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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:50 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:50 -0700 |
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diff --git a/11394-h/11394-h.htm b/11394-h/11394-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e1ccde --- /dev/null +++ b/11394-h/11394-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4919 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Fighting in Flanders, by E. Alexander + Powell + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + body {background:#E1D6B9; + color:black; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + font-size:14pt; + margin-top:100; + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align:justify} + hr.short { align: center; + width: 30%; } + table {font-size:14pt} + p {text-indent: 4% } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size:9pt;} +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11394 ***</div> + <h1> + The Project Gutenberg eBook, Fighting in Flanders, by E. Alexander Powell, + Illustrated by Donald Thompson + </h1> +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + E-text prepared by A. Langley + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> Fighting In Flanders <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By E. Alexander Powell + </h2> + <p> + Special Correspondent of The New York World<br /> With The Belgian Forces + In The Field <br /> <br /> Author of "The Last Frontier"<br /> + "Gentlemen Ravers,"<br /> "The End of the Trail,"<br /> + "The Road to Glory," etc. <br /> <br /> <br /> With Illustrations + from Photographs <br /> By Mr. Donald Thompson <br /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <hr class="short" /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <table border="0"> + <tr> + <td> + To My Friends The Belgians <br /> <br /> "I have eaten your bread + and salt;<br /> I have drunk your water and wine;<br /> The deaths you + died I have sat beside<br /> And the lives that you led were mine."<br /> + <br /> + <i>RUDYARD KIPLING. + </i> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr class="short" /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>Contents</strong> + </p> + <table> + <tr> + <td align="right"> + + </td> + <td> + <a href="#F">Foreword</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + I. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#1">The War Correspondents</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + II. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#2">The City Of Gloom</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + III. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#3">The Death In The Air</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + IV. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#4">Under The German Eagle</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + V. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#5">With The Spiked Helmets</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + VI. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#6">On The Belgian Battle-Line</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + VII. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#7">The Coming Of The British</a> + </td> + <td align="right"> + VIII. + </td> + <td> + <a href="#8">The Fall Of Antwerp</a> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders000.jpg" alt="" width="336" + height="500" /> <img src="images/FightinginFlanders00a.jpg" alt="" + width="299" height="500" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="F" id="F"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>Foreword</strong> + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more unwise, on general principles, than to attempt to write + about a war before that war is finished and before history has given it + the justice of perspective. The campaign which began with the flight of + the Belgian Government from Brussels and which culminated in the fall of + Antwerp formed, however, a separate and distinct phase of the Greatest of + Wars, and I feel that I should write of that campaign while its events are + still sharp and clear in my memory and before the impressions it produced + have begun to fade. I hope that those in search of a detailed or technical + account of the campaign in Flanders will not read this book, because they + are certain to be disappointed. It contains nothing about strategy or + tactics and few military lessons can be drawn from it. It is merely the + story, in simple words, of what I, a professional onlooker, who was + accorded rather exceptional facilities for observation, saw in Belgium + during that nation's hour of trial. + </p> + <p> + An American, I went to Belgium at the beginning of the war with an open + mind. I had few, if any, prejudices. I knew the English, the French, the + Belgians, the Germans equally well. I had friends in all four countries + and many happy recollections of days I had spent in each. When I left + Antwerp after the German occupation I was as pro-Belgian as though I had + been born under the red-black-and- yellow banner. I had seen a country, + one of the loveliest and most peaceable in Europe, invaded by a ruthless + and brutal soldiery; I had seen its towns and cities blackened by fire and + broken by shell; I had seen its churches and its historic monuments + destroyed; I had seen its highways crowded with hunted, homeless + fugitives; I had seen its fertile fields strewn with the corpses of what + had once been the manhood of the nation; I had seen its women left + husbandless and its children left fatherless; I had seen what was once a + Garden of the Lord turned into a land of desolation; and I had seen its + people--a people whom I, like the rest of the world, had always thought of + as pleasure-loving, inefficient, easy-going--I had seen this people, I + say, aroused, resourceful, unafraid, and fighting, fighting, fighting. Do + you wonder that they captured my imagination, that they won my admiration? + I am pro-Belgian; I admit it frankly. I should be ashamed to be anything + else. + </p> + <dl> + <dt> + E. Alexander Powell + </dt> + <dt> + London, November 1, 1914. + </dt> + </dl> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders002.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="446" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="1"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>I. The War Correspondents</strong> + </p> + <p> + War correspondents regard war very much as a doctor regards sickness. I + don't suppose that a doctor is actually glad that people are sick, but so + long as sickness exists in the world he feels that he might as well get + the benefit of it. It is the same with war correspondents. They do not + wish anyone to be killed on their account, but so long as men are going to + be killed anyway, they want to be on hand to witness the killing and, + through the newspapers, to tell the world about it. The moment that the + war broke out, therefore, a veritable army of British and American + correspondents descended upon the Continent. Some of them were men of + experience and discretion who had seen many wars and had a right to wear + on their jackets more campaign ribbons than most generals. These men took + the war seriously. They were there to get the news and, at no matter what + expenditure of effort and money, to get that news to the end of a + telegraph-wire so that the people in England and America might read it + over their coffee-cups the next morning. These men had unlimited funds at + their disposal; they had the united influence of thousands of newspapers + and of millions of newspaper-readers solidly behind them; and they carried + in their pockets letters of introduction from editors and ex-presidents + and ambassadors and prime ministers. + </p> + <p> + Then there was an army corps of special writers, many of them with + well-known names, sent out by various newspapers and magazines to write + "mail stuff," as dispatches which are sent by mail instead of + telegraph are termed, and "human interest" stories. Their + qualifications for reporting the greatest war in history consisted, for + the most part, in having successfully "covered" labour troubles + and murder trials and coronations and presidential conventions, and, in a + few cases, Central American revolutions. Most of the stories which they + sent home were written in comfortable hotel rooms in London or Paris or + Rotterdam or Ostend. One of these correspondents, however, was not content + with a hotel window viewpoint. He wanted to see some German + soldiers--preferably Uhlans. So he obtained a letter of introduction to + some people living in the neighbourhood of Courtrai, on the Franco-Belgian + frontier. He made his way there with considerable difficulty and received + a cordial welcome. The very first night that he was there a squadron of + Uhlans galloped into the town, there was a slight skirmish, and they + galloped out again. The correspondent, who was a sound sleeper, did not + wake up until it was all over. Then he learned that the Uhlans had ridden + under his very window. + </p> + <p> + Crossing on the same steamer with me from New York was a well- known + novelist who in his spare time edits a Chicago newspaper. He was provided + with a sheaf of introductions from exalted personages and a bag containing + a thousand pounds in gold coin. It was so heavy that he had brought a man + along to help him carry it, and at night they took turns in sitting up and + guarding it. He confided to me that he had spent most of his life in + trying to see wars, but though on four occasions he had travelled many + thousands of miles to countries where wars were in progress, each time he + had arrived just after the last shot was fired. He assured me very + earnestly that he would go back to Michigan Boulevard quite contentedly if + he could see just one battle. I am glad to say that his perseverance was + finally rewarded and that he saw his battle. He never told me just how + much of the thousand pounds he took back to Chicago with him, but from + some remarks he let drop I gathered that he had found battle-hunting an + expensive pastime. + </p> + <p> + One of the great London dailies was represented in Belgium by a young and + slender and very beautiful English girl whose name, as a novelist and + playwright, is known on both sides of the Atlantic. I met her in the + American Consulate at Ghent, where she was pleading with Vice-Consul Van + Hee to assist her in getting through the German lines to Brussels. She had + heard a rumour that Brussels was shortly going to be burned or sacked or + something of the sort, and she wanted to be on hand for the burning and + sacking. She had arrived in Belgium wearing a London tailor's idea of what + constituted a suitable costume for a war correspondent--perhaps I should + say war correspondentess. Her luggage was a model of compactness: it + consisted of a sleeping-bag, a notebook, half a dozen pencils--and a + powder-puff. She explained that she brought the sleeping-bag because she + understood that war correspondents always slept in the field. As most of + the fields in that part of Flanders were just then under several inches of + water as a result of the autumn rains, a folding canoe would have been + more useful. She was as insistent on being taken to see a battle as a + child is on being taken to the pantomime. Eventually her pleadings got the + better of my judgment and I took her out in the car towards Alost to see, + from a safe distance, what promised to be a small cavalry engagement. But + the Belgian cavalry unexpectedly ran into a heavy force of Germans, and + before we realized what was happening we were in a very warm corner + indeed. Bullets were kicking up little spurts of dust about us; bullets + were tang-tanging through the trees and clipping off twigs, which fell + down upon our heads; the rat-tat-tat of the German musketry was answered + by the angry snarl of the Belgian machine- guns; in a field near by the + bodies of two recently killed cuirassiers lay sprawled grotesquely. The + Belgian troopers were stretched flat upon the ground, a veteran English + correspondent was giving a remarkable imitation of the bark on a tree, and + my driver, my photographer and I were peering cautiously from behind the + corner of a brick farmhouse. I supposed that Miss War Correspondent was + there too, but when I turned to speak to her she was gone. She was + standing beside the car, which we had left in the middle of the road + because the bullets were flying too thickly to turn it around, dabbing at + her nose with a powder-puff which she had left in the tonneau and then + critically examining the effect in a pocket-mirror. + </p> + <p> + "For the love of God!" said I, running out and dragging her back + to shelter, "don't you know that you'll be killed if you stay out + here?" + </p> + <p> + "Will I?" said she, sweetly. "Well, you surely don't expect + me to be killed with my nose unpowdered, do you?" + </p> + <p> + That evening I asked her for her impressions of her first battle. + </p> + <p> + "Well," she answered, after a meditative pause, "it + certainly was very chic." + </p> + <p> + The third and largest division of this journalistic army consisted of free + lances who went to the Continent at their own expense on the chance of + "stumbling into something." About the only thing that any of + them stumbled into was trouble. Some of them bore the most extraordinary + credentials ever carried by a correspondent; some of them had no + credentials at all. One gentleman, who was halted while endeavouring to + reach the firing line in a decrepit cab, informed the officer before whom + he was taken that he represented the Ladies' Home Journal of Philadelphia. + Another displayed a letter from the editor of a well-known magazine saying + that he "would be pleased to consider any articles which you care to + submit." A third, upon being questioned, said naively that he + represented his literary agent. Then--I almost forgot him--there was a + Methodist clergyman from Boston who explained to the Provost-Marshal that + he was gathering material for a series of sermons on the horrors of war. + Add to this army of writers another army of photographers and war- artists + and cinematograph-operators and you will have some idea of the problem + with which the military authorities of the warring nations were + confronted. It finally got down to the question of which should be + permitted to remain in the field--the war correspondents or the soldiers. + There wasn't room for them both. It was decided to retain the soldiers. + </p> + <p> + The general staffs of the various armies handled the war correspondent + problem in different ways. The British War Office at first announced that + under no considerations would any correspondents be permitted in the areas + where British troops were operating, but such a howl went up from Press + and public alike that this order was modified and it was announced that a + limited number of correspondents, representing the great newspaper + syndicates and press associations, would, after fulfilling certain + rigorous requirements, be permitted to accompany his Majesty's forces in + the field. These fortunate few having been chosen after much heart- + burning, they proceeded to provide themselves with the prescribed uniforms + and field-kits, and some of them even purchased horses. After the war had + been in progress for three months they were still in London. The French + General Staff likewise announced that no correspondents would be permitted + with the armies, and when any were caught they were unceremoniously + shipped to the nearest port between two unsympathetic gendarmes with a + warning that they would be shot if they were caught again. + </p> + <p> + The Belgian General Staff made no announcement at all. The police merely + told those correspondents who succeeded in getting into the fortified + position of Antwerp that their room was preferable to their company and + informed them at what hour the next train for the Dutch frontier was + leaving. Now the correspondents knew perfectly well that neither the + British nor the French nor the Belgians would actually shoot them, if for + no other reason than the unfavourable impression which would be produced + by such a proceeding; but they did know that if they tried the patience of + the military authorities too far they would spend the rest of the war in a + military prison. So, as an imprisoned correspondent is as valueless to the + newspaper which employs him as a prisoner of war is to the nation whose + uniform he wears, they compromised by picking up such information as they + could along the edge of things. Which accounts for most of the dispatches + being dated from Ostend or Ghent or Dunkirk or Boulogne or from "the + back of the front," as one correspondent ingeniously put it. + </p> + <p> + As for the Germans, they said bluntly that any correspondents found within + their lines would be treated as spies--which meant being blindfolded and + placed between a stone wall and a firing party. And every correspondent + knew that they would do exactly what they said. They have no proper + respect for the Press, these Germans. + </p> + <p> + That I was officially recognized by the Belgian Government and given a + laisser-passer by the military Governor of Antwerp permitting me to pass + at will through both the outer and inner lines of fortifications, that a + motor-car and a military driver were placed at my disposal, and that + throughout the campaign in Flanders I was permitted to accompany the + Belgian forces, was not due to any peculiar merits or qualifications of my + own, or even to the influence exerted by the powerful paper which I + represented, but to a series of unusual and fortunate circumstances which + there is no need to detail here. There were many correspondents who + merited from sheer hard work what I received as a result of extraordinary + good fortune. + </p> + <p> + The civilians who were wandering, foot-loose and free, about the theatre + of operations were by no means confined to the representatives of the + Press; there was an amazing number of young Englishmen and Americans who + described themselves as "attaches" and "consular couriers" + and "diplomatic messengers," and who intimated that they were + engaged in all sorts of dangerous and important missions. Many of these + were adventurous young men of means who had "come over to see the fun" + and who had induced the American diplomatic representatives in London and + The Hague to give them dispatches of more or less importance-- usually + less than more--to carry through to Antwerp and Brussels. In at least one + instance the official envelopes with the big red seals which they so + ostentatiously displayed contained nothing but sheets of blank paper. + Their sole motive was in nearly all cases curiosity. They had no more + business wandering about the war-zone than they would have had wandering + about a hospital where men were dying. Belgium was being slowly strangled; + her villages had been burned, her fields laid waste, her capital was in + the hands of the enemy, her people were battling for their national + existence; yet these young men came in and demanded first-row seats, + precisely as though the war was a spectacle which was being staged for + their special benefit. + </p> + <p> + One youth, who in his busy moments practised law in Boston, though quite + frankly admitting that he was only actuated by curiosity, was exceedingly + angry with me because I declined to take him to the firing-line. He seemed + to regard the desperate battle which was then in progress for the + possession of Antwerp very much as though it was a football game in the + Harvard stadium; he seemed to think that he had a right to see it. He said + that he had come all the way from Boston to see a battle, and when I + remained firm in my refusal to take him to the front he intimated quite + plainly that I was no gentleman and that nothing would give him greater + pleasure than to have a shell explode in my immediate vicinity. + </p> + <p> + For all its grimness, the war was productive of more than one amusing + episode. I remember a mysterious stranger who called one morning on the + American Consul at Ostend to ask for assistance in getting through to + Brussels. When the Consul asked him to be seated he bowed stiffly and + declined, and when a seat was again urged upon him he explained, in a + hoarse whisper, that sewn in his trousers were two thousand pounds in + bank-notes which he was taking through to Brussels for the relief of + stranded English and Americans--hence he couldn't very well sit down. + </p> + <p> + Of all the horde of adventurous characters who were drawn to the Continent + on the outbreak of war as iron-filings are attracted by a magnet, I doubt + if there was a more picturesque figure than a little photographer from + Kansas named Donald Thompson. I met him first while paying a flying visit + to Ostend. He blew into the Consulate there wearing an American army + shirt, a pair of British officer's riding-breeches, French puttees and a + Highlander's forage-cap, and carrying a camera the size of a + parlour-phonograph. No one but an American could have accomplished what he + had, and no American but one from Kansas. He had not only seen war, all + military prohibitions to the contrary, but he had actually photographed + it. + </p> + <p> + Thompson is a little man, built like Harry Lauder; hard as nails, tough as + raw hide, his skin tanned to the colour of a well-smoked meerschaum, and + his face perpetually wreathed in what he called his "sunflower smile." + He affects riding-breeches and leather leggings and looks, physically as + well as sartorially, as though he had been born on horseback. He has more + chilled steel nerve than any man I know, and before he had been in Belgium + a month his name became a synonym throughout the army for coolness and + daring. He reached Europe on a tramp-steamer with an overcoat, a + toothbrush, two clean handkerchiefs, and three large cameras. He expected + to have some of them confiscated or broken, he explained, so he brought + along three as a measure of precaution. His cameras were the largest size + made. "By using a big camera no one can possibly accuse me of being a + spy," he explained ingenuously. His papers consisted of an American + passport, a certificate of membership in the Benevolent and Protective + Order of Elks, and a letter from Colonel Sam Hughes, Canadian Minister of + Militia, authorizing him to take pictures of Canadian troops wherever + found. + </p> + <p> + Thompson made nine attempts to get from Paris to the front. He was + arrested eight times and spent eight nights in guard-houses. Each time he + was taken before a military tribunal. Utterly ignoring the subordinates, + he would insist on seeing the officer in command. He would grasp the + astonished Frenchman by the hand and inquire solicitously after his health + and that of his family. + </p> + <p> + "How many languages do you speak?" I asked him. + </p> + <p> + "Three," said he. "English, American, and Yankee." + </p> + <p> + On one occasion he commandeered a motorcycle standing outside a cafe and + rode it until the petrol ran out, whereupon he abandoned it by the + roadside and pushed on afoot. On another occasion he explained to the + French officer who arrested him that he was endeavouring to rescue his + wife and children, who were in the hands of the Germans somewhere on the + Belgian frontier. The officer was so affected by the pathos of the story + that he gave Thompson a lift in his car. As a matter of fact, Thompson's + wife and family were quite safe in Topeka, Kansas. Whenever he was stopped + by patrols he would display his letter from the Minister of Militia and + explain that he was trying to overtake the Canadian troops. "Vive le + Canada!" the French would shout enthusiastically. "Hurrah for + our brave allies, les Canadiens! They are doubtless with the British at + the front"--and permit him to proceed. Thompson did not think it + necessary to inform them that the nearest Canadian troops were still at + Quebec. + </p> + <p> + When within sound of the German guns he was arrested for the eighth time + and sent to Amiens escorted by two gendarmes, who were ordered to see him + aboard the first train for Boulogne. They evidently considered that they + had followed instructions when they saw him buy a through ticket for + London. Shortly after midnight a train loaded with wounded pulled into the + station. Assisted by some British soldiers, Thompson scrambled to the top + of a train standing at the next platform and made a flashlight picture. A + wild panic ensued in the crowded station. It was thought that a German + bomb had exploded. Thompson was pulled down by the police and would have + been roughly handled had it not been for the interference of his British + friends, who said that he belonged to their regiment. Shortly afterwards a + train loaded with artillery which was being rushed to the front came in. + Thompson, once more aided and abetted by the British Tommies, slipped + under the tarpaulin covering a field-gun and promptly fell asleep. When he + awoke the next morning he was at Mons. A regiment of Highlanders was + passing. He exchanged a cake of chocolate for a fatigue-cap and fell in + with them. After marching for two hours the regiment was ordered into the + trenches. Thompson went into the trenches too. All through that terrible + day Thompson plied his trade as the soldiers plied theirs. They used their + rifles and he used his camera. Men were shot dead on either side of him. A + storm of shrapnel shrieked and howled overhead. He said that the fire of + the German artillery was amazingly accurate and rapid. They would + concentrate their entire fire on a single regiment or battery and when + that regiment or battery was out of action they would turn to another and + do the same thing over again. When the British fell back before the German + onset Thompson remained in the trenches long enough to get pictures of the + charging Germans. Then he ran for his life. + </p> + <p> + That night he bivouacked with a French line regiment, the men giving him + food and a blanket. The next morning he set out for Amiens en route for + England. As the train for Boulogne, packed to the doors with refugees, was + pulling out of the Amiens station, he noticed a first-class compartment + marked "Reserved," the only occupant being a smartly gowned + young woman. Thompson said that she was very good-looking. The train was + moving, but Thompson took a running jump and dived head-foremost through + the window, landing in the lady's lap. She was considerably startled until + he said that he was an American. That seemed to explain everything. The + young woman proved to be a Russian countesss who had been living in Paris + and who was returning, via England, to Petrograd. The French Government + had placed a compartment at her disposal, but in the jam at the Paris + station she had become separated from her maid, who had the bag containing + her money. Thompson recounted his adventures at Mons and asked her if she + would smuggle his films into England concealed on her person, as he knew + from previous experience that he would be stopped and searched by Scotland + Yard detectives when the train reached Boulogne and that, in all + probability, the films would be confiscated or else held up so long that + they would be valueless. The countess finally consented, but suggested, in + return for the danger she was incurring, that Thompson lend her a thousand + francs, which she would return as soon as she reached London. As he had + with him only two hundred and fifty francs, he paid her the balance in + United Cigar Stores coupons, some of which he chanced to have in his + pocket-book, and which, he explained, was American war currency. He told + me that he gave her almost enough to get a briar-pipe. At Boulogne he was + arrested, as he had foreseen, was stripped, searched and his camera + opened, but as nothing was found he was permitted to continue to London, + where he went to the countess's hotel and received his films--and, I might + add, his money and cigar coupons. Two hours later, having posted his films + to America, he was on his way to Belgium. + </p> + <p> + Landing at Ostend, he managed to get by train as far as Malines. He then + started to walk the twenty-odd miles into Brussels, carrying his huge + camera, his overcoat, field-glasses, and three hundred films. When ten + miles down the highway a patrol of Uhlans suddenly spurred out from behind + a hedge and covered him with their pistols. Thompson promptly pulled a + little silk American flag out of his pocket and shouted "Hoch der + Kaiser!" and "Auf wiedersehn" which constituted his entire + stock of German. Upon being examined by the officer in command of the + German outpost, he explained that his Canadian credentials were merely a + blind to get through the lines of the Allies and that he really + represented a syndicate of German newspapers in America, whereupon he was + released with apologies and given a seat in an ambulance which was going + into Brussels. As his funds were by this time running low, he started out + to look for inexpensive lodgings. As he remarked to me, "I thought we + had some pretty big house-agents out in Kansas, but this Mr. 'A. Louer' + has them beaten a mile. Why, that fellow has his card on every house + that's for rent in Brussels!" + </p> + <p> + The next morning, while chatting with a pretty English girl in front of a + cafe, a German officer who was passing ordered his arrest as a spy. "All + right," said Thompson, "I'm used to being arrested, but would + you mind waiting just a minute until I get your picture?" The German, + who had no sense of humour, promptly smashed the camera with his sword. + Despite Thompson's protestations that he was an inoffensive American, the + Germans destroyed all his films and ordered him to be out of the city + before six that evening. He walked the thirty miles to Ghent and there + caught a train for Ostend to get one of his reserve cameras, which he had + cached there. When I met him in Ostend he said that he had been there + overnight, that he was tired of a quiet life and was looking for action, + so I took him back with me to Antwerp. The Belgians had made an inflexible + rule that no photographers would be permitted with the army, but before + Thompson had been in Antwerp twenty-four hours he had obtained permission + from the Chief of the General Staff himself to take pictures when and + where he pleased. Thompson remained with me until the fall of Antwerp and + the German occupation, and no man could have had a more loyal or devoted + companion. It is no exaggeration to say that he saw more of the campaign + in Flanders than any individual, military or civilian--"le Capitaine + Thompson," as he came to be known, being a familiar and popular + figure on the Belgian battle-line. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders010.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="420" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + There is one other person of whom passing mention should be made, if for + no other reason than because his name will appear from time to time in + this narrative. I take pleasure, therefore, in introducing you to M. + Marcel Roos, the young Belgian gentleman who drove my motor-car. When war + was declared, Roos, who belonged to the jeunesse doree of Brussels, gave + his own ninety horse-power car to the Government and enlisted in a + regiment of grenadiers. Because he was as familiar with the highways and + byways of Belgium as a housewife is with her kitchen, and because he spoke + English, French, Flemish and German, he was detailed to drive the car + which the Belgian Government placed at my disposal. He was as big and + loyal and good-natured as a St. Bernard dog and he was as cool in danger + as Thompson--which is the highest compliment I can pay him. Incidentally, + he was the most successful forager that I have ever seen; more than once, + in villages which had apparently been swept clean of everything edible by + the Belgians or the Germans, he produced quite an excellent dinner as + mysteriously as a conjuror produces rabbits from a hat. + </p> + <p> + Now you must bear in mind that although one could get into Antwerp with + comparative ease, it by no means followed that one could get out to the + firing-line. A long procession of correspondents came to Antwerp and + remained a day or so and then went away again without once getting beyond + the city gates. Even if one succeeded in obtaining the necessary + laisser-passer from the military Government, there was no way of reaching + the front, as all the automobiles and all except the most decrepit horses + had been requisitioned for the use of the army. There was, you understand, + no such thing as hiring an automobile, or even buying one. Even the few + people who had influence enough to retain their cars found them useless, + as one of the very first acts of the military authorities was to + commandeer the entire supply of petrol. The bulk of the cars were used in + the ambulance service or for purposes of transport, the army train + consisting entirely of motor vehicles. Staff officers, certain Government + officials, and members of the diplomatic and consular corps were provided + by the Government with automobiles and military drivers. Every one else + walked or used the trams. Thus it frequently happened that a young staff + officer, who had never before known the joys of motoring, would tear madly + down the street in a luxurious limousine, his spurred boots resting on the + broadcloth cushions, while the ci-devant owner of the car, who might be a + banker or a merchant prince, would jump for the side-walk to escape being + run down. With the declaration of war and the taking over of all + automobiles by the military, all speed laws were flung to the winds. + </p> + <p> + No matter how unimportant his business, every one tore through the city + streets as though the devil (or the Germans) were behind him. The staid + citizens of Antwerp quickly developed a remarkably agility in getting out + of the way of furiously driven cars. They had to. Otherwise they would + have been killed. + </p> + <p> + Because, from the middle of August to the middle of October, Antwerp was + the capital of Belgium and the seat of the King, Cabinet, and diplomatic + corps; because from it any point on the battle-front could easily be + reached by motor-car; and because, above all else, it was at the end of + the cable and the one place in Belgium where there was any certainty of + dispatches getting through to England, I made it my headquarters during + the operations in Flanders, going out to the front in the morning and + returning to the Hotel St. Antoine at night. I doubt if war correspondence + has ever been carried on under such comfortable, even luxurious, + conditions. "Going out to the front" became as commonplace a + proceeding as for a business man to take the morning train to the city. + For one whose previous campaigning had been done in Persia, Mexico and + North Africa and the Balkans, it was a novel experience to leave a large + and fashionable hotel after breakfast, take a run of twenty or thirty + miles over stone-paved roads in a powerful and comfortable car, witness a + battle--provided, of course, that there happened to be a battle on that + day's list of events--and get back to the hotel in time to dress for + dinner. Imagine it, if you please! Imagine leaving a line of battle, where + shells were shrieking overhead and musketry was crackling along the + trenches, and moaning, blood-smeared figures were being placed in + ambulances, and other blood-smeared figures who no longer moaned were + sprawled in strange attitudes upon the ground --imagine leaving such a + scene, I say, and in an hour, or even less, finding oneself in a hotel + where men and women in evening dress were dining by the light of + pink-shaded candles, or in the marble- paved palm court were sipping + coffee and liqueurs to the sound of water splashing gently in a fountain. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders004.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="421" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="2"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>II. The City Of Gloom</strong> + </p> + <p> + In order to grasp the true significance of the events which preceded and + led up to the fall of Antwerp, it is necessary to understand the + extraordinary conditions which existed in and around that city when I + reached there in the middle of August. At that time all that was left to + the Belgians of Belgium were the provinces of Limbourg, Antwerp, and East + and West Flanders. Everything else was in the possession of the Germans. + Suppose, for the sake of, having things quite clear, that you unfold the + map of Belgium. Now, with your pencil, draw a line across the country from + east to west, starting at the Dutch city of Maastricht and passing through + Hasselt, Diest, Aerschot, Malines, Alost, and Courtrai to the French + frontier. This line was, roughly speaking, "the front," and for + upwards of two months fighting of a more or less serious character took + place along its entire length. During August and the early part of + September this fighting consisted, for the most part, of attempts by the + Belgian field army to harass the enemy and to threaten his lines of + communication and of counter-attacks by the Germans, during which + Aerschot, Malines, Sempst, and Termonde repeatedly changed hands. Some + twenty miles or so behind this line was the great fortified position of + Antwerp, its outer chain of forts enclosing an area with a radius of + nearly fifteen miles. + </p> + <p> + Antwerp, with its population of four hundred thousand souls, its labyrinth + of dim and winding streets lined by mediaeval houses, and its splendid + modern boulevards, lies on the east bank of the Scheldt, about fifteen + miles from Dutch territorial waters, at a hairpin-turn in the river. The + defences of the city were modern, extensive, and generally believed, even + by military experts, to be little short of impregnable. In fact, Antwerp + was almost universally considered one of the three or four strongest + fortified positions in Europe. In order to capture the city it would be + necessary for an enemy to break through four distinct lines of defence, + any one of which, it was believed, was strong enough to oppose + successfully any force which could be brought against it. The outermost + line of forts began at Lierre, a dozen miles to the south-east of the + city, and swept in a great quarter-circle, through Wavre-St. Catherine, + Waelhem, Heyndonck and Willebroeck, to the Scheldt at Ruppelmonde. + </p> + <p> + Two or three miles behind this outer line of forts a second line of + defence was formed by the Ruppel and the Nethe, which, together with the + Scheldt, make a great natural waterway around three sides of the city. + Back of these rivers, again, was a second chain of forts completely + encircling the city on a five-mile radius. The moment that the first + German soldier set his foot on Belgian soil the military authorities began + the herculean task of clearing of trees and buildings a great zone lying + between this inner circle of forts and the city ramparts in order that an + investing force might have no cover. It is estimated that within a + fortnight the Belgian sappers and engineers destroyed property to the + value of £16,000,000. Not San Francisco after the earthquake, nor Dayton + after the flood, nor Salem after the fire presented scenes of more + complete desolation than did the suburbs of Antwerp after the soldiers had + finished with them. + </p> + <p> + On August 1, 1914, no city in all Europe could boast of more beautiful + suburbs than Antwerp. Hidden amid the foliage of great wooded parks were + stately chateaux; splendid country-houses rose from amid acres of green + plush lawns and blazing gardens; the network of roads and avenues and + bridle-paths were lined with venerable trees, whose branches, meeting + overhead, formed leafy tunnels; scattered here and there were quaint + old-world villages, with plaster walls and pottery roofs and + lichen-covered church spires. By the last day of August all this had + disappeared. The loveliest suburbs in Europe had been wiped from the earth + as a sponge wipes figures from a slate. Every house and church and + windmill, every tree and hedge and wall, in a zone some two or three miles + wide by twenty long, was literally levelled to the ground. For mile after + mile the splendid trees which lined the highroads were ruthlessly cut + down; mansions which could fittingly have housed a king were dynamited; + churches whose walls had echoed to the tramp of the Duke of Alba's + mail-clad men-at-arms were levelled; villages whose picturesqueness was + the joy of artists and travellers were given over to the flames. Certainly + not since the burning of Moscow has there been witnessed such a scene of + self-inflicted desolation. When the work of the engineers was finished a + jack- rabbit could not have approached the forts without being seen. When + the work of levelling had been completed, acres upon acres of barbed-wire + entanglements were constructed, the wires being grounded and connected + with the city lighting system so that a voltage could instantly be turned + on which would prove as deadly as the electric chair at Sing Sing. + Thousands of men were set to work sharpening stakes and driving these + stakes, point upward, in the ground, so as to impale any soldiers who fell + upon them. In front of the stakes were "man-traps," thousands of + barrels with their heads knocked out being set in the ground and then + covered with a thin layer of laths and earth, which would suddenly give + way if a man walked upon it and drop him into the hole below. And beyond + the zones of entanglements and chevaux de frise and man-traps the beet and + potato-fields were sown with mines which were to be exploded by + electricity when the enemy was fairly over them, and blow that enemy, + whole regiments at a time, into eternity. Stretching across the fields and + meadows were what looked at first glance like enormous red-brown serpents + but which proved, upon closer inspection, to be trenches for infantry. The + region to the south of Antwerp is a network of canals, and on the bank of + every canal rose, as though by magic, parapets of sandbags. Charges of + dynamite were placed under every bridge and viaduct and tunnel. Barricades + of paving-stones and mattresses and sometimes farm carts were built across + the highways. At certain points wires were stretched across the roads at + the height of a man's head for the purpose of preventing sudden dashes by + armoured motor-cars. The walls of such buildings as were left standing + were loopholed for musketry. Machine-guns and quick-firers were mounted + everywhere. At night the white beams of the searchlights swept this zone + of desolation and turned it into day. Now the pitiable thing about it was + that all this enormous destruction proved to have been wrought for + nothing, for the Germans, instead of throwing huge masses of infantry + against the forts, as it was anticipated that they would do, and thus + giving the entanglements and the mine-fields and the machine-guns a chance + to get in their work, methodically pounded the forts to pieces with + siege-guns stationed a dozen miles away. In fact, when the Germans entered + Antwerp not a strand of barbed wire had been cut, not a barricade + defended, not a mine exploded. This, mind you, was not due to any lack of + bravery on the part of the Belgians--Heaven knows, they did not lack for + that !--but to the fact that the Germans never gave them a chance to make + use of these elaborate and ingenious devices. It was like a man letting a + child painstakingly construct an edifice of building-blocks and then, when + it was completed, suddenly sweeping it aside with his hand. + </p> + <p> + As a result of these elaborate precautions, it was as difficult to go in + or out of Antwerp as it is popularly supposed to be for a millionaire to + enter the kingdom of Heaven. Sentries were as thick as policemen in + Piccadilly. You could not proceed a quarter of a mile along any road, in + any direction, without being halted by a harsh "Qui vive?" and + having the business end of a rifle turned in your direction. If your + papers were not in order you were promptly turned back--or arrested as a + suspicious character and taken before an officer for examination--though + if you were sufficiently in the confidence of the military authorities to + be given the password, you were usually permitted to pass without further + question. It was some time before I lost the thrill of novelty and + excitement produced by this halt-who- + goes-there-advance-friend-and-give-the-countersign business. It was so + exactly the sort of thing that, as a boy, I used to read about in books by + George A. Henty that it seemed improbable and unreal. When we were + motoring at night and a peremptory challenge would come from out the + darkness and the lamps of the car would pick out the cloaked figure of the + sentry as the spotlight picks out the figure of an actor on the stage, and + I would lean forward and whisper the magic mot d'ordre, I always had the + feeling that I was taking part in a play-which was not so very far from + the truth, for, though I did not appreciate it at the time, we were all + actors, more or less important, in the greatest drama ever staged. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders012.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="476" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + In the immediate vicinity of Antwerp the sentries were soldiers of the + regular army and understood a sentry's duties, but in the outlying + districts, particularly between Ostend and Ghent, the roads were patrolled + by members of the Garde civique, all of whom seemed imbued with the idea + that the safety of the nation depended upon their vigilance, which was a + very commendable and proper attitude indeed. When I was challenged by a + Garde civique I was always a little nervous, and wasted no time whatever + in jamming on the brakes, because the poor fellows were nearly always + excited and handled their rifles in a fashion which was far from being + reassuring. More than once, while travelling in the outlying districts, we + were challenged by civil guards who evidently had not been entrusted with + the password, but who, when it was whispered to them, would nod their + heads importantly and tell us to pass on. + </p> + <p> + "The next sentry that we meet," I said to Roos on one of these + occasions, "probably has no idea of the password. I'll bet you a box + of cigars that I can give him any word that comes into my head and that he + won't know the difference." + </p> + <p> + As we rolled over the ancient drawbridge which gives admittance to sleepy + Bruges, a bespectacled sentry, who looked as though he had suddenly been + called from an accountant's desk to perform the duties of a soldier, held + up his hand, palm outward, which is the signal to stop the world over. + </p> + <p> + "Halt!" he commanded quaveringly. "Advance slowly and give + the word." + </p> + <p> + I leaned out as the car came opposite him. "Kalamazoo," I + whispered. The next instant I was looking into the muzzle of his rifle. + </p> + <p> + "Hands up!" he shouted, and there was no longer any quaver in + his voice. "That is not the word. I shouldn't be surprised if you + were German spies. Get out of the car!" + </p> + <p> + It took half an hour of explanations to convince him that we were not + German spies, that we really did know the password, and that we were + merely having a joke--though not, as we had planned, at his expense. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders011.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="423" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + The force of citizen soldiery known as the Garde civique has, so far as I + am aware, no exact counterpart in any other country. It is composed of + business and professional men whose chief duties, prior to the war, had + been to show themselves on occasions of ceremony arrayed in gorgeous + uniforms, which varied according to the province. The mounted division of + the Antwerp Garde civique wore a green and scarlet uniform which resembled + as closely as possible that of the Guides, the crack cavalry corps of the + Belgian army. In the Flemish towns the civil guards wore a blue coat, so + long in the skirts that it had to be buttoned back to permit of their + walking, and a hat of stiff black felt, resembling a bowler, with a + feather stuck rakishly in the band. Early in the war the Germans announced + that they would not recognize the Gardes civique as combatants, and that + any of them who were captured while fighting would meet with the same fate + as armed civilians. This drastic ruling resulted in many amusing episodes. + When it was learned that the Germans were approaching Ghent, sixteen + hundred civil guardsmen threw their rifles into the canal and, stripping + off their uniforms, ran about in the pink and light-blue under-garments + which the Belgians affect, frantically begging the townspeople to lend + them civilian clothing. As a whole, however, these citizen-soldiers did + admirable service, guarding the roads, tunnels and bridges, assisting the + refugees, preserving order in the towns, and, in Antwerp, taking entire + charge of provisioning the army. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders009.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="417" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + No account of Antwerp in war time would be complete without at least + passing mention of the boy scouts, who were one of the city's most + picturesque and interesting features. I don't quite know how the city + could have got along without them. They were always on the job; they were + to be seen everywhere and they did everything. They acted as messengers, + as doorkeepers, as guides, as orderlies for staff officers, and as + couriers for the various ministries; they ran the elevators in the hotels, + they worked in the hospitals, they assisted the refugees to find food and + lodgings. The boy scouts stationed at the various ministries were on duty + twenty-four hours at a stretch. They slept rolled up in blankets on the + floors; they obtained their meals where and when they could and paid for + them themselves, and made themselves extremely useful. If you possessed + sufficient influence to obtain a motor-car, a boy scout was generally + detailed to sit beside the driver and open the door and act as a sort of + orderly. I had one. His name was Joseph. He was most picturesque. He wore + a sombrero with a cherry-coloured puggaree and a bottle-green cape, and + his green stockings turned over at the top so as to show knees as white + and shapely as those of a woman. To tell the truth, however, I had nothing + for him to do. So when I was not out in the car he occupied himself in + running the lift at the Hotel St. Antoine. Joseph was with me during the + German attack on Waelhem. We were caught in a much hotter place than we + intended and for half an hour were under heavy shrapnel fire. I was + curious to see how the youngster--for he was only fourteen-- would act. + Finally he turned to me, his black eyes snapping with excitement. "Have + I your permission to go a little nearer, monsieur?" he asked eagerly. + "I won't be gone long. I only want to get a German helmet." It + may have been the valour of ignorance which these broad-hatted, bare-kneed + boys displayed, but it was the sort of valour which characterized every + Belgian soldier. There was one youngster of thirteen who was attached to + an officer of the staff and who was present at every battle of importance + from the evacuation of Brussels to the fall of Antwerp. I remember seeing + him during the retreat of the Belgians from Wesemael, curled up in the + tonneau of a car and sleeping through all the turmoil and confusion. I + felt like waking him up and saying sternly, "Look here, sonny, you'd + better trot on home. Your mother will be worried to death about you." + I believe that four Belgian boy scouts gave up their lives in the service + of their country. Two were run down and killed by automobiles while on + duty in Antwerp. Two others were, I understand, shot by German troops near + Brussels while attempting to carry dispatches through the lines. One boy + scout became so adept at this sort of work that he was regularly employed + by the Government to carry messages through to its agents in Brussels. His + exploits would provide material for a boy's book of adventure and, as a + fitting conclusion, he was decorated by the King. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders003.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="480" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Anyone who went to Belgium with hard-and-fast ideas as to social + distinctions quickly had them shattered. The fact that a man wore a + private's uniform and sat behind the steering-wheel of your car and + respectfully touched his cap when you gave him an order did not imply that + he had always been a chauffeur. Roos, who drove my car throughout my stay + in Belgium, was the son of a Brussels millionaire, and at the beginning of + hostilities had, as I think I have mentioned elsewhere, promptly presented + his own powerful car to the Government. The aristocracy of Belgium did not + hang around the Ministry of War trying to obtain commissions. They simply + donned privates' uniforms, and went into the firing-line. As a result of + this wholehearted patriotism the ranks of the Belgian army were filled + with men who were members of the most exclusive clubs and were welcome + guests in the highest social circles in Europe. Almost any evening during + the earlier part of the war a smooth-faced youth in the uniform of a + private soldier could have been seen sitting amid a group of friends at + dinner in the Hotel St. Antoine. When an officer entered the room he stood + up and clicked his heels together and saluted. He was Prince Henri de + Ligne, a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in + Belgium and related to half the aristocracy of Europe. He, poor boy, was + destined never again to follow the hounds or to lead a cotillion; he was + killed near Herenthals with young Count de Villemont and Philippe de + Zualart while engaged in a daring raid in an armoured motorcar into the + German lines for the purpose of blowing up a bridge. + </p> + <p> + When, upon the occupation of Brussels by the Germans, the capital of + Belgium was hastily transferred to Antwerp, considerable difficulty was + experienced in finding suitable accommodation for the staffs of the + various ministries, which were housed in any buildings which happened to + be available at the time. Thus, the foreign relations of the nation were + directed from a school-building in the Avenue du Commerce--the Foreign + Minister, Monsieur Davignon, using as his Cabinet the room formerly used + for lectures on physiology, the walls of which were still covered with + blackboards and anatomical charts. The Grand Hotel was taken over by the + Government for the accommodation of the Cabinet Ministers and their + staffs, while the ministers of State and the members of the diplomatic + corps were quartered at the St. Antoine. In fact, it used to be said in + fun that if you got into difficulties with the police all you had to do + was to get within the doors of the hotel, where you would be safe, for + half of the ground floor was technically British soil, being occupied by + the British Legation; a portion of the second floor was used by the + Russian Legation; if you dashed into a certain bedroom you could claim + Roumanian protection, and in another you were, theoretically, in Greece; + while on the upper floor extra-territoriality was exercised by the + Republic of China. Every evening all the ministers and diplomats met in + the big rose-and-ivory dining-room--the white shirt- fronts of the men and + the white shoulders of the women, with the uniforms of the Belgian + officers and of the British, French and Russian military attaches, + combining to form a wonderfully brilliant picture. Looking on that scene, + it was hard to believe that by ascending to the roof of the hotel you + could see the glare of burning villages and hear the boom of German + cannon. + </p> + <p> + As the siege progressed and the German lines were drawn tighter, the + military regulations governing life in Antwerp increased in severity. The + local papers were not permitted to print any accounts of Belgian checks or + reverses, and at one time the importation of English newspapers was + suspended. Sealed letters were not accepted by the post office for any + foreign countries save England, Russia and France, and even these were + held four days before being forwarded. Telegrams were, of course, rigidly + censored. The telephone service was suspended save for governmental + purposes. At eight o'clock the trams stopped running. Save for a few + ramshackle vehicles, drawn by decrepit horses, the cabs had disappeared + from the streets. The city went spy-mad. If a man ordered Sauerkraut and + sausage for lunch he instantly fell under suspicion. Scarcely a day passed + without houses being raided and their occupants arrested on the charge of + espionage. It was reported and generally believed that those whose guilt + was proved were promptly executed outside the ramparts, but of this I have + my doubts. The Belgians are too good-natured, too easy-going. It is + probable, of course, that some spies were executed, but certainly not + many. + </p> + <p> + One never stirred out of doors in Antwerp without one's papers, which had + to be shown before one could gain admission to the post office, the + telegraph bureau, the banks, the railway stations, or any other public + buildings. There were several varieties of "papers." There was + the plain passport which, beyond establishing your nationality, was not + worth the paper it was written on. There was the permis de sejour, which + was issued by the police to those who were able to prove that they had + business which necessitated their remaining in the city. And finally, + there was the much-prized laisser- passer which was issued by the military + government and usually bore the photograph of the person to whom it was + given, which proved an open sesame wherever shown, and which, I might add, + was exceedingly difficult to obtain. + </p> + <p> + Only once did my laisser-passer fail me. During the final days of the + siege, when the temper and endurance of the Belgian defenders were + strained almost to the breaking-point, I motored out to witness the German + assault on the forts near Willebroeck. With me were Captain Raymond Briggs + of the United States army and Thompson. Before continuing to the front we + took the precaution of stopping at division headquarters in Boom and + asking if there was any objection to our proceeding; we were informed that + there was none. We had not been on the firing-line half an hour, however, + before two gendarmes came tearing up in a motor-car and informed us that + we were under arrest and must return with them to Boom. At division + headquarters we were interrogated by a staff major whose temper was as + fiery as his hair. Thompson, as was his invariable custom, was smoking a + very large and very black cigar. + </p> + <p> + "Take that cigar out of your mouth!" snapped the major in + French. "How dare you smoke in my presence?" + </p> + <p> + "Sorry, major," said Thompson, grinning broadly, "but + you'll have to talk American. I don't understand French." + </p> + <p> + "Stop smiling!" roared the now infuriated officer. "How + dare you smile when I address you? This is no time for smiling, sir! This + is a time of war!" + </p> + <p> + Though the major was reluctantly forced to admit that our papers were in + order, we were nevertheless sent to staff headquarters in Antwerp guarded + by two gendarmes, one of whom was the bearer of a dossier in which it was + gravely recited that Captain Briggs and I had been arrested while in the + company of a person calling himself Donald Thompson, who was charged by + the chief of staff with having smiled and smoked a cigar in his presence. + Needless to say, the whole opera-bouffe affair was promptly disavowed by + the higher authorities. I have mentioned the incident because it was the + sole occasion on which I met with so much as a shadow of discourtesy from + any Belgian, either soldier or civilian. I doubt if in any other country + in the world in time of war, a foreigner would have been permitted to go + where and when he pleased, as I was, and would have met with hospitality + and kindness from every one. + </p> + <p> + The citizens of Antwerp hated the Germans with a deeper and more bitter + hatred, if such a thing were possible, than the people of any other part + of Belgium. This was due to the fact that in no foreign city where Germans + dwelt and did business were they treated with such marked hospitality and + consideration as in Antwerp. They had been given franchises and + concessions and privileges of every description; they had been showered + with honours and decorations; they were welcome guests on every occasion; + city streets had been named after leading German residents; time and time + again, both at private dinners and public banquets, they had asserted, + wineglass in hand, their loyalty and devotion to the city which was their + home. Yet, the moment opportunity offered, they did not scruple to betray + it. In the cellar of the house belonging to one of the most prominent + German residents the police found large stores of ammunition and hundreds + of rifles and German uniforms. A German company had, as a result of + criminal stupidity, been awarded the contract for wiring the forts + defending the city--and when the need arose it was found that the wiring + was all but worthless. A wealthy German had a magnificent country estate + the gardens of which ran down to the moat of one of the outlying forts. + One day he suggested to the military authorities that if they would permit + him to obtain the necessary water from the moat, he would build a + swimming-pool in his garden for the use of the soldiers. What appeared to + be a generous offer was gladly accepted--but when the day of action came + it was found that the moat had been drained dry. In the grounds of another + country place were discovered concrete emplacements for the use of the + German siege-guns. Thus the German residents repaid the hospitality of + their adopted city. + </p> + <p> + When the war-cloud burst every German was promptly expelled from Antwerp. + In a few cases the mob got out of hand and smashed the windows of some + German saloons along the water-front, but no Germans were injured or + mistreated. They were merely shipped, bag and baggage, across the + frontier. That, in my opinion at least, is what should have been done with + the entire civil population of Antwerp--provided, of course, that the + Government intended to hold the city at all costs. The civilians seriously + hampered the movements of the troops and thereby interfered with the + defence; the presence of large numbers of women and children in the city + during the bombardment unquestionably caused grave anxiety to the + defenders and was probably one of the chief reasons for the evacuation + taking place when it did; the masses of civilian fugitives who choked the + roads in their mad flight from Antwerp were in large measure responsible + for the capture of a considerable portion of the retreating Belgian army + and for the fact that other bodies of troops were driven across the + frontier and interned in Holland. So strongly was the belief that Antwerp + was impregnable implanted in every Belgian's mind, however, that up to the + very last not one citizen in a thousand would admit that there was a + possibility that it could be taken. The army did not believe that it could + be taken. The General Staff did not believe that it could be taken. They + were destined to have a rude and sad awakening. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders014.jpg" alt="" width="381" + height="600" /> <img src="images/FightinginFlanders033.jpg" alt="" + width="383" height="600" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="3"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>III. The Death In The Air</strong> + </p> + <p> + At eleven minutes past one o'clock on the morning of August 25 death came + to Antwerp out of the air. Some one had sent a bundle of English and + American newspapers to my room in the Hotel St. Antoine and I had spent + the evening reading them, so that the bells of the cathedral had already + chimed one o'clock when I switched off my light and opened the window. As + I did so my attention was attracted by a curious humming overhead, like a + million bumblebees. I leaned far out of the window, and as I did so an + indistinct mass, which gradually resolved itself into something resembling + a gigantic black cigar, became plainly apparent against the purple-velvet + sky. I am not good at estimating altitudes, but I should say that when I + first caught sight of it it was not more than a thousand feet above my + head--and my room was on the top floor of the hotel, remember. As it drew + nearer the noise, which had at first reminded me of a swarm of angry bees, + grew louder, until it sounded like an automobile with the muffler open. + Despite the darkness there was no doubting what it was. It was a German + Zeppelin. + </p> + <p> + Even as I looked something resembling a falling star curved across the + sky. An instant later came a rending, shattering crash that shook the + hotel to its foundations, the walls of my room rocked and reeled, about + me, and for a breathless moment I thought that the building was going to + collapse. Perhaps thirty seconds later came another splitting explosion, + and another, and then another--ten in all--each, thank Heaven, a little + farther removed. It was all so sudden, so utterly unexpected, that it must + have been quite a minute before I realized that the monstrous thing + hovering in the darkness overhead was one of the dirigibles of which we + had read and talked so much, and that it was actually raining death upon + the sleeping city from the sky. I suppose it was blind instinct that + caused me to run to the door and down the corridor with the idea of + getting into the street, never stopping to reason, of course, that there + was no protection in the street from Zeppelins. But before I had gone a + dozen paces I had my nerves once more in hand. "Perhaps it isn't a + Zeppelin, after all," I argued to myself. "I may have been + dreaming. And how perfectly ridiculous I should look if I were to dash + downstairs in my pyjamas and find that nothing had happened. At least I'll + go back and put some clothes on." And I did. No fireman, responding + to a night alarm, ever dressed quicker. As I ran through the corridors the + doors of bedrooms opened and sleepy-eyed, tousle-headed diplomatists and + Government officials called after me to ask if the Germans were bombarding + the city. + </p> + <p> + "They are," I answered, without stopping. There was no time to + explain that for the first time in history a city was being bombarded from + the air. + </p> + <p> + I found the lobby rapidly filling with scantily clad guests, whose teeth + were visibly chattering. Guided by the hotel manager and accompanied by + half a dozen members of the diplomatic corps in pyjamas, I raced upstairs + to a sort of observatory on the hotel roof. I remember that one attache of + the British Legation, ordinarily a most dignified person, had on some sort + of a night-robe of purple silk and that when he started to climb the iron + ladder of the fire-escape he looked for all the world like a burglarious + suffragette. + </p> + <p> + By the time we reached the roof of the hotel Belgian high-angle and + machine-guns were stabbing the darkness with spurts of flame, the troops + of the garrison were blazing away with rifles, and the gendarmes in the + streets were shooting wildly with their revolvers: the noise was + deafening. Oblivious of the consternation and confusion it had caused, the + Zeppelin, after letting fall a final bomb, slowly rose and disappeared in + the upper darkness. + </p> + <p> + The destruction wrought by the German projectiles was almost incredible. + The first shell, which I had seen fall, struck a building in the Rue de la + Bourse, barely two hundred yards in a straight line from my window. A hole + was not merely blown through the roof, as would have been the case with a + shell from a field-gun, but the three upper stories simply crumbled, + disintegrated, came crashing down in an avalanche of brick and stone and + plaster, as though a Titan had hit it with a sledge-hammer. Another shell + struck in the middle of the Poids Public, or public weighing-place, which + is about the size of Russell Square in London. It blew a hole in the + cobblestone- pavement large enough to bury a horse in; one policeman on + duty at the far end of the square was instantly killed and another had + both legs blown off. But this was not all nor nearly all. Six people + sleeping in houses fronting on the square were killed in their beds and a + dozen others were more or less seriously wounded. Every building facing on + the square was either wholly or partially demolished, the steel splinters + of the projectile tearing their way through the thick brick-walls as + easily as a lead-pencil is jabbed through a sheet of paper. And, as a + result of the terrific concussion, every house within a hundred yards of + the square in every direction had its windows broken. On no battlefield + have I ever seen so horrible a sight as that which turned me weak and + nauseated when I entered one of the shattered houses and made my way, over + heaps of fallen debris, to a room where a young woman had been sleeping. + She had literally been blown to fragments. The floor, the walls, the + ceiling, were splotched with--well, it's enough to say that that woman's + remains could only have been collected with a shovel. In saying this, I am + not speaking flippantly either. I have dwelt upon these details, revolting + as they are, because I wish to drive home the fact that the only victims + of this air-raid on Antwerp were innocent non-combatants. + </p> + <p> + Another shell struck the roof of a physician's house in the fashionable + Rue des Escrimeurs, killing two maids who were sleeping in a room on the + upper floor. A shell fell in a garden in the Rue von Bary, terribly + wounding a man and his wife. A little child was mangled by a shell which + struck a house in the Rue de la Justice. Another shell fell in the + barracks in the Rue Falcon, killing one inmate and wounding two others. By + a fortunate coincidence the regiment which had been quartered in the + barracks had left for the front on the previous day. A woman who was + awakened by the first explosion and leaned from her window to see what was + happening had her head blown off. In all ten people were killed, six of + whom were women, and upwards of forty wounded, two of them so terribly + that they afterwards died. There is very little doubt that a deliberate + attempt was made to kill the royal family, the General Staff and the + members of the Government, one shell bursting within a hundred yards of + the royal palace, where the King and Queen were sleeping, and another + within two hundred yards of staff headquarters and the Hotel St. Antoine. + </p> + <p> + As a result of this night of horror, Antwerp, to use an inelegant but + descriptive expression, developed a violent case of the jim-jams. The next + night and every night thereafter until the Germans came in and took the + city, she thought she saw things; not green rats and pink snakes, but + large, sausage-shaped balloons with bombs dropping from them. The military + authorities--for the city was under martial law--screwed down the lid so + tight that even the most rabid prohibitionists and social reformers + murmured. As a result of the precautionary measures which were taken, + Antwerp, with its four hundred thousand inhabitants, became about as + cheerful a place of residence as a country cemetery on a rainy evening. At + eight o'clock every street light was turned off, every shop and restaurant + and cafe closed, every window darkened. If a light was seen in a window + after eight o'clock the person who occupied that room was in grave danger + of being arrested for signalling to the enemy. My room, which was on the + third floor of the hotel, was so situated that its windows could not be + seen from the street, and hence I was not as particular about lowering the + shades as I should have been. The second night after the Zeppelin raid the + manager came bursting into my room. "Quick, Mr. Powell," he + called, excitedly, "pull down your shade. The observers in the + cathedral tower have just sent word that your windows are lighted and the + police are downstairs to find out what it means." + </p> + <p> + The darkness of London and Paris was a joke beside the darkness of + Antwerp. It was so dark in the narrow, winding streets, bordered by + ancient houses, that when, as was my custom, I went to the telegraph + office with my dispatches after dinner, I had to feel my way with a cane, + like a blind man. To make conditions more intolerable, if such a thing + were possible, cordons of sentries were thrown around those buildings + under whose roofs the members of the Government slept, so that if one + returned after nightfall he was greeted by a harsh command to halt, and a + sentry held a rifle- muzzle against his breast while another sentry, by + means of a dark lantern, scrutinized his papers. Save for the sentries, + the streets were deserted, for, as the places of amusement and the eating- + places and drinking-places were closed, there was no place for the people + to go except to bed. I was reminded of the man who told his wife that he + came home because all the other places were closed. + </p> + <p> + I have heard it said that Antwerp was indifferent to its fate, but it made + no such impression on me. Never have I lived in such an atmosphere of + gloom and depression. Except around the St. Antoine at the lunch and + dinner-hours and in the cafes just before nightfall did one see anything + which was even a second cousin to jollity. The people did not smile. They + went about with grave and anxious faces. In fact, outside of the places I + have mentioned, one rarely heard a laugh. The people who sat at the round + iron tables on the sidewalks in front of the cafes drinking their light + wines and beer --no spirits were permitted to be sold--sat in silence and + with solemn faces. God knows, there was little enough for them to smile + about. Their nation was being slowly strangled. Three-quarters of its soil + was under the heel of the invader. An alien flag, a hated flag, flew over + their capital. Their King and their Government were fugitives, moving from + place to place as a vagrant moves on at the approach of a policeman. Men + who, a month before, were prosperous shopkeepers and tradesmen were + virtual bankrupts, not knowing where the next hundred-franc note was + coming from. Other men had seen their little flower-surrounded homes in + the suburbs razed to the ground that an approaching enemy might find no + cover. Though the shops were open, they had no customers for the people + had no money, or, if they had money they were hoarding it against the days + when they might be homeless fugitives. No, there was not very much to + smile about in Antwerp. + </p> + <p> + There were amusing incidents, of course. If one recognizes humour when he + sees it he can find it in almost any situation. After the first Zeppelin + attack the management of the St. Antoine fitted up bedrooms in the + cellars. + </p> + <p> + A century or more ago the St. Antoine was not a hotel but a monastery, and + its cellars are all that the cellars of a monastery ought to + be--thick-walled and damp and musty. Yet these subterranean suites were in + as great demand among the diplomatists as are tables in the palm-room of + the Savoy during the season. From my bedroom window, which overlooked the + court, I could see apprehensive guests cautiously emerging from their + cellar chambers in the early morning. It reminded me of woodchucks coming + out of their holes. + </p> + <p> + As the siege progressed and the German guns were pushed nearer to the + city, those who lived in what might be termed "conspicuous" + localities began to seek other quarters. + </p> + <p> + "I'm going to change hotels to-day," I heard a man remark to a + friend. + </p> + <p> + "Why?" inquired the other. + </p> + <p> + "Because I am within thirty yards of the cathedral," was the + answer. The towering spire of the famous cathedral is, you must + understand, the most conspicuous thing in Antwerp--on clear days you can + see it from twenty miles away--and to live in its immediate vicinity + during a bombardment of the city was equivalent to taking shelter under + the only tree in a field during a heavy thunderstorm. + </p> + <p> + Two days before the bombardment began there was a meeting of the American + residents--such of them as still remained in the city--at the leading + club. About a dozen of us in all sat down to dinner. The purpose of the + gathering was to discuss the attitude which the Americans should adopt + towards the German officers, for it was known that the fall of the city + was imminent. I remember that the sense of the meeting was that we should + treat the helmeted intruders with frigid politeness--I think that was the + term--which, translated, meant that we were not to offer them cigars and + buy them drinks. Of the twelve of us who sat around the table that night, + there are only two--Mr. Manly Whedbee and myself--who remained to witness + the German occupation. + </p> + <p> + That the precautions taken against Zeppelins were by no means overdone was + proved by the total failure of the second aerial raid on Antwerp, in the + latter part of September, when a dirigible again sailed over the city + under cover of darkness. Owing to the total absence of street-lights, + however, the dirigible's crew were evidently unable to get their bearings, + for the half-dozen bombs that they discharged fell in the outskirts of the + city without causing any loss of life or doing any serious damage. This + time, moreover, the Belgians were quite prepared--the fire of their "sky + artillery," guided by searchlights, making things exceedingly + uncomfortable for the Germans. + </p> + <p> + I have heard it stated by Belgian officers and others that the bombs were + dropped from the dirigibles by an ingenious arrangement which made the + airship itself comparatively safe from harm and at the same time rendered + the aim of its bombmen much more accurate. According to them, the + dirigible comes to a stop--or as near a stop as possible--above the city + or fortification which it wishes to attack, at a height out of range of + either artillery or rifle-fire. Then, by means of a steel cable a thousand + feet or more in length, it lowers a small wire cage just large enough to + contain a man and a supply of bombs, this cage being sufficiently armoured + so that it is proof against rifle-bullets. At the same time it affords so + tiny a mark that the chances of its being hit by artillery-fire are + insignificant. If it should be struck, moreover, the airship itself would + still be unharmed and only one man would be lost, and when he fell his + supply of bombs would fall with him. The Zeppelin, presumably equipped + with at least two cages and cables, might at once lower another + bomb-thrower. I do not pretend to say whether this ingenious contrivance + is used by the Germans. Certainly the Zeppelin which I saw in action had + nothing of the kind, nor did it drop its projectiles promiscuously, as one + would drop a stone, but apparently discharged them from a bomb-tube. + </p> + <p> + Though the Zeppelin raids proved wholly ineffective, so far as their + effect on troops and fortifications were concerned, the German aviators + introduced some novel tricks in aerial warfare which were as practical as + they were ingenious. During the battle of Vilvorde, for example, and + throughout the attacks on the Antwerp forts, German dirigibles hovered at + a safe height over the Belgian positions and directed the fire of the + German gunners with remarkable success. The aerial observers watched, + through powerful glasses, the effect of the German shells and then, by + means of a large disc which was swung at the end of a line and could be + raised or lowered at will, signalled as need be in code "higher--lower--right--left" + and thus guided the gunners--who were, of course, unable to see their mark + or the effect of their fire--until almost every shot was a hit. At + Vilvorde, as a result of this aerial fire-control system, I saw the German + artillery, posted out of sight behind a railway embankment, get the range + of a retreating column of Belgian infantry and with a dozen well-placed + shots practically wipe it out of existence. So perfect was the German + system of observation and fire control during the final attack on the + Antwerp defences that whenever the Belgians or British moved a regiment or + a battery the aerial observers instantly detected it and a perfect storm + of shells was directed against the new position. + </p> + <p> + Throughout the operations around Antwerp, the Taubes, as the German + aeroplanes are called because of their fancied resemblance to a dove, + repeatedly performed daring feats of reconnaissance. On one occasion, + while I was with the General Staff at Lierre, one of these German Taubes + sailed directly over the Hotel de Ville, which was being used as staff + headquarters. It so happened that King Albert was standing in the street, + smoking one of the seven-for-a-franc Belgian cigars to which he was + partial. + </p> + <p> + "The Germans call it a dove, eh?" remarked the King, as he + looked up at the passing aircraft. "Well, it looks to me more like a + hawk." + </p> + <p> + A few days before the fall of Antwerp a Taube flew over the city in the + early afternoon, dropping thousands of proclamations printed in both + French and Flemish and signed by the commander of the investing forces, + pointing out to the inhabitants the futility of resistance, asserting that + in fighting Germany they were playing Russia's game, and urging them to + lay down their arms. The aeroplane was greeted by a storm of shrapnel from + the high-angle guns mounted on the fortifications, the only effect of + which, however, was to kill two unoffending citizens who were standing in + the streets and were struck by the fragments of the falling shells. + </p> + <p> + Most people seem to have the impression that it is as easy for an aviator + to see what is happening on the ground beneath him as though he were + looking down from the roof of a high building. Under ordinary conditions, + when one can skim above the surface of the earth at a height of a few + hundred feet, this is quite true, but it is quite a different matter when + one is flying above hostile troops who are blazing away at him with rifles + and machine-guns. During reconnaissance work the airmen generally are + compelled to ascend to an altitude of a mile or a mile and a quarter, + which makes observation extremely difficult, as small objects, even with + the aid of the strongest glasses, assume unfamiliar shapes and become + fore- shortened. If, in order to obtain a better view, they venture to fly + at a lower height, they are likely to be greeted by a hail of rifle fire + from soldiers in the trenches. The Belgian aviators with whom I talked + assured me that they feared rifle fire more than bursting shrapnel, as the + fire of a regiment, when concentrated even on so elusive an object as an + aeroplane, proves far more deadly than shells. + </p> + <p> + The Belgians made more use than any other nation of motor-cars. When war + was declared one of the first steps taken by the military authorities was + to commandeer every motor-car, every motor-cycle and every litre of petrol + in the kingdom. As a result they depended almost entirely upon + motor-driven vehicles for their military transport, which was, I might + add, extremely efficient. In fact, we could always tell when we were + approaching the front by the amazing number of motor-cars which lined the + roads for miles in the rear of each division. + </p> + <p> + Anything that had four wheels and a motor to drive them--diminutive + American run-abouts, slim, low-hung racing cars, luxurious limousines with + coronets painted on the panels, delivery-cars bearing the names of shops + in Antwerp and Ghent and Brussels, lumbering motor-trucks, hotel + omnibuses--all met the same fate, which consisted in being daubed with + elephant-grey paint, labelled "S.M." (Service Militaire) in + staring white letters, and started for the front, usually in charge of a + wholly inexperienced driver. It made an automobile lover groan to see the + way some of those cars were treated. But they did the business. They + averaged something like twelve miles an hour--which is remarkable time for + army transport-- and, strangely enough, very few of them broke down. If + they did there was always an automobile des reparations promptly on hand + to repair the damage. Before the war began the Belgian army had no army + transport worthy of the name; before the forts at Liege had been silenced + it had as efficient a one as any nation in Europe. + </p> + <p> + The headquarters of the motor-car branch of the army was at the Pare des + Automobiles Militaires, on the Red Star quays in Antwerp. Here several + hundred cars were always kept in reserve, and here was collected an + enormous store of automobile supplies and sundries. The scene under the + long, low sheds, with their corrugated-iron roofs, always reminded me of + the Automobile Show at Olympia. After a car had once been placed at your + disposal by the Government, getting supplies for it was merely a question + of signing bons. Obtaining extra equipment for my car was Roos' chief + amusement. Tyres, tools, spare parts, horns, lamps, trunks--all you had to + do was to scrawl your name at the foot of a printed form and they were + promptly handed over. When I first went to Belgium I was given a sixty + horse-power touring car, and when the weather turned unpleasant I asked + for and was given a limousine that was big enough to sleep in, and when I + found this too clumsy, the commandant of the Parc des Automobiles + obligingly exchanged it for a ninety horse-power berline. They were most + accommodating, those Belgians. I am sorry to say that my berline, which + was the envy of every one in Antwerp, was eventually captured by the + Germans. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders015.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="417" /> + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders016.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="406" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Though both the French and the Germans had for a number of years been + experimenting with armoured cars of various patterns, the Belgians, who + had never before given the subject serious consideration, were the first + to evolve and to send into action a really practical vehicle of this + description. The earlier armoured cars used by the Belgians were built at + the great Minerva factory in Antwerp and consisted of a circular turret, + high enough so that only the head and shoulders of the man operating the + machine-gun were exposed, covered with half-inch steel plates and mounted + on an ordinary chassis. After the disastrous affair near Herenthals, in + which Prince Henri de Ligne was mortally wounded while engaged in a raid + into the German lines for the purpose of blowing up bridges, it was seen + that the crew of the auto-mitrailleuses, as the armoured cars were called, + was insufficiently protected, and, to remedy this, a movable steel dome, + with an opening for the muzzle of the machine-gun, was superimposed on the + turret. These grim vehicles, which jeered at bullets, and were proof even + against shrapnel, quickly became a nightmare to the Germans. Driven by the + most reckless racing drivers in Belgium, manned by crews of dare-devil + youngsters, and armed with machine-guns which poured out lead at the rate + of a thousand shots a minute, these wheeled fortresses would tear at will + into the German lines, cut up an outpost or wipe out a cavalry patrol, + dynamite a bridge or a tunnel or a culvert, and be back in the Belgian + lines again almost before the enemy realized what had happened. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders037.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="413" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + I witnessed an example of the cool daring of these mitrailleuse drivers + during the fighting around Malines. Standing on a railway embankment, I + was watching the withdrawal under heavy fire of the last Belgian troops, + when an armoured car, the lean muzzle of its machine-gun peering from its + turret, tore past me at fifty miles an hour, spitting a murderous spray of + lead as it bore down on the advancing Germans. But when within a few + hundred yards of the German line the car slackened speed and stopped. Its + petrol was exhausted. Instantly one of the crew was out in the road and, + under cover of the fire from the machine-gun, began to refill the tank. + Though bullets were kicking up spurts of dust in the road or ping- pinging + against the steel turret he would not be hurried. I, who was watching the + scene through my field-glasses, was much more excited than he was. Then, + when the tank was filled, the car refused to back! It was a big machine + and the narrow road was bordered on either side by deep ditches, but by a + miracle the driver was able-- and just able--to turn the car round. Though + by this time the German gunners had the range and shrapnel was bursting + all about him, he was as cool as though he were turning a limousine in the + width of Piccadilly. As the car straightened out for its retreat, the + Belgians gave the Germans a jeering screech from their horn, and a parting + blast of lead from their machine-gun and went racing Antwerpwards. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders039.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="458" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + It is, by the way, a curious and interesting fact that the machine-gun + used in both the Belgian and Russian armoured cars, and which is one of + the most effective weapons produced by the war, was repeatedly offered to + the American War Department by its inventor, Major Isaac Newton Lewis, of + the United States army, and was as repeatedly rejected by the officials at + Washington. At last, in despair of receiving recognition in his own + country, he sold it to Russia and Belgium. The Lewis gun, which is + air-cooled and weighs only twenty-nine pounds--less than half the weight + of a soldier's equipment--fires a thousand shots a minute. In the fighting + around Sempst I saw trees as large round as a man's thigh literally cut + down by the stream of lead from these weapons. + </p> + <p> + The inventor of the Lewis gun was not the only American who played an + inconspicuous but none the less important part in the War of Nations. A + certain American corporation doing business in Belgium placed its huge + Antwerp plant and the services of its corps of skilled engineers at the + service of the Government, though I might add that this fact was kept + carefully concealed, being known to only a handful of the higher Belgian + officials. This concern made shells and other ammunition for the Belgian + army; it furnished aeroplanes and machine-guns; it constructed miles of + barbed-wire entanglements and connected those entanglements with the city + lighting system; one of its officers went on a secret mission to England + and brought back with him a supply of cordite, not to mention six + large-calibre guns which he smuggled through Dutch territorial waters + hidden in the steamer's coal bunkers. And, as though all this were not + enough, the Belgian Government confided to this foreign corporation the + minting of the national currency. For obvious reasons I am not at liberty + to mention the name of this concern, though it is known to practically + every person in the United States, each month cheques being sent to the + parent concern by eight hundred thousand people in New York alone. + </p> + <p> + Incidentally it publishes the most widely read volume in the world. I wish + that I might tell you the name of this concern. Upon second thought, I + think I will. It is the American Bell Telephone Company. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders017.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="411" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="4"></a> + </p> + <p> + <strong></strong> + </p> + <p> + <strong>IV. Under The German Eagle</strong> + </p> + <p> + When, upon the approach of the Germans to Brussels, the Government and the + members of the Diplomatic Corps fled to Antwerp, the American Minister, + Mr. Brand Whitlock, did not accompany them. In view of the peculiar + position occupied by the United States as the only Great Power not + involved in hostilities, he felt, and, as it proved, quite rightly, that + he could be of more service to Belgium and to Brussels and to the cause of + humanity in general by remaining behind. There remained with him the + secretary of legation, Mr. Hugh S. Gibson. Mr. Whitlock's reasons for + remaining in Brussels were twofold. In the first place, there were a large + number of English and Americans, both residents and tourists, who had been + either unable or unwilling to leave the city, and who, he felt, were + entitled to diplomatic protection. Secondly, the behaviour of the German + troops in other Belgian cities had aroused grave fears of what would + happen when they entered Brussels, and it was generally felt that the + presence of the American Minister might deter them from committing the + excesses and outrages which up to that time had characterized their + advance. It was no secret that Germany was desperately anxious to curry + favour with the United States, and it was scarcely likely, therefore, that + houses would be sacked and burnt, civilians executed and women violated + under the disapproving eyes of the American representative. This surmise + proved to be well founded. The Germans did not want Mr. Whitlock in + Brussels, and nothing would have pleased them better than to have had him + depart and leave them to their own devices, but, so long as he blandly + ignored their hints that his room was preferable to his company and + persisted in sitting tight, they submitted to his surveillance with the + best grace possible and behaved themselves as punctiliously as a dog that + has been permitted to come into a parlour. After the civil administration + had been established, however, and Belgium had become, in theory at least, + a German province, Mr. Whitlock was told quite plainly that the kingdom to + which he was accredited had ceased to exist as an independent nation, and + that Anglo-American affairs in Belgium could henceforward be entrusted to + the American Ambassador at Berlin. But Mr. .Whitlock, who had received his + training in shirt-sleeve diplomacy as Socialist Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, was + as impervious to German suggestions as he had been to the threats and + pleadings of party politicians, and told Baron von der Golz, the German + Governor, politely but quite firmly, that he did not take his orders from + Berlin but from Washington. "Gott in Himmel!" exclaimed the + Germans, shrugging their shoulders despairingly, "what is to be done + with such a man?" + </p> + <p> + Before the Germans had been in occupation of Brussels a fortnight the + question of food for the poorer classes became a serious and pressing + problem. The German armies, in their onset toward the west, had swept the + Belgian country-side bare; the products of the farms and gardens in the + immediate vicinity of the city had been commandeered for the use of the + garrison, and the spectre of starvation was already beginning to cast its + dread shadow over Brussels. Mr. Whitlock acted with promptness and + decision. He sent Americans, who had volunteered their services, to + Holland to purchase food-stuffs, and at the same time informed the German + commander that he expected these food-stuffs to be admitted without + hindrance. The German replied that he could not comply with this request + without first communicating with his Imperial master, whereupon he was + told, in effect, that the American Government would consider him + personally responsible if the food- stuffs were delayed or diverted for + military use and a famine ensued in consequence. The firmness of Mr. + Whitlock's attitude had its effect, for at seven o'clock the next morning + he received word that his wishes would be complied with. As a result of + the German occupation, Brussels, with its six hundred thousand + inhabitants, was as completely cut off from communication with the outside + world as though it were on an island in the South Pacific. The postal, + telegraph and telephone services were suspended; the railways were blocked + with troop trains moving westward; the roads were filled from ditch to + ditch with troops and transport wagons; and so tightly were the lines + drawn between that portion of Belgium occupied by the Germans and that + still held by the Belgians, that those daring souls who attempted to slip + through the cordons of sentries did so at peril of their lives. It sounds + almost incredible that a great city could be so effectually isolated, yet + so it was. Even the Cabinet Ministers and other officials who had + accompanied the Government in its flight to Antwerp were unable to learn + what had befallen the families which they had in many cases left behind + them. + </p> + <p> + After nearly three weeks had passed without word from the American + Legation, the Department of State cabled the American Consul-General at + Antwerp that some means of communicating with Mr. Whitlock must be found. + Happening to be in the Consulate when the message was received, I placed + my services and my car at the disposal of the Consul-General, who promptly + accepted them. Upon learning of my proposed jaunt into the enemy's lines, + a friend, Mr. M. Manly Whedbee, the director of the Belgian branch of the + British- American Tobacco Company, offered to accompany me, and as he is + as cool-headed and courageous and companionable as anyone I know, and as + he knew as much about driving the car as I did--for it was obviously + impossible to take my Belgian driver--I was only too glad to have him with + me. It was, indeed, due to Mr. Whedbee's foresight in taking along a huge + quantity of cigarettes for distribution among the soldiers, that we were + able to escape from Brussels. But more of that episode hereafter. + </p> + <p> + When the Consul-General asked General Dufour, the military governor of + Antwerp, to issue us a safe conduct through the Belgian lines, that gruff + old soldier at first refused flatly, asserting that as the German outposts + had been firing on cars bearing the Red Cross flag, there was no assurance + that they would respect one bearing the Stars and Stripes. The urgency of + the matter being explained to him, however, he reluctantly issued the + necessary laisser-passer, though intimating quite plainly that our mission + would probably end in providing "more work for the undertaker, + another little job for the casket-maker," and that he washed his + hands of all responsibility for our fate. But by two American flags + mounted on the windshield, and the explanatory legends "Service + Consulaire des Etats-Unis d'Amerique" and "Amerikanischer + Consular dienst" painted in staring letters on the hood, we hoped to + make it quite clear to Germans and Belgians alike that we were protected + by the international game-laws so far as shooting us was concerned. + </p> + <p> + Now the disappointing thing about our trip was that we didn't encounter + any Uhlans. Every one had warned us so repeatedly about Uhlans that we + fully expected to find them, with their pennoned lances and their + square-topped schapskas, lurking behind every hedge, and when they did not + come spurring out to intercept us we were greatly disappointed. It was + like making a journey to the polar regions and seeing no Esquimaux. The + smart young cavalry officer who bade us good-bye at the Belgian outposts, + warned us to keep our eyes open for them and said, rather mournfully, I + thought, that he only hoped they would give us time to explain who we were + before they opened fire on us. "They are such hasty fellows, these + Uhlans," said he, "always shooting first and making inquiries + afterward." As a matter of fact, the only Uhlan we saw on the entire + trip was riding about Brussels in a cab, smoking a large porcelain pipe + and with his spurred boots resting comfortably on the cushions. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders042.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="409" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Though we crept along as circumspectly as a motorist who knows that he is + being trailed by a motor-cycle policeman, peering behind farmhouses and + hedges and into the depths of thickets and expecting any moment to hear a + gruff command, emphasized by the bang of a carbine, it was not until we + were at the very outskirts of Aerschot that we encountered the Germans. + There were a hundred of them, so cleverly ambushed behind a hedge that we + would never have suspected their presence had we not caught the glint of + sunlight on their rifle-barrels. We should not have gotten much nearer, in + any event, for they had a wire neatly strung across the road at just the + right height to take us under the chins. When we were within a hundred + yards of the hedge an officer in a trailing grey cloak stepped into the + middle of the road and held up his hand. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders018.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="449" /> + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders043.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="410" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + "Halt!" + </p> + <p> + I jammed on the brakes so suddenly that we nearly went through the + windshield. + </p> + <p> + "Get out of the automobile and stand well away from it," the + officer commanded in German. We got out very promptly. + </p> + <p> + "One of you advance alone, with his hands up." + </p> + <p> + I advanced alone, but not with my hands up. It is such an undignified + position. I had that shivery feeling chasing up and down my spine which + came from knowing that I was covered by a hundred rifles, and that if I + made a move which seemed suspicious to the men behind those rifles, they + would instantly transform me into a sieve. + </p> + <p> + "Are you English?" the officer demanded, none too pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + "No, American," said I. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, that's all right," said he, his manner instantly thawing. + "I know America well," he continued, "Atlantic City and + Asbury Park and Niagara Falls and Coney Island. I have seen all of your + famous places." + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders026.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="434" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Imagine, if you please, standing in the middle of a Belgian highway, + surrounded by German soldiers who looked as though they would rather shoot + you than not, discussing the relative merits of the hotels at Atlantic + City and which had the best dining-car service, the Pennsylvania or the + New York Central! + </p> + <p> + I learned from the officer, who proved to be an exceedingly agreeable + fellow, that had we advanced ten feet further after the command to halt + was given, we should probably have been planted in graves dug in a nearby + potato field, as only an hour before our arrival a Belgian mitrailleuse + car had torn down the road with its machine-gun squirting a stream of + lead, and had smashed straight through the German line, killing three men + and wounding a dozen others. They were burying them when we appeared. When + our big grey machine hove in sight they not unnaturally took us for + another armoured car and prepared to give us a warm reception. It was a + lucky thing for us that our brakes worked quickly. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders019.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="403" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + We were the first foreigners to see Aerschot, or rather what was left of + Aerschot after it had been sacked and burned by the Germans. A few days + before Aerschot had been a prosperous and happy town of ten thousand + people. When we saw it it was but a heap of smoking ruins, garrisoned by a + battalion of German soldiers, and with its population consisting of half a + hundred white-faced women. In many parts of the world I have seen many + terrible and revolting things, but nothing so ghastly, so horrifying as + Aerschot. Quite two- thirds of the houses had been burned and showed + unmistakable signs of having been sacked by a maddened soldiery before + they were burned. Everywhere were the ghastly evidences. Doors had been + smashed in with rifle-butts and boot-heels; windows had been broken; + furniture had been wantonly destroyed; pictures had been torn from the + walls; mattresses had been ripped open with bayonets in search of + valuables; drawers had been emptied upon the floors; the outer walls of + the houses were spattered with blood and pock- marked with bullets; the + sidewalks were slippery with broken wine- bottles; the streets were strewn + with women's clothing. It needed no one to tell us the details of that + orgy of blood and lust. The story was so plainly written that anyone could + read it. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders022.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="454" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + For a mile we drove the car slowly between the blackened walls of + fire-gutted buildings. This was no accidental conflagration, mind you, for + scattered here and there were houses which stood undamaged and in every + such case there was scrawled with chalk upon their doors "Gute Leute. + Nicht zu plundern." (Good people. Do not plunder.) + </p> + <p> + The Germans went about the work of house-burning as systematically as they + did everything else. They had various devices for starting conflagrations, + all of them effective. At Aerschot and Louvain they broke the windows of + the houses and threw in sticks which had been soaked in oil and dipped in + sulphur. Elsewhere they used tiny, black tablets, about the size of cough + lozenges, made of some highly inflammable composition, to which they + touched a match. At Termonde, which they destroyed in spite of the fact + that the inhabitants had evacuated the city before their arrival, they + used a motor-car equipped with a large tank for petrol, a pump, a hose, + and a spraying-nozzle. The car was run slowly through the streets, one + soldier working the pump and another spraying the fronts of the houses. + Then they set fire to them. Oh, yes, they were very methodical about it + all, those Germans. + </p> + <p> + Despite the scowls of the soldiers, I attempted to talk with some of the + women huddled in front of a bakery waiting for a distribution of bread, + but the poor creatures were too terror-stricken to do more than stare at + us with wide, beseeching eyes. Those eyes will always haunt me. I wonder + if they do not sometimes haunt the Germans. But a little episode that + occurred as we were leaving the city did more than anything else to bring + home the horror of it all. We passed a little girl of nine or ten and I + stopped the car to ask the way. Instantly she held both hands above her + head and began to scream for mercy. When we had given her some chocolate + and money, and had assured her that we were not Germans, but Americans and + friends, she ran like a frightened deer. That little child, with her + fright-wide eyes and her hands raised in supplication, was in herself a + terrible indictment of the Germans. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders023.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="415" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + There are, as might be expected, two versions of the happenings which + precipitated that night of horrors in Aerschot. The German version--I had + it from the German commander himself--is to the effect that after the + German troops had entered Aerschot, the Chief of Staff and some of the + officers were asked to dinner by the burgomaster. While they were seated + at the table the son of the burgomaster, a boy of fifteen, entered the + room with a revolver and killed the Chief of Staff, whereupon, as though + at a prearranged signal, the townspeople opened fire from their windows + upon the troops. What followed--the execution of the burgomaster, his son, + and several score of the leading townsmen, the giving over of the women to + a lust-mad soldiery, the sacking of the houses, and the final burning of + the town--was the punishment which would always be meted out to towns + whose inhabitants attacked German soldiers. + </p> + <p> + Now, up to a certain point the Belgian version agrees with the German. It + is admitted that the Germans entered the town peaceably enough, that the + German Chief of Staff and other officers accepted the hospitality of the + burgomaster, and that, while they were at dinner, the burgomaster's son + entered the room and shot the Chief of Staff dead with a revolver. + But--and this is the point to which the German story makes no + allusion--the boy killed the Chief of Staff in defence of his sister's + honour. It is claimed that toward the end of the meal the German officer, + inflamed with wine, informed the burgomaster that he intended to pass the + night with his young and beautiful daughter, whereupon the girl's brother + quietly slipped from the room and, returning a moment later, put a sudden + end to the German's career with an automatic. What the real truth is I do + not know. Perhaps no one knows. The Germans did not leave many + eye-witnesses to tell the story of what happened. Piecing together the + stories told by those who did survive that night of horror, we know that + scores of the townspeople were shot down in cold blood and that, when the + firing squads could not do the work of slaughter fast enough, the victims + were lined up and a machine-gun was turned upon them. We know that young + girls were dragged from their homes and stripped naked and violated by + soldiers--many soldiers--in the public square in the presence of officers. + We know that both men and women were unspeakably mutilated, that children + were bayoneted, that dwellings were ransacked and looted, and that + finally, as though to destroy the evidences of their horrid work, soldiers + went from house to house with torches, methodically setting fire to them. + </p> + <p> + It was with a feeling of repulsion amounting almost to nausea that we left + what had once been Aerschot behind us. The road leading to Louvain was + alive with soldiery, and we were halted every few minutes by German + patrols. Had not the commanding officer in Aerschot detailed two + bicyclists to accompany us I doubt if we should have gotten through. + Whedbee had had the happy idea of bringing along a thousand packets of + cigarettes--the tonneau of the car was literally filled with them--and we + tossed a packet to every German soldier that we saw. You could have + followed our trail for thirty miles by the cigarettes we left behind us. + As it turned out, they were the means of saving us from being detained + within the German lines. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders027.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="428" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Thanks to our American flags, to the nature of our mission, and to our + wholesale distribution of cigarettes, we were passed from outpost to + outpost and from regimental headquarters to regimental headquarters until + we reached Louvain. Here we came upon another scene of destruction and + desolation. Nearly half the city was in ashes. Most of the principal + streets were impassable from fallen masonry. The splendid avenues and + boulevards were lined on either side by the charred skeletons of what had + once been handsome buildings. The fronts of many of the houses were + smeared with crimson stains. In comparison to its size, the Germans had + wrought more widespread destruction in Louvain than did the earthquake and + fire combined in San Francisco. The looting had evidently been + unrestrained. The roads for miles in either direction were littered with + furniture and bedding and clothing. Such articles as the soldiers could + not carry away they wantonly destroyed. Hangings had been torn down, + pictures on the walls had been smashed, the contents of drawers and trunks + had been emptied into the streets, literally everything breakable had been + broken. This is not from hearsay, remember; I saw it with my own eyes. And + the amazing feature of it all was that among the Germans there seemed to + be no feeling of regret, no sense of shame. Officers in immaculate + uniforms strolled about among the ruins, chatting and laughing and + smoking. At one place a magnificent mahogany dining-table had been dragged + into the middle of the road and about it, sprawled in carved and + tapestry-covered chairs, a dozen German infantrymen were drinking beer. + </p> + <p> + Just as there are two versions of the destruction of Aerschot, so there + are two versions, though in this case widely different, of the events + which led up to the destruction of Louvain. It should be borne in mind, to + begin with, that Louvain was not destroyed by bombardment or in the heat + of battle, for the Germans had entered it unopposed, and had been in + undisputed possession for several days. The Germans assert that a + conspiracy, fomented by the burgomaster, the priests and many of the + leading citizens, existed among the townspeople, who planned to suddenly + fall upon and exterminate the garrison. They claim that, in pursuance of + this plan, on the night of August 26, the inhabitants opened a murderous + fire upon the unsuspecting troops from house-tops, doors and windows; that + a fierce street battle ensued, in which a number of women and children + were unfortunately killed by stray bullets; and that, in retaliation for + this act of treachery, a number of the inhabitants were executed and a + portion of the city was burned. Notwithstanding the fact that, as soon as + the Germans entered the city, they searched it thoroughly for concealed + weapons, they claim that the townspeople were not only well supplied with + rifles and ammunition, but that they even opened on them from their + windows with machine-guns. Though it seems scarcely probable that the + inhabitants of Louvain would attempt so mad an enterprise as to attack an + overwhelming force of Germans--particularly with the terrible lesson of + Aerschot still fresh in their minds--I do not care to express any opinion + as to the truth of the German assertions. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders021.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="422" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + The Belgians tell quite a different story. They say that, as the result of + a successful Belgian offensive movement to the south of Malines, the + German troops retreated in something closely akin to panic, one division + falling back, after nightfall, upon Louvain. In the inky blackness the + garrison, mistaking the approaching troops for Belgians, opened a deadly + fire upon them. When the mistake was discovered the Germans, partly in + order to cover up their disastrous blunder and partly to vent their rage + and chagrin, turned upon the townspeople in a paroxysm of fury. A scene of + indescribable terror ensued, the soldiers, who had broken into the + wine-shops and drunk themselves into a state of frenzy, practically + running amuck, breaking in doors and shooting at every one they saw. That + some of the citizens snatched up such weapons as came to hand and defended + their homes and their women no one attempts to deny-- but this scattered + and pitifully ineffectual resistance gave the Germans the very excuse they + were seeking. The citizens had attacked them and they would teach the + citizens, both of Louvain and of other cities which they might enter, a + lasting lesson. They did. No Belgian will ever forget--or forgive--that + lesson. The orgy of blood and lust and destruction lasted for two days. + Several American correspondents, among them Mr. Richard Harding Davis, who + were being taken by train from Brussels to Germany, and who were held for + some hours in the station at Louvain during the first night's massacre, + have vividly described the horrors which they witnessed from their car + window. On the second day, Mr. Hugh S. Gibson, secretary of the American + Legation in Brussels, accompanied by the Swedish and Mexican charges, + drove over to Louvain in a taxi-cab. Mr. Gibson told me that the Germans + had dragged chairs and a dining-table from a nearby house into the middle + of the square in front of the station and that some officers, already + considerably the worse for drink, insisted that the three diplomatists + join them in a bottle of wine. And this while the city was burning and + rifles were cracking, and the dead bodies of men and women lay sprawled in + the streets! From the windows of plundered and fire-blackened houses in + both Aerschot and Louvain and along the road between, hung white flags + made from sheets and tablecloths and pillow- cases--pathetic appeals for + the mercy which was not granted. + </p> + <p> + If Belgium wishes to keep alive in the minds of her people the + recollection of German military barbarism, if she desires to inculcate the + coming generations with the horrors and miseries of war, if she would + perpetuate the memories of the innocent townspeople who were slaughtered + because they were Belgians, then she can effectually do it by preserving + the ruins of Aerschot and Louvain, just as the ruins of Pompeii are + preserved. Fence in these desolated cities; leave the shattered doors and + the broken furniture as they are; let the bullet marks and the bloodstains + remain, and it will do more than all the sermons that can be preached, + than all the pictures that can be painted, than all the books that can be + written, to drive home a realization of what is meant by that dreadful + thing called War. + </p> + <p> + The distance from Louvain to Brussels is in the neighbourhood of twenty + miles, and our car with its fluttering flags sped between lines of + cheering people all the way. Men stood by the roadside with uncovered + heads as they saw the Stars and Stripes whirl by; women waved their + handkerchiefs while tears coursed down their cheeks. As we neared Brussels + news of our coming spread, and soon we were passing between solid walls of + Belgians who waved hats and canes and handkerchiefs and screamed, "Vive + l'Amerique! Vive l'Amerique!" I am not ashamed to say that a lump + came in my throat and tears dimmed my eyes. To these helpless, homeless, + hopeless people, the red-white-and-blue banner that streamed from our + windshield really was a flag of the free. + </p> + <p> + Brussels we found as quiet and orderly as London on a Sunday morning. So + far as streets scenes went we might have been in Berlin. German officers + and soldiers were scattered everywhere, lounging at the little iron tables + in front of the cafes, or dining in the restaurants or strolling along the + tree-shaded boulevards as unconcernedly as though they were in the + Fatherland. Many of the officers had brought high, red-wheeled dogcarts + with them, and were pleasure-driving in the outskirts of the city; others, + accompanied by women who may or may not have been their wives, were + picnicking in the Bois. Brussels had become, to all outward appearances at + least, a German city. German flags flaunted defiantly from the roofs of + the public buildings, several of which, including the Hotel de Ville, the + Palais de Justice and the Cathedral, were reported to have been mined. In + the whole of the great city not a single Belgian flag was to be seen. The + Belgian police were still performing their routine duties under German + direction. The royal palace had been converted into a hospital for German + wounded. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was occupied by the German + General Staff. The walls and hoardings were plastered with proclamations + signed by the military governor warning the inhabitants of the penalties + which they would incur should they molest the German troops. The great + square in front of the Gare du Nord, which was being used as a barracks, + was guarded by a line of sentries, and no one but Germans in uniform were + permitted to cross it. One other person did cross it, however, German + regulations and sentries notwithstanding. Whedbee and I were lunching on + Sunday noon in the front of the Palace Hotel, when a big limousine flying + the American flag drew up on the other side of the square and Mr. Julius + Van Hee, the American Vice-Consul at Ghent, jumped out. He caught sight of + us at the same moment that we saw him and started across the square toward + us. He had not gone a dozen paces before a sentry levelled his rifle and + gruffly commanded him to halt. + </p> + <p> + "Go back!" shouted the sentry. "To walk across the square + forbidden is." + </p> + <p> + "Go to the devil!" shouted back Van Hee. "And stop pointing + that gun at me, or I'll come over and knock that spiked helmet of yours + off. I'm American, and I've more right here than you have." + </p> + <p> + This latter argument being obviously unanswerable, the befuddled sentry + saw nothing for it but to let him pass. + </p> + <p> + Van Hee had come to Brussels, he told us, for the purpose of obtaining + some vaccine, as the supply in Ghent was running short, and the + authorities were fearful of an epidemic. He also brought with him a + package of letters from the German officers, many of them of distinguished + families, who had been captured by the Belgians and were imprisoned at + Bruges. When Van Hee had obtained his vaccine, he called on General von + Ludewitz and requested a safe conduct back to Ghent. + </p> + <p> + "I'm sorry, Mr. Van Hee," said the general, who had married an + American and spoke English like a New Yorker, "but there's nothing + doing. We can't permit anyone to leave Brussels at present. Perhaps in a + few days------" + </p> + <p> + "A few days won't do, General," Van Hee interrupted, "I + must go back to-day, at once." + </p> + <p> + "I regret to say that for the time being it is quite impossible," + said the general firmly. + </p> + <p> + "I have here," said Van Hee, displaying the packet, "a + large number of letters from the German officers who are imprisoned in + Belgium. If I don't get the pass you don't get these letters." + </p> + <p> + "You hold a winning hand, Mr. Van Hee," said the general, + laughing, as he reached for pen and paper. + </p> + <p> + But when Whedbee and I were ready to return to Antwerp it was a different + matter. The German authorities, though scrupulously polite, were + adamantine in their refusal to permit us to pass through the German lines. + And we held no cards, as did Van Hee, with which to play diplomatic poker. + So we were compelled to bluff. Telling the German commander that we would + call on him again, we climbed into the car and quietly left the city by + the same route we had followed upon entering it the preceding day. All + along the road we found soldiers smoking the cigarettes we had distributed + to them. Instead of stopping us and demanding to see our papers they waved + their hands cheerily and called, "Auf wiedersehn!" As we knew + that we could not get through Louvain without being stopped, we drove + boldly up to headquarters and asked the general commanding the division if + he would detail a staff officer to accompany us to the outer lines. (There + seemed no need of mentioning the fact that we had no passes.) The general + said, with profuse apologies, that he had no officer available at the + moment, but hoped that a sergeant would do. We carried the sergeant with + us as far as Aerschot, distributing along the way what remained of our + cigarettes. At Aerschot we were detained for nearly an hour, as the + officer who had visited Atlantic City, Niagara Falls and Coney Island + insisted on our waiting while he sent for another officer who, until the + outbreak of the war, had lived in Chicago. We tried not to show our + impatience at the delay, but our hair stood on end every time a telephone + bell tinkled. We were afraid that the staff in Brussels, learning of our + unauthorized departure, would telephone to the outposts to stop us. It was + with a heartfelt sigh of relief that we finally shook hands with our hosts + and left ruined Aerschot behind us. I opened up the throttle, and the big + car fled down the long, straight road which led to the Belgian lines like + a hunted cat on the top of a backyard fence. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders001.jpg" alt="" width="396" + height="600" /> <img src="images/FightinginFlanders020.jpg" alt="" + width="375" height="600" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="5"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>V. With The Spiked Helmets</strong> + </p> + <p> + It was really a Pittsburg chauffeur who was primarily responsible for my + being invited to dine with the commander of the Ninth German Army. The + chauffeur's name was William Van Calck and his employer was a gentleman + who had amassed several millions manufacturing hats in the Smoky City. + When war was declared the hat-manufacturer and his family were motoring in + Austria, with Van Calck at the wheel of the car. The car being a large and + powerful one, it was promptly commandeered by the Austrian military + authorities; the hat-manufacturer and his family, thus dumped + unceremoniously by the roadside, made their way as best they could to + England; and Van Calck, who was a Belgian by birth, though a naturalized + American, enlisted in the Belgian army and was detailed to drive one of + the armoured motor-cars which so effectively harassed the enemy during the + early part of the campaign in Flanders. Now if Van Calck hadn't come + tearing into Ghent in his wheeled fortress on a sunny September morning he + wouldn't have come upon a motor-car containing two German soldiers who had + lost their way; if he had not met them, the two Germans would not have + been wounded in the dramatic encounter which ensued; if the Germans had + not been wounded it would not have been necessary for Mr. Julius Van Hee, + the American Vice- Consul, to pay a hurried visit to General von Boehn, + the German commander, to explain that the people of Ghent were not + responsible for the affair and to beg that no retaliatory measures be + taken against the city; if Mr. Van Hee had not visited General von Boehn + the question of the attitude of the American Press would not have come up + for discussion; and if it had not been discussed, General von Boehn would + not have sent me an invitation through Mr. Van Hee to dine with him at his + headquarters and hear the German side of the question. + </p> + <p> + But perhaps I had better begin at the beginning. On September 8, then, the + great German army which was moving from Brussels on France was within a + few miles of Ghent. In the hope of inducing the Germans not to enter the + city, whose large and turbulent working population would, it was feared, + cause trouble in case of a military occupation, the burgomaster went out + to confer with the German commander. An agreement was finally arrived at + whereby the Germans consented to march around Ghent if certain + requirements were complied with. These were that no Belgian troops should + occupy the city, that the Garde Civique should be disarmed and their + weapons surrendered, and that the municipality should supply the German + forces with specified quantities of provisions and other supplies--the + chief item, by the way, being a hundred thousand cigars. + </p> + <p> + The burgomaster had not been back an hour when a military motor- car + containing two armed German soldiers appeared in the city streets. It + transpired afterwards that they had been sent out to purchase medical + supplies and, losing their way, had entered Ghent by mistake. At almost + the same moment that the German car entered the city from the south a + Belgian armoured motor-car, armed with a machine-gun and with a crew of + three men and driven by the former Pittsburg chauffeur, entered from the + east on a scouting expedition. The two cars, both travelling at high + speed, encountered each other at the head of the Rue de l'Agneau, directly + in front of the American Consulate. Vice-Consul Van Hee, standing in the + doorway, was an eyewitness of what followed. + </p> + <p> + The Germans, taken completely by surprise at the sight of the grim war-car + in its coat of elephant-grey bearing down upon them, threw on their power + and attempted to escape, the man sitting beside the driver opening an + ineffectual fire with his carbine. Regardless of the fact that the + sidewalks were crowded with spectators, the Belgians opened on the fleeing + Germans with their machine-gun, which spurted lead as a garden-hose spurts + water. Van Calck, fearing that the Germans might escape, swerved his + powerful car against the German machine precisely as a polo-player "rides + off" his opponent, the machine-gun never ceasing its angry snarl. An + instant later the driver of the German car dropped forward over his + steering-wheel with blood gushing from a bullet-wound in the head, while + his companion, also badly wounded, threw up both hands in token of + surrender. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders025.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="440" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Vice-Consul Van Hee instantly recognized the extremely grave consequences + which might result to Ghent from this encounter, which had taken place + within an hour after the burgomaster had assured the German commander that + there were no Belgian soldiers in the city. Now Mr. Julius Van Hee is what + is popularly known in the United States as "a live wire." He is + a shirt-sleeve diplomatist who, if he thought the occasion warranted it, + would not hesitate to conduct diplomatic negotiations in his night-shirt. + Appreciating that as a result of this attack on German soldiers, which the + Germans would probably characterize as treachery, Ghent stood in imminent + danger of meeting the terrible fate of its sister-cities of Aerschot and + Louvain, which were sacked and burned on no greater provocation, Mr. Van + Hee jumped into his car and sought the burgomaster, whom he urged to + accompany him without an instant's delay to German headquarters. The + burgomaster, who had visions of being sent to Germany as a hostage, at + first demurred; but Van Hee, disregarding his protestations, handed him + his hat, hustled him into the car, and ordered the chauffeur to drive as + though the Uhlans were behind him. + </p> + <p> + They found General von Boehn and his staff quartered in a chateau a few + miles outside the city. At first the German commander was furious with + anger and threatened Ghent with the same punishment he had meted out to + other cities where Germans had been fired on. Van Hee took a very firm + stand, however. He reminded the general that Americans have a great + sentimental interest in Ghent because of the treaty of peace between + England and the United States which was signed there a century ago, and he + warned him that the burning of the city would do more than anything else + to lose the Germans the sympathy of the American people. + </p> + <p> + "If you will give me your personal word," said the general + finally, "that there will be no further attacks upon Germans who may + enter the city, and that the wounded soldiers will be taken under American + protection and sent to Brussels by the American Consular authorities when + they have recovered, I will agree to spare Ghent and will not even demand + a money indemnity." + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders024.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="423" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + In the course of the informal conversation which followed, General von + Boehn remarked that copies of American papers containing articles by E. + Alexander Powell, criticizing the Germans' treatment of the Belgian civil + population, had come to his attention, and he regretted that he could not + have an opportunity to talk with their author and give him the German + version of the incidents in question. Mr. Van Hee said that, by a curious + coincidence, I had arrived in Ghent that very morning, whereupon the + general asked him to bring me out to dinner on the following day and + issued a safe conduct through the German lines for the purpose. + </p> + <p> + We started early the next morning. As there was some doubt about the + propriety of my taking a Belgian military driver into the German lines I + drove the car myself. And, though nothing was said about a photographer, I + took with me Donald Thompson. Before we passed the city limits of Ghent + things began to happen. Entering a street which leads through a district + inhabited by the working classes, we suddenly found our way barred by a + mob of several thousand excited Flemings. + </p> + <p> + Above a sea of threatening arms and brandished sticks and angry faces rose + the figures of two German soldiers, with carbines slung across their + backs, mounted on work-horses which they had evidently hastily unharnessed + from a wagon. Like their unfortunate comrades of the motor-car episode, + they too had strayed into the city by mistake. As we approached the crowd + made a concerted rush for them. A blast from my siren opened a lane for + us, however, and I drove the car alongside the terrified Germans. + </p> + <p> + "Quick!" shouted Van Hee in German. "Off your horses and + into the car! Hide your rifles! Take off your helmets! Sit on the floor + and keep out of sight!" + </p> + <p> + The mob, seeing its prey escaping, surged about us with a roar. For a + moment things looked very ugly. Van Hee jumped on the seat. + </p> + <p> + "I am the American Consul!" he shouted. "These men are + under my protection! You are civilians, attacking German soldiers in + uniform. If they are harmed your city will be burned about your ears." + </p> + <p> + At that moment a burly Belgian shouldered his way through the crowd and, + leaping on the running-board, levelled a revolver at the Germans cowering + in the tonneau. Quick as thought Thompson knocked up the man's hand, and + at the same instant I threw on the power. The big car leaped forward and + the mob scattered before it. It was a close call for every one concerned, + but a much closer call for Ghent; for had those German soldiers been + murdered by civilians in the city streets no power on earth could have + saved the city from German vengeance. General von Boehn told me so + himself. + </p> + <p> + A few minutes later, as playlets follow each other in quick succession on + a stage, the scene changed from near tragedy to screaming farce. As we + came thundering into the little town of Sotteghem, which is the Sleepy + Hollow of Belgium, we saw, rising from the middle of the town square, a + pyramid, at least ten feet high, of wardrobe-trunks, steamer-trunks, bags, + and suit-cases. From the summit of this extraordinary monument floated a + huge American flag. As our car came to a halt there rose a chorus of + exclamations in all the dialects between Maine and California, and from + the door of a near-by cafe came pouring a flood of Americans. They proved + to be a lost detachment of that great army of tourists which, at the + beginning of hostilities, started on its mad retreat for the coast, + leaving Europe strewn with their belongings. This particular detachment + had been cut off in Brussels by the tide of German invasion, and, as + food-supplies were running short, they determined to make a dash--perhaps + crawl would be a better word--for Ostend, making the journey in two + lumbering farm wagons. On reaching Sotteghem, however, the Belgian + drivers, hearing that the Germans were approaching, refused to go further + and unceremoniously dumped their passengers in the town square. When we + arrived they had been there for a day and a night and had begun to think + that it was to be their future home. It was what might be termed a mixed + assemblage, including several women of wealth and fashion who had been + motoring on the Continent and had had their cars taken from them, two prim + schoolteachers from Brooklyn, a mine-owner from West Virginia, a + Pennsylvania Quaker, and a quartet of professional tango-dancers--artists, + they called themselves--who had been doing a "turn" at a + Brussels music-hall when the war suddenly ended their engagement. Van Hee + and I skirmished about and, after much argument, succeeded in hiring two + farm-carts to transport the fugitives to Ghent. For the thirty-mile + journey the thrifty peasants modestly demanded four hundred francs--and + got it. When I last saw my compatriots they were perched on top of their + luggage piled high on two creaking carts, rumbling down the road to Ghent + with their huge flag flying above them. They were singing at the top of + their voices, "We'll Never Go There Any More." + </p> + <p> + Half a mile or so out of Sotteghem our road debouched into the great + highway which leads through Lille to Paris, and we suddenly found + ourselves in the midst of the German army. It was a sight never to be + forgotten. Far as the eye could see stretched solid columns of marching + men, pressing westward, ever westward. The army was advancing in three + mighty columns along three parallel roads, the dense masses of moving men + in their elusive grey-green uniforms looking for all the world like three + monstrous serpents crawling across the country-side. + </p> + <p> + The American flags which fluttered from our wind-shield proved a passport + in themselves, and as we approached the close-locked ranks parted to let + us pass, and then closed in behind us. For five solid hours, travelling + always at express-train speed, we motored between walls of marching men. + In time the constant shuffle of boots and the rhythmic swing of grey-clad + arms and shoulders grew maddening, and I became obsessed with the fear + that I would send the car ploughing into the human hedge on either side. + It seemed that the interminable ranks would never end, and so far as we + were concerned they never did end, for we never saw the head of that + mighty column. We passed regiment after regiment, brigade after brigade of + infantry; then hussars, cuirassiers, Uhlans, field batteries, more + infantry, more field-guns, ambulances with staring red crosses painted on + their canvas tops, then gigantic siege-guns, their grim muzzles pointing + skyward, each drawn by thirty straining horses; engineers, sappers and + miners with picks and spades, pontoon- wagons, carts piled high with what + looked like masses of yellow silk but which proved to be balloons, + bicyclists with carbines slung upon their backs hunter-fashion, aeroplane + outfits, bearded and spectacled doctors of the medical corps, armoured + motor-cars with curved steel rails above them as a protection against the + wires which the Belgians were in the habit of stringing across the roads, + battery after battery of pom-poms (as the quick-firers are descriptively + called), and after them more batteries of spidery- looking, lean-barrelled + machine-guns, more Uhlans--the sunlight gleaming on their lance-tips and + the breeze fluttering their pennons into a black-and-white cloud above + them, and then infantry in spiked and linen-covered helmets, more infantry + and still more infantry--all sweeping by, irresistibly as a mighty river, + with their faces turned towards France. + </p> + <p> + This was the Ninth Field Army, composed of the very flower of the German + Empire, including the magnificent troops of the Imperial Guard. It was + first and last a fighting army. The men were all young, and they struck me + as being as keen as razors and as hard as nails. Their equipment was the + acme to all appearances ordinary two-wheeled farm-carts, contained "nests" + of nine machine-guns which could instantly be brought into action. The + medical corps was magnificent; as businesslike, as completely equipped, + and as efficient as a great city hospital--as, indeed, it should be, for + no hospital ever built was called upon to treat so many emergency cases. + One section of the medical corps consisted wholly of pedicurists, who + examined and treated the feet of the men. If a German soldier has even a + suspicion of a corn or a bunion or a chafed heel and does not instantly + report to the regimental pedicurist for treatment he is subject to severe + punishment. He is not permitted to neglect his feet--or for that matter + his teeth, or any other portion of his body--because his feet do not + belong to him but to the Kaiser, and the Kaiser expects those feet kept in + condition to perform long and arduous marches and to fight his battles. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders028.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="407" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + At one cross-roads I saw a soldier with a horse-clipping machine. An + officer stood beside him and closely scanned the heads of the passing men. + Whenever he spied a soldier whose hair was a fraction of an inch too long, + that soldier was called out of the ranks, the clipper was run over his + head as quickly and dexterously as an expert shearer fleeces sheep, and + then the man, his hair once more too short to harbour dirt, ran to rejoin + his company. They must have cut the hair of a hundred men an hour. It was + a fascinating performance. Men on bicycles, with coils of insulated wire + slung on reels between them, strung field-telephones from tree to tree, so + that the general commanding could converse with any part of the + fifty-mile-long column. The whole army never slept. When half was resting + the other half was advancing. The German soldier is treated as a valuable + machine, which must be speeded up to the highest possible efficiency. + Therefore he is well fed, well shod, well clothed-- and worked as a negro + teamster works a mule. Only men who are well cared-for can march + thirty-five miles a day, week in and week out. Only once did I see a man + ill-treated. A sentry on duty in front of the general headquarters failed + to salute an officer with sufficient promptness, whereupon the officer + lashed him again and again across the face with a riding-whip. Though + welts rose at every blow, the soldier stood rigidly at attention and never + quivered. It was not a pleasant thing to witness. Had it been a British or + an American soldier who was thus treated there would have been an + officer's funeral the next day. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders029.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="412" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + As we were passing a German outpost a sentry ran into the road and + signalled us to stop. + </p> + <p> + "Are you Americans?" he asked. + </p> + <p> + "We are," said I. + </p> + <p> + "Then I have orders to take you to the commandant," said he. + </p> + <p> + "But I am on my way to dine with General von Boehn. I have a pass + signed by the General himself and I am late already." + </p> + <p> + "No matter," the man insisted stubbornly. "You must come + with me. The commander has so ordered it." + </p> + <p> + So there was nothing for it but to accompany the soldier. Though we tried + to laugh away our nervousness, I am quite willing to admit that we had + visions of court-martials and prison cells and firing parties. You never + know just where you are at with the Germans. You see, they have no sense + of humour. + </p> + <p> + We found the commandant and his staff quartered at a farmhouse a half-mile + down the road. He was a stout, florid-faced, boisterous captain of + pioneers. + </p> + <p> + "I'm sorry to detain you," he said apologetically, "but I + ordered the sentries to stop the first American car that passed, and yours + happened to be the unlucky one. I have a brother in America and I wish to + send a letter to him to let him know that all is well with me. Would you + have the goodness to post it?" + </p> + <p> + "I'll do better than that, Captain," said I. "If you will + give me your brother's name and address, and if he takes the New York + World, he will read in to-morrow morning's paper that I have met you." + </p> + <p> + And the next morning, just as I had promised, Mr. F. zur Nedden of + Rosebank, New York, was astonished to read in the columns of his morning + paper that I had left his soldier-brother comfortably quartered in a + farmhouse on the outskirts of Renaix, Belgium, in excellent health but + drinking more red wine than was likely to be good for him. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders030.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="422" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + It was now considerably past midday, and we were within a few miles of the + French frontier, when I saw the guidon which signified the presence of the + head of the army, planted at the entrance to a splendid old chateau. As we + passed between the stately gateposts, whirled up the splendid, tree-lined + drive and came to a stop in front of the terrace, a dozen officers came + running out to meet us. So cordial and informal were their greetings that + I felt as though I were being welcomed at a country-house in America + instead of the headquarters of a German army in the field. So perfect was + the field-telephone service that the staff had been able to keep in touch + with our progress ever since, five hours before, we had entered the German + lines, and had waited dinner for us. General von Boehn I found to be a + red-faced, grey-moustached, jovial old warrior, who seemed very much + worried for fear that we were not getting enough to eat, and particularly + enough to drink. He explained that the Belgian owners of the chateau had + had the bad taste to run away and take their servants with them, leaving + only one bottle of champagne in the cellar. That bottle was good, however, + as far as it went. Nearly all the officers spoke English, and during the + meal the conversation was chiefly of the United States, for one of them + had been attached to the German Embassy at Washington and knew the + golf-course at Chevy Chase better than I do myself; another had fished in + California and shot elk in Wyoming; and a third had attended the army + school at Fort Riley. After dinner we grouped ourselves on the terrace and + Thompson made photographs of us. They are probably the only ones--in this + war, at least--of a German general and an American war correspondent who + is not under arrest. Then we gathered about a table on which was spread a + staff map of the war area and got down to serious business. + </p> + <p> + The general began by asserting that the accounts of atrocities perpetrated + by German troops on Belgian non-combatants were lies. + </p> + <p> + "Look at these officers about you," he said. "They are + gentlemen, like yourself. Look at the soldiers marching past in the road + out there. Most of them are the fathers of families. Surely you do not + believe that they would do the unspeakable things they have been accused + of?" + </p> + <p> + "Three days ago, General," said I, "I was in Aerschot. The + whole town is now but a ghastly, blackened ruin." + </p> + <p> + "When we entered Aerschot," was the reply, "the son of the + burgomaster came into the room where our officers were dining and + assassinated the Chief of Staff. What followed was retribution. The + townspeople got only what they deserved." + </p> + <p> + "But why wreak your vengeance on women and children?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + "None have been killed," the general asserted positively. + </p> + <p> + "I'm sorry to contradict you, General," I asserted with equal + positiveness, "but I have myself seen their bodies. So has Mr. + Gibson, the secretary of the American Legation in Brussels, who was + present during the destruction of Louvain." + </p> + <p> + "Of course," replied General von Boehn, "there is always + danger of women and children being killed during street fighting if they + insist on coming into the streets. It is unfortunate, but it is war." + </p> + <p> + "But how about a woman's body I saw with the hands and feet cut off? + How about the white-haired man and his son whom I helped to bury outside + of Sempst, who had been killed merely because a retreating Belgian soldier + had shot a German soldier outside their house? There were twenty-two + bayonet wounds in the old man's face. I counted them. How about the little + girl, two years old, who was shot while in her mother's arms by a Uhlan + and whose funeral I attended at Heyst-op-den-Berg? How about the old man + near Vilvorde who was hung by his hands from the rafters of his house and + roasted to death by a bonfire being built under him?" + </p> + <p> + The general seemed taken aback by the exactness of my information. + </p> + <p> + "Such things are horrible if true," he said. "Of course, + our soldiers, like soldiers in all armies, sometimes get out of hand and + do things which we would never tolerate if we knew it. At Louvain, for + example, I sentenced two soldiers to twelve years' penal servitude each + for assaulting a woman." + </p> + <p> + "Apropos of Louvain," I remarked, "why did you destroy the + library?" + </p> + <p> + "We regretted that as much as anyone else," was the answer. + "It caught fire from burning houses and we could not save it." + </p> + <p> + "But why did you burn Louvain at all?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + "Because the townspeople fired on our troops. We actually found + machine-guns in some of the houses. And," smashing his fist down upon + the table, "whenever civilians fire upon our troops we will teach + them a lasting lesson. If women and children insist on getting in the way + of bullets, so much the worse for the women and children." + </p> + <p> + "How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?" I + inquired. + </p> + <p> + "Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs only on fortifications and + soldiers," he answered. + </p> + <p> + "As a matter of fact," I remarked, "they destroyed only + private houses and innocent civilians, several of whom were women. If one + of those bombs had dropped two hundred yards nearer my hotel I wouldn't be + here to-day smoking one of your excellent cigars." + </p> + <p> + "That is a calamity which, thank God, didn't happen," he + replied. + </p> + <p> + "If you feel for my safety as deeply as that, General," I said, + earnestly, "you can make quite sure of my coming to no harm by + sending no more Zeppelins." + </p> + <p> + "Well, Herr Powell," he said, laughing, "we will think + about it. And," he continued gravely, "I trust that you will + tell the American people, through your great paper, what I have told you + to-day. Let them hear our side of this atrocity business. It is only + justice that they should be made familiar with both sides of the question." + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders031.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="422" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + I have quoted my conversation with General von Boehn as nearly verbatim as + I can remember it. I have no comments to make. I will leave it to my + readers to decide for themselves just how convincing were the answers of + the German General Staff--for General von Boehn was but its mouthpiece--to + the Belgian accusations. Before we began our conversation I asked the + general if my photographer, Thompson, might be permitted to take + photographs of the great army which was passing. Five minutes later + Thompson whirled away in a military motor-car, ciceroned by the officer + who had attended the army school at Fort Riley. It seems that they stopped + the car beside the road, in a place where the light was good, and when + Thompson saw approaching a regiment or a battery or a squadron of which he + wished a picture he would tell the officer, whereupon the officer would + blow a whistle and the whole column would halt. + </p> + <p> + "Just wait a few minutes until the dust settles," Thompson would + remark, lighting a cigar, and the Ninth Imperial Army, whose columns + stretched over the country-side as far as the eye could see, would stand + in its tracks until the air was sufficiently clear to get a good picture. + </p> + <p> + A field battery of the Imperial Guard rumbled past and Thompson made some + remark about the accuracy of the American gunners at Vera Cruz. + </p> + <p> + "Let us show you what our gunners can do," said the officer, and + he gave an order. There were more orders--a perfect volley of them. A + bugle shrilled, eight horses strained against their collars, the drivers + cracked their whips, the cannoneers put their shoulders to the wheels, and + a gun left the road and swung into position in an adjacent field. On a + knoll three miles away an ancient windmill was beating the air with its + huge wings. A shell hit the windmill and tore it into splinters. + </p> + <p> + "Good work," Thompson observed critically. "If those + fellows of yours keep on they'll be able to get a job in the American navy + when the war is over." + </p> + <p> + In all the annals of modern war I do not believe that there is a parallel + to this little Kansas photographer halting, with peremptory hand, an + advancing army and leisurely photographing it, regiment by regiment, and + then having a field-gun of the Imperial Guard go into action solely to + gratify his curiosity. + </p> + <p> + They were very courteous and hospitable to me, those German officers, and + I was immensely interested with all that I saw. But, when all is said and + done, they impressed me not as human beings, who have weaknesses and + virtues, likes and dislikes of their own, but rather as parts, more or + less important, of a mighty and highly efficient machine which is directed + and controlled by a cold and calculating intelligence in far-away Berlin. + That machine has about as much of the human element as a meat-chopper, as + a steam- roller, as the death-chair at Sing Sing. Its mission is to crush, + obliterate, destroy, and no considerations of civilization or chivalry or + humanity will affect it. I think that the Germans, with their grim, set + faces, their monotonous uniforms, and the ceaseless shuffle, shuffle, + shuffle of their boots must have gotten on my nerves, for it was with a + distinct feeling of relief that I turned the bonnet of my car once more + towards Antwerp and my friends the Belgians. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders032.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="428" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="6"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>VI. On The Belgian Battle-Line</strong> + </p> + <p> + In writing of the battles in Belgium I find myself at a loss as to what + names to give them. After the treaty-makers have affixed their signatures + to a piece of parchment and the arm-chair historians have settled down to + the task of writing a connected account of the campaign, the various + engagements will doubtless be properly classified and labelled--and under + the names which they will receive in the histories we, who were present at + them, will probably not recognize them at all. Until such time, then, as + history has granted them the justice of perspective, I can only refer to + them as "the fight at Sempst" or "the first engagement at + Alost" or "the battle of Vilvorde" or "the taking of + Termonde." Not only this, but the engagements that seemed to us to be + battles, or remarkably lifelike imitations of battles, may be dismissed by + the historians as unimportant skirmishes and contacts, while those + engagements that we carelessly referred to at the time as "scraps" + may well prove, in the light of future events, to have been of far greater + significance than we realized. I don't even know how many engagements I + witnessed, for I did not take the trouble to keep count. Thompson, who was + with me from the beginning of the campaign to the end, told a reporter who + interviewed him upon his return to London that we had been present at + thirty-two engagements, large and small. Though I do not vouch, mind you, + for the accuracy of this assertion, it is not as improbable as it sounds, + for, from the middle of August to the fall of Antwerp in the early part of + October, it was a poor day that didn't produce a fight of some sort. The + fighting in Belgium at this stage of the war may be said to have been + confined to an area within a triangle whose corners were Antwerp, Aerschot + and Termonde. The southern side of this triangle, which ran somewhat to + the south of Malines, was nearly forty miles in length, and it was this + forty-mile front, extending from Aerschot on the east to Termonde on the + west, which, during the earlier stages of the campaign, formed the Belgian + battle-line. As the campaign progressed and the Germans developed their + offensive, the Belgians were slowly forced back within the converging + sides of the triangle until they were squeezed into the angle formed by + Antwerp, where they made their last stand. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders034.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="428" /> + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders035.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="432" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + The theatre of operations was, from the standpoint of a professional + onlooker like myself, very inconsiderately arranged. Nature had provided + neither orchestra-stalls nor boxes. All the seats were bad. In fact it was + quite impossible to obtain a good view of the stage and of the uniformed + actors who were presenting the most stupendous spectacle in all history + upon it. The whole region, you see, was absolutely flat--as flat as the + top of a table--and there wasn't anything even remotely resembling a hill + anywhere. To make matters worse, the country was criss-crossed by a + perfect network of rivers and brooks and canals and ditches; the highways + and the railways, which had to be raised to keep them from being washed + out by the periodic inundations, were so thickly screened by trees as to + be quite useless for purposes of observation; and in the rare places where + a rise in the ground might have enabled one to get a comprehensive view of + the surrounding country, dense groves of trees or red-and-white villages + almost invariably intervened. One could be within a few hundred yards of + the firing-line and literally not see a thing save the fleecy puffs of + bursting shrapnel. Indeed, I don't know what we should have done had it + not been for the church towers. These were conveniently sprinkled over the + landscape-- every cluster of houses seemed to have one--and did their best + to make up for the region's topographical shortcomings. The only + disadvantage attaching to the use of the church-spires as places to view + the fighting from was that the military observers and the officers + controlling the fire of the batteries used them for the same purpose. The + enemy knew this, of course, and almost the first thing he did, therefore, + was to open fire on them with his artillery and drive those observers out. + This accounts for the fact that in many sections of Belgium there is not a + church-spire left standing. When we ascended a church tower, therefore, + for the purpose of obtaining a general view of an engagement, we took our + chances and we knew it. More than once, when the enemy got the range and + their shells began to shriek and yowl past the belfry in which I was + stationed, I have raced down the rickety ladders at a speed which, under + normal conditions, would probably have resulted in my breaking my neck. In + view of the restrictions imposed upon correspondents in the French and + Russian theatres of war, I suppose that instead of finding fault with the + seating arrangements I should thank my lucky stars that I did not have to + write my dispatches with the aid of an ordnance-map and a guide-book in a + hotel bedroom a score or more of miles from the firing-line. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders047.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="414" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + The Belgian field army consisted of six divisions and a brigade of cavalry + and numbered, on paper at least, about 180,000 men. I very much doubt, + however, if King Albert had in the field at anyone time more than 120,000 + men--a very large proportion of whom were, of course, raw recruits. Now + the Belgian army, when all is said and done, was not an army according to + the Continental definition; it was not much more than a glorified police + force, a militia. No one had ever dreamed that it would be called upon to + fight, and hence, when war came, it was wholly unprepared. That it was + able to offer the stubborn and heroic resistance which it did to the + advance of the German legions speaks volumes for Belgian stamina and + courage. Many of the troops were armed with rifles of an obsolete pattern, + the supply of ammunition was insufficient, and though the artillery was on + the whole of excellent quality, it was placed at a tremendous disadvantage + by the superior range and calibre of the German field- guns. The men did + not even have the protection afforded by neutral- coloured uniforms, but + fought from first to last in clothes of blue and green and blazing + scarlet. As I stood one day in the Place de Meir in Antwerp and watched a + regiment of mud-bespattered guides clatter past, it was hard to believe + that I was living in the twentieth century and not in the beginning of the + nineteenth, for instead of serviceable uniforms of grey or drab or khaki, + these men wore the befrogged green jackets, the cherry-coloured breeches, + and the huge fur busbies which characterized the soldiers of Napoleon. + </p> + <p> + The carabineers, for example, wore uniforms of bottle-green and queer + sugar-loaf hats of patent leather which resembled the headgear of the + Directoire period. Both the grenadiers and the infantry of the line + marched and fought and slept in uniforms of heavy blue cloth piped with + scarlet and small, round, visorless fatigue-caps which afforded no + protection from either sun or rain. Some of the men remedied this by + fitting their caps with green reading-shades, such as undergraduates wear + when they are cramming for examinations, so that at first glance a + regiment looked as though its ranks were filled with either jockeys or + students. The gendarmes--who, by the way, were always to be found where + the fighting was hottest--were the most unsuitably uniformed of all, for + the blue coats and silver aiguillettes and towering bearskins which served + to impress the simple country-folk made splendid targets for the German + marksmen. This medley of picturesque and brilliant uniforms was + wonderfully effective, of course, and whenever I came upon a group of + lancers in sky-blue and yellow lounging about the door of a wayside tavern + or met a patrol of guides in their green jackets and scarlet breeches + trotting along a country-road, I always had the feeling that I was looking + at a painting by Meissonier or Detaille. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders048.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="449" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + At the beginning of the war the Belgian cavalry was as well mounted as + that of any European army, many of the officers having Irish hunters, + while the men were mounted on Hungarian-bred stock. The almost incessant + campaigning, combined with lack of proper food and care, had its effect + upon the horses, however, and before the campaign in Flanders was half + over the cavalry mounts were a raw- boned and sorry-looking lot. The + Belgian field artillery was horsed magnificently: the sturdy, hardy + animals native to Luxembourg and the Ardennes making admirable material + for gun-teams, while the great Belgian draught-horses could scarcely have + been improved upon for the army's heavier work. + </p> + <p> + Speaking of cavalry, the thing that I most wanted to see when I went to + the war was a cavalry charge. I had seen mounted troops in action, of + course, both in Africa and in Asia, but they had brown skins and wore + fantastic uniforms. What I wanted to see was one of those charges such as + Meissonier used to paint--scarlet breeches and steel helmets and a sea of + brandished sword-blades and all that sort of thing. But when I confided my + wish to an American army officer whom I met on the boat going over he + promptly discouraged me. "Cavalry charges are a thing of the past," + he asserted. "There will never be one again. The modern high-power + rifle has made them impossible. Henceforward cavalry will only be used for + scouting purposes or as mounted infantry." He spoke with great + positiveness, I remember, having been, you see, in both the Cuban and + Philippine campaigns. According to the textbooks and the military experts + and the armchair tacticians he was perfectly right; I believe that all of + the writers on military subjects agree in saying that cavalry charges are + obsolete as a form of attack. But the trouble with the Belgians was that + they didn't play the war-game according to the rules in the book. They + were very primitive in their conceptions of warfare. Their idea was that + whenever they got within sight of a German regiment to go after that + regiment and exterminate it, and they didn't care whether in doing it they + used horse, foot, or guns. It was owing, therefore, to this total + disregard for the rules laid down in the textbooks that I saw my cavalry + charge. Let me tell you about it while I have the chance, for there is no + doubt that cavalry charges are getting scarce and I may never see another. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders038.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="413" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + It was in the region between Termonde and Alost. This is a better country + for cavalry to manoeuvre in than most parts of Flanders, for sometimes one + can go almost a mile without being stopped by a canal. A considerable + force of Germans had pushed north from Alost and the Belgian commander + ordered a brigade of cavalry, composed of the two regiments of guides and, + if I remember rightly, two regiments of lancers, to go out and drive them + back. After a morning spent in skirmishing and manoeuvring for position, + the Belgian cavalry commander got his Germans where he wanted them. The + Germans were in front of a wood, and between them and the Belgians lay as + pretty a stretch of open country as a cavalryman could ask for. Now the + Germans occupied a strong position, mind you, and the proper thing to have + done according to the books would have been to have demoralized them with + shell-fire and then to have followed it up with an infantry attack. But + the grizzled old Belgian commander did nothing of the sort. He had fifteen + hundred troopers who were simply praying for a chance to go at the Germans + with cold steel, and he gave them the chance they wanted. Tossing away his + cigarette and tightening the chin-strap of his busby, he trotted out in + front of his men. "Right into line!" he bellowed. Two long + lines--one the guides, in green and scarlet, the other the lancers, in + blue and yellow--spread themselves across the fields. "Trot!" + The bugles squealed the order. "Gallop!" The forest of lances + dropped from vertical to horizontal and the cloud of gaily fluttering + pennons changed into a bristling hedge of steel. "Charge!" came + the order, and the spurs went home. "Vive la Belgique! Vive la + Belgique!" roared the troopers--and the Germans, not liking the look + of those long and cruel lances, fell back precipitately into the wood + where the troopers could not follow them. Then, their work having been + accomplished, the cavalry came trotting back again. Of course, from a + military standpoint it was an affair of small importance, but so far as + colour and action and excitement were concerned it was worth having gone + to Belgium to see. + </p> + <p> + After the German occupation of Brussels, the first engagement of + sufficient magnitude to be termed a battle took place on August 25 and 26 + in the Sempst-Elewyt-Eppeghem-Vilvorde region, midway between Brussels and + Malines. The Belgians had in action four divisions, totalling about sixty + thousand men, opposed to which was a considerably heavier force of + Germans. To get a clear conception of the battle one must picture a + fifty-foot-high railway embankment, its steeply sloping sides heavily + wooded, stretching its length across a fertile, smiling country-side like + a monstrous green snake. On this line, in time of peace, the bloc trains + made the journey from Antwerp to Brussels in less than an hour. Malines, + with its historic buildings and its famous cathedral, lies on one side of + this line and the village of Vilvorde on the other, five miles separating + them. On the 25th the Belgians, believing the Brussels garrison to have + been seriously weakened and the German communications poorly guarded, + moved out in force from the shelter of the Antwerp forts and assumed a + vigorous offensive. It was like a terrier attacking a bulldog. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders036.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="433" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + They drove the Germans from Malines by the very impetus of their attack, + but the Germans brought up heavy reinforcements, and by the morning of the + 26th the Belgians were in a most perilous position. The battle hinged on + the possession of the railway embankment had gradually extended, each army + trying to outflank the other, until it was being fought along a front of + twenty miles. At dawn on the second day an artillery duel began across the + embankment, the German fire being corrected by observers in captive + balloons. By noon the Germans had gotten the range and a rain of shrapnel + was bursting about the Belgian batteries, which limbered up and retired at + a trot in perfect order. After the guns were out of range I could see the + dark blue masses of the supporting Belgian infantry slowly falling back, + cool as a winter's morning. Through an oversight, however, two battalions + of carabineers did not receive the order to retire and were in imminent + danger of being cut off and destroyed. + </p> + <p> + Then occurred one of the bravest acts that I have ever seen. To reach them + a messenger would have to traverse a mile of open road, swept by-shrieking + shrapnel and raked by rifle-fire. There was about one chance in a thousand + of a man getting to the end of that road alive. A colonel standing beside + me under a railway-culvert summoned a gendarme, gave him the necessary + orders, and added, "Bonne chance, mon brave." The man, a + fierce-moustached fellow who would have gladdened the heart of Napoleon, + knew that he was being sent into the jaws of death, but he merely saluted, + set spurs to his horse, and tore down the road, an archaic figure in his + towering bearskin. He reached the troops uninjured and gave the order for + them to retreat, but as they fell back the German gunners got the range + and with marvellous accuracy dropped shell after shell into the running + column. Soon road and fields were dotted with corpses in Belgian blue. + </p> + <p> + Time after time the Germans attempted to carry the railway embankment with + the bayonet, but the Belgians met them with blasts of lead which + shrivelled the grey columns as leaves are shrivelled by an autumn wind. By + mid-afternoon the Belgians and Germans were in places barely a hundred + yards apart, and the rattle of musketry sounded like a boy drawing a stick + along the palings of a picket-fence. During the height of the battle a + Zeppelin slowly circled over the field like a great vulture awaiting a + feast. So heavy was the fighting that the embankment of a branch railway + from which I viewed the afternoon's battle was literally carpeted with the + corpses of Germans who had been killed during the morning. One of them had + died clasping a woman's picture. He was buried with it still clenched in + his hand. I saw peasants throw twelve bodies into one grave. One peasant + would grasp a corpse by the shoulders and another would take its feet and + they would give it a swing as though it were a sack of meal. As I watched + these inanimate forms being carelessly tossed into the trench it was hard + to make myself believe that only a few hours before they had been sons or + husbands or fathers and that somewhere across the Rhine women and children + were waiting and watching and praying for them. At a hamlet near Sempst I + helped to bury an aged farmer and his son, inoffensive peasants, who had + been executed by the Germans because a retreating Belgian soldier had shot + a Uhlan in front of their farmhouse. Not content with shooting them, they + had disfigured them almost beyond recognition. There were twenty-two + bayonet wounds in the old man's face. I know, for I counted them. + </p> + <p> + By four o'clock all the Belgian troops were withdrawn except a thin screen + to cover the retreat. As I wished to see the German advance I remained on + the railway embankment on the outskirts of Sempst after all the Belgians, + save a picket of ten men, had been withdrawn from the village. I had my + car waiting in the road below with the motor running. As the German + infantry would have to advance across a mile of open fields it was obvious + that I would have ample time in which to get away. The Germans prefaced + their advance by a terrific cannonade. The air was filled with whining + shrapnel. Farmhouses collapsed amid puffs of brown smoke. The sky was + smeared in a dozen places with the smoke of burning hamlets. Suddenly a + soldier crouching beside me cried, "Les Allemands! Les Allemands!" + and from the woods which screened the railway- embankment burst a long + line of grey figures, hoarsely cheering. At almost the same moment I heard + a sudden splutter of shots in the village street behind me and my driver + screamed, "Hurry for your life, monsieur! The Uhlans are upon us!" + In my desire to see the main German advance it had never occurred to me + that a force of the enemy's cavalry might slip around and take us in the + flank, which was exactly what had happened. It was three hundred yards to + the car and a freshly ploughed field lay between, but I am confident that + I broke the world's record for the distance. As I leaped into the car and + we shot down the road at fifty miles an hour, the Uhlans cantered into the + village, the sunlight striking on their lance- tips. It was a close call. + </p> + <p> + The retreat from Malines provided a spectacle which I shall never forget. + For twenty miles every road was jammed with clattering cavalry, plodding + infantry, and rumbling batteries, the guns, limbers, and caissons still + covered with the green boughs which had been used to mask their position + from German aeroplanes. Gendarmes in giant bearskins, chasseurs in + uniforms of green and yellow, carabineers with their shiny leather hats, + grenadiers, infantry of the line, guides, lancers, sappers and miners with + picks and spades, engineers with pontoon-wagons, machine-guns drawn by + dogs, ambulances with huge Red Cross flags fluttering above them, and + cars, cars, cars, all the dear old familiar American makes among them, + contributed to form a mighty river flowing towards Antwerp. Malines + formerly had a population of fifty thousand people, and forty-five + thousand of these fled when they heard that the Germans were returning. + The scenes along the road were heart-rending in their pathos. The very + young and the very old, the rich and the well- to-do and the + poverty-stricken, the lame and the sick and the blind, with the few + belongings they had been able to save in sheet- wrapped bundles on their + backs or piled in push-carts, clogged the roads and impeded the soldiery. + These people were abandoning all that they held most dear to pillage and + destruction. They were completely terrorized by the Germans. But the + Belgian army was not terrorized. It was a retreating army but it was + victorious in retreat. The soldiers were cool, confident, courageous, and + gave me the feeling that if the German giant left himself unguarded a + single instant little Belgium would drive home a solar-plexus blow. + </p> + <p> + For many days after its evacuation by the Belgians, Malines occupied an + unhappy position midway between the contending armies, being alternately + bombarded by the Belgians and the Germans. The latter, instead of + endeavouring to avoid damaging the splendid cathedral, whose tower, three + hundred and twenty-five feet high, is the most conspicuous landmark in the + region, seemed to take a grim pleasure in directing their fire upon the + ancient building. The great clock, the largest in Belgium, was destroyed; + the famous stained-glass windows were broken; the exquisite carvings were + shattered; and shells, crashing through the walls and roof, converted the + beautiful interior into a heap of debris. As there were no Belgian troops + in Malines at this time, and as this fact was perfectly well known to the + Germans, this bombardment of an undefended city and the destruction of its + historic monuments struck me as being peculiarly wanton and not induced by + any military necessity. It was, of course, part and parcel of the German + policy of terrorism and intimidation. The bombardment of cities, the + destruction of historic monuments, the burning of villages, and, in many + cases, the massacre of civilians was the price which the Belgians were + forced to pay for resisting the invader. + </p> + <p> + In order to ascertain just what damage had been done to the city, and + particularly to the cathedral, I ran into Malines in my car during a pause + in the bombardment. As the streets were too narrow to permit of turning + the car around, and as it was more than probable that we should have to + get out in a hurry, Roos suggested that we run in backward, which we did, + I standing up in the tonneau, field-glasses glued to my eyes, on the + look-out for lurking Germans. I don't recall ever having had a more eerie + experience than that surreptitious visit to Malines. The city was as + silent and deserted as a cemetery; there was not a human being to be seen; + and as we cautiously advanced through the narrow, winding streets, the + vacant houses echoed the throbbing of the motor with a racket which was + positively startling. Just as we reached the square in front of the + cathedral a German shell came shrieking over the house-tops and burst with + a shattering crash in the upper story of a building a few yards away. The + whole front of that building came crashing down about us in a cascade of + brick and plaster. We did not stay on the order of our going. No. We went + out of that town faster than any automobile every went out of it before. + We went so fast, in fact, that we struck and killed the only remaining + inhabitant. He was a large yellow dog. + </p> + <p> + Owing to strategic reasons the magnitude and significance of the great + four days' battle which was fought in mid-September between the Belgian + field army and the combined German forces in Northern Belgium was + carefully masked in all official communications at the time, and, in the + rush of later events, its importance was lost sight of. Yet the great + flanking movement of the Allies in France largely owed its success to this + determined offensive movement on the part of the Belgians, who, as it + afterwards proved, were acting in close co-operation with the French + General Staff. This unexpected sally, which took the Germans completely by + surprise, not only compelled them to concentrate all their available + forces in Belgium, but, what was far more important, it necessitated the + hasty recall of their Third and Ninth armies, which were close to the + French frontier and whose addition to the German battle-line in France + might well have turned the scales in Germany's favour. In addition the + Germans had to bring up their Landwehr and Landsturm regiments from the + south of Brussels, and a naval division composed of fifteen thousand + sailors and marines was also engaged. It is no exaggeration, then, to say + that the success of the Allies on the Aisne was in great measure due to + the sacrifices made on this occasion by the Belgian army. Every available + man which the Germans could put into the field was used to hold a line + running through Sempst, Weerde, Campenhout, Wespelaer, Rotselaer, and + Holsbeek. The Belgians lay to the north-east of this line, their left + resting on Aerschot and their centre at Meerbeek. Between the opposing + armies stretched the Malines-Louvain canal, along almost the entire length + of which fighting as bloody as any in the war took place. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders041.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="427" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + To describe this battle--I do not even know by what name it will be known + to future generations--would be to usurp the duties of the historian, and + I shall only attempt, therefore, to tell you of that portion of it which I + saw with my own eyes. On the morning of September 13 four Belgian + divisions moved southward from Malines, their objective being the town of + Weerde, on the Antwerp- Brussels railway. It was known that the Germans + occupied Weerde in force, so throughout the day the Belgian artillery, + masked by heavy woods, pounded away incessantly. By noon the enemy's guns + ceased to reply, which was assumed by the jubilant Belgians to be a sign + that the German artillery had been silenced. At noon the Belgian First + Division moved forward and Thompson and I, leaving the car in front of a + convent over which the Red Cross flag was flying, moved forward with it. + Standing quite by itself in the middle of a field, perhaps a mile beyond + the convent, was a two-story brick farmhouse. A hundred yards in front of + the farmhouse stretched the raised, stone-paved, tree-lined highway which + runs from Brussels to Antwerp, and on the other side of the highway was + Weerde. Sheltering ourselves as much as possible in the trenches which + zigzagged across the field, and dashing at full speed across the open + places which were swept by rifle-fire, we succeeded in reaching the + farmhouse. Ascending to the garret, we broke a hole through the tiled roof + and found ourselves looking down upon the battle precisely as one looks + down on a cricket match from the upper tier of seats at Lord's. Lying in + the deep ditch which bordered our side of the highway was a Belgian + infantry brigade, composed of two regiments of carabineers and two + regiments of chasseurs a pied, the men all crouching in the ditch or lying + prone upon the ground. Five hundred yards away, on the other side of the + highway, we could see through the trees the whitewashed walls and red + pottery roofs of Weerde, while a short distance to the right, in a heavily + wooded park, was a large stone chateau. The only sign that the town was + occupied was a pall of blue-grey vapour which hung over it and a + continuous crackle of musketry coming from it, though occasionally, + through my glasses, I could catch glimpses of the lean muzzles of + machine-guns protruding from the upper windows of the chateau. + </p> + <p> + Now you must bear in mind the fact that in this war soldiers fired from + the trenches for days on end without once getting a glimpse of the enemy. + They knew that somewhere opposite them, in that bit of wood, perhaps, or + behind that group of buildings, or on the other side of that + railway-embankment, the enemy was trying to kill them just as earnestly as + they were trying to kill him. But they rarely got a clear view of him save + in street fighting and, of course, when he was advancing across open + country. Soldiers no longer select their man and pick him off as one would + pick off a stag, because the great range of modern rifles has put the + firing-lines too far apart for that sort of thing. Instead, therefore, of + aiming at individuals, soldiers aim at the places where they believe those + individuals to be. Each company commander shows his men their target, + tells them at what distance to set their sights, and controls their + expenditure of ammunition, the fire of infantry generally being more + effective when delivered in bursts by sections. + </p> + <p> + What I have said in general about infantry being unable to see the target + at which they are firing was particularly true at Weerde owing to the + dense foliage which served to screen the enemy's position. Occasionally, + after the explosion of a particularly well-placed Belgian shell, Thompson + and I, from our hole in the roof and with the aid of our high-power + glasses, could catch fleeting glimpses of scurrying grey-clad figures, but + that was all. The men below us in the trenches could see nothing except + the hedges, gardens, and red-roofed houses of a country town. They knew + the enemy was there, however, from the incessant rattle of musketry and + machine-guns and from the screams and exclamations of those of their + fellows who happened to get in the bullets' way. + </p> + <p> + Late in the afternoon word was passed down the line that the German guns + had been put out of action, that the enemy was retiring and that at 5.30 + sharp the whole Belgian line would advance and take the town with the + bayonet. Under cover of artillery fire so continuous that it sounded like + thunder in the mountains, the Belgian infantry climbed out of the trenches + and, throwing aside their knapsacks, formed up behind the road preparatory + to the grand assault. A moment later a dozen dog batteries came trotting + up and took position on the left of the infantry. At 5.30 to the minute + the whistles of the officers sounded shrilly and the mile-long line of men + swept forward cheering. They crossed the roadway, they scrambled over + ditches, they climbed fences, they pushed through hedges, until they were + within a hundred yards of the line of buildings which formed the outskirts + of the town. Then hell itself broke loose. The whole German front, which + for several hours past had replied but feebly to the Belgian fire, spat a + continuous stream of lead and flame. The rolling crash of musketry and the + ripping snarl of machine-guns were stabbed by the vicious pom-pom-pom- + pom-pom of the quick-firers. From every window of the three-storied + chateau opposite us the lean muzzles of mitrailleuses poured out their + hail of death. I have seen fighting on four continents, but I have never + witnessed so deadly a fire as that which wiped out the head of the Belgian + column as a sponge wipes out figures on a slate. + </p> + <p> + The Germans had prepared a trap and the Belgians had walked--or rather + charged--directly into it. Three minutes later the dog batteries came + tearing back on a dead run. That should have been a signal that it was + high time for us to go, but, in spite of the fact that a storm was + brewing, we waited to see the last inning. Then things began to happen + with a rapidity that was bewildering. Back through the hedges, across the + ditches, over the roadway came the Belgian infantry, crouching, stooping, + running for their lives, Every now and then a soldier would stumble, as + though he had stubbed his toe, and throw out his arms and fall headlong. A + bullet had hit him. The road was sprinkled with silent forms in blue and + green. The fields were sprinkled with them too. One man was hit as he was + struggling to get through a hedge and died standing, held upright by the + thorny branches. Men with blood streaming down their faces, men with + horrid crimson patches on their tunics, limped, crawled, staggered past, + leaving scarlet trails behind them. A young officer of chasseurs, who had + been recklessly exposing himself while trying to check the retreat of his + men, suddenly spun around on his heels, like one of those wooden toys + which the curb vendors sell, and then crumpled up, as though all the bone + and muscle had gone out of him. A man plunged into a half-filled ditch and + lay there, with his head under water. I could see the water slowly redden. + </p> + <p> + Bullets began to smash the tiles above us. "This is no place for two + innocent little American boys," remarked Thompson, shouldering his + camera. I agreed with him. By the time we reached the ground the Belgian + infantry was half a mile in our rear, and to reach the car we had to cross + nearly a mile of open field. Bullets were singing across it and kicking up + little spurts of brown earth where they struck. We had not gone a hundred + yards when the German artillery, which the Belgians so confidently + asserted had been silenced, opened with shrapnel. Have you ever heard a + winter gale howling and shrieking through the tree-tops? Of course. Then + you know what shrapnel sounds like, only it is louder. You have no idea + though how extremely annoying shrapnel is, when it bursts in your + immediate vicinity. You feel as though you would like nothing in the world + so much as to be suddenly transformed into a woodchuck and have a + convenient hole. I remembered that an artillery officer had told me that a + burst of shrapnel from a battery two miles away will spread itself over an + eight-acre field, and every time I heard the moan of an approaching shell + I wondered if it would decide to explode in the particular eight-acre + field in which I happened to be. + </p> + <p> + As though the German shell-storm was not making things sufficiently + uncomfortable for us, when we were half-way across the field two Belgian + soldiers suddenly rose from a trench and covered us with their rifles. + "Halt! Hands up!" they shouted. There was nothing for it but to + obey them. We advanced with our hands in the air but with our heads + twisted upward on the look-out for shrapnel. As we approached they + recognized us. "Oh, you're the Americans," said one of them, + lowering his rifle. "We couldn't see your faces and we took you for + Germans. You'd better come with us. It's getting too hot to stay here." + The four of us started on a run for a little cluster of houses a few + hundred yards away. By this time the shells were coming across at the rate + of twenty a minute. + </p> + <p> + "Suppose we go into a cellar until the storm blows over," + suggested Roos, who had joined us. "I'm all for that," said I, + making a dive for the nearest doorway. "Keep away from that house!" + shouted a Belgian soldier who suddenly appeared from around a corner. + "The man who owns it has gone insane from fright. He's upstairs with + a rifle and he's shooting at every one who passes." "Well, I + call that damned inhospitable," said Thompson, and Roos and I + heartily agreed with him. There was nothing else for it, therefore, but to + make a dash for the car. We had left it standing in front of a convent + over which a Red Cross flag was flying on the assumption that there it + would be perfectly safe. But we found that we were mistaken. The Red Cross + flag did not spell protection by any means. As we came within sight of the + car a shell burst within thirty feet of it, a fragment of the projectile + burying itself in the door. I never knew of a car taking so long to crank. + Though it was really probably only a matter of seconds before the engine + started it seemed to us, standing in that shell-swept road, like hours. + </p> + <p> + Darkness had now fallen. A torrential rain had set in. The car slid from + one side of the road to the other like a Scotchman coming home from + celebrating Bobbie Burns's birthday and repeatedly threatened to capsize + in the ditch. The mud was ankle-deep and the road back to Malines was now + in the possession of the Germans, so we were compelled to make a detour + through a deserted country- side, running through the inky blackness + without lights so as not to invite a visit from a shell. It was long after + midnight when, cold, wet and famished, we called the password to the + sentry at the gateway through the barbed-wire entanglements which + encircled Antwerp and he let us in. It was a very lively day for every one + concerned and there were a few minutes when I thought that I would never + see the Statue of Liberty again. + </p> + <p> + <a name="7"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>VII. The Coming Of The British</strong> + </p> + <p> + Imagine, if you please, a professional heavy-weight prize-fighter, with an + abnormally long reach, holding an amateur bantam-weight boxer at arm's + length with one hand and hitting him when and where he pleased with the + other. The fact that the little man was not in the least afraid of his + burly antagonist and that he got in a vicious kick or jab whenever he saw + an opening would not, of course, have any effect on the outcome of the + unequal contest. Now that is almost precisely what happened when the + Germans besieged Antwerp, the enormously superior range and calibre of + their siege-guns enabling them to pound the city's defences to pieces at + their leisure without the defenders being able to offer any effective + resistance. + </p> + <p> + Though Antwerp was to all intents and purposes a besieged city for many + weeks prior to its capture, it was not until the beginning of the last + week in September that the Germans seriously set to work of destroying its + fortifications. When they did begin, however, their great siege pieces + pounded the forts as steadily and remorselessly as a trip-hammer pounds a + bar of iron. At the time the Belgian General Staff believed that the + Germans were using the same giant howitzers which demolished the forts at + Liege, but in this they were mistaken, for, as it transpired later, the + Antwerp fortifications owed their destruction to Austrian guns served by + Austrian artillerymen. Now guns of this size can only be fired from + specially prepared concrete beds, and these beds, as we afterwards + learned, had been built during the preceding month behind the embankment + of the railway which runs from Malines to Louvain, thus accounting for the + tenacity with which the Germans had held this railway despite repeated + attempts to dislodge them. At this stage of the investment the Germans + were firing at a range of upwards of eight miles, while the Belgians had + no artillery that was effective at more than six. Add to this the fact + that the German fire was remarkably accurate, being controlled and + constantly corrected by observers stationed in balloons, and that the + German shells were loaded with an explosive having greater destructive + properties than either cordite or shimose powder, and it will be seen how + hopeless was the Belgian position. + </p> + <p> + The scenes along the Lierre-St. Catherine-Waelhem sector, against which + the Germans at first focussed their attack, were impressive and awesome + beyond description. Against a livid sky rose pillars of smoke from burning + villages. The air was filled with shrieking shell and bursting shrapnel. + The deep-mouthed roar of the guns in the forts and the angry bark of the + Belgian field-batteries were answered at intervals by the shattering crash + of the German high-explosive shells. When one of these big shells--the + soldiers dubbed them "Antwerp expresses"--struck in a field it + sent up a geyser of earth two hundred feet in height. When they dropped in + a river or canal, as sometimes happened, there was a waterspout. And when + they dropped in a village, that village disappeared from the map. + </p> + <p> + While we were watching the bombardment from a rise in the Waelhem road a + shell burst in the hamlet of Waerloos, whose red- brick houses were + clustered almost at our feet. A few minutes later a procession of fugitive + villagers came plodding up the cobble- paved highway. It was headed by an + ashen-faced peasant pushing a wheelbarrow with a weeping woman clinging to + his arm. In the wheelbarrow, atop a pile of hastily collected household + goods, was sprawled the body of a little boy. He could not have been more + than seven. His little knickerbockered legs and play-worn shoes protruded + grotesquely from beneath a heap of bedding. When they lifted it we could + see where the shell had hit him. Beside the dead boy sat his sister, a tot + of three, with blood trickling from a flesh- wound in her face. She was + still clinging convulsively to a toy lamb which had once been white but + whose fleece was now splotched with red. Some one passed round a hat and + we awkwardly tried to express our sympathy through the medium of silver. + After a little pause they started on again, the father stolidly pushing + the wheelbarrow, with its pathetic load, before him. It was the only home + that family had. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders051.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="420" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + One of the bravest acts that I have ever seen was performed by an American + woman during the bombardment of Waelhem. Her name was Mrs. Winterbottom; + she was originally from Boston, and had married an English army officer. + When he went to the front in France she went to the front in Belgium, + bringing over her car, which she drove herself, and placing it at the + disposal of the British Field Hospital. After the fort of Waelhem had been + silenced and such of the garrison as were able to move had been withdrawn, + word was received at ambulance headquarters that a number of dangerously + wounded had been left behind and that they would die unless they received + immediate attention. To reach the fort it was necessary to traverse nearly + two miles of road swept by shell-fire. Before anyone realized what was + happening a big grey car shot down the road with the slender figure of + Mrs. Winterbottom at the wheel. Clinging to the running-board was her + English chauffeur and beside her sat my little Kansas photographer, Donald + Thompson. Though the air was filled with the fleecy white patches which + look like cotton-wool but are really bursting shrapnel, Thompson told me + afterwards that Mrs. Winterbottom was as cool as though she were driving + down her native Commonwealth Avenue on a Sunday morning. When they reached + the fort shells were falling all about them, but they filled the car with + wounded men and Mrs. Winterbottom started back with her blood-soaked + freight for the Belgian lines. + </p> + <p> + Thompson remained in the fort to take pictures. When darkness fell he made + his way back to the village of Waelhem, where he found a regiment of + Belgian infantry. In one of the soldiers Thompson recognized a man who, + before the war, had been a waiter in the St. Regis Hotel in New York and + who had been detailed to act as his guide and interpreter during the + fighting before Termonde. This man took Thompson into a wine-shop where a + detachment of soldiers was quartered, gave him food, and spread straw upon + the floor for him to sleep on. Shortly after midnight a forty-two + centimetre shell struck the building. Of the soldiers who were sleeping in + the same room as Thompson nine were killed and fifteen more who were + sleeping upstairs, the ex-waiter among them. Thompson told me that when + the ceiling gave way and the mangled corpses came tumbling down upon him, + he ran up the street with his hands above his head, screaming like a + madman. He met an officer whom he knew and they ran down the street + together, hoping to get out of the doomed town. Just then a projectile + from one of the German siege- guns tore down the long, straight street, a + few yards above their heads. The blast of air which it created was so + terrific that it threw them down. Thompson said that it was like standing + close to the edge of the platform at a wayside station when the Empire + State Express goes by. When his nerve came back to him he pulled a couple + of cigars out of his pocket and offered one to the officer. Their hands + trembled so, he said afterwards, that they used up half a box of matches + before they could get their cigars lighted. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders040.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="419" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + I am inclined to think that the most bizarre incident I saw during the + bombardment of the outer forts was the flight of the women inmates of a + madhouse at Duffel. There were three hundred women in the institution, + many of them violently insane, and the nuns in charge, assisted by + soldiers, had to take them across a mile of open country, under a rain of + shells, to a waiting train. I shall not soon forget the picture of that + straggling procession winding its slow way across the stubble-covered + fields. Every few seconds a shell would burst above it or in front of it + or behind it with a deafening explosion. Yet, despite the frantic efforts + of the nuns and soldiers, the women would not be hurried. When a shell + burst some of them would scream and cower or start to run, but more of + them would stop in their tracks and gibber and laugh and clap their hands + like excited children. Then the soldiers would curse under their breath + and push them roughly forward and the nuns would plead with them in their + soft, low voices, to hurry, hurry, hurry. We, who were watching the scene, + thought that few of them would reach the train alive, yet not one was + killed or wounded. The Arabs are right: the mad are under God's + protection. + </p> + <p> + One of the most inspiring features of the campaign in Belgium was the + heroism displayed by the priests and the members of the religious orders. + Village cures in their black cassocks and shovel hats, and monks in + sandals and brown woollen robes, were everywhere. I saw them in the + trenches exhorting the soldiers to fight to the last for God and the King; + I saw them going out on to the battlefield with stretchers to gather the + wounded under a fire which made veterans seek shelter; I saw them in the + villages where the big shells were falling, helping to carry away the ill + and the aged; I saw them in the hospitals taking farewell messages and + administering the last sacrament to the dying; I even saw them, rifle in + hand, on the firing-line, fighting for the existence of the nation. To + these soldiers of the Lord I raise my hat in respect and admiration. The + people of Belgium owe them a debt that they can never repay. + </p> + <p> + In the days before the war it was commonly said that the Church was losing + ground in Belgium; that religion was gradually being ousted by socialism. + If this were so, I saw no sign of it in the nation's days of trial. Time + and time again I saw soldiers before going into battle drop on their knees + and cross themselves and murmur a hasty prayer. Even the throngs of + terrified fugitives, flying from their burning villages, would pause in + their flight to kneel before the little shrines along the wayside. I am + convinced, indeed, that the ruthless destruction of religious edifices by + the Germans and the brutality which they displayed toward priests and + members of the religious orders was more responsible than any one thing + for the desperate resistance which they met with from the Belgian + peasantry. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders057.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="424" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + By the afternoon of October 3 things were looking very black for Antwerp. + The forts composing the Lierre-Waelhem sector of the outer line of + defences had been pounded into silence by the German siege-guns; a strong + German force, pushing through the breach thus made, had succeeded in + crossing the Nethe in the face of desperate opposition; the Belgian + troops, after a fortnight of continuous fighting, were at the point of + exhaustion; the hospitals were swamped by the streams of wounded which for + days past had been pouring in; over the city hung a cloud of despondency + and gloom, for the people, though kept in complete ignorance of the true + state of affairs, seemed oppressed with a sense of impending disaster. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders046.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="409" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + When I returned that evening to the Hotel St. Antoine from the + battle-front, which was then barely half a dozen miles outside the city, + the manager stopped me as I was entering the lift. + </p> + <p> + "Are you leaving with the others, Mr. Powell?" he whispered. + </p> + <p> + "Leaving for where? With what others?" I asked sharply. + </p> + <p> + "Hadn't you heard?" he answered in some confusion. "The + members of the Government and the Diplomatic Corps are leaving for Ostend + by special steamer at seven in the morning. It has just been decided at a + Cabinet meeting. But don't mention it to a soul. No one is to know it + until they are safely gone." + </p> + <p> + I remember that as I continued to my room the corridors smelled of smoke, + and upon inquiring its cause I learned that the British Minister, Sir + Francis Villiers, and his secretaries were burning papers in the rooms + occupied by the British Legation. The Russian Minister, who was + superintending the packing of his trunks in the hall, stopped me to say + good-bye. Imagine my surprise, then, upon going down to breakfast the + following morning, to meet Count Goblet d'Alviella, the Vice-President of + the Senate and a minister of State, leaving the dining-room. + </p> + <p> + "Why, Count!" I exclaimed, "I had supposed that you were + well on your way to Ostend by this time." + </p> + <p> + "We had expected to be," explained the venerable statesman, + "but at four o'clock this morning the British Minister sent us word + that Mr. Winston Churchill had started for Antwerp and asking us to wait + and hear what he has to say." + </p> + <p> + At one o'clock that afternoon a big drab-coloured touring-car filled with + British naval officers tore up the Place de Meir, its horn sounding a + hoarse warning, took the turn into the narrow Marche aux Souliers on two + wheels, and drew up in front of the hotel. Before the car had fairly come + to a stop the door of the tonneau was thrown violently open and out jumped + a smooth-faced, sandy-haired, stoop- shouldered, youthful-looking man in + the undress Trinity House uniform. There was no mistaking who it was. It + was the Right Hon. Winston Churchill. As he darted into the crowded lobby, + which, as usual at the luncheon-hour, was filled with Belgian, French, and + British staff officers, diplomatists, Cabinet Ministers and + correspondents, he flung his arms out in a nervous, characteristic + gesture, as though pushing his way through a crowd. It was a most + spectacular entrance and reminded me for all the world of a scene in a + melodrama where the hero dashes up, bare-headed, on a foam-flecked horse, + and saves the heroine or the old homestead or the family fortune, as the + case may be. + </p> + <p> + While lunching with Sir Francis Villiers and the staff of the British + Legation, two English correspondents approached and asked Mr. Churchill + for an interview. + </p> + <p> + "I will not talk to you," he almost shouted, bringing his fist + down upon the table. "You have no business to be in Belgium at this + time. Get out of the country at once." + </p> + <p> + It happened that my table was so close that I could not help but overhear + the request and the response, and I remember remarking to the friends who + were dining with me: "Had Mr. Churchill said that to me, I should + have answered him, 'I have as much business in Belgium at this time, sir, + as you had in Cuba during the Spanish- American War.'" + </p> + <p> + An hour later I was standing in the lobby talking to M. de Vos, the + Burgomaster of Antwerp, M. Louis Franck, the Antwerp member of the Chamber + of Deputies, American Consul-General Diederich and Vice-Consul General + Sherman, when Mr. Churchill rushed past us on his way to his room. He + impressed one as being always in a tearing hurry. The Burgomaster stopped + him, introduced himself, and expressed his anxiety regarding the fate of + the city. Before he had finished Churchill was part-way up the stairs. + </p> + <p> + "I think everything will be all right now, Mr. Burgomaster," he + called down in a voice which could be distinctly heard throughout the + lobby. "You needn't worry. We're going to save the city." + </p> + <p> + Whereupon most of the civilians present heaved sighs of relief. They felt + that a real sailor had taken the wheel. Those of us who were conversant + with the situation were also relieved because we took it for granted that + Mr. Churchill would not have made so confident and public an assertion + unless ample reinforcements in men and guns were on the way. Even then the + words of this energetic, impetuous young man did not entirely reassure me, + for from the windows of my room I could hear the German guns quite + plainly. They had come appreciably nearer. + </p> + <p> + That afternoon and the three days following Mr. Churchill spent in + inspecting the Belgian position. He repeatedly exposed himself upon the + firing-line and on one occasion, near Waelhem, had a rather narrow escape + from a burst of shrapnel. For some unexplainable reason the British + censorship cast a veil of profound secrecy over Mr. Churchill's visit to + Antwerp. The story of his arrival, just as I have related it above, I + telegraphed that same night to the New York World, yet it never got + through, nor did any of the other dispatches which I sent during his four + days' visit. In fact, it was not until after Antwerp had fallen that the + British public was permitted to learn that the Sea Lord had been in + Belgium. + </p> + <p> + Had it not been for the promises of reinforcements given to the King and + the Cabinet by Mr. Churchill, there is no doubt that the Government would + have departed for Ostend when originally planned and that the inhabitants + of Antwerp, thus warned of the extreme gravity of the situation, would + have had ample time to leave the city with a semblance of comfort and + order, for the railways leading to Ghent and to the Dutch frontier were + still in operation and the highways were then not blocked by a retreating + army. + </p> + <p> + The first of the promised reinforcements arrived on Sunday evening by + special train from Ostend. They consisted of a brigade of the Royal + Marines, perhaps two thousand men in all, well drilled and well armed, and + several heavy guns. They were rushed to the southern front and immediately + sent into the trenches to relieve the worn-out Belgians. On Monday and + Tuesday the balance of the British expeditionary force, consisting of + between five and six thousand men of the Volunteer Naval Reserve, arrived + from the coast, their ammunition and supplies being brought by road, via + Bruges and Ghent, in London motor-buses. When this procession of lumbering + vehicles, placarded with advertisements of teas, tobaccos, whiskies, and + current theatrical attractions and bearing the signs "Bank," + "Holborn," "Piccadilly," "Shepherd's Bush," + "Strand," rumbled through the streets of Antwerp, the populace + went mad. "The British had come at last! The city was saved! Vive les + Anglais! Vive Tommy Atkins!" + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders055.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="420" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + I witnessed the detrainment of the naval brigades at Vieux Dieu and + accompanied them to the trenches north of Lierre. As they tramped down the + tree-bordered, cobble-paved high road, we heard, for the first time in + Belgium, the lilting refrain of that music-hall ballad which had become + the English soldiers' marching song: + </p> + <p> + It's a long way to Tipperary, It's a long way to go; It's a long way to + Tipperary To the sweetest girl I know! Good-bye, Piccadilly! Farewell, + Leicester Square! It's a long, long way to Tipperary; But my heart's right + there! + </p> + <p> + Many and many a one of the light-hearted lads with whom I marched down the + Lierre road on that October afternoon were destined never again to feel + beneath their feet the flags of Piccadilly, never again to lounge in + Leicester Square. + </p> + <p> + They were as clean-limbed, pleasant-faced, wholesome-looking a lot of + young Englishmen as you would find anywhere, but to anyone who had had + military experience it was evident that, despite the fact that they were + vigorous and courageous and determined to do their best, they were not + "first-class fighting men." To win in war, as in the prize-ring, + something more than vigour and courage and determination are required; to + those qualities must be added experience and training, and experience and + training were precisely what those naval reservists lacked. Moreover, + their equipment left much to be desired. For example, only a very small + proportion had pouches to carry the regulation one hundred and fifty + rounds. They were, in fact, equipped very much as many of the American + militia organizations were equipped when suddenly called out for strike + duty in the days before the reorganization of the National Guard. Even the + officers--those, at least, with whom I talked--seemed to be as deficient + in field experience as the men. Yet these raw troops were rushed into + trenches which were in most cases unprotected by head-covers, and, though + unsupported by effective artillery, they held those trenches for three + days under as murderous a shell-fire as I have ever seen and then fell + back in perfect order. What the losses of the Naval Division were I do not + know. In Antwerp it was generally understood that very close to a fifth of + the entire force was killed or wounded--upwards of three hundred cases + were, I was told, treated in one hospital alone--and the British + Government officially announced that sixteen hundred were forced across + the frontier and interned in Holland. + </p> + <p> + No small part in the defence of the city was played by the much- + talked-about armoured train, which was built under the supervision of + Lieutenant-Commander Littlejohn in the yards of the Antwerp Engineering + Company at Hoboken. The train consisted of four large coal-trucks with + sides of armour-plate sufficiently high to afford protection to the crews + of the 4.7 naval guns--six of which were brought from England for the + purpose, though there was only time to mount four of them--and between + each gun-truck was a heavily- armoured goods-van for ammunition, the whole + being drawn by a small locomotive, also steel-protected. The guns were + served by Belgian artillerymen commanded by British gunners and each gun- + truck carried, in addition, a detachment of infantry in the event of the + enemy getting to close quarters. Personally, I am inclined to believe that + the chief value of this novel contrivance lay in the moral encouragement + it lent to the defence, for its guns, though more powerful, certainly, + than anything that the Belgians possessed, were wholly outclassed, both in + range and calibre, by the German artillery. The German officers whom I + questioned on the subject after the occupation told me that the fire of + the armoured train caused them no serious concern and did comparatively + little damage. + </p> + <p> + By Tuesday night a boy scout could have seen that the position of Antwerp + was hopeless. The Austrian siege guns had smashed and silenced the chain + of supposedly impregnable forts to the south of the city with the same + businesslike dispatch with which the same type of guns had smashed and + silenced those other supposedly impregnable forts at Liege and Namur. + Through the opening thus made a German army corps had poured to fling + itself against the second line of defence, formed by the Ruppel and the + Nethe. Across the Nethe, under cover of a terrific artillery fire, the + Germans threw their pontoon-bridges, and when the first bridges were + destroyed by the Belgian guns they built others, and when these were + destroyed in turn they tried again, and at the third attempt they + succeeded. With the helmeted legions once across the river, it was all + over but the shouting, and no one knew it better than the Belgians, yet, + heartened by the presence of the little handful of English, they fought + desperately, doggedly on. Their forts pounded to pieces by guns which they + could not answer, their ranks thinned by a murderous rain of shot and + shell, the men heavy-footed and heavy-eyed from lack of sleep, the horses + staggering from exhaustion, the ambulance service broken down, the + hospitals helpless before the flood of wounded, the trenches littered with + the dead and dying, they still held back the German legions. + </p> + <p> + By this time the region to the south of Antwerp had been transformed from + a peaceful, smiling country-side into a land of death and desolation. It + looked as though it had been swept by a great hurricane, filled with + lightning which had missed nothing. The blackened walls of what had once + been prosperous farm-houses, haystacks turned into heaps of smoking + carbon, fields slashed across with trenches, roads rutted and broken by + the great wheels of guns and transport wagons--these scenes were on every + hand. In the towns and villages along the Nethe, where the fighting was + heaviest, the walls of houses had fallen into the streets and piles of + furniture, mattresses, agricultural machinery, and farm carts showed where + the barricades and machine-guns had been. The windows of many of the + houses were stuffed with mattresses and pillows, behind which the riflemen + had made a stand. Lierre and Waelhem and Duffel were like sieves dripping + blood. Corpses were strewn everywhere. Some of the dead were spread-eagled + on their backs as though exhausted after a long march, some were twisted + and crumpled in attitudes grotesque and horrible, some were propped up + against the walls of houses to which they had tried to crawl in their + agony. + </p> + <p> + All of them stared at nothing with awful, unseeing eyes. It was one of the + scenes that I should like to forget. But I never can. + </p> + <p> + On Tuesday evening General de Guise, the military governor of Antwerp, + informed the Government that the Belgian position was fast becoming + untenable and, acting on this information, the capital of Belgium was + transferred from Antwerp to Ostend, the members of the Government and the + Diplomatic Corps leaving at daybreak on Wednesday by special steamer, + while at the same time Mr. Winston Churchill departed for the coast by + automobile under convoy of an armoured motorcar. His last act was to order + the destruction of the condensers of the German vessels in the harbour, + for which the Germans, upon occupying the city, demanded an indemnity of + twenty million francs. + </p> + <p> + As late as Wednesday morning the great majority of the inhabitants of + Antwerp remained in total ignorance of the real state of affairs. Morning + after morning the Matin and the Metropole had published official + communiqués categorically denying that any of the forts had been silenced + and asserting in the most positive terms that the enemy was being held in + check all along the line. As a result of this policy of denial and + deception, the people of Antwerp went to sleep on Tuesday night calmly + confident that in a few days more the Germans would raise the siege from + sheer discouragement and depart. Imagine what happened, then, when they + awoke on Wednesday morning, October 7, to learn that the Government had + stolen away between two days without issuing so much as a word of warning, + and to find staring at them from every wall and hoarding proclamations + signed by the military governor announcing that the bombardment of the + city was imminent, urging all who were able to leave instantly, and + advising those who remained to shelter themselves behind sand-bags in + their cellars. It was like waiting until the entire first floor of a house + was in flames and the occupants' means of escape almost cut off, before + shouting "Fire!" + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders044.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="426" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + No one who witnessed the exodus of the population from Antwerp will ever + forget it. No words can adequately describe it. It was not a flight; it + was a stampede. The sober, slow-moving, slow-thinking Flemish townspeople + were suddenly transformed into a herd of terror-stricken cattle. So + complete was the German enveloping movement that only three avenues of + escape remained open: westward, through St. Nicolas and Lokeren, to Ghent; + north- eastward across the frontier into Holland; down the Scheldt toward + Flushing. Of the half million fugitives--for the exodus was not confined + to the citizens of Antwerp but included the entire population of the + country-side for twenty miles around--probably fully a quarter of a + million escaped by river. Anything that could float was pressed into + service: merchant steamers, dredgers, ferry-boats, scows, barges, + canal-boats, tugs, fishing craft, yachts, rowing-boats, launches, even + extemporized rafts. There was no attempt to enforce order. The + fear-frantic people piled aboard until there was not even standing room on + the vessels' decks. Of all these thousands who fled by river, but an + insignificant proportion were provided with food or warm clothing or had + space in which to lie down. Yet through two nights they huddled together + on the open decks in the cold and the darkness while the great guns tore + to pieces the city they had left behind them. As I passed up the crowded + river in my launch on the morning after the first night's bombardment we + seemed to be followed by a wave of sound--a great murmur of mingled + anguish and misery and fatigue and hunger from the homeless thousands + adrift upon the waters. + </p> + <p> + The scenes along the highways were even more appalling, for here the + retreating soldiery and the fugitive civilians were mixed in inextricable + confusion. By mid-afternoon on Wednesday the road from Antwerp to Ghent, a + distance of forty miles, was a solid mass of refugees, and the same was + true of every road, every lane, every footpath leading in a westerly or a + northerly direction. The people fled in motor-cars and in carriages, in + delivery-wagons, in moving- vans, in farm-carts, in omnibuses, in vehicles + drawn by oxen, by donkeys, even by cows, on horseback, on bicycles, and + there were thousands upon thousands afoot. I saw men trundling + wheelbarrows piled high with bedding and with their children perched upon + the bedding. I saw sturdy young peasants carrying their aged parents in + their arms. I saw women of fashion in fur coats and high-heeled shoes + staggering along clinging to the rails of the caissons or to the ends of + wagons. I saw white-haired men and women grasping the harness of the + gun-teams or the stirrup- leathers of the troopers, who, themselves + exhausted from many days of fighting, slept in their saddles as they rode. + I saw springless farm-wagons literally heaped with wounded soldiers with + piteous white faces; the bottoms of the wagons leaked and left a trail of + blood behind them. A very old priest, too feeble to walk, was trundled by + two young priests in a handcart. A young woman, an expectant mother, was + tenderly and anxiously helped on by her husband. One of the saddest + features of all this dreadful procession was the soldiers, many of them + wounded, and so bent with fatigue from many days of marching and fighting + that they could hardly raise their feet. One infantryman who could bear + his boots no longer had tied them to the cleaning-rod of his rifle. + Another had strapped his boots to his cowhide knapsack and limped forward + with his swollen feet in felt slippers. Here were a group of Capuchin + monks abandoning their monastery; there a little party of white-faced nuns + shepherding the flock of children--many of them fatherless--who had been + entrusted to their care. The confusion was beyond all imagination, the + clamour deafening: the rattle of wheels, the throbbing of motors, the + clatter of hoofs, the cracking of whips, the curses of the drivers, the + groans of the wounded, the cries of women, the whimpering of children, + threats, pleadings, oaths, screams, imprecations, and always the + monotonous shuffle, shuffle, shuffle of countless weary feet. + </p> + <p> + The fields and the ditches between which these processions of disaster + passed were strewn with the prostrate forms of those who, from sheer + exhaustion, could go no further. And there was no food for them, no + shelter. Within a few hours after the exodus began the country-side was as + bare of food as the Sahara is of grass. Time after time I saw famished + fugitives pause at farmhouses and offer all of their pitifully few + belongings for a loaf of bread; but the kind- hearted country-people, with + tears streaming down their cheeks, could only shake their heads and tell + them that they had long since given all their food away. Old men and + fashionably gowned women and wounded soldiers went out into the fields and + pulled up turnips and devoured them raw--for there was nothing else to + eat. During a single night, near a small town on the Dutch frontier, + twenty women gave birth to children in the open fields. No one will ever + know how many people perished during that awful flight from hunger and + exposure and exhaustion; many more, certainly, than lost their lives in + the bombardment. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders049.jpg" alt="" width="399" + height="600" /> <img src="images/FightinginFlanders052.jpg" alt="" + width="385" height="600" /> + </p> + <p> + <a name="8"></a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <strong>VIII. The Fall Of Antwerp</strong> + </p> + <p> + The bombardment of Antwerp began about ten o'clock on the evening of + Wednesday, October 7. The first shell to fall within the city struck a + house in the Berchem district, killing a fourteen-year-old boy and + wounding his mother and little sister. The second decapitated a + street-sweeper as he was running for shelter. Throughout the night the + rain of death continued without cessation, the shells falling at the rate + of four or five a minute. The streets of the city were as deserted as + those of Pompeii. The few people who remained, either because they were + willing to take their chances or because they had no means of getting + away, were cowering in their cellars. Though the gas and electric lights + were out, the sky was rosy from the reflection of the petrol-tanks which + the Belgians had set on fire; now and then a shell would burst with the + intensity of magnesium, and the quivering beams of two searchlights on the + forts across the river still further lit up the ghastly scene. The noise + was deafening. The buildings seemed to rock and sway. The very pavements + trembled. Mere words are inadequate to give a conception of the horror of + it all. There would come the hungry whine of a shell passing low over the + house-tops, followed, an instant later, by a shattering crash, and the + whole facade of the building that had been struck would topple into the + street in a cascade of brick and stone and plaster. It was not until + Thursday night, however, that the Germans brought their famous forty-two- + centimetre guns into action. The effect of these monster cannon was + appalling. So tremendous was the detonation that it sounded as though the + German batteries were firing salvoes. The projectiles they were now + raining upon the city weighed a ton apiece and had the destructive + properties of that much nitroglycerine. We could hear them as they came. + They made a roar in the air which sounded at first like an approaching + express train, but which rapidly rose in volume until the atmosphere + quivered with the howl of a cyclone. Then would come an explosion which + jarred the city to its very foundations. + </p> + <p> + Over the shivering earth rolled great clouds of dust and smoke. When one + of these terrible projectiles struck a building it did not merely tear + away the upper stories or blow a gaping aperture in its walls: the whole + building crumbled, disintegrated, collapsed, as though flattened by a + mighty hand. When they exploded in the open street they not only tore a + hole in the pavement the size of a cottage cellar, but they sliced away + the facades of all the houses in the immediate vicinity, leaving their + interiors exposed, like the interiors upon a stage. Compared with the + "forty-twos" the shell and shrapnel fire of the first night's + bombardment was insignificant and harmless. The thickest masonry was + crumpled up like so much cardboard. The stoutest cellars were no + protection if a shell struck above them. It seemed as though at times the + whole city was coming down about our ears. Before the bombardment had been + in progress a dozen hours there was scarcely a street in the southern + quarter of the city-- save only the district occupied by wealthy Germans, + whose houses remained untouched--which was not obstructed by heaps of + fallen masonry. The main thoroughfares were strewn with fallen electric + light and trolley wires and shattered poles and branches lopped from + trees. The sidewalks were carpeted with broken glass. The air was heavy + with the acrid fumes of smoke and powder. Abandoned dogs howled mournfully + before the doors of their deserted homes. From a dozen quarters of the + city columns of smoke by day and pillars of fire by night rose against the + sky. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders045.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="421" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Owing to circumstances--fortunate or unfortunate, as one chooses to view + them--I was not in Antwerp during the first night's bombardment. You must + understand that a war correspondent, no matter how many thrilling and + interesting things he may be able to witness, is valueless to the paper + which employs him unless he is able to get to the end of a telegraph wire + and tell the readers of that newspaper what is happening. In other words, + he must not only gather the news but he must deliver it. Otherwise his + usefulness ceases. When, therefore, on Wednesday morning, the telegraph + service from Antwerp abruptly ended, all trains and boats stopped running, + and the city was completely cut off from communication with the outside + world, I left in my car for Ghent, where the telegraph was still in + operation, to file my dispatches. So dense was the mass of retreating + soldiery and fugitive civilians which blocked the approaches to the + pontoon-bridge, that it took me four hours to get across the Scheldt, and + another four hours, owing to the slow driving necessitated by the terribly + congested roads, to cover the forty miles to Ghent. I had sent my + dispatches, had had a hasty dinner, and was on the point of starting back + to Antwerp, when Mr. Johnson, the American Consul at Ostend, called me up + by telephone. He told me that the Minister of War, then at Ostend, had + just sent him a package containing the keys of buildings and dwellings + belonging to German residents of Antwerp who had been expelled at the + beginning of the war, with the request that they be transmitted to the + German commander immediately the German troops entered the city, as it was + feared that, were these places found to be locked, it might lead to the + doors being broken open and thus give the Germans a pretext for sacking. + Mr. Johnson asked me if I would remain in Ghent until he could come + through in his car with the keys and if I would assume the responsibility + of seeing that the keys reached the German commander. I explained to Mr. + Johnson that it was imperative that I should return to Antwerp + immediately; but when he insisted that, under the circumstances, it was + clearly my duty to take the keys through to Antwerp, I promised to await + his arrival, although by so doing I felt that I was imperilling the + interests of the newspaper which was employing me. Owing to the congested + condition of the roads Mr. Johnson was unable to reach Ghent until + Thursday morning. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders056.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="422" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + By this time the highroad between Ghent and Antwerp was utterly + impassable--one might as well have tried to paddle a canoe up the rapids + at Niagara as to drive a car against the current of that river of + terrified humanity--so, taking advantage of comparatively empty by- roads, + I succeeded in reaching Doel, a fishing village on the Scheldt a dozen + miles below Antwerp, by noon on Thursday. + </p> + <p> + By means of alternate bribes and threats, Roos, my driver, persuaded a + boatman to take us up to Antwerp in a small motor- launch over which, as a + measure of precaution, I raised an American flag. As long as memory lasts + there will remain with me, sharp and clear, the recollection of that + journey up the Scheldt, the surface of which was literally black with + vessels with their loads of silent misery. It was well into the afternoon + and the second day's bombardment was at its height when we rounded the + final bend in the river and the lace-like tower of the cathedral rose + before us. Shells were exploding every few seconds, columns of grey-green + smoke rose skyward, the air reverberated as though to a continuous peal of + thunder. As we ran alongside the deserted quays a shell burst with a + terrific crash in a street close by, and our boatman, panic-stricken, + suddenly reversed his engine and backed into the middle of the river. Roos + drew his pistol. + </p> + <p> + "Go ahead!" he commanded. "Run up to the quay so that we + can land." Before the grim menace of the automatic the man sullenly + obeyed. + </p> + <p> + "I've a wife and family at Doel," he muttered. "If I'm + killed there'll be no one to look after them." + </p> + <p> + "I've a wife and family in America," I retorted. "You're + taking no more chances than I am." + </p> + <p> + I am not in the least ashamed to admit, however, that as we ran alongside + the Red Star quays--the American flag was floating above them, by the + way--I would quite willingly have given everything I possessed to have + been back on Broadway again. A great city which has suddenly been deserted + by its population is inconceivably depressing. Add to this the fact that + every few seconds a shell would burst somewhere behind the row of + buildings that screened the waterfront, and that occasionally one would + clear the house-tops altogether and, moaning over our heads, would drop + into the river and send up a great geyser, and you will understand that + Antwerp was not exactly a cheerful place in which to land. There was not a + soul to be seen anywhere. Such of the inhabitants as remained had taken + refuge in their cellars, and just at that time a deep cellar would have + looked extremely good to me. On the other hand, as I argued with myself + there was really an exceedingly small chance of a shell exploding on the + particular spot where I happened to be standing, and if it did--well, it + seemed more dignified, somehow, to be killed in the open than to be + crushed to death in a cellar like a cornered rat. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders054.jpg" alt="" width="394" + height="600" /> <img src="images/FightinginFlanders005.jpg" alt="" + width="339" height="600" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + About ten o'clock in the evening the bombardment slackened for a time and + the inhabitants of Antwerp's underworld began to creep out of their + subterranean hiding-places and slink like ghosts along the quays in search + of food. The great quantities of food-stuffs and other provisions which + had been taken from the captured German vessels at the beginning of the + war had been stored in hastily- constructed warehouses upon the quays, and + it was not long before the rabble, undeterred by the fear of the police + and willing to chance the shells, had broken in the doors and were looting + to their hearts' content. As a man staggered past under a load of wine + bottles, tinned goods and cheeses, our boatman, who by this time had + become reconciled to sticking by us, inquired wistfully if he might do a + little looting too. "We've no food left down the river," he + urged, "and I might just as well get some of those provisions for my + family as to let the Germans take them." Upon my assenting he + disappeared into the darkness of the warehouse with a hand-truck. He was + not the sort who did his looting by retail, was that boatman. + </p> + <p> + By midnight Roos and I were shivering as though with ague, for the night + had turned cold, we had no coats, and we had been without food since + leaving Ghent that morning. "I'm going to do a little looting on my + own account." I finally announced. "I'm half frozen and almost + starved and I'm not going to stand around here while there's plenty to eat + and drink over in that warehouse." I groped my way through the + blackness to the doorway and entering, struck a match. By its flickering + light I saw a case filled with bottles in straw casings. From their shape + they looked to be bottles of champagne. I reached for one eagerly, but + just as my fingers closed about it a shell burst overhead. At least the + crash was so terrific that it seemed as though it had burst overhead, + though I learned afterward that it had exploded nearly a hundred yards + away. I ran for my life, clinging, however, to the bottle. "At any + rate, I've found something to drink," I said to Roos exultantly, when + my heart had ceased its pounding. Slipping off the straw cover I struck a + match to see the result of my maiden attempt at looting. I didn't + particularly care whether it was wine or brandy. Either would have tasted + good. It was neither. It was a bottle of pepsin bitters! + </p> + <p> + At daybreak we started at full speed down the river for Doel, where we had + left the car, as it was imperative that I should get to the end of a + telegraph wire, file my dispatches, and get back to the city. They told me + at Doel that the nearest telegraph office was at a little place called + L'Ecluse, on the Dutch frontier, ten miles away. We were assured that + there was a good road all the way and that we could get there and back in + an hour. So we could have in ordinary times, but these were extraordinary + times and the Belgians, in order to make things as unpleasant as possible + for the Germans, had opened the dykes and had begun to inundate the + country. When we were about half-way to L'Ecluse, therefore, we found our + way barred by a miniature river and no means of crossing it. It was in + such circumstances that Roos was invaluable. Collecting a force of + peasants, he set them to work chopping down trees and with these trees we + built a bridge sufficiently strong to support the weight of the car. Thus + we came into L'Ecluse. + </p> + <p> + But when the stolid Dutchman in charge of the telegraph office saw my + dispatches he shrugged his shoulders discouragingly. "It is not + possible to send them from here," he explained. "We have no + instrument here but have to telephone everything to Hulst, eight miles + away. As I do not understand English it would be impossible to telephone + your dispatches." There seemed nothing for it but to walk to Hulst + and back again, for the Dutch officials refused to permit me to take the + car, which was a military one, across the frontier. Just at that moment a + young Belgian priest--Heaven bless him!--who had overheard the discussion, + approached me. "If you will permit me, monsieur," said he, + "I will be glad to take your dispatches through to Hulst myself. I + understand their importance. And it is well that the people in England and + in America should learn what is happening here in Belgium and how bitterly + we need their aid." Those dispatches were, I believe, the only ones + to come out of Antwerp during the bombardment. The fact that the newspaper + readers in London and New York and San Francisco were enabled to learn + within a few hours of what had happened in the great city on the Scheldt + was due, not to any efforts of mine, but to this little Belgian priest. + </p> + <p> + But when we got back to Doel the launch was gone. The boatman, evidently + not relishing another taste of bombardment, had decamped, taking his + launch with him. And neither offers of money nor threats nor pleadings + could obtain me another one. For a time it looked as though getting back + to Antwerp was as hopeless as getting to the moon. Just as I was on the + point of giving up in despair, Roos appeared with a gold-laced official + whom he introduced as the chief quarantine officer. "He is going to + let you take the quarantine launch," said he. I don't know just what + arguments Roos had brought to bear, and I was careful not to inquire, but + ten minutes later I was sitting in lonely state on the after- deck of a + trim black yacht and we were streaking it up the river at twenty miles an + hour. As I knew that the fall of the city was only a matter of hours, I + refused to let Roos accompany me and take the chances of being made a + prisoner by the Germans, but ordered him instead to take the car, while + there was yet time, and make his way to Ostend. I never saw him again. By + way of precaution, in case the Germans should already be in possession of + the city, I had taken the two American flags from the car and hoisted them + on the launch, one from the mainmast and the other at the taffrail. It was + a certain satisfaction to know that the only craft that went the wrong way + of the river during the bombardment flew the Stars and Stripes. As we came + within sight of the quays, the bombardment, which had become intermittent, + suddenly broke out afresh and I was compelled to use both bribes and + threats--the latter backed up by a revolver--to induce the crew of the + launch to run in and land me at the quay. An hour after I landed the city + surrendered. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders050.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="429" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + The withdrawal of the garrison from Antwerp began on Thursday and, + everything considered, was carried out in excellent order, the troops + being recalled in units from the outer line, marched through the city and + across the pontoon-bridge which spans the Scheldt and thence down the road + to St. Nicolas to join the retreating field army. What was implied in the + actual withdrawal from contact with the enemy will be appreciated when I + explain the conditions which existed. In places the lines were not two + hundred yards apart and for the defenders no movement was possible during + the daylight. Many of the men in the firing-line had been on duty for + nearly a hundred hours and were utterly worn out both mentally and + physically. Such water and food as they had were sent to them at night, + for any attempt to cross the open spaces in the daytime the Germans met + with fierce bursts of rifle and machine-gun fire. The evacuation of the + trenches was, therefore, a most difficult and dangerous operation and that + it was carried out with so comparatively small loss speaks volumes for the + ability of the officers to whom the direction of the movement was + entrusted, as does the successful accomplishment of the retreat from + Antwerp into West Flanders along a road which was not only crowded with + refugees but was constantly threatened by the enemy. The chief danger was, + of course, that the Germans would cross the river at Termonde in force and + thus cut off the line of retreat towards the coast, forcing the whole + Belgian army and the British contingent across the frontier of Holland. To + the Belgian cavalry and carabineer cyclists and to the armoured cars was + given the task of averting this catastrophe, and it is due to them that + the Germans were held back for a sufficient time to enable practically the + whole of the forces evacuating Antwerp to escape. That a large proportion + of the British Naval Reserve divisions were pushed across the frontier and + interned was not due to any fault of the Belgians, but, in some cases at + least, to their officer's misconception of the attitude of Holland. Just + as I was leaving Doel on my second trip up the river, a steamer loaded to + the guards with British naval reservists swung in to the wharf, but, to my + surprise, the men did not start to disembark. Upon inquiring of some one + where they were bound for I was told that they were going to continue down + the Scheldt to Terneuzen. Thereupon I ordered the launch to run alongside + and clambered aboard the steamer. + </p> + <p> + "I understand," said I, addressing a group of officers who + seemed to be as much in authority as anyone, "that you are keeping on + down the river to Terneuzen? That is not true, is it?" + </p> + <p> + They looked at me as though I had walked into their club in Pall Mall and + had spoken to them without an introduction. + </p> + <p> + "It is," said one of them coldly. "What about it?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh, nothing much," said I, "except that three miles down + this river you'll be in Dutch territorial waters, whereupon you will all + be arrested and held as prisoners until the end of the war. It's really + none of my business, I know, but I feel that I ought to warn you." + </p> + <p> + "How very extraordinary," remarked one of them, screwing a + monocle into his eye. "We're not at war with Holland are we? So why + should the bally Dutchmen want to trouble us?" + </p> + <p> + There was no use arguing with them, so I dropped down the ladder into the + launch and gave the signal for full steam ahead. As I looked back I saw + the steamer cast off from the wharf and, swinging slowly out into the + river, point her nose down-stream toward Holland. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders008.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="411" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + On Friday morning, October 9, General de Guise, the military governor of + Antwerp, ordered the destruction of the pontoon-bridge across the Scheldt, + which was now the sole avenue of retreat from the city. The mines which + were exploded beneath it did more damage to the buildings along the + waterfront than to the bridge, however, only the middle spans of which + were destroyed. When the last of the retreating Belgians came pouring down + to the waterfront a few hours later to find their only avenue of escape + gone, for a time scenes of the wildest confusion ensued, the men + frantically crowding aboard such vessels as remained at the wharves or + opening fire on those which were already in midstream and refused to + return in answer to their summons. I wish to emphasise the fact, however, + that these were but isolated incidents; that these men were exhausted in + mind and body from many days of fighting against hopeless odds; and that, + as a whole, the Belgian troops bore themselves, in this desperate and + trying situation, with a courage and coolness deserving of the highest + admiration. I have heard it said in England that the British Naval + Division was sent to Antwerp "to stiffen the Belgians." That may + have been the intention, the coming of the English certainly relieved some + and comforted others in the trenches. But in truth the Belgians needed no + stiffening. They did everything that any other troops could have done + under the same circumstances--and more. Nor did the men of the Naval + Division, as has been frequently asserted in England, cover the Belgian + retreat. The last troops to leave the trenches were Belgians, the last + shots were fired by Belgians, and the Belgians were the last to cross the + river. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders006.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="403" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + At noon on Friday General de Guise and his staff having taken refuge in + Fort St. Philippe, a few miles below Antwerp on the Scheldt, the officer + in command of the last line of defence sent word to the burgomaster that + his troops could hold out but a short time longer and suggested that the + time had arrived for him to go out to the German lines under a flag of + truce and secure the best terms possible for the city. As the burgomaster, + M. de Vos, accompanied by Deputy Louis Franck, Communal Councillor + Ryckmans and the Spanish Consul (it was expected that the American + Consul-General would be one of the parlementaires, but it was learned that + he had left the day before for Ghent) went out of the city by one gate, + half a dozen motor-cars filled with German soldiers entered through the + Porte de Malines, sped down the broad, tree-shaded boulevards which lead + to the centre of the city, and drew up before the Hotel de Ville. In + answer to the summons of a young officer in a voluminous grey cloak the + door was cautiously opened by a servant in the blue- and-silver livery of + the municipality. + </p> + <p> + "I have a message to deliver to the members of the Communal Council," + said the officer politely. + </p> + <p> + "The councillors are at dinner and cannot be disturbed," was the + firm reply. "But if monsieur desires he can sit down and wait for + them." So the young officer patiently seated himself on a wooden + bench while his men ranged themselves along one side of the hall. After a + delay of perhaps twenty minutes the door of the dining-room opened and a + councillor appeared, wiping his moustache. + </p> + <p> + "I understand that you have a message for the Council. Well, what is + it?" he demanded pompously. + </p> + <p> + The young officer clicked his heels together and bowed from the waist. + </p> + <p> + "The message I am instructed to give you, sir," he said + politely, "is that Antwerp is now a German city. You are requested by + the general commanding his Imperial Majesty's forces so to inform your + townspeople and to assure them that they will not be molested so long as + they display no hostility towards our troops." + </p> + <p> + While this dramatic little scene was being enacted in the historic setting + of the Hotel de Ville, the burgomaster, unaware that the enemy was already + within the city gates, was conferring with the German commander, who + informed him that if the outlying forts were immediately surrendered no + money indemnity would be demanded from the city, though all merchandise + found in its warehouses would be confiscated. + </p> + <p> + The first troops to enter were a few score cyclists, who advanced + cautiously from street to street and from square to square until they + formed a network of scouts extending over the entire city. After them, at + the quick-step, came a brigade of infantry and hard on the heels of the + infantry clattered half a dozen batteries of horse artillery. These passed + through the city to the waterfront at a spanking trot, unlimbered on the + quays and opened fire with shrapnel on the retreating Belgians, who had + already reached the opposite side of the river. Meanwhile a company of + infantry started at the double across the pontoon-bridge, evidently + unaware that its middle spans had been destroyed. Without an instant's + hesitation two soldiers threw off their knapsacks, plunged into the river, + swam across the gap, clambered up on to the other portion of the bridge + and, in spite of a heavy fire from the fort at the Tete de Flandre, dashed + forward to reconnoitre. That is the sort of deed that wins the Iron Cross. + Within little more than an hour after reaching the waterfront the Germans + had brought up their engineers, the bridge had been repaired, the fire + from Fort St. Anne had been silenced, and their troops were pouring across + the river in a steady stream in pursuit of the Belgians. The grumble of + field-guns, which continued throughout the night, told us that they had + overtaken the Belgian rearguard. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders007.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="440" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + Though the bombardment ended early on Friday afternoon, Friday night was + by no means lacking in horrors, for early in the evening fires, which owed + their origin to shells, broke out in a dozen parts of the city. The most + serious one by far was in the narrow, winding thoroughfare known as the + Marche aux Souliers, which runs from the Place Verte to the Place de Meir. + By eight o'clock the entire western side of this street was a sheet of + flame. The only spectators were groups of German soldiers, who watched the + threatened destruction of the city with complete indifference, and several + companies of firemen who had turned out, I suppose, from force of + training, but who stood helplessly beside their empty hose lines, for + there was no water. I firmly believe that the saving of a large part of + Antwerp, including the cathedral, was due to an American resident, Mr. + Charles Whithoff, who, recognizing the extreme peril in which the city + stood, hurried to the Hotel de Ville and suggested to the German military + authorities that they should prevent the spread of flames by dynamiting + the adjacent buildings. Acting promptly on this suggestion, a telephone + message was sent to Brussels, and four hours later several automobiles + loaded with hand grenades came tearing into Antwerp. A squad of soldiers + was placed under Mr. Whithoff's orders and, following his directions, they + blew up a cordon of buildings and effectually isolated the flames. I shall + not soon forget the figure of this young American, in bedroom slippers and + smoking jacket, coolly instructing German soldiers in the most approved + methods of fire fighting. Nearly a week before the surrender of the city, + the municipal waterworks, near Lierre, had been destroyed by shells from + the German siege guns, so that when the Germans entered the city the + sanitary conditions had become intolerable and an epidemic was impending. + So scarce did water become during the last few days of the siege that + when, on the evening of the surrender, I succeeded in obtaining a bottle + of Apollinaris I debated with myself whether I should use it for washing + or drinking. I finally compromised by drinking part of it and washing in + the rest. + </p> + <p> + The Germans were by no means blind to the peril of an epidemic, and, + before they had been three hours in occupation of the city their medical + corps was at work cleaning and disinfecting. Every contingency, in fact, + seemed to have been anticipated and provided for. Every phase of the + occupation was characterized by the German passion for method and order. + The machinery of the municipal health department was promptly set in + motion. The police were ordered to take up their duties as though no + change in government had occurred. The train service to Brussels, Holland + and Germany restored. Stamps surcharged "Fur Belgien" were put + on sale at the post office. The electric lighting system was repaired and + on Saturday night, for the first time since the Zeppelin's memorable visit + the latter part of August, Antwerp was again ablaze with light. When, + immediately after the occupation, I hurried to the American Consulate with + the package of keys which I had brought from Ghent, I was somewhat + surprised, to put it mildly, to find the consulate closed and to learn + from the concierge, who, with his wife, had remained in the building + throughout the bombardment, that Consul-General Diederich and his entire + staff had left the city on Thursday morning. + </p> + <p> + I was particularly surprised because I knew that, upon the departure of + the British Consul-General, Sir Cecil Hertslet, some days before, the + enormous British interests in Antwerp had been confided to American + protection. The concierge, who knew me and seemed decidedly relieved to + see me, made no objection to opening the consulate and letting me in. + While deliberating as to the best method of transmitting the keys which + had been entrusted to me to the German military governor without informing + him of the embarrassing fact that the American and British interests in + the city were without official representation, those Americans and British + who had remained in the city during the bombardment began to drop in. Some + of them were frightened and all of them were plainly worried, the women in + particular, among whom were several British Red Cross nurses, seeming + fearful that the soldiers might get out of hand. As there was no one else + to look after these people, and as I had formerly been in the consular + service myself, and as they said quite frankly that they would feel + relieved if I took charge of things, I decided to "sit on the lid," + as it were, until the Consul-General's return. In assuming charge of + British and American affairs in Antwerp, at the request and with the + approval what remained of the Anglo-American colony in that city, I am + quite aware that I acted in a manner calculated to scandalize those + gentlemen who have been steeped in the ethics of diplomacy. As one youth + attached to the American Embassy in London remarked, it was "the + damndest piece of impertinence" of which he had ever heard. But he is + quite a young gentleman, and has doubtless had more experience in + ballrooms than in bombarded cities. I immediately wrote a brief note to + the German commander transmitting the keys and informing him that, in the + absence of the American Consul-General I had assumed charge of American + and British interests in Antwerp, and expected the fullest protection for + them, to which I received a prompt and courteous reply assuring me that + foreigners would not be molested in any way. In the absence of the + consular staff, Thompson volunteered to act as messenger and deliver my + message to the German commander. While on his way to the Hotel de Ville, + which was being used as staff headquarters, a German infantry regiment + passed him in a narrow street. Because he failed to remove his hat to the + colours a German officer struck him twice with the flat of his sword, only + desisting when Thompson pulled a silk American flag from his pocket. Upon + learning of this occurrence I vigorously protested to the military + authorities, who offered profuse apologies for the incident and assured me + that the officer would be punished if Thompson could identify him. + Consul-General Diederich returned to Antwerp on Monday and I left the same + day for the nearest telegraph station in Holland. + </p> + <p> + The whole proceeding was irregular and unauthorized, of course, but for + that matter so was the German invasion of Belgium. In any event, it seemed + the thing to do and I did it, and, under the same circumstances I should + do precisely the same thing over again. + </p> + <p> + Though a very large force of German troops passed through Antwerp during + the whole of Friday night in pursuit of the retreating Belgians, the + triumphal entry of the victors did not begin until Saturday afternoon, + when sixty thousand men passed in review before the military governor, + Admiral von Schroeder, and General von Beseler, who, surrounded by a + glittering staff, sat their horses in front of the royal palace. So far as + onlookers were concerned, the Germans might as well have marched through + the streets of ruined Babylon. Thompson and I, standing in the windows of + the American Consulate, were the only spectators in the entire length of + the mile- long Place de Meir--which is the Piccadilly of Antwerp--of the + great military pageant. The streets were absolutely deserted; every + building was dark, every window shuttered; in a thoroughfare which had + blossomed with bunting a few days before, not a flag was to be seen. I + think that even the Germans were a little awed by the deathly silence that + greeted them. As Thompson drily remarked, "It reminds me of a circus + that's come to town the day before it's expected." + </p> + <p> + For five hours that mighty host poured through the canons of brick and + stone: + </p> + <p> + Above the bugle's din, Sweating beneath their haversacks, With rifles + bristling on their backs, The dusty men trooped in. + </p> + <p> + Company after company, regiment after regiment, brigade after brigade + swept by until our eyes grew weary with watching the ranks of grey under + the slanting lines of steel. As they marched they sang, the high buildings + along the Place de Meir and the Avenue de Keyser echoing to their voices + thundering out "Die Wacht Am Rhein," "Deutschland, + Deutschland Uber Alles" and "Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott." + Though the singing was mechanical, like the faces of the men who sang, the + mighty volume of sound, punctuated at regular intervals by the shrill + music of the fifes and the rattle of the drums, and accompanied always by + the tramp, tramp, tramp of iron- shod boots, was one of the most + impressive things that I have ever heard. Each regiment was headed by its + field music and colours, and when darkness fell and the street lights were + turned on, the shriek of the fifes and the clamour of the drums and the + rhythmic tramp of marching feet reminded me of a torchlight political + parade at home. + </p> + <p> + At the head of the column rode a squadron of gendarmes--the policemen of + the army--gorgeous in uniforms of bottle-green and silver and mounted on + sleek and shining horses. After them came the infantry: solid columns of + grey-clad figures with the silhouettes of the mounted officers rising at + intervals above the forest of spike- crowned helmets. After the infantry + came the field artillery, the big guns rattling and rumbling over the + cobblestones, the cannoneers sitting with folded arms and heels drawn in, + and wooden faces, like servants on the box of a carriage. These were the + same guns that had been in almost constant action for the preceding + fortnight and that for forty hours had poured death and destruction into + the city, yet both men and horses were in the very pink of condition, as + keen as razors, and as hard as nails; the blankets, the buckets, the + knapsacks, the intrenching tools were all strapped in their appointed + places, and the brown leather harness was polished like a lady's tan + shoes. After the field batteries came the horse artillery and after the + horse artillery the pom-poms--each drawn by a pair of sturdy draught + horses driven with web reins by a soldier sitting on the limber--and after + the pom-poms an interminable line of machine- guns, until one wondered + where Krupp's found the time and the steel to make them all. Then, + heralded by a blare of trumpets and a crash of kettledrums, came the + cavalry; cuirassiers with their steel helmets and breastplates covered + with grey linen, hussars in befrogged grey jackets and fur busbies, also + linen-covered, and finally the Uhlans, riding amid a forest of lances + under a cloud of fluttering pennons. But this was not all, nor nearly all, + for after the Uhlans came the sailors of the naval division, brown-faced, + bewhiskered fellows with their round, flat caps tilted rakishly and the + roll of the sea in their gait; then the Bavarians in dark blue, the Saxons + in light blue, and the Austrians--the same who had handled the big guns so + effectively--in uniforms of a beautiful silver grey. Accompanying one of + the Bavarian regiments was a victoria drawn by a fat white horse, with two + soldiers on the box. Horse and carriage were decorated with flowers as + though for a floral parade at Nice; even the soldiers had flowers pinned + to their caps and nosegays stuck in their tunics. The carriage was + evidently a sort of triumphal chariot dedicated to the celebration of the + victory, for it was loaded with hampers of champagne and violins! + </p> + <p> + The army which captured Antwerp was, first, last and all the time, a + fighting army. There was not a Landsturm or a Landwehr regiment in it. The + men were as pink-cheeked as athletes; they marched with the buoyancy of + men in perfect health. And yet the human element was lacking; there was + none of the pomp and panoply commonly associated with man; these men in + grey were merely wheels and cogs and bolts and screws in a great + machine--the word which has been used so often of the German army, yet + must be repeated, because there is no other--whose only purpose is death. + As that great fighting machine swung past, remorseless as a trip-hammer, + efficient as a steam-roller, I could not but marvel how the gallant, + chivalrous, and heroic but ill-prepared little army of Belgium had held it + back so long. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + <img src="images/FightinginFlanders013.jpg" alt="" width="600" + height="421" /> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <hr /> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + <div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11394 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11394-h/images/Fighting in Flanders - 000.jpg b/11394-h/images/Fighting in Flanders - 000.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 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