liége were doomed as soon as the Germans brought up their
siege guns.
Yet, terrible as the cannonade was, the garrisons of the forts stuck to
their guns with marvellous courage. Here is a passage from the diary of
an officer who served in one of the forts during that awful time:--
"_At 8 p.m._--Two German officers asking us in French to surrender. This
is about what they said: 'You've been able to judge of the formidable
power of our guns; you have been struck by 278 shells; but we have still
bigger and more powerful guns, and they will destroy you in a moment.
Surrender!' Reply of our officers was, 'Our honour forbids us to
surrender; will resist to the end.' Our men all cheered."
Think of it--"Our men all cheered." Though the great shells were
smashing the forts to pieces and grinding them to powder, though the
solid concrete was crumbling into dust, and the place was strewn with
dead and dying, their honour forbade them to surrender, and when their
officer told the enemy so, the doomed men cheered. Never was greater
courage shown.
[Illustration: Bringing Provisions to Forts.
_Photo, Central News_.]
By the evening of the 6th General Leman had decided that his troops
could make no further resistance, and that they would be shut up in
Liége unless they were got away at once. He therefore ordered them to
fall back from the city towards the Dyle, and so hurried was their
retreat that they had only time to blow up one of the twelve Meuse
bridges, and were obliged to leave an ambulance train and some twenty
engines in the railway station. But the army had done its work. It had
made a great and gallant stand; it had proved that the Germans were not
invincible, and had won priceless time for the Allies. A time-table
found on a German showed that they proposed to be in Brussels on 3rd
August, and in Lille on 5th August. Already they were three days behind
time. Not only had the gallant little Belgian army upset the German
time-table, but it had inflicted such loss on the enemy that on the
evening of Friday, 7th August, General von Emmich asked for a truce of
twenty-four hours in which to bury his dead. This was refused.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Liége and its Forts.
Note that the forts are not shown in their proper positions, but only
indicate their direction with reference to the city.
(_By permission of the Illustrated London News_.)]
The city of Liége was now in the hands of the Germans. The cannonade had
done but little harm to the buildings of the city; the inhabitants had
taken to their cellars, and but few of them had been killed. When the
German infantry marched in, the Burgomaster and the Bishop arranged
terms with them. They behaved themselves well, and paid for all
supplies. The people of Liége were surprised to see how young the German
troops were, and how spick and span they looked in their new
greenish-gray uniforms. They were housed in barracks, schools, convents,
and other public buildings, and good order was kept.
Now that Liége was in their hands, vast quantities of stores were
poured into the city, and brigade after brigade came flocking in from
North Germany. The hill roads of the Ardennes were choked with troops
and convoys; the railways which the Belgians had destroyed were
repaired, and over these, and over the undamaged lines from Luxemburg,
came an almost endless stream of men, guns, and supplies.
* * * * *
Meanwhile the Germans were able to attack all the forts on the right
bank of the river from the rear. These soon fell; but those on the west
of the city still held out. The most powerful of them was Fort Loncin,
situated on the great main road to Brussels. On 11th August the
bombardment of this fort began. A German officer with signal flags
advanced up to about two hundred yards from it, and directed the fire of
the big guns. During the whole night, at intervals of ten minutes, the
Germans threw their shells into the fort, causing great damage. The
outer works were destroyed, and the armour plating of the windows was
crushed. All the outer works were so filled with the fumes from the
shells that the men were driven into the fort. Soon the suffocating
smoke found its way inside, and almost choked the men working the guns.
[Illustration: Fort Loncin after Bombardment.
_Photo, Alfieri Picture Service_.]
On the morning of the 15th the end came. A large number of heavy German
guns were trained on the fort, and they literally smothered it with
explosive shells. The vault occupied by General Leman and his staff
suffered terrific blows which made the whole place tremble. The
ventilating apparatus was destroyed, and the room was filled with deadly
fumes and dust. During an interval in the firing the general left the
fort to view the awful destruction around him. When the bombardment
began again he started to return to the vault, but had hardly moved a
few paces when a strong and powerful rush of air threw him to the
ground. He rose and tried to go, but was kept back by a flood of
poisonous fumes which nearly suffocated him. Then he tried to save the
garrison, but fell down in a swoon, and was discovered by the enemy
pinned to the ground by fallen beams. When he recovered he found himself
in the hands of the Germans, who gave him water, and carried him from
the ruins which he had so nobly defended.
At the moment when he was stricken down the fort was blown up, and the
Germans scrambled over the broken masses of concrete. Suddenly from one
of the galleries which the explosion had not wrecked came the sound of
shots. The Germans stopped in their advance. By the light of their
torches they saw, massed at the end of the corridor, all that was left
of the garrison. Black with powder, their faces streaked with blood,
their clothes in ribbons, their hands grasping their shattered rifles,
stood twenty-five men, all prepared to sell their lives dearly. Touched
by the sight of such splendid heroism, the Germans made no attempt to
attack. Instead of firing, they flung aside their weapons, and ran to
the aid of the brave Belgians, who were already half choked by the
poisonous gases set free by the explosion. Of the 500 men who formed the
garrison of Fort Loncin, 350 were dead and more than 100 severely
wounded.
Meanwhile General Leman had been carried in an ambulance to the
headquarters of General von Emmich. He had sworn not to be taken alive,
and he had only been captured while unconscious. Sadly he handed his
sword to the general, who, with a courteous bow and generous words of
congratulation, immediately returned it to him, as a tribute to the
glorious courage which he had displayed.
To spare the fallen, to show mercy and kindness to the conquered, is the
duty and pride of every soldier worthy of the name. In the following
pages we shall read of many black and shameful deeds done by the
Germans; but let us here honour them for their treatment of General
Leman and the gallant twenty-five who fought with him to the end.
General Leman was carried prisoner into Germany; but before he left
Belgium he was allowed to send the following touching letter to King
Albert:--
"Your Majesty will learn with sorrow that Fort Loncin was blown
up yesterday at 5.20 p.m., and that the greater part of the
garrison is buried under the ruins.
"That I did not lose my life in the catastrophe is owing to the
fact that my duty called me from the stronghold. Whilst I was
being suffocated by gas after the explosion a German captain
gave me drink. I was made prisoner and taken to Liége.
"For the honour of our armies I have refused to surrender the
fortress and the forts. May your Majesty deign to forgive me. In
Germany, where I am going, my thoughts will be, as they have
always been, with Belgium and her king. I would willingly have
given my life the better to serve them, but death has not been
granted me.
"Lieutenant-General Leman."
[Illustration: General Leman, the heroic defender of Liége.
_Photo, Alfieri Picture Service_.]
* * * * *
All the world applauded the heroism of the Belgians in this first great
encounter with the vastly superior forces of the enemy, and President
Poincaré bestowed upon the city which had held out so nobly the highest
honour which the French can bestow upon a civilian--the Legion of
Honour.[199]
[Footnote 186: _Brē-äl-mon´_, Henry Alexis, Belgian military engineer;
born 1821, died 1903. The works which he planned along the Meuse were
completed after his death.]
[Footnote 187: _Āks-la-shä-pel´_, or _Äch´en_, ancient city of Prussia,
formerly the capital of Charlemagne, forty miles west-south-west of
Cologne.]
[Footnote 188: _Mal-may-de_.]
[Footnote 189: _Stä´ve-lot_.]
[Footnote 190: _Vār-vi-ā´_.]
[Footnote 191: _Vee-zā´_.]
[Footnote 192: River of Belgium; after a north and west course of fifty
miles joins the Nethe to form the Rupel, four miles north-west of
Malines.]
[Footnote 193: Citizen soldiers for the defence of a town.]
[Footnote 194: _Lay-man_, born 1852; one of Belgium's most scientific
soldiers.]
[Footnote 195: _Flair-on_.]
[Footnote 196: _Shōd-fon-taine_, means warm spring.]
[Footnote 197: French for _behold!_]
[Footnote 198: Born 1848; said to have been killed in a subsequent
action.]
[Footnote 199: See p. 84.]
[Illustration: Belgian Cavalry.
(_Photo, Underwood and Underwood_.)]