THE BUILDER OF LIEGE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 37, 12 August 1914, Page 6

THE BUILDER OF LIEGE

GENERAL BRIALMONT. The actual bujlder of the Liege forts was the Belgian 'General Brialmont, who died in 1903. Brialmont, who was born in 1821, was educated at the Brussels Military School, nnd entered the Belgian Army in 1843. He became director of fortifications in the Antwerp district in 1874, and subsequently was made inspector-general of the Belgian fortifications. His far-reaching schemes for the fortification of certain Belgian towns mot with no little opposition, and Brialmont felt much disappointment. In 1883 lie went to Rumania to advise as to tho fortification works required for tho defence of the country, and elaborated a scheme by which Bucharest, the capital of Rumania, was made a first class fortress. In his own sorvice he was placed en disponibilifce for having undertaken the Bucharest works without the authorisation of his Sovereign. His services, however, were too valuable to be lost, and on his return to Belgium ia 1884 ho resumed command of the Antwerp district. The extreme detached forts of the Antwerp region and the fortifications on tho Mouse at Liege and Namur were ' constructed in accordance with'Brialmont's principles — namely, tho lavish use of armour to protect tho artillery inside the forts, the suppression of all artillery positions open to overhead fire, and the multiplication of intormediate batteries. In his capacity of inspector- general, Brialmont drafted and carried out the whole scheme of the dofences of Belgium.