FALL OF ANTWERP

Great Seaport of Belgium Besieged by a Large German Force—Forts Battered by Heavy Siege Guns—Final Surrender of the City—Belgian and British Defenders Escape—Exodus of Inhabitants—Germans Reach the Sea.

When the battle of the Marne ended in favor of the Allies and the Germans retired to take up a defensive position along the Aisne, the Belgian army renewed its activities against the invader. With the fortified city of Antwerp as their base, the Belgians began (on September 10) an active campaign, having for its object the reoccupation of their cities and towns which had been taken and garrisoned by German troops. In some cases they were successful in regaining possession of points which they had been forced to abandon during the German advance in August, and there were many hot encounters with the Germans who were left to hold open the German lines of communication through Belgium, But the forces of the Kaiser were too numerous and too mobile for successful opposition, and soon the Belgian army, despite the most gallant efforts, was compelled once more to retire behind the outer forts of Antwerp and there await the coming of an enemy who was approaching in force.

Great credit must be given to the Belgian army for the patriotic manner in which it met the sudden invasion by the Germans, and for its continued resistance against tremendous odds. Inspired by the example of King Albert and his devoted Queen, who spent most of their time with the Belgian forces in the field, and shared with them the vicissitudes of war, the defenders of Belgium fought with the utmost pertinacity. The resistance of the Belgians when invaded, and the success of the Allies in halting the advance upon Paris and turning it into a retreat at the Marne, appear to have inflamed the German generals with a desire to crush Belgium completely under an iron heel. An object lesson of the power and possibilities of the great fighting machine must be given somewhere. Halted in France by the Franco-British armies and meeting with varying fortunes against the Russian hosts in the eastern campaign, Germany chose to make Belgium once more the international cockpit and hurled an army against Antwerp. This move, if successful (as it proved to be) would serve two purposes—first, the further punishment of Belgium for her unexpected resistance, and second, the striking of a direct blow at Great Britain, the possession of Antwerp being strategically regarded as "a pistol leveled at the head of London."

THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP

In the third week of September the Germans, having massed a force believed to be sufficient for the capture of Antwerp, brought up their heavy Krupp siege guns which had been used successfully at LiÈge and Namur, and planted them within their seven-mile range, so as to command the outer belt of forts east and south of the city. [See map of the fortifications of Antwerp on page 102.] These huge howitzers were reinforced by heavy siege guns furnished by Austria. The fortification system of Antwerp was believed by its builders to be practically impregnable, but they had not reckoned with the tremendous shattering power and great range of the latest Krupp siege guns. For Antwerp was destined to fall, her outer and inner defenses broken down, within ten days from the time the siege began in earnest.

BRITISH MARINES AID DEFENDERS

The number of German troops engaged before Antwerp was variously estimated at from 80,000 to 200,000. The siege proper began on Tuesday, September 29. For more than a week previously there had been daily engagements in the suburbs of the city and on several occasions the Belgians made a sortie in force, only to encounter overwhelming numbers of the German enemy, before whom they were compelled to retire behind the shelter of the forts. In all these engagements the Belgians gave a good account of themselves and inflicted severe losses on the enemy. But the odds against them were too great and then when the great siege guns began to thunder, it was soon realized that the city was in imminent danger.

King Albert did all in his power to encourage the defense and by his presence among his troops on the firing lines around the city added greatly to his reputation as a patriotic soldier. A force of several thousand British marines, coming from Ostend, aided the Belgian defense in the last days of the siege, but all efforts were unavailing. One by one the forts succumbed to the German fire with which the Belgian guns could not cope, and German troops penetrated nearer and nearer to the doomed city.

Finally, on October 9, when the inhabitants were in a state of terror as a result of the long-continued bombardment of the forts, and the shelling of the city, further resistance was seen to be useless, the defending forces, Belgian and British, made their escape to Ostend or into the neutral territory of Holland, the city formally capitulated through the Burgomaster, and occupation by the Germans followed immediately. The bulk of the British marines made their way back to Ostend, but a rearguard, consisting of 2,000 British, together with some Belgians, was cut off by the advance of the Germans across the Scheldt, and rather than surrender to them marched across the border into Holland and surrendered arms to the Dutch authorities. The men were interned and will be held in Holland till the end of the war. It is probable that this rearguard was deliberately sacrificed to enable the Anglo-Belgian army to make good its retreat.

The fate of Antwerp shows what might have happened to Paris had the Germans been able to bring up their great siege guns to the outer fortifications of the French capital and protect them while they performed their tremendous task of battering the defenses to pieces. The wrecking of Antwerp's outer and inner forts in ten days proves that solid, massive concrete, chilled steel and well-planned earthworks afford little or no security against the monstrous cannon of the Kaiser's armies. There appeared to be but one way of withstanding them.

As seems to have been demonstrated in the valley of the Aisne, they are apparently ineffective against field forces deeply intrenched in a far-flung line.

THE FIGHTING OUTSIDE ANTWERP

Early on Tuesday morning, October 6, one of the fiercest of the engagements outside Antwerp ended with the crossing of the River Nethe by the Germans and their approach to the inner forts. Monday had been the sixth day of the siege and the Belgian army was fighting with reckless courage to save Antwerp. As a precaution, the boilers of all the German ships lying in the harbor were exploded on Sunday, in order to prevent, if possible, use of these ships as transports for German troops across the North Sea or elsewhere. The detonation of the bursting boilers, resounding through the city, set the excited Sunday crowd very near to a panic. This was accelerated by the constant fear of airship attacks, and most of the population that was not already in active flight from the city sought safety in cellars.

The entire war has presented no greater picture of desolation than that of the hosts fleeing from the last Belgian stronghold. For forty-eight hours before the city fell great crowds of the citizens, dumb with terror as the huge German shells hurtled over their heads, were fleeing toward England and Holland in such numbers that the hospitality of those countries was likely to be taxed to the utmost.

The suburban town of Lierre was bombarded early in the week, the church was destroyed, and a number of citizens killed and wounded. The next day; the village of Duffel was bombarded and the population fled into Antwerp. Many still had confidence in the ability of the Antwerp forts to withstand the German attack.

Although the Germans succeeded in crossing the Nethe, their repeated attempts to effect a passage over the Scheldt were repulsed and they then concentrated their attention on an approach to Antwerp from the southeast. In their trenches the Belgians resisted gallantly to the last. "Most wonderful," said an American observer on October 7, "is the patient, unfaltering courage of the average Belgian soldier, who has been fighting for nine weeks. Tired, with hollow eyes, unkempt, unwashed and provided with hasty, though ample, meals, he is spending most of the time in the trenches.

"King Albert, the equal of any soldier in his devotion to duty, daily exposes himself to personal danger, while the Queen is devoting her time to the hospitals."

The effect of the German siege artillery was especially destructive near Vosburg. Several villages suffered heavily and the barracks at Contich were wrecked. The forts at Waelhem and Wavre-St. Catherines were totally destroyed by the terrific shell fire.

Most of the fighting around Antwerp was a battle of Krupps against men. Every day and night the fighting continued with deadly effect against the forts, while the shrapnel and shell made many of the trenches untenable.

As fast as the Belgians were compelled to withdraw from a position the Germans moved up and occupied it. The Belgians fought stubbornly with infantry and frequently they repulsed the Germans, but these repulses always meant a renewal of the artillery attacks by the Germans, with the eventual retirement of the Belgians until the end of endurance was reached and the city defenses were evacuated by their brave garrison.

An instance of the tenacity with which the infantry stuck to their positions was reported from the Berlaere, where the commanding officer and his aid-de-camp were in one of the most exposed positions. Sandbags protected them for some time, but at last the aid-de-camp was struck by shrapnel and had his face virtually blown away. Unperturbed by this terrible proof of the danger of his position, the commanding officer stuck to his post, and for further shelter placed the body of his junior over his body. In this position he lay firing, whenever possible, from o'clock in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.

FIERCE FIGHT TO CROSS NETHE

The crossing of the River Nethe was attended by great loss to the Germans. They hurled their infantry recklessly against the Belgian trenches, and while they lost enormous numbers, eventually succeeded in crossing the river. One of the unsuccessful attempts was described by an independent observer as follows:

"The Germans succeeded in getting a pontoon completed and they came down to the river bank in solid masses to cross it. As they came every Belgian gun that could be turned on the spot was concentrated on them and they were blown away, blocks of them at a time, and still the masses came on.

"The Belgian officers spoke with enthusiasm of the steadiness and gallantry with which, as each German company was swept away, another pushed into its place. But it was a dreadful sight, nevertheless.

"At last the bridge went, shattered and blown to bits. The Belgian guns continued for a while to search the opposite river bank, but the Germans fell back and no more masses of men came down to where the pontoon had been. Allowing for all exaggerations, there can be no doubt that the German loss must have been extremely heavy."

Near Termonde, on Wednesday, the 7th, the fighting was just as fierce. The Belgians had four batteries of field guns there which succeeded in destroying the locks of the river (the Scheldt), thus flooding a part of the river and blocking the Germans. Later they engaged in a hot duel with the German artillery. Two of the Belgian batteries were completely destroyed early in the action and all of the men serving them were killed. Not until the last of the remaining guns were put out of action did the Belgians withdraw.

Of the casualties in and around Antwerp during the siege it is possible only to make an estimate. It was said after the Germans entered the city that their total loss in killed, wounded and missing was near forty-five thousand men. German officers were credited before the attack with saying that they would sacrifice 100,000 men, if necessary, to take Antwerp. It is probable that the German casualties numbered at least twenty-five thousand, while the Belgian losses in actual killed and wounded were probably five thousand The latter fought from entrenched positions, while the heavy German losses were sustained in the open and at the river crossings. The casualties among the British marines, who arrived only a day or two before the city capitulated, were comparatively insignificant. STORY OF AN EYEWITNESS—HARROWING SCENES

ATTENDING THE FALL OF ANTWERP AND THE EXODUS OF ITS PEOPLE

A vivid picture of the pathetic scenes attending the fall of Antwerp was given by Lucien A. Jones, correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, who wrote on October 11th as follows:

"Antwerp has been surrendered at last. The bitterest blow which has fallen upon Belgium is full of permanent tragedy, but the tragedy is lightened by the gallantry with which the city was defended. Only at last to save the historic buildings and precious possessions of the ancient port was its further defense abandoned. Already much of it had been shattered by the long-range German guns, and prolonged resistance against these tremendous engines of war was impossible. Owing to this the siege was perhaps the shortest in the annals of war that a fortified city has ever sustained. Heroic efforts were made by the Belgians to stem the tide of the enemy's advance, but the end could not long be delayed when the siege guns began the bombardment.

"It was at three minutes past noon on Friday, October 9th, that the Germans entered the city, which was formally surrendered by Burgomaster J. De Vos. Antwerp had then been under a devastating and continuous shell fire for over forty hours.

"It was difficult to ascertain precisely how the German attack was planned, but the final assault consisted of a continuous bombardment of two hours' duration, from half past 7 o'clock in the morning to half-past 9. During that time there was a continuous rain of shells, and it was extraordinary to notice the precision with which they dropped where they would do the most damage. The Germans used captive balloons, whose officers signaled the points in the Belgian defense at which they should aim.

GERMAN GUNS CONCEALED

"The German guns, too, were concealed with such cleverness that their position could not be detected by the Belgians. Against such methods and against the terrible power of the German guns the Belgian artillery seemed quite ineffective. Firing came to an end at 9.30 on Friday, and the garrison escaped, leaving only ruins behind them. In order to gain time for an orderly retreat a heavy fire was maintained against the Germans up to the last minute and the forts were then blown up by the defenders as the Germans came in at the gate of Malines.

"I was lucky enough to escape by the river to the north in a motorboat. The bombardment had then ceased, though many buildings were still blazing, and while the little boat sped down the Scheldt one could imagine the procession of the Kaiser's troops already goose-stepping their way through the well-nigh deserted streets.

MANY HARROWING SCENES

"Those forty hours of shattering noise almost without lull seem to me now a fantastic nightmare, but the sorrowful sights I witnessed in many parts of the city cannot be forgotten.

"It was Wednesday night that the shells began to fall into the city. From then onward they must have averaged about ten a minute, and most of them came from the largest guns which the Germans possess, 'Black Marias,' as Tommy Atkins has christened them. Before the bombardment had been long in operation the civil population, or a large proportion of it, fell into a panic.

"It is impossible to blame these peaceful, quiet-living burghers of Antwerp for the fears that possessed them when a merciless rain of German shells began to fall into the streets and on the roofs of their houses and public buildings. The Burgomaster had in his proclamation given them excellent advice, to remain calm for instance, and he certainly set them an admirable example, but it was impossible to counsel perfection to the Belgians, who knew what had happened to their fellow-citizens in other towns which the Germans had passed through.

FOUGHT TO GET ON THE BOATS

"Immense crowds of them—men, women and children—gathered along the quayside and at the railway stations in an effort to make a hasty exit from the city. Their condition was pitiable in the extreme. Family parties made up the biggest proportion of this vast crowd of broken men and women. There were husbands and wives with their groups of scared children, unable to understand what was happening, yet dimly conscious in their childish way that something unusual and terrible and perilous had come into their lives. "There were fully 40,000 of them assembled on the long quay, and all of them were inspired by the sure and certain hope that they would be among the lucky ones who would get on board one of the few steamers and the fifteen or twenty tugboats available. As there was no one to arrange their systematic embarkation a wild struggle followed amongst the frantic people, to secure a place. Men, women and children fought desperately with each other to get on board, and in that moment of supreme anguish human nature was seen in one of its worst moods; but who can blame these stricken people?

APPALLED BY THE HORROR OF WAR

"They were fleeing from les barbares,' and shells that were destroying their homes and giving their beloved town to the flames were screaming over their heads. Their trade was not war. They were merchants, shopkeepers, comfortable citizens of middle age or more; there were many women and children among them, and this horror had come upon them in a more appalling shape than any in which horror had visited a civilized community in modern times.

"There was a scarcity of gangways to the boats, and the only means of boarding them was by narrow planks sloping at dangerous angles. Up these the fugitives struggled, and the strong elbowed the weak out of their way in a mad haste to escape.

"By 2 o'clock Thursday most of the tugboats had got away, but there were still some 15,000 people who had not been able to escape and had to await whatever fate was in store for them.

A GREAT EXODUS OF INHABITANTS

"At the central railway station incidents of a similar kind were happening. There, as down by the river, immense throngs of people had assembled, and they were filled with dismay at the announcement that no trains were running. In their despair they prepared to leave the city on foot by crossing the pontoon bridge and marching towards the Dutch frontier. I should say the exodus of refugees from the city must have totaled 200,000 men, women and children of all ages, or very nearly that vast number, out of a population which in normal times is 321,800. "I now return to the events of Thursday, October 8th. At 12.30 in the afternoon, when the bombardment had already lasted over twelve hours, through the courtesy of a Belgian officer I was able to ascend to the roof of the cathedral, and from that point of vantage I looked down upon the scene in the city.

"All the southern portion of Antwerp appeared to be desolate ruin. Whole streets were ablaze, and the flames were rising to a height of twenty and thirty feet.

"From my elevated position I had an excellent view also of the great oil tanks on the opposite side of the Scheldt. They had been set on fire by four bombs from a German Taube aeroplane, and a huge thick volume of black smoke was ascending two hundred feet into the air. It was like a bit of Gustave DorÉ's idea of the infernal regions.

CITY ALMOST DESERTED

"The city by this time was almost deserted, and no attempt was made to extinguish the fires that had broken out all over the southern district. Indeed there were no means of dealing with them. For ten days the water supply from the reservoir ten miles outside the city had been cut off, and this was the city's main source of supply. The reservoir was just behind Fort Waelthen, and a German shell had struck it, doing great mischief. It left Antwerp without any regular inflow of water and the inhabitants had to do their best with the artesian wells. Great efforts were made by the Belgians from time to time to repair the reservoir, but it was always thwarted by the German shell fire.

KILLED BEFORE HIS WIFE'S EYES

"After leaving the cathedral, I made my way to the southern section of the city, where shells were bursting at the rate of five a minute. With great difficulty, and not without risk, I got as far as Rue Lamoiere. There I met a terror-stricken Belgian woman, the only other person in the streets besides myself. In hysterical gasps she told me that the Bank Nationale and Palais de Justice had been struck and were in flames, and that her husband had been killed just five minutes before I came upon the scene. His mangled remains were lying not one hundred yards away from where we were standing.

"Except for the lurid glare of burning buildings, which lit up the streets, the city was in absolute darkness, and near the quay I lost my way trying to get to the Hotel Wagner. For the second time that day I narrowly escaped death by shell. One burst with terrific force about twenty-five yards from me. I heard its warning whirr and rushed into a neighboring porch. Whether it was from the concussion of the shell or in my anxiety to escape I caromed against the door and tumbled down, and as I lay on the ground a house on the opposite side crashed in ruins. I remained still for several minutes, feeling quite sick and unable to get up. Then I pulled myself together and ran at full speed until I came to a street which I recognized.

TAKE REFUGE IN CELLARS

"How many of the inhabitants of Antwerp remained in the city that night it is impossible to say, but they were all in the cellars of their houses or shops. The Burgomaster, M. De Vos, had in one of his several proclamations made many suggestions for safety during the bombardment, for the benefit of those who took refuge in cellars. Among the most useful of them, perhaps, was that which recommended means of escape to an adjoining cellar. The power of modern artillery is so tremendous that a cellar might very well become a tomb if a shell fell on the building overhead.

"Sleep was impossible that night, in the noise caused by the explosion of shells in twenty different quarters of the town. About 6 o'clock I was told that it was time we got out, as the Germans were entering the city. We hurried from the hotel and found the streets completely deserted. I walked down to the quay-side, and there I came across many wounded soldiers, who had been unable to get away in the hospital boat.

"On the quay piles of equipment had been abandoned. A broken-down motor-car, kit-bags, helmets, rifles and knapsacks were littered in heaps. Ammunition had been dumped there and rendered useless. The Belgians had evidently attempted to set fire to the whole lot. The pile of stuff was still smoldering. I waited there for half an hour, and during that time hundreds of Belgian soldiers passed in the retreat. Just about this time a pontoon bridge which had been the means of the Belgian retreat was blown up to prevent pursuit by the Germans.

"At 8 o'clock a shell struck the Town Hall, and about 8:15 another shell shattered the upper story and broke every window in the place.

BURGOMASTER PARLEYS WITH GERMANS

"That was the German way of telling the Burgomaster to hurry up. A quarter of an hour later M. De Vos went out in his motor-car toward the German line to discuss the conditions on which the city should be surrendered.

"At 9:30 o'clock the bombardment of the city suddenly ceased, and we understood that the Burgomaster had by this time reached the German headquarters. Still we waited, painfully anxious to learn what would be the ultimate fate of Antwerp. Belgian soldiers hurried by and at 10: proclamations were posted on the walls of the Town Hall urging all in the city to surrender any arms in their possession and begging all to remain calm in the event of the Germans' occupation. A list was also posted of several prominent citizens who were appointed to look after the interests of those Belgians who remained.

"The 'impregnable' city of Antwerp had fallen, but without dishonor to its gallant defenders."

GERMAN MILITARY GOVERNOR OF ANTWERP APPOINTED—GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORTS

On October 10 Baron von der Schutz was appointed military governor of Antwerp. It was expected that the city would become the base for Zeppelin attacks upon England and also for a German naval campaign in which mines and submarines would play an important part. This was intimated in dispatches from Berlin following the German occupation of the city.

The German General Staff, in announcing the capture, added that they could not estimate the number of prisoners taken. "We took enormous quantities of supplies of all kinds," said the official statement.