Identifier: literarydigesthi01hals (find matches)
Title: The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources: American, British, French, German, and others
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting), 1851-1919, comp
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Company
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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bombard the city if it did not surrender hadbeen sent to its defenders on October 6, and General Deguisehad replied refusing to surrender and accepting the conse-quence. It was not until three or four minutes beforemidnight of October 7, that the actual bombardment ofAntwerp began. The Germans did not bring up theirheaviest guns against the city itself. From the beginninguntil the end when high-explosive shells were employed, the 336 INVASION OF BELGIOI AND ALSACE-LORRAINE great majority of the projectiles used were shrapnel, whichgenerally burst above the roofs. The actual destruction ofthe fabric of buildings, therefore, was at no time large inproportion to the severity of the bombardment. The objectof the attacking force was evidently to terrorize and kill,rather than to destroy buildings. From the first the firewas distributed with curious impartiality all over the city.This had, indeed, been the German plan throughout theapproach to the city. So long as the outer forts presented
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© INTERNATIONAL FILM SERVICE N Y BELGIAN ARMORED TRAIN USED DURING THE BOMBARDMENTOF ANTWERP a definite and stationary objective, fire had been concen-trated on one or another until the big howitzers battered itto pieces. The bombardment continued with varying severity through-out the 8th. As the Germans drew nearer to the city allthe inner forts, on the south and east sides of the ring, tookpart in replying to their cannonade. Some of these forts,notably forts 2, 3, 4, and 5, were badly battered, but withthe guns posted between and before them they continued to 337 ON THE AVESTERN FRONT answer the enemys fire vigorously, while trenches two milesin advance were still held by British and Belgian troops.The Germans made no attempt to rush either these trenchesor the zone of barbed-wire entanglements which had to becrossed in order to reach the city; but contented themselvesw^ith pouring shell-fire on the trenches and forts, and thecity itself from beyond the reach of rifles. The havoc

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