THE HEROES OF THE FORTS
The whistling shells burst over Fort Embourg, near by, with
ever-increasing frequency, while the surgeon, oblivious to their
menace, worked over the wounded boy. The vibrations of the 6-inch guns,
as the forts replied, shook the house, but no one flinched or spoke
while the doctor busied himself with his patient. At last, having
rebandaged the wound, he stepped back and said,
"There, now, I think he'll do."
"Where shall we take him, Doctor?" queried the master. "There isn't any
hospital in Embourg, nor in Beaufays, and Liége will have sufficient
problems to face in taking care of its own wounded."
"The boy can stay here," the doctor replied. "Father will treat him and
Mother will do all the nursing necessary."
He looked off into the distance with lowered eyebrows.
"If all comes true that people have prophesied about the terrors of
modern war," the surgeon continued, thoughtfully, "it's likely that
every woman in Belgium will have to become a nurse."
"Couldn't I stay and help to take care of Deschamps, sir?" asked Horace.
"No," the master answered, "you're within the zone of fire as it is.
You must return to Beaufays without delay."
Horace would have protested but that he knew the master's words were
not to be gainsaid.
"Did you say that you were on your way to Liége?" asked the doctor
abruptly, turning to the old reservist.
"Yes," was the reply.
"Let us go together, then," the doctor said, "for Belgium will need my
case of surgical instruments as much as she will need your rifle. Wait
a moment until I call Father."
He returned a minute or two later accompanied by a small and withered
but keen-eyed old man, whom he introduced to the master and Horace, and
to whom he described with technical detail the injuries suffered by the
lad who was still extended, motionless, on the operating table.
"Very well, Hilaire," answered the old man, in a high, reedy voice,
"leave the patient to me, my son. I have not forgotten all that I once
knew. Not yet, oh, no!"
He turned to the master.
"My son, Monsieur, my son!" he said, paternally. "It is something of
which we may be proud, is it not, when our children carry on the work
which we have begun?"
The old man patted the young surgeon on the arm, talking garrulously
the while.
"A good boy, Monsieur, a good boy," he said. "I was the first to teach
him, but he has outstripped me. Then, too, his wrist has the steadiness
of youth, while mine--"
He held out a shaking hand.
"But the brain is clear still, Monsieur," he went on, "do not fear.
Your pupil shall have the best of care."
He walked feebly to the operating table. There, his whole figure
changed. Unconsciously his back straightened, his hand ceased to
tremble, and, as he bent over the patient, his eyes narrowed with the
penetration that they must have borne twenty years before.
The master observed him closely.
"The lad is in good hands," he said, in a low voice; "come, let us go."
He turned to the aged physician.
"Monsieur," he said, "I feel it is an honor that we of the older
generation can still serve Belgium. The first young victim of this
war is in your keeping. I--" he paused, "I have no children, only the
children of my school. It is my child, therefore, Monsieur, that I
leave with you."
"He shall be as a child of mine," the old man answered.
Father and son embraced and the little party of three left the doctor's
house.
At the gate the master paused.
"Monroe," he said, "you must get back to Beaufays as quickly as you
can. Try to be there before it is altogether dark. Lose no time, but do
not go by the road. Strike south across the fields from here until you
come to the river (Ourthe), then follow the banks as far as the road
from Tilff, whence it will be safe to take the Beaufays road."
"Why do you suggest such a roundabout way?" asked the surgeon. "The
lad won't escape danger by making a circuit. Shells drop anywhere and
everywhere. You can't dodge them by taking to the fields instead of the
road."
The reservist shook his head.
"There you are wrong, Doctor," he said. "How many shells have fallen in
Embourg Village? None. Yet we are but three-quarters of a mile from the
fort. It is only in the immediate neighborhood of the fort that there
is danger. Strange though it may seem to say so, I could wish that
shells were dropping in the village."
"Why?" asked the surgeon sharply.
"Because," the master rejoined, "it would demonstrate that the Germans
do not possess the exact range of the fort. Their very accuracy proves
that they do. For that reason, at a distance of half a mile from the
fort, the lad will be safe. Nevertheless, Monroe," he added, "if you
should hear a wild shell coming in your direction, throw yourself flat
on the ground. The burst of an explosion is always upwards."
"I'll be careful, sir," answered the boy.
"Will you please tell Mme. Maubin that I went on to Liége in the
company of Dr. Mallorbes? Say that I do not wish her to come and see
Deschamps, for I am sure she will wish to do so, and give as my reason
that the road running below the fort is not safe."
"I will tell her, sir," said Horace.
"You will also inform the school to-morrow about Deschamps," the
master continued. "It is a matter of pride to Beaufays, I feel, that
Belgium's first wounded boy hero should be a lad from our own school.
And so, good-bye!"
"Good-bye, sir; good-bye, Dr. Mallorbes," responded Horace.
He hesitated a moment, as though he would have said something more,
then plunged across the fields, as the master had bidden him, back to
the little village of Beaufays.
The two men watched him for a moment, until his figure was lost in the
shadows of the wood on the other side of the field, then set their
faces for Liége and--it might be--death.
"I am a good deal disturbed," the doctor began, as they swung out upon
the road, "by your suggestion that the Germans possess the exact range
of our forts. Where could they get the information?"
"Spies," the master answered. "Belgium is honeycombed with them, has
been for years. You know--all the world knows--that Germany spends
millions of marks yearly on her secret service system and nearly all
her agents are military spies. The exact location of our forts cannot
be hidden. It is not a secret. They are plain to see. What is easier
for a spy than to search the neighborhood of a fort thoroughly, perhaps
on a Sunday morning walk, to find some well-hidden position for a gun
of a certain caliber, and to calculate, to the last inch, the exact
distance of that position from the fort? It is simplicity itself."
"What of that," said the doctor, "when the gun itself is not there?"
"But when the gun is there!" the master retorted. "When the invasion
is accomplished, think of the advantage which such information gives!
There is no need to send out scouting parties to bring back estimates
of distances; there is no need to waste energy, time, and ammunition
in trial shots, during which time the battery might be subjected to
fire from the guns of the fort. None of that. Secretly and silently,
probably during the night or behind a screen of cavalry, a howitzer may
be dragged up to the place selected by the spy and marked in detail on
a large scale map. The officer commanding the battery knows the exact
direction in which the fort bears and has already worked out the exact
angle of elevation for the range. He has nothing to do but to order the
aim and elevation and to fire, knowing, in advance, that his shells can
fall nowhere but on the fort itself. It is not marksmanship, it is
mathematics."
[Illustration: _Belgian Official Photograph._
ARMORED TRAIN DEFENDING ANTWERP.]
[Illustration: _Belgian Official Photograph._
ARMORED CAR HARASSING INVADERS.]
"You think this has been done with the forts at Liége!" ejaculated the
doctor.
"That is evident," was the reply. "See, this is a night bombardment.
There are no advance posts, no aeroplanes to report back the results of
gun-fire. Yet the German shells are falling on the forts with deadly
precision, falling on forts which the gunners have never seen. I doubt
if there is a single fortified place in Belgium of which the Germans do
not possess accurate plans."
"Then you think they will break through?"
"We cannot hope to prevent it," the master answered. "The Kaiser's
generals would never attack Liége unless they were confident of
success. Since they know exactly what we possess for defense, they
would not be sure of success unless they knew that they possessed an
infinitely stronger force of attack."
"But I have heard that the forts of Liége were impregnable!"
"They were when they were built," the master answered, "but that is
twenty years ago. Against the guns of that period, notably the 6-inch
howitzer, they were impregnable, for every possible gun-position for a
weapon of that range was covered by the guns of the fort. But if pieces
of heavier power can bombard the forts from positions outside the range
of the fortress guns, then impregnability is gone. You must remember,
Doctor, that the power of a gun increases as the cube of its caliber or
diameter of its bore. Thus a 12-inch gun is not twice as powerful as a
6-inch gun, but eight times as powerful."
"Are there such heavy guns?"
"There are," was the answer. "Field guns of 8.4-inch and 10-inch
caliber are known to exist, and the German War Party is reported to
hold the secret of still more powerful engines of destruction, of
which, as yet, the outer world knows nothing."
"Look, you, M. Maubin," said the surgeon, "you seem to know quite a lot
about these things, while I've concerned myself mainly with my medical
books and haven't paid much attention to military affairs. Explain to
me, if you will be so good, the significance of this contest between
the fortifications of Liége and the new German guns."
"It is the death-grapple which will decide the fate of Belgium--perhaps
that of Europe--within a week," the master answered. "Its outcome will
settle the greatest military controversy of our times. One way or the
other, it will change the face of war forever. This question is whether
modern artillery has become so powerful that no permanent masonry
fortification can resist it. If so, the development of two thousand
years of fortification must be thrown aside as useless and defense must
become mobile.
"Liége is what is known as a ring fortress, that is, the city itself
is not fortified but it is ringed round with twelve forts, between
two and three miles apart from each other and averaging a distance of
five miles from the city. Thus the forts form a circumference of 32
miles, so arranged that if any one fort is silenced the cross-fire of
the forts on either side controls the gap. Six are forts of the first
order, Pontisse, Barchon, and Fléron on the north and east, Loncin,
Flemalles, and Boncelles on the west and south. The other six are
fortins or small forts, like Embourg."
"Are they strongly armed?" the doctor asked.
"Moderately so. They have modern guns, though not of the largest
caliber. There are four hundred guns in all the forts combined, mainly
6-inch and 4.7-inch guns and 8-inch mortars. The big 9-inch guns,
which were ordered from Krupp's for delivery more than three years
ago, have never reached us. We see, now, that Germany would not allow
them to be delivered. She did not intend to run the risk of invading a
well-armed Belgium."
"But isn't a 6-inch a fairly big gun?"
"Not for permanent works," the master replied. "The United States
has two 16-inch guns in her coast defenses and there are plenty of
12-inch guns in permanent fortifications. Naval guns, of course, are
bigger. They have to be. You can't 'take cover' at sea and long ranges
therefore are necessary. Modern super-Dreadnoughts,[3] armed with
15-inch guns, regard their 6-inch batteries as merely secondary.
"Our principal weakness," he continued, "is that Brialmont's full
design of infantry trenches and sunken emplacements for light
artillery has never been completed. Besides, our army is in a state
of transition, as you know, for it is only a year and a half since a
new system was put into operation. That makes it difficult for us to
mobilize quickly, while Germany has been completely mobilized for some
time."
"Still," responded the doctor, trying to find some hope in the outlook,
"we have the advantage of being on the defensive. I've read, somewhere,
that it takes three times as many men to drive an attack as to hold a
line of defense."
"That is true," agreed the master.
"They can't be more than three to one," said the doctor, "so as fast as
they come, we'll smash them."
"Perhaps we might have a better chance," the old reservist said,
doubtfully, "if General Leman and our Third Division were here. But
it's not the German soldiers of which I'm afraid, but these new
howitzers."
"Why?" asked the doctor. "Isn't a howitzer a gun? What's the difference
between them, anyway?"
"I'll show you the difference in a minute," the master replied, "but I
want, first, to give you a clear idea of one of our big forts, so that
you can realize the problem that the Germans must tackle. Each of the
six main forts around Liége is built in the form of a triangle, each
is placed in a commanding natural position, and each, in addition, is
approached by a steep artificial mound, in the interior of which lie
the works of the fort. At the top of the earth slope, the edge drops
suddenly into a deep ditch, of which the counterscarp is a massive
masonry wall topped with wire entanglements. The entire earth slope and
wall is exposed to the guns of the fort, throwing shrapnel, and to fire
from machine guns and rifles."
"Before the Germans get a footing in the fort, then," said the doctor,
"they will have to storm a stretch of ground absolutely riddled with
fire."
"They will."
"That means a heavy loss of life."
"A terrible loss of life," the master agreed. "Moreover, even should
they advance in such masses that we could not kill them fast enough and
thus they should storm the slope and win the ditch, they would be in a
still worse plight. Powerful quick-firing guns, mounted in cupolas at
each angle of the triangle, sweep the sunken ditch with an enfilading
fire. No troops could live through such an inferno of bullets.
"On the main inner triangle is the infantry parapet, shaped somewhat
like a heart, pierced for rifle fire and with machine-gun emplacements
at the angles. In the hollow of that heart-like space rises a solid
central mass of concrete, on and in which are the shelters and gun
cupolas. The mortar cupolas rise from the floor of the hollow, outside
the central mass. These are invisible to the foe until raised by
machinery within, when they command the entire neighborhood and can
fire their 6-inch shells in any direction."
The doctor rubbed his hands briskly.
"If that's the way our forts are built," he said, "and if they are well
provisioned and have plenty of ammunition, we ought to be able to snap
our fingers at the Kaiser. All we have to do is to wait for the Germans
to come and shoot them down by thousands. They'll go packing back to
Germany quick enough if we give them a reception like that."
"Perhaps," said the old reservist, "but you have forgotten about the
howitzers."
"Why, yes, so I had," the doctor answered, more gravely; "you were
going to tell me about them."
"The difference in principle between a gun and a howitzer or a mortar,"
explained the master, "is that a gun depends for its destructiveness
on its striking velocity, while a howitzer depends on the power of the
exploding charge of its shell. An armor-piercing shell, fired from a
15-inch naval gun, will go through the heaviest and hardest steel
known, because of the terrific speed at which it travels, with a muzzle
velocity of three thousand feet a second or thirty-four miles a minute.
In order not to lose speed, therefore, it must travel in as straight a
line as possible. In other words, a missile from a gun must have a long
low curve or trajectory."
"Yes," said the doctor, "I can see that."
"A howitzer, on the other hand," the master explained, "does not
require any more velocity than just to carry the high-explosive shell
to the point designed. Moreover, in order that their terrible effects
may be the more destructive, mortars and howitzers drop their shells
from overhead upon the object of fire by lobbing them up in the air
with a very high trajectory. A howitzer generally looks as though it
were shooting at the moon. It can be placed in a valley and fire over
the hill. But, as you can see, its range is restricted. A naval gun
throwing an 8-inch shell may have a range of sixteen miles, while the
8-inch howitzer operates best from three or four miles away.
"You see, Doctor," he continued, "if our defenses have been
constructed upon the basis of attack from heavy field-guns and light
howitzers--which is the system of most European armies--if our energy
has been spent on disappearing cupolas and sunken masonry works which
will resist gun-fire, is there not a terrible danger if we are attacked
by heavy howitzers, dropping high explosive shells from overhead? To
such shells it will make no difference whether the cupolas be raised or
lowered.
"If it be true," the old reservist added, his voice rising with a note
of presage, "if it be true what is whispered about these new German
siege howitzers, then destruction will rain upon the forts of Liége as
though the skies were a mouth of flame.
"Perhaps never before, in the history of the world, has so much hung
upon the range and power of a modern weapon. We await the eruption of a
man-forged volcano which may engulf us all in its fiery lava."
The doctor passed his hand over his face and looked up unconsciously,
half in fear as though the doom was on them.
"You make it very ugly," he said.
The master paced on through the late dusk, a glow from the distant
gunfire mingling with the faint starlight on his face.
"It matters very little if the End be ugly," he replied, "so long as
the road be that of heroism."
The two men walked silently some little space, each following the trend
of his own ideas, until, where the road branched off to Chénée, two men
joined them.
"Have you any late news?" the master asked.
"The Ninth Regiment has been ordered forward between Fléron and
Chaudfontaine," said the older of the newcomers, "and the Fourteenth is
to be sent here, to cover Embourg and Boncelles."
"And you--where do you go?"
"To report," the stranger answered; "there will be work enough for us
all to do."
"Have you any idea of what numbers we will have to face?"
The other shrugged his shoulders.
"Maybe one army corps, maybe two--maybe all Germany. Who knows?"
Darkness closed down upon Liége, the darkness of that August Fourth,
such as even that ancient city had never known, a somber pall of shadow
pierced with vivid streaks from the flaming fortress guns. Powerful
searchlights hunted the countryside with their malevolent eyes. Death
screamed and screeched in the trees. The horrible and cruel work of
war hid its unloveliness that first night in the shelter of the woods
surrounding the eastern forts of Liége.
The four men soon reached military headquarters. Already casualty
cases had begun to arrive and Dr. Mallorbes was promptly assigned to
one of the hospitals. The two reservists from Chénée were sent to the
shallow trenches defending the approaches to Fort Chaudfontaine, and,
at his earnest request, the master was allowed to join his battery at
Boncelles.
When, however, the master found himself actually in the fort and under
military discipline, much of his pessimism passed away. He fell,
naturally, into the fatalism of the soldier, and, as he remarked the
extraordinarily powerful machinery and defenses of the fort, said to
his neighbor,
"They're counting on our not being ready. But everything here seems up
to the minute!"
His fellow-gunner, also an old reservist who had served with the
battery before, chuckled as he answered,
"Our silent general has fooled them. General Leman has reached here
with the Third Division."
"But the Third was at Diest, eighty miles away, the day before
yesterday!" exclaimed the master.
"It is here now, and taking up positions. And the Germans, for all
their spies, don't know it. They'll try to rush the forts to-morrow,
expecting to find them lightly held, and then we'll pepper them finely."
"How many men does that give us here at Liége?" the master asked.
"About twenty-two thousand."
"And the Germans?"
"Three army corps, probably; a hundred thousand men, at least,[4] and
as many more as they like to bring."
"And all confident of breaking through?"
"Quite," said the other, nodding. "There was a young German officer
captured yesterday at Visé who jeered at the mere idea of our daring to
oppose them.
"'It is the idea of little children that Belgium can resist,' he said.
'In two days we take Liége, in a week we are before Paris. It is all
arranged. It is like a time-table. Nothing can prevent victory.
Nothing will stop us. If any one hinders, we will roll them into the
sea.'"
"Time-tables have been disarranged before now," said the master
thoughtfully, "and it is worth remembering that the more rigid is the
organization the more hopeless is the confusion when something goes
wrong."
"If we can check them here--"
"Then," said the master, "they will never get to Paris."
So, under the plucky but inadequate fire of their forts, the 22,500
Belgians awaited the attack of 120,000 Germans. They knew, those
heroes, those martyrs to the ideals of honor, that Germany had untold
millions to roll up against them, should their resistance prove to be
an obstacle.
It was almost dawn when the first attack began at Evegnée and Barchon.
There, the sentries on duty, watching the hillsides opposite to them,
saw what seemed to be an undulation of the earth, as though the soil
were heaving like the sea. As the morning light cleared the mists away,
these waves were seen to be vast bodies of infantry, their iron-gray
uniforms indistinguishable against the dawn-lighted grass.
Came a sharp order to fire.
Red mouths of death opened. From trench[5] and fort, rifle-fire ran its
crackling harmony to the crash of the 6-inch guns and the insistent
rattle of the ear-rasping machine gun. In this hideous repertory of
noise, the Hotchkiss machine-guns, used in the forts, and the Berthier
guns, used by the infantry and drawn by a dog team, joined their
concert of destruction.
It was no discredit to the German soldiers that they fell back. No one,
neither General von Emmich, his officers, nor his men, expected to find
the Belgian trenches so strongly held. The check was only momentary,
however, merely long enough to allow the face of the hills to grow a
little brighter, long enough to show clearly to the gallant defenders
the tremendous odds they had to face.
The iron-gray masses of the German infantry advanced stolidly into that
maw of death. It was unlike all the parade conceptions of battle. There
were no flaming colors, no horses curveting around a golden-tasseled
standard, no blare of bands, none of the pomp and panoply of war. Only,
above the hills which circled the forts, rose the slowly deepening
rose of the dawn; only, on the ground below, crept the steady ant-like
advance of thousands of men who would be dead before the rising sun had
risen.
[Illustration: _Courtesy of "Panorama de la Guerre."_
THE FIRST CLASH.
Belgians with the dog-drawn machine guns, disputing the invasion of
their country by the hordes of the Hun. Note the open warfare without
cover or trenches.]
"As line after line of the German infantry advanced," wrote a Belgian
officer, when describing this first day's fighting, "we simply mowed
them down. It was all too terribly easy, and I turned to a brother
officer of mine more than once and said to him,
"'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 another, 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 ever said it, and I doubt it,
for he had no care of human life--
"'C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre!' (Magnificent! But it
is not War!)
"No, that plunge forward of the German infantry that day was not war,
it was slaughter--just slaughter.
"So high became the barricade of 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 (slope of the fort). Of course, they got no
further than half way, for our Maxims and rifles swept them back. We
had our own losses, but they were slight compared with the carnage
inflicted on our enemies."
No, it was not war that day, it was slaughter.
What did this waste of life mean? What reason, what excuse could there
be which would justify the reckless sacrifice of men against the
gunfire, the machine-gun-fire and the rifle-fire of the forts of Liége?
There is only one answer. General von Emmich, Commander-in-Chief of
the Army of the Meuse, had been entrusted with the task of breaking
through Liége quickly, at all hazards. Everything must be made
subservient to speed. The loss of a few thousand men would not cripple
Germany. The loss of a few days spelled failure.
Counting mainly on the element of surprise, for it was only thirty-four
hours before that Germany announced her intention of violating
neutrality, the Army of the Meuse was traveling light. It had not been
hampered in its onward drive with the heavy siege guns. Those monsters
were being laboriously dragged on to Namur, as lighter guns, it was
thought, would suffice to reduce Liége, taken as it was by surprise.
Moreover, Von Emmich knew that General Leman and the Third Belgian
Division had been far away the day before. Every hour, undoubtedly,
brought them nearer; every hour rendered the element of surprise less
valuable. Wherefore, as an advocate of the German theory of war which
declares that any place can be rushed, no matter how strongly defended,
if the attacking force be large enough and sacrifice of life is not
counted, Von Emmich hurled his men forward ruthlessly and regardlessly
into a revelry of carnage.
If Germany was staggered at her dead, the commander of the Army of
the Meuse did not show it that day. From morning until evening the
iron-gray infantry charged, were mown down, fell back and charged
again. Wave after wave of men swept up those slopes, never to return.
The human tide seemed endless. For not one moment, in all that day,
did the billows of soldier victims cease to pound forward to their
bloody doom; for not one moment, in all that day, did the Belgians,
though with smoke-bleared eyes and dropping from exhaustion, fail to
answer. Since morning there had been no respite, not even for a meal.
At evening, the piles of German dead and wounded rose five feet high in
long lines over the rolling landscape.
When night fell upon the Fifth of August, German power had suffered a
severe blow. That first day's fighting of the war in the west had shown
that 22,500 Belgians, though hastily mobilized, could hold back 120,000
Germans, prepared to the last detail. It disproved, forever, the German
theory that masses of men can overcome machine-gun-fire by sheer weight
of numbers. It displayed that the German system of firing from the
hip, instead of from the shoulder, resulted in bad marksmanship and
a reckless waste of ammunition. It revealed that the German soldier
fights with dogged and relentless driving force in a mass, but is weak
as an individual and will not face cold steel. Most important of all,
it shattered the reputation of the Kaiser's generals for infallibility
and of the Kaiser's army for invincibility.
The first day's fighting was a German defeat. That, at least, stood
out clear. To cap the triumph, two Belgian counter-attacks had been
successful. German outposts were scattered by an assault on the
heights of Wandre, the Garde Civique cut up and practically destroyed
an attacking force near Boncelles, while the Belgian Lancers covered
themselves with glory when, with one squadron, they charged upon six
squadrons of German cavalry and put them to rout.
On the other hand, this one day's conflict justified the German theory
of the power of high-explosive shell against permanent fortifications.
The bombardment continued all day and all night without cessation.
With an army of only 22,500 men, there was no relief. Every man was on
continuous duty. It was evident from the first that the forts finally
must fall, for the attacking 8.4-inch howitzers fired from points out
of reach of the fortress guns and the destructive force of their shells
was such that it gradually but surely reduced the strongest armor-steel
and concrete masonry to ruins.
Yet, although the forts were doomed, they were not destined to
immediate fall. The Germans had miscalculated. They had not deemed
it necessary to bring their biggest siege guns to the demolition of
Liége. Indeed, they could not spare them. Those monstrous behemoths
of ordnance could only crawl, even when dragged by thirteen traction
engines, and they were needed at Namur, which the Germans rightly
expected would be defended by the French Army and would be a harder nut
to crack.
A full moon rose on the night of the Fifth of August, revealing the
artillery duel in savage continuance. At the end of nearly twenty-four
hours' fighting, the master, at his post of duty in Fort Boncelles,
was at the point of exhaustion. He realized that age was a serious
handicap. Though as full of spirit and fire as the younger men, the
physical stamina would hardly bear the strain. He winced at every
shell that struck, and, though his watchfulness was as keen and his
ardor not abated, the frame was breaking down.
The commander of the fort, himself well on in years, touched the old
reservist kindly on the arm.
"It is the courage of the old which stirs the young," he said. "To be
able to give the last flare of our spirits to our country--ah, that is
worth while."
But he found a corner where the old patriot might snatch a few hours'
troubled sleep.
In order that the Belgian troops might not have a chance to rest, Von
Emmich made feint after feint all through the night. The exhausted
and harassed Belgians were rushed from point to point to fill in the
defense as best they could. It was cruel, driving, killing work, when
the muscles clicked from sheer fatigue and the men moved leadenly as in
a dream. Under such overstrain, men could not last, but every hour of
delay meant ruin to Germany and gain to the Allies.
During the night, more and more German guns were put in place, and by
the morning of August 6, several score 8.4-inch howitzers were hurling
their shells directly on Forts Fléron and Evegnée. When daylight
broke, Evegnée was a ruin and the Belgian infantry had fallen back. At
eight o'clock, one of the huge shells shattered the gun machinery of
Fort Fléron.
General Leman ordered the retreat of the Belgian army from its advanced
position, realizing that it was absolutely impossible to defend a line
33 miles long with an exhausted army, now reduced by losses to 18,000
men. He summoned his officers to a military council to lay down the
new dispositions on the farther side of the Meuse, under cover of the
western forts.
Suddenly, during the council, the general was startled by loud shouting
and the sounds of a struggle outside. Knowing that the Germans were
hammering at the gates of the city and that Fléron had fallen, he
feared an advance cavalry patrol. He ran down-stairs and out of the
door, to find himself confronted by eight men in German uniform.
The general darted back.
"A pistol!" he cried.
The Germans surged forward to seize the general, a crowd of Belgian
civilians behind. They did not dare to touch the invaders, knowing that
any effort would be deemed a "hostile act by non-combatants" which
would afford excuse to the Germans for making reprisals.
With a quick movement, General Leman slipped sidewise past his would-be
captors, the crowd opening to let him through. The Germans plunged into
the crowd after him, but a brother officer of the general caught up
his chief bodily and slung him over a neighboring wall, which chanced
to be the boundary of a foundry yard. At the same instant, the rest of
the officers who had been at the council came clattering out. Swords
flashed out. Three of the Germans were killed and, some members of
the Garde Civique being attracted by the commotion, the rest were
made prisoners. They were found to be spies, who had secreted German
uniforms and arms in a house next door to military headquarters, with
this very intention of capturing the Belgian commanders in a moment of
surprise.
With the withdrawal of the troops from the advance trenches, the
holding of the eastern forts became an impossibility. Thus, on
receiving news of the retreat, Major Mameche, the Commandant of Fort
Chaudfontaine, the strategic value of which lay in its controlling
the entrance to the Chaudfontaine railway tunnel, blocked the
tunnel by colliding several engines at its mouth and then fired his
powder-magazine, blowing up the fort.
Towards midday a message was received from General von Emmich,
demanding the surrender of the city. The civil authorities were
willing, in order to save the city from destruction, but General Leman,
as Military Commandant, curtly refused to abandon the forts. He was
fighting for time. Already two days had passed and only one of the six
larger forts had fallen. To France and to England--which had entered
the war because of Germany's violation of Belgium--every day gained
then was worth a week later.
A panic followed upon General Leman's refusal, citizens who feared
the results of the bombardment of the city jamming every out-bound
train. Every possible influence was brought to bear on the Military
Commandant. His only answer was,
"The forts must hold."
At 6 o'clock that evening a slight bombardment began, not enough to
damage the city seriously, but heavy enough to denote the fate that
would come to Liége if a destructive bombardment were undertaken.
Steadily, with the persistence of final doom, the high-explosive shells
dropped their volcanic furies upon the doomed forts. The continuous
hail of bombs served a double purpose, not only wrecking the forts
themselves but breaking down human resistance in the defenders.
On the morning of August 7 a small party of Germans appeared in front
of the fort of Boncelles, and carrying a white flag.
"I don't trust them," growled the master.
"Oh, come," said his comrade, "that's a little too strong! Even the
Germans wouldn't be so dishonorable as to violate a flag of truce.
That's respected even by savages who fight with assegai and shield."
"I'm not so sure," was the master's reply, but he went with the party
of twenty which sallied from the fort to receive the surrender of the
Germans.
Suspiciously the Belgians approached, for the master's incertitude was
shared by several of the men, but, as they came near, the Germans held
up their hands.
"Kamerad!" they cried, in token of surrender.
Instantly, as though the throwing up of the hands had been a
prearranged signal, a murderous cross-fire from the woods on either
side was poured upon the advancing Belgians. Only seven of the twenty,
the master among them, returned to the fort alive.
The commandant of the fort was livid with rage, and the Belgian
infantry in the shallow trenches near by, in a crisis of fury, charged
the woods with infinitely inferior numbers and slew every lurking
German found there. No quarter was given that day.
Meanwhile, through the gap in the defenses formed by the fall of Forts
Fléron and Evegnée, the Germans advanced into Liége. They occupied the
town without opposition, and yet--and yet--five of the great forts
remained unsilenced. The unique capture of a city when its defenses
were still untaken was only possible because the Belgians, for
patriotic reasons, did not wish to fire upon the town. Fort Barchon,
one of the eastern forts, isolated from the new line of defense, fell
later in the day.
Into the city poured the iron-gray masses of the German troops, but the
satisfaction of the rank and file was not shared by the officers. They
knew the truth of failure. It was the third day, already, and Forts
Pontisse, Loncin, Flemalles and Boncelles were still holding out.
Moreover, if the little Belgian army had defied them on a long line, it
would be still better able to do so when holding a line only a third
as long and reënforced by fresh troops. Von Emmich was savage, and his
savagery showed itself later. True, he was in Liége, but that did him
little good. Brussels and Paris were not far away, but Fort Loncin
protected the main railway line to Brussels and Forts Flemalles and
Boncelles defended the main railway line to Paris. The path was not yet
clear.
[Illustration: _British Official Photograph._
TAKING SOUP TO THE FIRING-LINE.
Dangerous duty, for the bearer cannot lie down on the approach of a
shell. Note bags of grenades carried in case of surprise.]
General Leman's army, with its numbers brought up to 36,000 men by
reënforcements, now formed a dangerous menace to the advance. The
Belgian general had out-maneuvered the German commander at every
turn, and, in taking up a position on the farther side of the Meuse,
he was prepared to make things still hotter for the invaders. He was
not trying to stop the progress of the army but had concentrated his
energies on the defense of the forts, for he knew that, as long as the
forts stood, the German Army dared not debouch into the plain, leaving
behind it an imperiled line of communication.
The German enveloping movement now extended northward to Fort
Pontisse, bombarding it, however, from the eastern bank of the Meuse.
For field-gun fire, however, the forts were well protected and there
were no hidden positions available for the 8.4-inch howitzers. If the
Germans were to take Pontisse, they must cross the Meuse. Over and over
again they stormed the crossing, fighting like madmen. Ten pontoon
bridges, one after the other, were built across the river in the face
of an appalling gun fire, but, each time, the fortress guns succeeded
in destroying them and those troops which had crossed were cut off and
killed to a man.
Similar flanking strategy was attempted to the south, where Fort
Flemalles was attacked, also from the eastern bank of the river. Here,
after several hours of sharp fighting, the Germans secured a landing
on the western bank, but could not bring over any heavy artillery. The
little army of defense contested every foot of ground with reckless and
gay bravery, and the larger howitzers were compelled to remain on the
eastern side of the river.
Fort Boncelles, as the Commandant himself was heard to describe it,
was "like the stoke-hold of hell." It had no river to support its
defenses. All the forts to the east of it, save Embourg, had fallen,
allowing a terrific concentration of enemy artillery. On the other
hand, the ground around Boncelles was well adapted to the sweep of
the larger fortress guns. If there was the slightest pause in the
German attack, a cupola would rise and send a storm of shrapnel into
the enemy's ranks. Then the tempest of death would sweep down upon
Boncelles once more. Von Emmich was in Liége with 120,000 men, but
little Belgium shook her fist in his face and he dared not go on.
The demolition of the forts began on August 13. On that day, the heavy
siege guns (two, it is believed), which the Germans had not intended to
bring into action against Liége, entered the city and crawled through
it to take up positions against the western forts. So affrighting were
these engines of war that the German artillery did not attempt to
operate them. They were handled by mechanics from the Krupp factory,
the artillery officers merely working out the ranges.
Prior to this time, such guns had never been dreamed of save in
artillerists' nightmares. The weight of the great German siege gun is
71 tons. It is transported in four pieces, each part being dragged by
three traction engines on caterpillar wheels, a thirteenth and larger
engine going ahead to test the road and to assist each section in
going up hills. The caliber of the gun is 16.4-inch (42-centimeter).
The shell stands as high as a man's chin and weighs 1684 pounds.
The percussion fuse is of mercury fulminate, which in its turn
explodes nitro-glycerine, which explodes picric-acid powder, thus
giving the bursting charge to the terrible force of an explosion of
tri-nitro-toluol, one of the most destructive explosives known. About
280 pounds of this inconceivably powerful destructive is contained in
the shell.[6]
Nothing so terrible had ever before been seen in war as the effect of
these great shells. Men were not simply killed and wounded, they were
blackened, burnt, smashed into indistinguishable pulp of bone and flesh.
When these engines of devastation arrived, General Leman knew that the
end was near. Although severely wounded three days before, his spirit
knew no thought of surrender. In Fort Loncin with a handful of men,
he awaited the bombardment which could mean nothing but death. The
fall of Fort Loncin was described by a German infantry officer who was
attached to the Army of the Meuse.
"General Leman's defense of Liége," he wrote admiringly, "combined all
that is noble and all that is tragic.
"As long as possible, he 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. 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 in readiness by the guns. Before
this, General Leman destroyed all plans, maps and papers relating to
the defenses. The food supplies also were 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 25 cubic meters in size (as big as a
large room) were hurled into the air.
"When the dust and fumes passed away, we stormed the fort across ground
literally strewn with the bodies of troops who had gone out before
to storm the fort and never returned. All the men left alive 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 débris and pinned beneath a massive beam was General Leman.
"'Respect for the general! He is dead!' said a Belgian aide-de-camp.
"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 bravely.'
"Then, turning to us, he added,
"'Put in your dispatches 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 dispatches.'
"More he would not say."
Fort Boncelles disputed with Fort Loncin the honor of being the last to
fall. It is not known, definitely, which of the two resisted longest.
The night before the fall of Fort Loncin, the electric-lighting system
of Boncelles was destroyed. The men--the master among them--fought all
night through in utter darkness, groping for the machinery of their
guns and in momentary expectation of suffocation and death from the
German shells.
The high-explosive charges tore and shattered the armor-steel and
masonry as though they had been cardboard, and shortly before dawn,
wide breaches in the walls showed the peaceful starlight shining
through. Though the fort was a wreck, three guns were working still.
A fragment of shell struck the master. He fell.
His comrade, dropping to one knee beside him, heard the dying man
whisper,
"Take this to my wife!"
The comrade reached his hand to the designated pocket, took out the
little packet, put it inside his tunic and returned to his gun.
An hour after sunrise a shell tore through the rear cupola of Boncelles
and plucked it up as a weed is torn up by its roots. The German officer
who was directing the attack offered to accept a surrender.
The Belgian commandant answered,
"We have still two guns to fight with!"
Only one shell more fell on Fort Boncelles, but it landed full in the
middle of the ruined structure, and was one of the shells from the
11-inch howitzers. The inner concrete walls fell to dust, pieces of
armor-steel and gun shelters were hurled a quarter of a mile away and
both the remaining guns were silenced.
Eleven men remained to surrender the fort, not one of them unwounded,
all nearly crazed with the endurance of nine days and nights of the
most terrific bombardment known to man. Dazed, deaf and exhausted to
the verge of insanity, they were brought before their captors. Only
three were able to speak, one of them the master's comrade.
"What have you there?" asked a junior officer, as the Belgian feebly
resisted search.
A German soldier snatched the packet from his tunic.
"Only a message from a comrade," the Belgian mumbled, his words thick
with collapse.
The officer opened the packet, ran his eye through the letter, looked
at Mme. Maubin's photograph, and, with a contemptuous exclamation,
tossed the photograph and letter into a little stream that flowed by
the roadside.
The Belgian, enraged at this callous action, for the moment forgetful
of his wounds and the lassitude of prostration, lurched forward to
seize the officer's throat. He was promptly seized, and, as he was held
there, almost swooning, a captive and unarmed, the officer drew his
pistol and shot him dead.
In this wise the Germans took Liége.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] The _Queen Elizabeth_, under the British flag, the most powerful
vessel at the opening of the war, carried eight 15-inch guns and
sixteen 6-inch guns as an auxiliary battery.
[4] General Von Emmich's advance force, irrespective of reserves, was
120,000 men.
[5] This does not mean the trench of modern trench warfare, but the
old-fashioned shallow rifle-pit.
[6] These figures are not official, but are careful estimates from
known facts by leading artillerists of the Allies.