SIEGE OF LIEGE.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13606, 22 October 1914, Page 5

SIEGE OF LIEGE.

MEMOIR B¥ GENERAL LEMAN

WRITTEN IN CAPTIVITY

TERRORS OF THE GERMAN

MORTAR*

Received Oct. 21, 11.40 p.m.)

Rome, Oct. 20

General Lemari, the defender of Liege, is in captivity at Magdeburg. He is -writing a memoir of the siege of Liege, of which excerpts have been publshed at Berlin.

He states that the Germans occupied the city on August 7th, and were then able to bombard the forts on the inner side. They commenced to bombard Fort Lovein on the 11th with 7 and 11 centimetre guns. ,

On the 15th they commenced using 161-inch guns hurling grenades weighing a thousand kilos. Their explosive force surpassed anything previously known. Their approach was heralded by an acute buzzing, and they burst with a thunderous roar, raising clouds of missiles and stones.

The bombardment on the 15th commenced at five o'clock in the morning, and was not broken until two in the afternoon. "■■ ■

A grenade wrecked an arcade under which the general staff were sheltering. The officers were almost asphyxiated by the horrible gases.

General Leman, on inspecting the interior of the fort, found that it had been reduced to a rubble heap. The slopes and counterslopes were a chaos of rubbish, and huge tongues of flame were shooting from the cupola.

His only thought them was to save the remnant of the garrison, but when re-traversing the gallery ho was violently flung to the earth.

When consciousness returned found Germans bending over him.