In Flanders Flooded Fields Page 5

  Having only a limited command of the French language, the officers underscored their words with gestures to clarify their intentions. The lockkeeper, obviously flattered by the cultivated behaviour of his visitors, gladly consented.

  After being seated by the telephone they asked the operator in Nieuport for a connection with the city of Roulers. The lockkeeper, noticing their linguistic difficulties, assisted them in getting their call through. After ringing off they left but, according to the lockkeeper’s later testimony, apparently stayed in the Nieuport area for the next couple of days.

  The lockkeeper also stated that he believed that the officers belonged to the British Staff. Unfortunately we were not able to determine which staff he would have referred to. Quite likely they were an advance party of Major General Rawlinson’s headquarters. His troops were disembarking in Ostend and Zeebrugge at the time and reconnaissance teams must have been swarming out from these towns to check the lay of the land.

  Pretty soon the lockkeeper and his domain would be at the centre of the struggle for the survival of the Belgian kingdom.

  Chapter III

  Towards the West

  Friday morning, 9 October, the king and his staff officers left on horseback for Eecloo, a small town 17km as the crow flies west of Selzaete. The queen took the same route but by motorcar. Along the way she distributed thousands of cigarettes to soldiers who cheered her on when they recognized her. The troops and refugees, crowding the roads with a most diverse collection of carts, made progress difficult. But still they were able to set a good pace.

  The fate of the Second Army Division, left at Antwerp to cover the retreat, was still unknown and a major concern to all at High Command. Shortly before arriving in Eecloo though, while waiting at a closed railway crossing, the staff officers gave a sigh of relief: on a train rumbling by they noticed soldiers with batches of the 7th de Ligne Regiment, a unit part of the Second Army Division.

  Queen Elisabeth arrived by 09:30 in Eecloo and was immediately directed to the Boelare House, residence of Lionel Pussemier, a Member of the Provincial Legislative Assembly. In those days all dignitaries visiting the region were attended to there. Today the house is known as the Loontjes Residence.

  At 10:45 the king and his entourage arrived through Church Street. The remaining citizens were watching silently from the pavement. As he was rather small of stature one of them, Livinus Verstraete, had managed to get a spot on the upper step to the dean’s house. Here Church Street narrowed, with the result that the compact group of military riders was forced into single file or defile. From his perch Livinus saw the monarch approaching. The king looked grim and sat somewhat bent in the saddle. As he was about to pass the dean’s house Livinus broke the eerie silence in the alley and shouted as loud as he could – and in French so the king would certainly understand him – ‘Vive le roi!’.

  The Loontjes residence in Eecloo where the royal couple stayed overnight on 9 October 1914. The house in Selsaete where they stayed the previous night has since been demolished. Author’s photo archive.

  Immediately the king lifted his head, looked at Livinus and saluted him. This sudden outburst of loyalty by the common man and the subsequent royal reaction broke all barriers. The dumbstruck bystanders in the narrow street took up Livinus’ words, which quickly turned into a jubilant cheer that rolled on with the riders to the Market Square.

  Burgomaster Emiel Dauwe welcomed the monarch arriving on the steps to the Town Hall.

  Immediately afterwards the king descended upon the Justice of the Peace Building in Station Street where General Headquarters had been set up. The news that the royal couple had arrived in town had spread like wildfire. The whole population was now out and about and cheered the royals wherever they went.

  The front of the dean’s house in the narrow Church Street in Eecloo.

  Author’s photo archive.

  Since the Second Army Division had apparently escaped from Antwerp, one of the first tasks at General Headquarters was to find out if the British Naval Division too had been embarked outside the besieged city. The other pressing matter was to try to locate the exact whereabouts of all the different units of the Second Division. They were probably strung out over rail and road westbound along the Dutch border. After that it was time to return to the coordination of the ongoing movement of the entire army.

  It was obvious to High Command that all the fighting power of the Field Army had been used up. The men were not only physically but also psychologically exhausted. Moreover, with the fall of Antwerp and the improvised retreat, large parts of the now redundant Garrison Army had intermingled with units of the Field Army in the march to the coast. As such the main objective for the staff officers was to find a way to extract this miserable collection from the battlefield, at least for a few days in order to give the men some rest and to carry out an urgently needed reorganization.

  After lunch with the queen at the Boelare, the king, at 14:00, rejoined General Headquarters. Here the deliberation was now focused on the plans for reassembling the Army. Evidently there was one major growing concern: where would the restructuring take place?

  Meanwhile Queen Elisabeth visited Our-Lady-ten-Doorn Institute where the Red Cross had set up a hospital for wounded soldiers. The queen arrived at 16:50 accompanied by Mr Pussemier, Commander Daveux and her lady-in-waiting. A local journalist described the scene:

  The Justice of the Peace Building in Eecloo where Belgian Headquarters was installed on 9 October.

  Author’s photo archive.

  The queen was wearing a very simple, navy blue skirt, a linen collar, a hat, white toque, white shoes and gloves. She had left her white cape in the car.

  In these tragic circumstances the queen must have appeared to all as a magic figure. But she did not come to shine. Elisabeth was young, modern and walked expertly from patient to patient1. She managed to boost the morale at every step.

  With an exquisite kindness, a superior modesty and a perfect tact she walks from bed to bed, shakes the hand of a wounded soldier, asks the sisters about his condition. What does he suffer from? Where has he been wounded? How long ago did it happen – at which battle? At what dressing stations has he been treated already? Is he now well taken care of? She makes the remark to the nurses that this one has a fever, that one looks distraught.

  Up until now nobody in town had ever met such a caring and well-versed high society lady!

  Meanwhile the debate within High Command was at fever pitch. The National Refuge had been lost because the Franco-British Guarantor Powers had not been able to reach the Antwerp Fortified Place in time … or perhaps they had never been eager to engage in such an operation to begin with …?

  Now that High Command had to look for a new, temporary camp, the alternatives on Belgian soil were getting scarce. It was not only imperative to find a well-defined, battle-sheltered region on national territory. The king and his staff wanted to make sure that this time the Anglo-French forces would be, and would stay, in the vicinity to provide the indispensable protection.

  After reorganization, and with the support of these forces, the king anticipated the French Generalissimo to assign the Belgian Field Army a sector in the – by then expected – advancing front line. As such the Belgians would be able to enter in line with the Entente Powers when they proceeded back east through Belgium. If a further deteriorating tactical situation would prohibit the establishment of a safe haven within national territory it was agreed to evacuate the army from Belgian soil.

  Queen Elisabeth, during the war, visiting a school in Vinckem, behind the lines. She was a ravishing personality who embodied the ‘mother at the front’ for thousands of lonely soldiers. Always there, behind or in the trenches, to give you heart… Someone to watch over me…

  Nieuport 1914–1918, R. Thys, 1922.

  Since the end of The Great War, now already eighty-eight years ago, quite a few historians – and as a result the Belgian population in general – have assume
d that King Albert eventually would retreat with his army into France. If the army could not make a stand behind the Yser River it would cross the southern border. Personally, we regard this as a rather simple reasoning based on two axioms: first that from the outset King Albert wanted the army to make a stand at the Yser River and secondly that France was considered as being the ‘strategic hinterland’ of Belgium. Although our initial research was focused on the more technical aspects of the floods it became clear over the years – to our amazement – that nobody had ever taken the time to investigate historically both prejudices.

  However, in the next pages we will see that, from Eecloo on, King Albert masterly organized and manoeuvred his army divisions – the cavalry divisions were a separate case – so as to be able to embark them for England at short notice. All this happened not only after consultation with his personal advisers but also under the noses of his Minister of War and his High Command, both of whom were known for their Francophile sympathies. Up to 14 October all infantry units would be kept in positions ready for an embarkation in Ostend or even Nieuport, rather than for a withdrawal into France. But let us return to our story.

  There were not many choices left for a national safe haven. One possibility was the Bruges-Zeebrugge region. This area was protected in the north by the coastline and in the east by the Dutch border. Zeebrugge, with its new mole, could be the main supply port for the camp and the Ostend-Bruges and Bruges-Sluis Canals could act as perimeter. But, as rumours had it that German troops were already in the vicinity of Ypres, the risk of being cut off from the Anglo-French armies was quite substantial.

  Another consideration might have been that the splendid medieval city of Bruges would have been in the front line. The Belgians were by now well aware of the devastating power of the German artillery.

  Conversely, and with reason, they were wary of the British too. Winston Churchill was convinced that the BEF had to hang on to the Belgian coastline at all cost. Still, on 22 November he wrote to his friend Field Marshal French:

  If you push your left flank along the sand dunes of the shore to Ostend and Zeebrugge, we would give you 100 or 200 heavy guns from the sea in absolute devastating support….

  Just imagine what would have happened if a massive artillery duel had been fought out between the Royal Navy off the coast and the German mighty guns inland, over the Belgian heads and with Bruges in the centre!

  Another region that could be considered lay south-west of it: the area between Ostend and Nieuport. It did possess the advantage that the army supply base had already been moved here from Antwerp. But the only protective obstacle was the Bruges Canal2 and the rather narrow belt it provided along the coastline was too small to accommodate the full army complement and still give sufficient shelter from enemy heavy artillery. Moreover, the British were now using Ostend as their main debarkation port in Belgium and any Belgian occupation of the area would only complicate British troop movements in and out of the harbour.

  This left the extreme western corner of the country, enclosed by the winding Yser River and known as the Furnes-Ambacht 3 region, as the only available option. Comparable in size to the Antwerp National Refuge, this zone was well situated against the coastline, wedged between the Dunkirk Fortified Place across the border and the British bridgehead at Ostend. So High Command in Eecloo agreed that, for the time being, the latter region offered the best alternative as a temporary refuge for the army within Belgium.

  In Eecloo itself pure chaos reigned. An amalgamation of units from the Garrison Army, dragging along outdated material, slowly struggled along the main street on its way to the coast. Even after dark the tired troops and their squeaking carts kept moving.

  It must be said that at this point the British were apparently concerned with the personal safety of the Belgian monarch. One source indicates that the previous evening General Rawlinson had sent a cavalry brigade to Eecloo but another source says this order was later cancelled. Indeed the tactical situation changed from hour to hour.

  At 19:00 the royal couple had dinner at the Justice of the Peace Court after which they strolled back to their lodgings, only a few hundred metres away. Captain Commandant Galet, also staying at Mr Pussemier’s, again had a troublesome night. Colonel Wielemans, Deputy Chief of Staff, woke him up with a disturbing message: a German column, six hours long, had been reported moving from Ypres to Furnes. This distressing news was enough for Galet not to sleep a wink anymore. Luckily, in the morning, the information proved to be another rumour.

  But again, this alarm had brought home a very important question: while Belgian High Command hoped to assemble the army on national soil in the aforementioned Furnes-Ambacht region, it was still unknown what the strategic intentions were of the Entente4 forces. Without their presence to protect the Belgian Army, any rest or recovery in that area would be impossible. With this uncertainty in mind the king decided to call a conference with the Franco-British representatives to be held in Ostend the next day.

  Back in Antwerp, the British marines, after having crossed the Scheldt south of Antwerp, continued their march to Beveren-Waes. But instead of proceeding to St Nicolas where they were supposed to be entrained, they were directed towards St Gilles-Waes, 6km north of St Nicolas. A report had come in that the Germans had reached Lokeren, a town on the railway to Ghent. It had therefore been hastily decided to entrain the men in St Gilles-Waes and transport them to Ostend by the secondary railway following the Dutch border.

  The last columns of the Belgian Second Army Division, still on their march towards Selzaete, got no respite either. Halfway between Stekene and Moerbeke, almost 35km west of the besieged fortress, a patrol was sent south to investigate claims that the enemy was nearby. Soon after the patrol left, fierce rifle fire was heard from that direction. Scared, the weary men got up and hurried on. The patrol never returned. While straggling on they barely noticed that here and there in the adjoining fields some dazed soldier would suddenly sit up. They were the remains of the Fifth Army Division whose columns had passed there the previous day. After a twelve-hour sleep these souls were woken up by the noisy passage of their comrades.

  Around 12:00 the Belgian troopers arrived in the village of Moerbeke, still 12km from Selzaete and the life saving bridge across the sea canal. Many of the men fell asleep on the cobblestones almost instantly. But, like frightened animals, they got back on their feet when cannon fire woke them up. The officers managed to calm them down and lead them north, into the brush adjoining the Dutch border. Here one small, cobblestone track made its winding way to Selzaete. Tired, hungry and wet they finally crossed the Selzaete Bridge in the early evening.

  The stragglers of the 1st Naval Brigade in Antwerp were not so lucky. Since the pontoon bridges across the Scheldt had been blown up before their belated arrival they had to cross the river by requisitioned steamer. After this time consuming effort they arrived in Zwyndrecht, a village halfway between Antwerp and Beveren. Here they found out, after some time, that the rest of the division had gone to St Gilles-Waes. There was nothing for them to do but to press forward. Amidst a crowd of refugees they could do no more than put one foot in front of the other and struggle on. When they finally arrived in St Gilles-Waes in the afternoon, they were told that their compatriots had left some eight hours previously. In the small rural station there was still one transport to leave for the west but all were not entrained yet when news arrived that the Germans had pushed beyond Lokeren to Moerbeke and had attacked a train in that location. What nobody knew yet was that this train had carried the British 10th Marine Battalion and refugees. One hundred and fifty marines had managed to escape and later reached Selzaete. The remainder could not get clear of the mêlée and were captured by the Germans.

  Utterly exhausted by the forced march, without guns, ammunition, food or water, the commander decided to take his men north, covering the few kilometres to the frontier and surrender their arms to the Dutch. This was done and at about 17:00 some 1,500 reached the
border. Thirty or forty men, together with one officer, decided to try to escape capture and flee along the border, an endeavour in which they miraculously succeeded.

  Strangely enough, the next day the railway was still open. In fact after the Germans had retreated, a Belgian officer moved the train that had been attacked and another train with 200 British marines passed later still.

  * * *

  Meanwhile the violent skirmishes with the enemy around Ghent began to increase. Before 12:00 news arrived at General Headquarters that the Groupement Clooten, including the Brigade de Cavalerie Independante was being attacked by German forces on the south-eastern approaches to Ghent.

  It is rather important to describe in a few lines the composition of the Clooten group as we will later see it evolve into a unit with a potentially much more important role to play.

  Under the command of the Military Governor of Ghent, General H. Clooten, this detachment was a strange amalgamation of regular and second-rate units. It comprised elements of the special corps of the Civic Guard – the Chasseurs à pied de Gand, the Chasseurs à cheval de Liège, and l’Artillerie de Bruxelles, a squadron of gendarmerie, four battalions of (untrained) volunteers and the 4th Brigade of the First Army Division, including three artillery battalions. Temporarily added since the previous evening were the French fusiliers marins and two companies of French territorials.

  The Brigade de Cavalerie Independente on the other hand was formed on 4 October with the cavalry regiments of three army divisions. After these divisions had withdrawn to Antwerp their scouting capabilities had become, in essence, superfluous. With the expected imminent arrival of Anglo-French reinforcements this provisional brigade had therefore been formed to guard the communication lines with Antwerp, i.e. the area north of the Scheldt river.