HOW NAMUR FELL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue LXXXVIII, 10 September 1914, Page 7

HOW NAMUR FELL

BELGIAN GENERAL MAKES TWO MISTAKES RETIREMENT IN GREAT CONFUSION. OSTENoTsth September. Renter's Agency reports that surviv* ors of the engagement at Namur state that General Michel and hie staff made two mistakes; they allowed the enemy to come too olose without attacking, and they waited too long for help from th© French, who were unable to send assistance in time. The Belgians waited at the Meuse for a week for the Germans on the other bank to attack, happy in the belief that every day's delay waa a gain on the path to victory, whereas the Germans, benefiting by the lesson received at Liege, instead of hurling their regiments forward, waited for the arrival of enormous siege gums screened by a curtain of cavalry. Finally, under tover of a fog, the Germans placed thirty-two guns at two points out of range , of the Belgian guns and concentrated their fire on a einglo section of the defences. The Germans were accurately informed respecting the Namur defences. One survivor relates that he spent ten hours in a Belgian entrenchment lying flat. They stood the terrible ordeal, unablo to see the enemy, or fire a phot. If they had put their heads above tho ramparts they would simply have been mown off. WhoJe regiments were decimated Meanwhile tho enemy's guns were turned Jjjon Forts Maigeret and Marchovclette, which were armed •with old-fashioned guns. Fort Maigeret fired ten shot* and received twelve hundred shells at tho rate of twenty a minute. This fort soon surrendered. General Michel and his staff were so confident that the fortress would hold out that they had not provided for this tyRetirement in great confusion ensueil. Tito narrow row! wae choked .\vith a swirling tgrrsat gf ruse, hsr#se t

and vehicles. Many wounded were left behind. The Germans followed close on their Jieels, and the ktoias in the fortress, field artillery, and many motorcare fell into their hands. The retreating forces hoped that Sir John French would send reinforcements to St. Gerard from Dinant, but Sir John French was overwhelmed at Dinant. and could only send two Tegiments, which bravely fought their way through, meeting heavy losses. The Germans, moving more rapidly, cut off the FrancoBelgian retreat at Bois-les-Villiers, where the German machine-guns disabled some Belgian guns and made a clean sweep of several motor-cars which were filled with officers. At last the retreating army cut its way through at terrible cost. The regiments were hopelessly intermingled. ! Thus the retreat continued, being ever harassed and pursued. Then the Bol- ! gians stumbled right into the path of the French retreat from Charleroi. .jThls further demoralised the Belgians, but they eventually reached Phillipeville, where they reformed. From this point they reached Rouen in seven days. At Namur, the garrison and field army numbered 26,000, and only 12,000 ! escaped.