Chapter I: Front Matter

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BRAVE BELGIANS

From the French of

BARON C. BUFFIN

by Alys Hallard

Preface by Baron de Broqueville Belgian Minister of War

Awarded the Audiffred Prize by the French Academy of Moral and Political Science

G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1918

Copyright, 1918 by G. P. Putnam's Sons

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

Foreword

St. Pierrebrouck. January 15, 1916.

My dear Friend:

I am glad to hear that you have now completed the work you undertook of collecting, from our soldiers themselves, these accounts of the war. They will certainly help people to know, and to appreciate, what you so rightly call our heroic and valiant Belgium.

You could not have employed your talent and activity in a better way. As it is not yet possible to write the History of the tragic days we are living, it is highly necessary to collect the most striking episodes, and to prevent the loss of testimony to which posterity can appeal when it wishes to judge the men and things of our times. The accounts that you have collected so patiently help us to live over again the whole campaign, from the startling revelation which the glorious days of Liege were for many of us, down to the hard moments through which our army is passing in its victorious defence of the Yser.

"The determined resistance," our King called it in his memorable speech to Parliament. How we see this determined resistance in the magnificent enthusiasm of our soldiers, arresting, around the Liege forts, the first wave of invaders, without troubling about the human torrent rolling onwards towards them from the whole of Germany! How we see it, too, in the tragic episodes of the invasion, in the bold adventures of our volunteers, in those glorious deaths of which your book reminds us, deaths of which we cannot think without a pang at our hearts!

Your accounts prove to us how the unanimous will of the nation galvanised the army and how the example of our chiefs, from the King down to the merest sub-lieutenant, encouraged and brought about the most noble self-sacrifices. These accounts prove to us, thanks to many details of episodes lived through during these eighteen months of war, what a quantity of virtues our magnificent little army, brave and studious as it is, held in reserve for the hour of danger.

Well-known figures and deeply regretted friends are evoked in these pages by their sorrowful comrades. These rapid sketches, written in campaign diaries by those who shared the same dangers and sacrificed everything to the same cause, have a special value. The modesty of the man who tells the story is still another homage rendered to the whole Corps, and it is to the Army, to the traditional, disciplined, national force, that our admiration goes out, when we read of the fine deeds described in this book.

On reading it, the country will better understand the affection and respect it owes to the soldier from whom it may demand, some future day, all that those of our day have endured and given.

In your former book, you retraced for us the early life of Leopold I., our first king. When I congratulated you on your conscientious work, in depicting for us the early days of the man who has very justly been called Leopold the Wise, I little thought that you would soon be the chronicler of the army of his grandson, acknowledged by the whole world, as the champion of loyalty and honour, the incarnation of an oppressed and valiant country.

How times have changed since then!

The horizon is brightening, though, and I hope that, in order to complete your work, you may be able to connect the past with the present and sketch for us the History of this gigantic struggle, in which the indomitable courage of the Belgians, led by Albert I., will have preserved, for our country, the Independence, and the Liberty that the political spirit of our fathers had won for it under the reign of Leopold.

Accept, my dear friend, my best wishes,

Broqueville.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

The Defence of Vise 1

From the account given by Deputy Staff Major
Collyns of the 12th Line Regiment.

CHAPTER II

The First German Flag Taken 10

From the account given by Deputy Staff Major
Collyns of the 12th Line Regiment.

CHAPTER III

The Attack on the Offices of the 3rd
Division 17

From accounts by General Major Stassin, Commanders
Vincotte and Buisset, Captains Lhermite and
Renard, Adjutant Burlet and Private Poncelet.

CHAPTER IV

The Sart-Tilman Combat 24

From an account given by Pere de Groote, Army
Chaplain to the 1st Regiment of Unmounted
Chasseurs, and completed by Major N---- of the
4th Regiment of Unmounted Chasseurs.

CHAPTER V

The Retreat of the 800 34

By Captain ---- of the 14th Line Regiment.

CHAPTER VI

Chaudfontaine 41

By Count Gaston de Ribaucourt, Sub-Lieutenant of
the Heavy Howitzer Corps.

CHAPTER VII

Loncin Fort 51

From accounts by the Army Doctors: Maloens, of
the 3rd Battery of Heavy Howitzers; Courtin, of the
1st Chasseurs; Roskam, of the 14th Line Regiment;
Defalle, Director of the Calais Municipal Creche
Ambulance; and Quartermaster Krantz, of the
Gendarmerie.

CHAPTER VIII

Haelen 63

By Colonel Baltia, Chief of Staff of the 1st Cavalry
Division.

CHAPTER IX

The Budingen Combat 77

Death of Lieutenant Count W. d'Ursel. By Colonel
de Schietere de Lophem, Commander of the 4th
Lancers.

CHAPTER X

Aerschot 87

From the report of Captain Commander Gilson, commanding
the 4th Company of the 1st Battalion of
the 9th Line Regiment.

CHAPTER XI

A Few Episodes of the Retreat of Namur 96

By Captain Paulis, Artillery Commander.

CHAPTER XII

Death of Corporal Tresignies 113

From the account given by First Sergeant-Major ----
of the 2nd Regiment of Unmounted Chasseurs.

CHAPTER XIII

The First Attack of the Retrenched Camp
of Antwerp 116

By Father Henusse, S.J., Army Chaplain to the 84th
Artillery Battery.

CHAPTER XIV

The Re-Taking of Aerschot 122

By Sub-Lieutenant Ch. Dendale of the 7th Line
Regiment.

CHAPTER XV

A Fine Capture 127

By Staff Deputy Captain Courboin.

CHAPTER XVI

The Second Sortie from Antwerp 131

Episode of the Battle before Over-de-Vaert (Haecht).
By Lieutenant L. Chardome of the 14th Line
Regiment.

CHAPTER XVII

The 1st Regiment of Lancers 140

By Staff Deputy Colonel E. Joostens.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Termonde Bridge 150

By an officer of the 4th Artillery Regiment.

CHAPTER XIX

The No. 7 Armoured Car 155

By Sub-Lieutenant G. Thiery, of the 1st Regiment of
Guides, in command of the group of armoured cars
of the 1st Cavalry Division.

CHAPTER XX

The Wavre-St. Catherine Combat 169

By Sub-Lieutenant Henroz, in command of the 1st
Company of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment
of Fortress Carabineers.

CHAPTER XXI

The Death-Struggle of Lierre Fort 184

By an officer of the garrison.

CHAPTER XXII

Prisoner in the Soltau Camp 197

From the account given by Amand Hasevoets, First
Sergeant of the Regiment of Fortress Grenadiers.

CHAPTER XXIII

The Last Fragments of Antwerp 209

By Artillery Captain M---- C----.

CHAPTER XXIV

Tournai 228

By General-Major Frantz.

CHAPTER XXV

Dixmude 236

From an account given by Ernest Collin, a private of
the 12th Line Regiment, and completed by Ernest
Job, a corporal in the same regiment.

CHAPTER XXVI

Eight Days in Dixmude 256

Extracts from the Diary of an Artillery Observer, by
F. de Wilde of Brigade B (formerly 12th Brigade).

CHAPTER XXVII

Four Hours with the Boches 271

From the Diary of Dr. van der Ghinst, of the Cabour
(Adinkerque) Military Ambulance, and an account
given by Leon Deliens, Private of the 11th Line
Regiment.

CHAPTER XXVIII

The Tervaete Charge 283

By Artillery Captain M---- C----.

CHAPTER XXIX

A Reconnaissance 287

From the Diary of Father Henusse, S.J., Chaplain of
the 84th Battery.

CHAPTER XXX

The Irony of Fate 295

By M. Sadsawska, Civic Guard, Motorcyclist of the
1st Line Regiment.

CHAPTER XXXI

Observers 299

By Artillery Captain M---- C----.

CHAPTER XXXII

A Patrol 312

By Artillery Captain M---- C----.

CHAPTER XXXIII

The Death March 319

By Doctor Duwez, Army Surgeon to the Regiment of
Grenadiers.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Shelter D.A. 327

By Dr. Duwez, Army Surgeon to the Regiment of
Grenadiers.

CHAPTER XXXV

Steenstraete 337

By Dr. Duwez, Army Surgeon to the Regiment of
Grenadiers.

CHAPTER XXXVI

Lizerne 340

By Dr. Duwez, Army Surgeon to the Regiment of
Grenadiers.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Death of Sergeant Count Charles d'Ansembourg 344

By Dr. Duwez, Army Surgeon to the Regiment of
Grenadiers.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A Guard on the Yser:--The Death Trench 350

By Corporal J. Libois, of the 12th Line Regiment.

CHAPTER XXXIX

Nieuport in Ruins 361

By Sub-Lieutenant L. Gilmont, Director of the Automobile
Park, Ocean Ambulance, La Panne.

CHAPTER XL

The St. Elisabeth Chapel 368

By Marcel Wyseur, Registrar to the Military Court.
La Panne, August 26, 1915.

Brave Belgians