THE FALL OF NAMUR.
Now let us look more closely at the position which the British were to
hold.[14] Find the town of Mons, which stands to the west of
Charleroi,[15] on the highroad running northward to Brussels. Mons is
the old capital of Hainault, and its history goes back to the days of
Cæsar. Those of our soldiers who came from colliery districts must have
been strongly reminded of home when they arrived in the neighbourhood of
Mons, for it is a place of busy factories, surrounded by a coalfield.
Tall chimneys, the headgear of pits, huge mounds of refuse, railway
lines running along embankments, and miners' cottages are the chief
features of the landscape. Many of the rubbish heaps have been planted
with little forests of dwarf firs, and look like ranges of low wooded
hills. The country is, however, flat and much cut up with deep dykes
filled with muddy water.
The British headquarters was at Mons, and the line which our soldiers
were to hold extended to the west and to the east of that town. On the
west it stretched along the banks of a canal which runs west for fifteen
miles, from Mons to the village of Condé. Still farther to the west, a
French Territorial battalion held the town of Tournai. Eastward of Mons
the line ran for another ten miles to the village of Binche, which lies
south-east of Mons. The British position, you will observe, was not
quite straight, but in the form of a very flat triangle, with the apex
at Mons. By the evening of Friday, 21st August, two army corps and one
cavalry division of the British were in position awaiting the German
attack. The 3rd Army Corps had not yet arrived.
[Illustration: The Town of Mons.
_Photo, Exclusive News Agency._]
The Commander-in-Chief was Sir John French, of whom we have already
heard. The 1st Army Corps, which was posted to the east of Mons, was
commanded by Sir Douglas Haig, a cavalryman like Sir John French, and
one of the youngest of British generals. He had seen service in the
Sudan and in South Africa, and had held high military positions at home
and in India. The 2nd Army Corps, which was posted along the line of the
canal west of Mons, was commanded by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien,
also a brilliant soldier, who did fine work in South Africa. The cavalry
division was under Major-General Allenby, one of the most famous cavalry
scouts in the British army, and the 5th Cavalry Brigade was commanded by
Sir Philip Chetwode.
[Illustration: Map showing British and French Positions at the Battles
of Mons and Charleroi.]
During the 22nd and 23rd of August the 5th Cavalry Brigade and some
other cavalry squadrons pushed far to the north, and did some excellent
scouting work. They also met the advanced patrols of the enemy, and
there were several small fights, in which our troops showed to great
advantage. One of these fights took place at the corner of a village
street, where a party of our hussars rode down a strong detachment of
German cavalry. The two forces met front to front, and there were wild
hurrahs as our men charged the enemy with flashing sabres. It was all
over in a few minutes, and the Germans were driven back in confusion.
"Men and horses were heavier than we were," wrote one of the British
hussars who was wounded in the skirmish, "but our men were smarter and
handier."
* * * * *
You know that von Kluck's army entered Brussels on 20th August. An
American writer who fell in with an advance division tells us that the
Germans marched at a very rapid pace towards the Franco-Belgian frontier
to meet the Allies. To keep up with the column he was forced to move at
a steady trot. The men did not bend the knees, but keeping the legs
straight, shot them forward with a quick, sliding movement as though
they were skating or ski-ing.[16] Many of them fell by the wayside, but
they were not permitted to lie there, but were lifted to their feet and
flung back into the ranks. The halts were frequent, and so exhausted
were the poor fellows that, instead of standing at ease, they dropped to
the road as though they had been struck with a club. It was these forced
marches which brought von Kluck's army so rapidly to the right wing of
the Allies.
* * * * *
While our soldiers from Condé to Binche were busy digging trenches and
gun-pits, and clearing their front of cover, they could hear away to the
right the dull roar of cannon. Fighting was going on not only at Namur
but along the Sambre. You know that von Buelow's army was marching along
the north bank of the Meuse towards Namur, and that the Saxon army was
moving towards the same place along the southern bank. On the evening of
the day on which the Germans entered Brussels the first shots were fired
at the fortress. It was a sultry evening, and behind the screen of haze
the great howitzers were placed in position. They began to fire on the
Belgian trenches to the north-east of the city, and all night continued
to bombard them with great accuracy. Any man who lifted his head was
immediately hit. The guns were three miles away, so the Belgians had no
chance of rushing on the foe with the bayonet as they had done at Liége.
They were forced to wait and suffer. After enduring ten hours of
bursting shrapnel, which killed large numbers of them, they were obliged
to withdraw, and the Germans pushed within the ring of forts and took up
a position on the ridge of St. Marc north of the city.[17]
Meanwhile two of the eastern forts had fallen. Upon the fort just to the
south of the Meuse the Germans guns rained shells at the rate of twenty
a minute, and it was only able to fire ten shots in reply. The shells
wrecked concrete and turrets alike, and nothing could resist them. The
fort directly to the north of the river held out longer; but when
seventy-five of its garrison had been slain, it too was forced to yield.
At the same time the southern line of forts was fiercely bombarded, and
after an attack of two hours three of them were silenced, and a German
force was pushed across the Meuse into the southern part of the angle
between that river and the Sambre. All day long an infantry battle
raged, and the Belgians hoped against hope that the French would come to
their assistance.
Next morning, 22nd August, five thousand French troops, mostly Turcos,
arrived from the west, but they were too late and too few to save the
fortress. It was a black, dread day for the Allies. The skies were
darkened by an eclipse of the sun, and the people of Namur were in a
state of panic. German aeroplanes flew over the place and dropped bombs,
which killed many of the inhabitants and fired their houses. The heavens
thundered, the great guns roared, and Namur fell.
When the commander, General Michel, saw that he could no longer hold
out, he tried to call in the troops from the forts and march them
westward, in the hope that they might join their comrades beneath the
shelter of the forts at Antwerp. Traitors or spies, however, cut his
telephone wires, and he was only able to rally a portion of them for the
retreat. Two Belgian regiments hacked a way through the Germans who
blocked their road, and managed to join the French and reach Rouen;
where they took ship to Ostend, and then joined the main Belgian army at
Antwerp.
On Sunday afternoon, 23rd August, the Germans marched into Namur singing
their national songs and shouting in triumph. Next day von Buelow
entered, and with him was the new Governor of Belgium, Field-Marshal von
der Goltz, who was described by one of the townsfolk as "an elderly
gentleman covered with orders, buttoned in an overcoat up to his nose,
above which gleamed a pair of enormous glasses."
The Belgians made their last stand between the forts to the north-west
of the city. They held out until the morning of Tuesday, 25th August,
when they left their trenches and moved into the woods on the north bank
of the Sambre. Here they were surrounded, and were obliged to surrender.
Only about 12,000 out of the 26,000 men who attempted to hold the
fortress escaped. Large quantities of guns and stores had to be
abandoned, and these fell into the hands of the Germans.
[Illustration: The Siege of Namur.]
I have already told you that Namur was considered so strong that it
could defy attack for a long time. It fell, as we have seen, very
rapidly. The first shot was fired on the evening of 20th August; by the
next night five or six forts had fallen; on the 23rd the Germans entered
the city, and two days later every fort was in ruins.
Now we are able to understand the terrible peril of the Allies. The
French line along the Meuse and Sambre could only be held so long as
Namur was able to resist. Now that it had fallen the line was broken,
and a million men were on the verge of disaster.
* * * * *
While the German howitzers were battering down the forts at Namur a
fierce battle was raging round about Charleroi, on the Sambre, some
fifteen miles to the east. Those who remember the story of the battle of
Waterloo will recollect that Napoleon's armies crossed the Sambre at
Charleroi on their way to the famous battlefield. Like Mons, Charleroi
is a place of coal mines, iron foundries, and glassworks.
Less than ten miles to the north-east of Charleroi is the village of
Ligny,[18] where Napoleon beat the Germans under Blücher on June 16,
1815, and forced them to retreat. On the same day Wellington beat
Marshal Ney at Quatre Bras,[19] which lies a few miles to the north-west
of Ligny; but because Blücher had retreated he was obliged to fall back
to the field of Waterloo, where, as you know, he was joined by the
Prussians, and an end was made of Napoleon. It was over this historic
ground that von Buelow's army advanced towards Charleroi.
[Illustration: Charge of the Turcos near Charleroi.
_From the picture by Dudley Tennant._]
Not until late in March 1915 did the French lift the veil and give us a
glimpse of what happened. We are told that General Joffre's plan was, in
the first place, to hold and dispose of the enemy's centre, and
afterwards to throw all his available forces on the left flank of the
Germans. On Friday, 21st August, the French centre attacked with ten
army corps. On the next day it failed, and the French suffered a severe
defeat. They frankly confess that their officers and troops were unequal
to the task imposed on them, that they were imprudent under fire, that
the divisions were ill engaged, that they deployed rashly and fled
hastily, and that the lives of the men were thrown away too early in the
struggle. During the fighting the Zouaves and Turcos behaved most
gallantly. Twice they cleared the town of Charleroi at the point of the
bayonet, but all their efforts were unavailing. Five times the town was
captured and recaptured, and every time it changed hands it was fiercely
shelled. By Saturday evening it was in the hands of the Germans, who,
after suffering great losses, crossed the Sambre.
Meanwhile another fierce fight was going on farther east along the line
of the Meuse. On Saturday morning a German army, which had advanced
through the Northern Ardennes, crossed the Meuse into the angle between
that river and the Sambre, where, you will remember, the Germans had
already gained a footing. This new force attacked the right flank of the
French, and began to work round to their rear, so as to threaten the
line of retreat. With von Buelow pressing hard on the front, and the
Saxon army pressing on the right and rear, the French in the angle
between the rivers were forced to give way, and in order to save
themselves from destruction were obliged to retire to the south. So
rapid and confused was this retreat that the French staff neglected to
send news of the disaster to Sir John French until the afternoon of next
day. He thought that the French line was still holding out on his right;
but as a matter of fact he was without any support in that direction,
and was left, as the soldiers say, "in the air." Further, von Buelow was
now able to spare some of his right-wing troops and send them to help
von Kluck, who was about to swoop down on the British line.
[Footnote 14: See map, p. 19.]
[Footnote 15: Shar-leh-rwa´.]
[Footnote 16: Ski (_shē_) are long, narrow pieces of wood, from 7 to 12
feet in length and from 2½ to 3 inches wide, which are bound to the feet
with leather straps, and are used for travelling rapidly over snow. The
Chasseurs Alpins--that is, the French soldiers who operate in the
Alps--wear ski.]
[Footnote 17: See diagram p. 15]
[Footnote 18: _Leen-ye´._]
[Footnote 19: _Katr-bráh._]