Enemy at the Gates of Antwerp, Part I

Belgian Infantry Awaiting the Invaders

By Tony Langley

The Belgian government and the king and queen officially relocated to Antwerp upon the occupation of Brussels early in August. There was no shortage of large buildings to house the ministries and parliament and senate. The Atheneum (or high school) and the grand and ornate municipal ballroom were pressed into service for government use. Hotels, of which there was a multitude in Antwerp for use by businessmen and emigrants awaiting departure to the New World, were soon full to capacity, housing diplomats, officers, journalists, and refugees from all over the occupied parts of the country. The rich and wealthy opened their homes for use as hospitals or nursing stations. The Antwerp Zoo, with many large festival and conference halls, was also turned into a casualty recovery ward, and a number of municipal trams were converted into useful and picturesque Red Cross streetcars, plying the routes from outer fortifications to the city center with wounded and injured soldiers.

Morale was high in the newly designated capital. There was some initial rioting against German inhabitants of Antwerp, their homes looted and furniture thrown into the streets and destroyed or burned. Rumors and lurid stories of German spies abounded as well, it being told that said perfidious persons were executed in secret at night on the glacis of the inner forts. None of this was true, of course, but it all added to the sense of excitement and adventure among the general public, which displayed patriotic sentiments hereto unseen in the average Belgian. According to eyewitness accounts, along with the black-gold-red tricolor of Belgium, the streets were abundantly adorned with flags of all the Entente nations: Great Britain, France, and Imperial Russia. Prices for foodstuffs and other goods remained at very reasonable levels; the city was not encircled by German forces, and, therefore, supply routes were guaranteed and confidence in the protection afforded by the triple ring of fortifications was high. Neither the Belgian government nor, apparently, the British nor French governments were concerned that any real threat existed. In good time Antwerp would be relieved, and in the meantime, the forts would of course hold.

The heroic stand at Loncin notwithstanding, this did little to stop the advance of German troops. After a short and small-scale victory won by the Belgians on the battlefield at Halen on the 12th, to the north of the fortified town of Diest (located about halfway between Liège and Antwerp), King Albert I and the military staff decided it was necessary to order the Belgian field army into the Antwerp fortified zone. By 20 August the main Belgian force was safely under the protection of the outer-perimeter forts.

Armored Cars Were Sent Out on Sorties Against the Germans

The German military command was not overly concerned with the fate of Antwerp and the Belgian Army at this time either, its main objective still being the capture of Paris and hopefully the encirclement and destruction of the bulk of the French Army. Therefore, a numerically smaller German force of mostly second-line quality, Landwehr (territorials and reservists) was left behind as a screening force around Antwerp. It was more an army of observation than a besieging force, as at no time was it strong enough to mount an assault on any of the outer fortifications. In fact, it was the Belgians who went over to offensive operations three times before the main German assault on the city started on 28 September.

The first sortie in force from the Antwerp entrenched camp was on 24 August, and by nightfall Belgian forces had advanced into Malines, a medium-sized city to the south, situated just outside the outer ring of forts. It was largely deserted and would be fought over several times during the coming weeks, changing hands back and forth. Once beyond Malines, the Belgians advanced farther along the Louvain road, pushing German troops, mostly inexperienced territorials, back to the outskirts of Louvain itself where, in the nighttime confusion, Germans fired upon each other, causing widespread fear of Belgian civilians acting as franc-tireurs (civilian snipers). This led the next day to the burning of the city, an act that had severe negative repercussions worldwide for the German cause.

General Hans H. von Beseler
Designated Commander for the Siege of Antwerp

The German command took the decision to reduce Antwerp on 8 September 1914.