Fall of Antwerp

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 122, 16 October 1914, Page 5

Fall of Antwerp

TRIBUTE TO DEFENDERS' COURAGE. TASK BEYOND HUMAN CAPACITY. BELGIUM "A SKELETON COUNTRY. - ' Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 15, 6.40 p.m. London, October 14. A! correspondent who escaped from Antwerp sayß: "Tho defences, especially the arrangement of the outerforts, was not planned to cope with the artillery the Germans used, but were defended with conspicuous gallantry. With anything like approximately equivalent artillery the Belgians might have held out indefinitely. "Neither the Belgians nor the British need have any feeling' but pride at the courage with which they clung to a desperate, forlorn hope. Both failed, but only because the task was beyond human capacity, and both deserve nothing but honor and admiration."

| (Another correspondent states that the j Germans entered Ghent unopposed, the Allies retiring in order to prevent the [bombardment of the city. He adds: "Belgium i 9 becoming a skeleton country, a land of empty towns and villages, and fields of ruins."

BIGGEST SIEGE GUNS NOT USED. ANTWERP NOT GREATLY DAMAGED. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 15, 6 p.m. London, October 14.

: The German commander at Antwerp informed a Dutch journalist that the 42-centimetre guns were not used in the bombardment, and that they were only to have been employed if the city had not surrendered. The journalist accompanied the commander through the streets, and saw no sign of Belgian life. The city was little damaged.

GERMANS LOSE 45,000.

NAVAL BRIGADE BADLY LEFT. BELGIAN ARTILLERY ANTIQUATED. London, October 14. Members of the Naval Brigade state that when they arrived in Antwerp they learnt that the Marines ou Tuesday were being hard pressed by 30,000 Germans. The first and second Naval Brigades hurriedly reinforced the Marines, but found the Belgians !had been withdrawn, leaving the flanks of the Marines exposed. The British retirement from the banks of the Nethe was accomplished on Wednesday night. The Germans did not discover the withdrawal, which was fortunate, as the British were without field and machine-guns. The naval guns arrived too late, and were not even mounted. Most of the Belgian forts and the intei veiling redoubts were manned with Old Krupp guns, firing black powder. The Germans mostly used 4in to Sin guns against the forts.

Four hundred Navals on Thursday occupied a deserted fort, and other Navals

and .Marines occupied Belgian bombproof trenches, which were excellently constructed, hence the losses wthe light. The trenches were lightly held by men a couple of yards apart, but effectually bluffed the Germans, who did not try to rush tho entrenchments. The situation was serious on Thursday, and many of the British were withdrawn and entrained to Ghent, despite the German fire. Meanwhile the party holding the fort repel'.ed scverl attack?, indicting havy loi-ses on the olosetypucked Germans. The latter then recommenced the artillery gre. Early on Friday the defenders of the fort found their comrades were being orced to abandon tho surrounding entrenchments, and determined to retreat.

Tli partye lost half its men. About 200 reached the Scheldt, but found the Germans had cut the Ghent line and oecnfiarty into Dutch territory. The American Consul at Antwerp is proceeding to London to obtain provisions for Antwerp, where the position is grave, owing to the Germans seizins all the stores.

Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, October 14,

It is stated in Amsterdam that the Germans lost 45,000 in the attack on

Antwerp. Tim Daily Chronicle's Ostena correspondent writes: —"The Allies made a heroic effort to save Glic-nt on Saturday and Sunday, but the flat country was unsuitable for operations against heavy odds. The fighting was of the fiercest.

"An illustration of the blood lust was i furnished by the following incident. The Belgian field guns enfiladed 200 Germans, for whom there was no escape. The survivors raised their rifle butts in token of submission, but, cither because the signal was misunderstood or because simulated surrender is a favorite ruse of the Cermans when in a warm corner, the Belgians continued their fire until all the Germans had fallen. The Belgians were finally compelled to retire when a large German cavalry force came from Yprcs and threatened tlicir communications with Bruges. They made a forced march to Bruges. "A Belgian force also moved to counter tho German cavalry in the neighborhood of Dixmunde, where they arrested a marching column from Ypres, giving the enemy a severe shaking."

ANTWERP'S GOVERNOR TAKEN. Received 15, 10.40 p.m. Amsterdam, October 14. German newspapers state that GciieTal de Guise, the Governoi of Antwerp, wiia taken prisoner, and is now at Aix-le-: Chapellc. . . J JifrSsiiiifflJJ