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diff --git a/11394-0.txt b/11394-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a13376f --- /dev/null +++ b/11394-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4315 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11394 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 11394-h.htm or 11394-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/3/9/11394/11394-h/11394-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/3/9/11394/11394-h.zip) + + + + + +Fighting In Flanders + +By E. Alexander Powell + +Special Correspondent Of The New York World With The Belgian +Forces In The Field + +Author of "The Last Frontier" "Gentlemen Ravers," "The End of the +Trail," "The Road to Glory," etc. + +With Illustrations From Photographs By Mr. Donald Thompson + + + + + + +To +My Friends +The Belgians + +"I have eaten your bread and salt; +I have drunk your water and wine; +The deaths you died I have sat beside +And the lives that you led were mine." + +RUDYARD KIPLING. + + + + + +Contents + + +Foreword + + I. The War Correspondents + + II. The City Of Gloom + + III. The Death In The Air + + IV. Under The German Eagle + + V. With The Spiked Helmets + + VI. On The Belgian Battle-Line + + VII. The Coming Of The British + +VIII. The Fall Of Antwerp + +Appendix + + + + +Foreword + +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. + +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. + +E. Alexander Powell + +London, November 1, 1914. + + + + + +I. The War Correspondents + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"Will I?" said she, sweetly. "Well, you surely don't expect me to be +killed with my nose unpowdered, do you?" + +That evening I asked her for her impressions of her first battle. + +"Well," she answered, after a meditative pause, "it certainly was +very chic." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"How many languages do you speak?" I asked him. + +"Three," said he. "English, American, and Yankee." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +II. The City Of Gloom + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"Halt!" he commanded quaveringly. "Advance slowly and give the +word." + +I leaned out as the car came opposite him. "Kalamazoo," I whispered. +The next instant I was looking into the muzzle of his rifle. + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Take that cigar out of your mouth!" snapped the major in French. +"How dare you smoke in my presence?" + +"Sorry, major," said Thompson, grinning broadly, "but you'll have to +talk American. I don't understand French." + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +III. The Death In The Air + + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"I'm going to change hotels to-day," I heard a man remark to a +friend. + +"Why?" inquired the other. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +IV. Under The German Eagle + + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Halt!" + +I jammed on the brakes so suddenly that we nearly went through +the windshield. + +"Get out of the automobile and stand well away from it," the officer +commanded in German. We got out very promptly. + +"One of you advance alone, with his hands up." + +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. + +"Are you English?" the officer demanded, none too pleasantly. + +"No, American," said I. + +"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." + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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.) + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Go back!" shouted the sentry. "To walk across the square +forbidden is." + +"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." + +This latter argument being obviously unanswerable, the befuddled +sentry saw nothing for it but to let him pass. + +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. + +"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--" + +"A few days won't do, General," Van Hee interrupted, "I must go +back to-day, at once." + +"I regret to say that for the time being it is quite impossible," +said the general firmly. + +"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." + +"You hold a winning hand, Mr. Van Hee," said the general, laughing, +as he reached for pen and paper. + +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. + + + + +V. With The Spiked Helmets + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +As we were passing a German outpost a sentry ran into the road +and signalled us to stop. + +"Are you Americans?" he asked. + +"We are," said I. + +"Then I have orders to take you to the commandant," said he. + +"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." + +"No matter," the man insisted stubbornly. "You must come with me. +The commander has so ordered it." + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +The general began by asserting that the accounts of atrocities +perpetrated by German troops on Belgian non-combatants were +lies. + +"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?" + +"Three days ago, General," said I, "I was in Aerschot. The whole +town is now but a ghastly, blackened ruin." + +"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." + +"But why wreak your vengeance on women and children?" I asked. + +"None have been killed," the general asserted positively. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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?" + +The general seemed taken aback by the exactness of my +information. + +"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." + +"Apropos of Louvain," I remarked, "why did you destroy the library?" + +"We regretted that as much as anyone else," was the answer. "It +caught fire from burning houses and we could not save it." + +"But why did you burn Louvain at all?" I asked. + +"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." + +"How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?" I +inquired. + +"Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs only on fortifications and +soldiers," he answered. + +"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." + +"That is a calamity which, thank God, didn't happen," he replied. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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. + +A field battery of the Imperial Guard rumbled past and Thompson +made some remark about the accuracy of the American gunners at +Vera Cruz. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + + + + +VI. On The Belgian Battle-Line + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + + + + +VII. The Coming Of The British + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Are you leaving with the others, Mr. Powell?" he whispered. + +"Leaving for where? With what others?" I asked sharply. + +"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." + +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. + +"Why, Count!" I exclaimed, "I had supposed that you were well on +your way to Ostend by this time." + +"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." + +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. + +While lunching with Sir Francis Villiers and the staff of the British +Legation, two English correspondents approached and asked Mr. +Churchill for an interview. + +"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." + +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.'" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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: + + +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! + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +VIII. The Fall Of Antwerp + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"I've a wife and family at Doel," he muttered. "If I'm killed there'll be +no one to look after them." + +"I've a wife and family in America," I retorted. "You're taking no more +chances than I am." + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +They looked at me as though I had walked into their club in Pall Mall +and had spoken to them without an introduction. + +"It is," said one of them coldly. "What about it?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"I have a message to deliver to the members of the Communal +Council," said the officer politely. + +"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. + +"I understand that you have a message for the Council. Well, what +is it?" he demanded pompously. + +The young officer clicked his heels together and bowed from the +waist. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +For five hours that mighty host poured through the canons of brick +and stone: + +Above the bugle's din, +Sweating beneath their haversacks, +With rifles bristling on their backs, +The dusty men trooped in. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11394 *** |