On the Essex Coast

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents. One hundred years after publication I'm exploring its pages to discover the people and their times.

"The Modern Coastguard Goes Awheel"

The caption under the photograph's title continues "The breezy East Coast, so long the rendezvous of holiday enthusiasts, is now the scene of serious military activity.  A German raid upon the shores of |East Anglia is still possible, though highly improbable, but nothing has been left undone to defeat such attempt.  The extremely picturesque study shows a body of |Essex Cycle Scouts riding along one of the coast roads, which they patrol day and night, to give warning of any enemy approach by sea or air" 

I tried to identify where the 'river' and windmill was but despite a virtual roam along the East Anglia coast I could find no post mill that fitted its geographical location but did enjoy some stunning photographs.  The windmill made another appearance in publicity about the Essex Cycling Scouts but this time in a Cycling magazine (and it was this article that gave me another clue)

"The Essex cycling Battalion Guarding Our Coast"

Interestingly the War Illustrated image is from the 1st May 1915 and the Cycling image is from the issue 22nd April 1915. I imagine from this that the photographer enjoyed his day out with the Essex Cycling Scouts. The caption on the Cycling paper continues "It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the work entrusted to the cyclist in the home defence scheme.  The full scope of their duties cannot be disclosed - for obvious reasons - but upon their vigilance and resource much depends.  Our photographs show 1) the special kind of training the new battalions undergo; 2) lookout observation post manned by trained cyclists (yes that is our windmill ladder); and 3) a coast patrol at work,  A glance at the latter photograph enables one to appreciate the hazardous nature of this work at night when, of course, every light is extinguished and the precipitous paths on the cliffs are difficult to negotiate"   and you can also hazily see a windmill.

The story of the Cycling Battalions appears on the BSA and Military Bicycle Museum here.  Who knew there was a BSA museum, well not quite, its a virtual museum but a fascinating resource.  My first bicycle, and the one I learnt to ride on with my father running behind, was a BSA, I vividly remember its badge. Did I love my first bike and I don't remember bothering that it had no gears although I couldn't do without them now!  Money was tight so it was bought at a second hand shop for £5 but the pleasure and freedom to roam was without price.

But enough of my reminiscences, the 'Cycling' article mentioned cliffs so combining that with my search terms meant I stumbled across this

Old Windmill 1908

Yay. Unfortunately the windmill no longer exists but the Walton and Frinton Yacht Club who featured the postcard, built their club house (which opened in July 1920) on the foundations of the old windmill , this is Walton Creek. The windmill location -  Walton on the Naze - was built in 1846 for grinding cereal,by 1892 it was disused

English Heritage say they do not know when the above photograph was taken but point out the costumes are Edwardian but wonder why there was a trip to a disused windmill..  Both the above photograph and the War Illustrated one make it look as though the post mill was on a river or creek.. But everything is in the crop because actually the

Walton Windmill and Boating Lake

view looked like this. The photograph appears on the Walton History Trail page of the 'Visit' site.  The Mill Pond or 'Mere' was converted to a boating lake.  "In its heyday it offered 250 small rowing, sailing and paddle boats".  They go on to say "Mill lane is the site of the former windmill and watermill (tide mill,) grinding locally-grown corn until 1922. Flour was then shipped from Halls Quay dock, and coals from Newcastle arrived on the return journey to supply the foundry and the former gas works near the station".  Other sources say that both the water mill and the windmill ceased working around 1900 and were demolished in 1920, or rather the tidal mill was demolished and the windmill collapsed.

I hope our Essex Cycle Scouts enjoyed a sail on the Walton Mere (as it was renamed) in more peaceful times.

Walton on the Naze Old Mill Pond 1920

Sources:

More Walton on Naze windmill photographs at Windmill World   

BSA and Military Cycle Museum page - Cyclists Your King and Country Need You

Visit Walton On The Naze site - History Trails. (The cliffs also played more wartime roles in WW2)

Walton and Frinton Yacht Club - History

English Heritage photo on Flickr

Walton Archive (Putnam Photographers) - The Windmill and The Watermill 

Walton on the  Naze Seaside Heritage Project (pdf)
Britain From Above - View of the Walton on the Naze Old Mill Pond and Martello Tower

   

Greetings

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents. One hundred years after publication I'm exploring its pages to discover the people and their times.

"Thoughts of 'Noel' - The French Soldier Sends a Greeting from the Battlefield"

I was looking for something connected with the 1915 New Year in the War Illustrated but couldn't find anything however coinciding with my love of all things postal I thought this illustration of a French soldier sending Christmas greetings home was an appropriate one.  I have two of my  maternal Grandmother's first husband's Christmas messages to her, he never made it home.   If someone was killed or missing the letter were returned to the sender with a message on them to that fact.  The French on the other hand put a rather poignant message on their mail returned to sender "  le destinataire n’a pu être touché à temps" (the recipient could not be reached in time).

I know little about the French postal system during WW1 beyond the fact that it was sorted in the National Music Conservatory in Paris. The UK postal service of the first world war was an amazing piece of organisation delivering 12 million letter a week. At first the post was sorted by the army units in France, but it soon became apparent that it would be better to do it in the UK so they built the Home Depot sorting office in Regent's Park, London.  When completed it was the largest wooden building in the world.  The average time for a letter to be delivered to the western front was 2 days, if it did not have to be censored.  Letters were censored at the port of Le Harve and then later in Boulogne so the enemy could not learn any information from the letters, but they also had a great deal of success in catching spies this way.  Both countries of course censored mail and also provided postcards to the troops, some where there was a list of messages like this where the appropriate one was chosen

 This French card is interesting with the various theatres of war in Europe on one side:

 

where I suppose one indicated by number where your unit was.

Champagne

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents. One hundred years after publication I'm exploring its pages to discover the people and their times.

 "The average man soon grows accustomed to a strange environment.  This picture was taken in a vineyard of the Champagne region of France.  A few miles off, the heavy artillery of the contending armies was sending out thunder and death, and the air was reverberating with the din of war.  At the same time troops were marching past to the battle-lines, yet these peasants working in the vineyard pay little heed to the  world-shaking events close by.  Some of them do not even interrupt their work to look at what is going on around them" War Illustrated , 7th November 1914

The champagne produced in 1914 is considered the greatest vintage of the 20th Century.  Maurice Pol Roger famously said it was "harvested to the sound of gunfire but to be drunk to the sound of trumpets".  The weather that year had been perfect and by September 12th the grapes were ready to be harvested but with the men away fighting it fell to women, children and older people to harvest the vines (as can be seen in the photograph).  The schools even closed so that the children could be in the fields.  By October 11th the last accessible grapes had been picked but not without the cost of life (twenty children were killed by sniper fire or shelling).

Amazingly champagne was produced in every year of the war despite 40% of the vineyards being destroyed and fighting continuing in the area but it was 1914 that produced the once in a lifetime vintage.  Reims was also under continual bombarded and shelling so the Champagne houses opened their cellars as a refuge to the local population and also continued operating their businesses from the underground limestone crayères.

Recently one of the bottles produced in 1914 was taken from the Pol Roger cellars and has been auctioned for £5640, the proceeds will go to support the new World War One galleries at the Imperial War Museum.  The unusual longevity of the wine is attributed to the early picking of the grapes which initially gave it acidity but as it matured the flavour blossomed, just like the indomitable spirit of the French wine pickers and producers.     

Additional (with pictures)
1914:  Champagne's Violent Vintage by Tom Stevenson - Wine Searcher

O Canada

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents. One hundred years after publication I'm exploring its pages to discover the people and their times.

"Signallers of the 1st Mounted Canadian Highlanders at their camp in England after their journey from Plymouth where they disembarked from their transports. The men are of the best physique th Empire can provide, solid specimens of hard muscles and iron sinew"

 

A Canadian bicycle battalion poses for the camera at Pond's Farm on Salisbury Plain where they would undertake training for their eventual journey into war.  I can find nothing about a 1st Mounted Canadian Highlanders and think they would be one of the many voluntary militia battalions who formed the 1st Canadian Division expeditionary force that landed in England in 1914.  The conditions in the Autumn of 1914 were of unpleasant cold and rain but as can be seen the War Illustrated has great confidence in their heritage of Scottish and Canadian genes and of course their nickname was the "Scotties".

 Here they are settling into a wet England with a shudder inducing open air water pump but the War Illustrated of the 31st October 1914 seems intrigued by the fatigue caps which would possibly be a more familiar sight in world war two when this Jaeger pattern from "Essentials for the Forces" was published in the 1940s.  

1940s Patterns to Knit from the Victoria and Albert Museum

   The Patricias shown on the left are one of the three regular infantry regiments in Canada who were originally raised in 1914 and arrived in France on 21st December 1914.  The Scottie cyclists would take a similar journey in 1915 and  the 1st Canadian Regiment would later suffer 50% a casualty rate at Ypres.  The nursing sisters of the Red Cross on the right would run rest homes and hospitals in England.

 

On the outbreak of war Canada had immediately offered 20,000 to 25,000 men of which this page pays tribute, however 630,000 would eventually serve on the 1914-18 battlefields.

Additional

"Canadian Command During the First World War" by Tim Cook - The Canadian Encyclopaedia

"Cyclist Battalion in the The Great War" forum - Canada At War

"Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion" by John McKetny - Canadian Cycling Magazine (from which the photo below is taken)  

 

 

Remembrance

This date of posting this week's ABC Wednesday of 11th November is Remembrance Day, the day the First World War officially ended at 11'O |Clock, then called Armistice Day.  The tradition of a two minute silence began in 1919 so as not to forget the millions killed, injured or affected by the war.  Towns, cities and villages all have their war memorials but unfortunately WW1 was not the the "war to end all wars" so the list goes on.  ("Only the dead have seen the end of war" Plato)

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents, regular issues of this magazine were published throughout the war and contained reports, photographs and illustrations which not only give a picture of the conflict but those affected by it.  One hundred years after its publication I have been exploring its pages each week to discover the people and their times but this week in remembrance I'm looking back to an early issue of the magazine and the first month of the war.

A regular feature of the War Illustrated was their list of wounded, missing and killed.  They reflect the class structure of the time and seem only to feature officers but having said that the attrition rate of junior officers in World War One was high, the ethos of the ruling class at the time was one of obligation and duty to lead.  The Great War would cut a swathe of death through the scions of the landed classes.  The majority of casualties were from the working class ("When the rich wage war, its the poor who die". Jean Paul Satre) but in percentage terms the a junior officer was at higher risk of being killed (17% as opposed to 12%).

In the early weeks of the war the page shown above was typical in that it mixed pictures taken in civilian life and those in uniform.  The photo that took my eye on this page of the 19th September issue was the smiling youth in his cricket whites.   One imagines halcyon days on the cricket pitch in that warm summer of 1914.

With such a unique name it was easy to trace him, Archer Windsor-Clive, 3rd son of the Earl and Countess of Plymouth. A family one of whose ancestors was Clive of India (1725-1774) and indeed Archer's eldest brother died in India in 1908. Born on 6th November 1890 Archer Windsor-Clive was in the Eton XI of 1908/09 then continued on to Cambridge 1910/12. According to the Wisden Cricket Almanac where his name will be found amongst the 1908 Glamorgan Eleven he was considered a good batsman and a useful medium paced left hand bowler. (He played for the Glamorgan Minor Counties Championship 1908-1912).

Archer left for France on 12th August 1914 with the Coldstream Guards who took part in the retreat and rear guard action at Mons

"At dusk a column was seen moving up the road.  The men were singing French songs and when challenged an officer replied they were friends.  However, although the troops at the front were wearing French and Belgium uniforms it was noticed the ones at the back were German.  The order to fire was given but the enemy rushed the Coldstreams...Eventually relieved in the morning of 26th August they withdrew to Etreux, the casualties were 12 killed, 8 wounded and 7 missing".

One of the two officers killed on 25th August 1914 was Archer Windsor-Clive who is buried at Landrecies Communal Cemetery.  His name is inscribed along with seventeen others on the War Memorial in St Mary's Churchyard in the village of St Fagans near Cardiff in Glamorgan, Wales.        

Sources
Find A Grave -  Lieut Archer Windsor-Clive
Hell Fire Corner - Remembering the Great War - St Fagans, Glamorgan (from which the italicised quote is taken)
Cracroft's Peerage - Earl of Plymouth
The Glamorgan Cricket Archives - Archer Windsor-Clive

The 12th Century St Mary's Church in St Fagans from Wikipedia

The war memorial can be seen to the right of the church.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, this week R for Remembrance

Pontoon Bridge

 On the 3rd October Belgians in Antwerp started to walk across the recreation of a World War 1 pontoon bridge. Calculations were made of the time it would take to walk across the 1,221 feet (370 metres) and tickets were issued in accordance with that number however people in real life don't behave in neatly predetermined way.  It was a beautiful day and they dawdled for indeed how often do you get a chance to stand in the middle of the Scheldt with your fellow citizens and perhaps cast your mind back a hundred years to think of the thousands who were fleeing the city in haste in 1914 and then take a photo or two.

I bemoaned the fact I couldn't find any photographs of the original 1914 bridge when I wrote about the retreat from Antwerp (here) but I only needed only to look further ahead in the War Illustrated who issued a 'Special Antwerp Number' on 24th October 1914 with articles from their war correspondents, drawings and numerous photographs which included the picture on the front of the dockside

The text says  "Antwerp's day of anguish. This photograph exclusively published here, shows the enormous crowd of despairing refugees on the North German Lloyd quay struggling to reach the floating pier (in the foreground) leading from the battered abd burning town to the temporary pontoon bridge. The escape of the soldiers was a matter of vital importance and some are seen crossing the pontoon bridge...One of the German liners disabled by the British before they left is shown"

"The last of the refugees to leave Antwerp as the Germans entered the city are seen crossing the River Scheldt - some of them by the river ferry-boat and some by the pontoon bridge, temporarily erected and afterwards destroyed to prevent the Germans following the retreating soldiers and fleeing citizens. The river was flowing with oil, run to waste so as not be of service to the invaders"

"A camera captures Belgium's last stand"

Personal stories:-
"Gathering century old memories of war time Belgium" April 2013  BBC News, Antwerp

The Indians Arrive

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents. One hundred years after its publication I'm exploring its pages to discover the people and their times.

Part of the largest volunteer army in the world arrived in Marseilles on 26th September 1914.  The European war was starting to encompass the globe.  The Indian soldiers were poorly equipped for the cold and still wore khaki drill uniforms more appropriate for warmer climates.

Marseille under the snow 1914. - The Cannebière.

The winter of 1914/15 would be the coldest of the decade and Indian soldiers froze to death while they stood as sentries.  Winter uniforms did not arrive at the front until the Spring. As the caption says on the first photo it was  "...not long before they were bearing their part in the hard fighting in Northern France".  In fact the Lahore and Meerut infantry division were selected for the fierce fighting of Ypres and their losses were heavy.  One soldier wrote home "this is not war; it is the ending of the world".

All the hard times were in the future as the War Illustrated of 10th October shows them marching through the city of Marseilles in September 1914.  (The Germans would have the first sight of them at Hollelbeke on October 31st)

There must have been a lot of photographers on the streets because marching Indian troops in Marseilles is an image which appears in a number of postcards and publications but it does highlight those light weight uniforms. Over a million Indian soldiers would fight in World War One but those who were injured might  find themselves in the more congenial surroundings of

From the Royal Pavilion Museums of Brighton and Hove collection

the ornate Royal Brighton Pavilion which had been turned into a military hospital for Indian soldiers.  I would love to know who thought of using the Brighton Pavilion, certainly an inspired choice

Royal Pavilion at Dusk from Wikipedia

Just as the soldiers were settling down for another winter on the western front and might have been thinking that they were a lot warmer than the winter of 1914/15 in their late arriving uniforms the early months of 1916 saw the infantry divisions withdrawn (the cavalry remained behind)

Indian Cavalry from Europeana 1914-18 (Netherlands National Archive, Den Haag)

  and redeployed in Mesopotamia which henceforth would form their main scene of action.

 Indian perspectives of World War One:-
 "The Indian Sepoy in the First World War" by Santanu Das article on the British Library 'World War'
"The Last Post: letters home to India in the First World War" - Guardian 21 February 2014

Flight

I inherited a bound set of The War Illustrated from my paternal grandparents. One hundred years after its publication I am delving into its pages to discover the people and their times.

The War Illustrated of 29th August 1914 (above) says "the French fleet are the most skilful and daring airmen in the world".  I think the British were rather in love with the dashing French airmen who flew in the skies before the Great War and their admiration continued into conflict. There is a dispute to whether the1909 Paris (Le Bourget) or the 1909 Berlin Air Show was the first in the world but the first British Air Show was at Blackpool in Lancashire on 18th October 1909 and it was a French aviator, Henri Farman. that came away with the prize for the length of his flight.  Here is a photograph by Walter Doughty, the Guardian's first ever staff photographer, of the event:-

 This year of 1909 also saw Louis Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel. 

Commemorative Poster of Blériot landing at Dover from Wikipedia

The Wright Brothers had only made the first powered flight in 1903 and a mere six years later air shows were taking place, suddenly all eyes were on the sky and the Blackpool event was attended by 200,000 spectators to be amazed at the marvels of flight.  They were not too overawed as they also managed to consume 36,000 bottles of beer, 40,000 dozen bottles of minerals, 500 cases of champagne, 600 cases of whiskey and just to keep body and soul together ate 500 hogshead, 1000 hams and 2000 pork pies. It is sad there will be no air show at Blackpool today as the recent owners, Balfour Beatty, have put it up for sale and from this month closed the airport down.  It is suspected that they do not expect a buyer and their ultimate interest is the land that will be more profitable for their house building interests.  Its a shame that the UK does not have a joined up transport policy, and it would be admirable if Blackpool retained commercial flights, but the airport has gone through many changes in its lifetime. Following a Flying Carnival in 1910 it changed into a racecourse (an unsuccessful venture) and during the First World War the land and buildings were used by the King's Lancashire Military as a Convalescent hospital.

The early aviators on outbreak of war turned their thoughts away from record breaking flights to reconnaissance flights and how to drop bombs from planes.   

and the War Illustrated of 3rd October 1914 showed one of their objectives as "Daring Raid on Düsseldorf by British Airmen"

The objective was the Zeppelin sheds and the magazine portrays two British airmen.  The one on the right is Captain Robin Gray but so far I have been unable to find a mention of him on the raid and only a question to whether he was called Grey or Gray (there are a number of Royal Flying Corps named Robin Grey/Gray).  I suppose an answer would be to consult the French National Archive on the Legion d'honneur recipients but they have not digitised their collection. We are on happier hunting grounds for Flight-Lieutenant Charles H Collet because the London Gazette of the 23rd October 1914 (p8509) reported:

"On 22nd September CH Collett, Royal Naval Air Service (Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corp) flying a Sopwith Tractor biplane made a long flight and a successful attack on the German Zeppelin Aircraft Shed in Düsseldorf.
Collet's feat is notable - gliding down from 6,000 ft, the last 1,500 ft in mist, he finally came in sight of the Airship Shed at a hight of 400 ft, only a quarter of a mile away from it. 
Flight Lieutenant Matrix, acting under the order of Squadron Commander Spenser Grey, carried out a successful attack on the Düsseldorf Airship Shed during the afternoon of 8th October.  From a hight of 600 ft he dropped two bombs on the shed and flames 500 ft high were seen within thirty seconds.  The roof of the shed was also observed to collapse"

 The "map showing the country traversed" in the raid on both the Düsseldorf and Cologne sheds, for its time an amazing feat of navigation in unreliable aircraft and  in bad weather which obscured the target for three out of four pilots, in fact Spenser Grey couldn't find the sheds and bombed the railway station instead. Flight Lieutenant Reggie Matrix destroyed the Z9 and a dirigible but his machine was struck and damaged then he ran out of fuel 20 miles short of Antwerp on his return.  It is said he got back "by bicycle he got from a peasant and a car he took".  

Charles H Collet (4 Feb 1888-19 Aug 1915) received the DSO for his Düsseldorf raid but died in an aircraft accident on Imbros, Turkey and is buried on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Addendum
For an informative and entertaining read on the "wildly optimistic" raids on the Zeppelin sheds see the article
"The Royal Naval Air Service in Antwerp, September-October 1914"  by Bridget Pollard (pdf here) on the British Commission for Military History site.

"100 Year of Flying from Blackpool " BBC Lancashire, 24 September 2009
 

   

Submarine E4 to the Rescue

The War Illustrated, 26th September 1914

Caption reads  -  "One incident in the naval action off Heligoland on August 28th reads more like a Jules Verne romance than cold fact.  The Defender, having sunk an enemy, lowered a whaler to pick up her swimming survivors.  An enemy's cruiser came up and chased away the Defender, who was forced to abandon her whaler.  Imagine the sailors feelings, alone in an open boat twenty-five miles from the nearest land, and that land an enemy's fortress with nothing but fog and foes around them! Suddenly, a swirl alongside, and up popped submarine E4, which opened its conning-tower, took them all aboard, dived, and carried them 200 miles home to Britain"

 Part of the E4's fame is that it carried out the first major rescue by a submarine.  I assume the incident shown is that rescue, the picture the writer paints is dramatic and combined with the cutaway by the artist, fascinating.  The "enemy fortress with nothing but fog and foes"

"German Fortification of Heligoland circa 1916" from The British Empire site

is Heligoland, inhabited since prehistoric times with ownership switching over the years, the last alteration in 1890 when Britain did a colonial swap with Germany -  Heligoland for Zanzibar which sounds rather like an imperial game of Monopoly.  Queen Victoria was not amused and railed  - what next, Gibraltar?  Today the population is just over a thousand.  I don't know what it was in 1914 but the inhabitants were all taken off the islands for the duration of the war and it became a German military fortress, part of the battle for the naval supremacy of the North Sea, of which the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28th August 1914 was the start in World War 1.

The task for E4 in this battle was to attack retreating or reinforcing German ships.  As mentioned in the captioned drawing HMS Defender was attempting to rescue British sailors from the water but the light cruiser SMS Stettin appeared and opened fire making Defender retreat, however E4 had observed the action and launched a torpedo at Stettin, which missed.  Stettin then attempted to ram the submarine which promptly dived to escape.   When E4  eventually resurfaced the battle had moved on and she went to rescue the British crewmen still afloat  in small boats (also containing German sailors).  The Germans were left behind with a compass and directions to the mainland as the submarine was too small to take them all.

Built by Vickers at my local shipyard, Barrow in Furness, and launched in 1912 the E4 may have been lucky for the rescued seamen and lucky in battle but ironically its own disaster took place when least expected. Participating in an anti-submarine exercise in the North Sea in 1916 it collided with another submarine of the same class, the E41, took in water, and sank with all the crew (30).  (The Submariners Association Roll of Honour list here). The E4 was raised, repaired and recommissioned then after the war sold in 1922 to the Upnor Shipbreaking Company in Kent.

Addendum:
For an excellent illustrated history of the Battle of Heligoland Bight see the British Battles website which also mentions E4's participation thus : "British submarine HMS E4, one of the vessels from 8th ‘Oversea’ Submarine Flotilla, based in Harwich, that routinely patrolled in the Heligoland Bight, and that acted as ‘bait’ in the Heligoland operation on 28th August 1914.  E4 was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Leir .  She rescued the crew from HMS Dolphin’s whaler"

 Aerial view of Heligoland with the islet of Düne  in the background (from Wikipedia)

Antwerp

I have visited Antwerp twice, once by accident when taking the wrong exit off the ring road and once by intention for a longer stay because I was fascinated by what I saw on my first unintentional visit.  In my last War Illustrated post our French dragoons were looking for Germans and a few pages on in the same 29th August 1918 edition it was probably where they should have been galloping.

As the article implies Antwerp was considered the great redoubt built by the one of the leading fortification engineers of his time.  After Belgian independence in 1830 the city of Antwerp was proclaimed the National Safe Haven of Belgium, the last bastion of Belgian army in case of invasion by enemy troops and a safe haven from which to wait for help from allies.

As planned, the government, royal family and civil service in 1914 had decamped to Antwerp from Brussels to hold fast and the War Illustrated reported

"Gay, bright, picturesque Brussels has bravely prepared for the greater Waterloo.  The Government has been shifted to Antwerp, and the unfortified capital has opened to the enemy without a struggle. It had become a city of hospitals.  King Albert gave his splendid palace for hospital work and big hotel-keepers and large shop-owners turned their buildings into Red Cross institutions..."

"The immense fortress town, with triple belt of forts where the Belgians prepared for their last heroic stand"

The Gothic cathedral spire with its carillon bells still dominates the Antwerp skyline today as it does in the photograph and map. The optimism of holding the city for a year was ill founded as the Germans attacked with heavy artillery and on September 28th captured many of the outer ring forts.   The Belgian troops fought a rear guard action but were heavily outnumbered.  On October 1st the Belgium government sent a telegram to the British saying they would retreat in three days time.

Two more photographs of Antwerp and the Scheldt River that could be taken today.  In the background of the photograph on the right is Steen Castle

Steen Castle, Antwerp

where next month on the 3rd October 2014 a reconstruction of the pontoon footbridge across the River Scheldt to the Left Bank (Linkeroever) will be built by the Belgian and Dutch Engineering Corps and named the Peace Bridge. (See the Flanders Today article here)  Its purpose in 1914 was to be able to fortify the city with supplies and as a last resort be quickly evacuated. This was the route that the inhabitants would escape.

Belgians fleeing Antwerp to avoid entrapment (from 1914)

I have not found any pictures of that original pontoon bridge but the War Illustrated shows the rear guard in action

"Belgian rear-guard covering retirement"

And a reminder that after perfect weather the harvest of 1914 had been especially good

"Fighting Amongst the harvest. The Belgians and their black helmets with wheat-stalks to escape notice until they fire"

The pictures of the fleeing populace down tree lined avenues remind me that a hundred years later civilians are still fleeing violence in huge numbers in the Middle East.  Lets hope that in a hundred years time they too will live on a continent of peace. 

Antwerp surrendered on 9 October 1914 and one in five Belgians fled the country some to the Netherlands, France or Britain.   The Germans had a scorched earth policy because of the fear of guerrilla action.

"The rear of the German Army leaving Mouland burnt and sacked"

The village of Mouland or Moelingen in the photograph is near the Meuse river and was rebuilt after the war when the streets were widened and the central square enlarged.

"The railway from Landen to St Trond, destroyed by the Belgians to hinder the German advance".

(This was 6 miles of a single line of track first opened to traffic on 6 October 1839 )