Chapter II: Part 2

4. _Artificial Screens._--Unless we were to be content to expose ourselves to grave inconveniences and suffer huge losses, it is obvious that we could not long tolerate the enemy's full command of a plain entirely devoid of any cover able to interfere with his observations. The only means of blinding him was to protect all our works with artificial screens, composed of branches, hurdles and canvas set or hung all over the area occupied. Viewed by an observer in the German lines, these screens overlap in such a way as to form a virtually unbroken barrier, impenetrable to the eye.

To the layman this picturesque solution of the problem may seem simplicity itself, because he does not take into account the trouble of establishing these screens. As usual, all materials have to be brought to the spot from the rear. Fabulous quantities of branches are transported to the front by rail or barge, then loaded on to vehicles and taken to the workshops, where they are converted into enormous screens to be placed in carefully selected positions by special gangs detailed for the purpose.

As the supply of branches is not enough to meet all requirements, our resourceful fellows make use of reeds cut in the marshes of flooded meadows, some of them adjacent to the enemy's lines. The reeds are tied into large bundles and carried on the back to the hurdle-works, there to be interwoven and arranged between suitable supports.

Many thousands of square metres of these artificial masks have been set up all over the great plain. But, unfortunately, they are as fragile as they are picturesque. The wind, which often rises to a gale in this coastal region, blows them down or makes yawning holes in them; so they need constant attention. However, our long-enduring men have worked so well that the enemy cannot now watch what goes on in our lines.

5. _The Supply of Drinking Water._--By a peculiar irony of fate, although the Belgian soldiers live in a country so saturated with water that every possible means must be employed to combat it, they would die of thirst had not works of considerable magnitude been undertaken to provide them with water fit to drink. During the battle of the Yser, when complete disorganisation reigned among the supply services of our valiant but unlucky army, many of the men could quench their thirst only with the muddy and loathsome water of the ditches which served them as trenches. As soon as that tragic fight was over, the greatest precautions had to be taken to prevent an epidemic of typhoid fever decimating what remained of our army. The existing wells in the fighting area had been invaded by the brackish flood water, in which floated hundreds of corpses; while those in the districts not yet ravaged by fire scarcely sufficed for local needs.

So to the rear, as in other cases, we had to look for drinkable water, which must be got up to the front lines in spite of transport difficulties.

As soon as circumstances allowed, we began to sink an adequate number of wells; and while in some places our fighting men obstinately strove to protect their defensive works from the treacherous floods, in others our workmen dug and bored into the unkindly soil in search of a stratum yielding potable water, which was struck at a depth of 125 _metres_--sometimes even further down. This alone will give some idea of the obstacles that had at all costs to be overcome. Our desperate and unwearied efforts were happily crowned with success, and soon the whole army, including the many auxiliary services of the advanced zone, enjoyed an abundance of good water.

6. _The Telephone System._--Everybody knows how very important the telephone has become during the present war; but even the most far-sighted people who had strongly urged the general employment of this essentially practical and rapid means of communication, had not anticipated the extraordinarily wide scope which was to be given it.

To-day the telephone is the real bond of union between all units serving at the front, from the observer crouching in his advanced post to the commander-in-chief. It links those who issue commands with those who obey them, the lowest with the highest, and makes it possible for all efforts directed towards a single end to be correlated most efficiently in the performance of the common task. If so bold a comparison may be permitted, the telephonic network is the nervous system traversing the huge body of an army in action. The best mode of showing the prime importance of this network is to give some figures, which certainly exceed all the calculations that the layman would be likely to make. Would he imagine, for instance, that, by about the middle of the year 1917, the telephone wires of a single sector held by the Belgians had a total length greater than half that of the equator, or exactly 21,950 kilometres?

It is not difficult to realise what labour was needed to install such a system. The innumerable wires and posts had not merely to be put in place, but to be protected from destruction, sheltered against incessant bombardment, and repaired at once if unavoidably damaged. In the most dangerous areas the wires had to be buried deep, or, where they crossed flooded areas, laid under water. This meant the excavating and filling-in of hundreds of kilometres of deep trenches before the delicate work of burying wires and cables was completed. The 21,950 kilometres of wires in the Belgian front system are made up of 6,600 kilometres of buried or submerged wires and 15,350 kilometres of aerial line. The telephone instruments in use number nearly 8,000; the exchange switch-boards, not far short of 1,000.

Let us add that this network requires unremitting attention, and that it is being extended and improved daily, and we shall have said enough to give an idea of the prodigious task accomplished by the special corps entrusted with the management of this arduous undertaking.

7. _The Batteries._--The Belgian Army began the war with but a limited supply of 75-mm. guns and hardly a couple of dozen 149-mm. and 150-mm. howitzers; so that it was for a long time compelled to face its powerfully equipped enemy on very unequal terms, a state of things which gave rise to much anxiety. Its battery crews, however, though so seriously handicapped, always fought with remarkable courage and technical skill. During the violent battle of the Yser, especially, their self-sacrifice and devotion won the deepest admiration: and they were also largely responsible for the heroic stand which will be one of the most glorious pages in our army's history.

It was apparent in the very first encounters that artillery would play a much more important part than had been assigned to it by pre-war theory. As soon as the two opponents had dug themselves in opposite one another, it became evident that strong entrenchments, forming an unbroken barrier along an extensive front, could be mastered only by the number and weight of guns brought into action.

We shall say nothing here about the great effort which enabled us to solve the second part of this momentous problem,[C] our immediate object being to demonstrate the intense effort which the fighting army had to put forth in organising the Yser front.

When the last struggles of the battle had ceased, our artillerymen vied with one another in the keenness and industry with which they screened their pieces from enemy observation in the open plain whereon they had perforce to establish them. It was impossible to dig into the ground and sink the guns behind solid earthworks. As with the trenches, all structures had to be laboriously fashioned out of imported materials, not merely under the enemy's eyes but under the fire of his formidable artillery. Over and over again the gunners had to cease work in order to reply to the enemy, giving him as much as he gave, and showing themselves always ready for a fight, whatever the odds. The duel over, they picked up their tools, repaired any damage done, and cheerfully carried on.

However, thanks to the steady augmentation of Belgian resources, the German superiority gradually disappeared; while, on the other hand, the number of works to be executed increased. As the positioning of mere field-pieces was a very troublesome business, one can guess what was entailed by the installation on such unstable ground of heavy batteries with ponderous platforms to support them. Nevertheless, our men patiently overcame all difficulties.

An imposing number of batteries--greater than the public imagines--is now disposed _en échelon_ over the plain. Cannon, howitzers and mortars are hidden so skilfully that they can hardly be detected even at a short distance. Hundreds of concrete shelters have been built for ammunition dumps and headquarters. Among the ruins rise practically indestructible observation posts, themselves invisible from afar, but commanding the whole country. From these a ceaseless watch is kept upon the enemy's lines. Artificial screens protect the works from direct observation, and clever "camouflage" entirely conceals them from overhead view. To mislead the enemy, "dummy" batteries are scattered about everywhere. Many reserve positions have also been prepared so that, should the need arise, the batteries may be shifted and re-concentrated in different sectors.

It has been, one sees, a great enterprise; and the men who have worked so hard and unremittingly may well feel a legitimate pride in what they have so successfully accomplished. Yet in this, as in other spheres of activity, work can never stop. Bad weather and bombardment alike inflict constant havoc; and in spite of the most ingenious precautions the enemy always succeeds eventually in spotting the emplacement of this or that battery or in marking off an area which conceals a group of batteries. A furious fire from heavy guns is then concentrated upon the point discovered, and by the time our artillery manages to silence it the damage done is sometimes of such a nature that works which represent long months of labour may have to be practically reconstructed.

CONCLUSION.

We have now described the most outstanding features of the remarkable feat which the Belgian Army has accomplished with the object of rendering impregnable the important sector of the western front entrusted to its watchful care. It may claim to have safely defended the vital route leading to Dunkirk and Calais.

Mere written words can, however, but imperfectly convey a complete idea of the colossal work it did among most discouraging and desolate surroundings; and prudence forbids us to say anything at all about many, and those by no means the least considerable, of the operations. Moreover, the few data which we have been permitted to give are but a slight indication of the efforts unsparingly made by men and officers alike.

The task was done in self-effacing silence; the world at large scarcely knows of it. But perhaps in these few pages we may have succeeded in making the merit of our fearless and tenacious troops better appreciated, and in showing how well they have earned the homage due to the determined energy which they have displayed for more than three years, with no thought but that of valiantly performing a duty of prime importance to the common cause, though it brings no glory with it.

Can anyone realise fully the kind of life Belgian soldiers are leading, even now that the essential military works are completed? A division guarding a sector of the front invariably divides its time between duty in the trenches, outpost duty and rest. Rest! magic word! You would like to think that our men enjoy a blissful calm, long hours of pleasant freedom, lounging about all the day, almost forgetful of the war and its cruel chances. Alack! how far the reality falls short of this seductive vision! "Rest" means shelter in comfortless hutments or squalid cantonments, with a truss of straw to serve as bed. Fatigue duties are needed to prepare, load up and move the materials for all the works whose upkeep and completion demand constant care. Then there are the long route marches to keep the troops in perfect training, and drill in which military instruction is given and our men are taught the latest modes of fighting with a view to making future attacks. At night come alarms and enemy shells bombarding their quarters and poisoning them with asphyxiating gases.

When on outpost duty in the second-line positions one must always be ready for a fight. When the German guns concentrate an intense fire upon certain sectors, one must wait stolidly and stoically in the shelters which a single shell can blow to atoms. Then, too, whenever the chance is offered, one must toil to restore defence works which are as constantly knocked to pieces again. With nightfall come the reliefs, a long and tiresome business, surrounded by deadly peril if the enemy be on his guard and puts up a barrage, searching the ground with sudden, furious bursts of machine-gun fire.

In the trenches one has to keep a close and cautious lookout, always watching the enemy's lines, mind and body ever alert, while pitiless death prowls about and threatens at every point. At times, no doubt, the hours pass slowly with tiresome monotony. A heavy silence broods over this corner of the great battlefield wherein the Belgian soldiers, tramping along the bottom of the trenches or huddled in a dark shelter, dream at length of all that they have in tender memory, the affections, the hopes left behind them in the country now oppressed and tyrannised over by the invader. Their souls are full of bitterness, as with fixed stare they dumbly surrender themselves to their sad musings. A mad desire comes over them to clasp again to their breast, if only for a moment, some suffering dear one--whether still living or with eyes closed for ever in death, they do not know. So violent an access of home-sickness sweeps over them that at times they cannot restrain their tears.

Then, suddenly, all heads are raised: eyes flash like points of steel. Let a shell whistle over the trenches and burst a few yards further on, and these men, who a moment ago were numbed by their gloomy broodings, become in a trice the fighters whose keenness awakes when danger threatens.

Explosions, nearer and yet nearer. The earth quivers under the continuous shell-bursts. An acrid smoke spreads in the trenches, now all alive. The men rush to arms. With an eye glued to their peep-holes the look-outs feverishly scrutinise the enemy's lines, while the infantry lean against the broad, high parapets or crouch in their dug-outs, stoically waiting for the rain of steel and fire to cease falling about their ears.

_Replaces a Road and carries a Narrow-gauge Railway_.]

_Armed with Machine-guns_.]

But the bombardment, far from dying down, seems to increase in fury. Here come grenades and torpedoes, bursting everywhere with a terrible din, excavating huge holes in the ground, throwing up great sheaves of earth and mud, scattering sand-bags, stakes, planks and beams in all directions, demolishing with fiendish persistency the ramparts built so painstakingly by our stubborn workers.

We on our part have been prompt to reply to the enemy's fire. Our gunners are already busy; mortars and bomb-throwers discharge a stream of projectiles into the opposite trenches without intermission. And soon, far away on the plain, the batteries also lift up their voices. The long-drawn-out, deep growls of the heavy guns mingle with the sharp barks of the "soixante-quinze." Everything round about the bombarded trench seems to be engulfed in the terrific uproar.

The struggle continues obstinately, with periodic bursts of excessive violence, until the enemy's fire is mastered and dies away into silence. When quiet returns, the officer of the guard, in his half-demolished post, pens his terse report by the flickering light of a candle:--

"To-day, from 4 to 8 p.m., the trench occupied by my company was
heavily bombarded. Shells and bombs have damaged our works very
seriously for about 50 yards. Two shelters were entirely destroyed.
The men behaved splendidly in spite of heavy losses: 10 killed, 27
wounded--a dozen severely. Stretcher-bearers just arrived. The
company has got to work again. Moral excellent."

* * * * * *

Some may imagine that the Belgian troops must have had their readiness to attack blunted, and their desire to leap over the entanglements and hurl themselves on the enemy weakened, by their long immobility in the same trenches, by the never-ending construction of defensive works, by the interminable residence in the same monotonous environment.

But they are wrong. Their sadly mistaken conclusions would soon be corrected could they but see how eagerly our soldiers contend for the honour of taking part in those adventurous patrols in No Man's Land and in the risky reconnaissances towards the German lines. If 10 volunteers be called for, a hundred offer themselves. Hardly a night passes without some expeditions of this kind being set on foot. Then are fought in the darkness weird and deadly combats, wherein our men display magnificent courage and wonderful dash.

Neither bad weather nor suffering can quench their desire to conquer and their hot eagerness to fling themselves upon the enemy and hunt him out of the country which he has remorselessly despoiled. As the soldiers of justice and right, they wish to be--and will be--the soldiers also of deliverance and liberty. They know that their hour is coming and that they cannot choose it; but they are ready to throw themselves heart and soul into the thick of the fray when they get the impatiently awaited signal.

Meanwhile they are content simply to do their hard duty in what remains of a free country--a tiny corner of Belgium where the eye sees nothing but a vast battlefield with its ruins; its camps, bubbling with active life; its hospitals, homes of suffering; its cemeteries, too, where rest those who died for their fatherland.

_Printed in Great Britain by Alabaster, Passmore & Sons, Ltd., London and Maidstone._

FOOTNOTES:

[A] See _Les Batailles de la Marne_ (_Die Schlachten an der Marne_), by An Officer of the German General Staff. Translated from the German by Th. Buyse. Van OEst & Cie, Paris, 1917.

[B] Going into detail, we may point out that 60 kilometres of fire and communication trenches are included in the area of the front line organised defensively _for a single division occupying but a very narrow sector_.

[C] For information on this subject, consult _Les Établissements d'artillerie belges pendant la guerre_, by Captain Willy Breton. Berger-Levrault, Paris and Nancy, 1917.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Belgian Front, by Captain Willy Breton