From the Trenches: Louvain to the Aisne, the First Record of an Eye-Witness — John Shaqi
From the Trenches: Louvain to the Aisne, the First Record of an Eye-WitnessYoung, Geoffrey Winthrop
History
From the Trenches: Louvain to the Aisne, the First Record of an Eye-Witness
Young, Geoffrey Winthrop
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
Regiments of the 4th Belgian Army Corps have also been detraining all
morning. Fresh, brisk-looking men, curiously pallid compared with their
black unshaven comrades, who have been in the field all the week.
Better booted and equipped, having had more time to mobilise. Odd
boots and German prisoners' breeches, belts, and trappings have become
common sights in that hard-worn division. A little captain at Diest
was wearing blue breeches, one brown riding boot, one regulation black,
a kepi with two bullet-holes through it, and a green Chasseur coat
too small for him. "What would you? I have been in five fights, from
Liége to Diest; the Germans sacked my lodging on the night at Haelen.
I fought them there without a coat. We were seventeen in the corner of
the wheat, cyclists; at night I went back with the two other survivors,
and found my bicycle. One is a philosopher! one must be gay!"
The Second, Third, and Fourth Regiments of the Line have suffered most.
The Second have lost a large proportion of their numbers.
The proportion of officers killed is very large; this especially among
the Germans, owing to their massed formations and the distinction in
uniform.
I saw a letter last night, found on a German officer, bitterly
complaining of the want of preparation, absence of proper scouting, and
reckless waste of life in their mass attacks.
Little credence can be attached to stories of an enemy's savagery. But
a circumstantial story has been twice told me by men in different
companies that Belgian prisoners were placed in the front line in the
engagement at Landen; and that the Belgians fired low at first until
their friends had fallen, shot in the legs. I give it only for what it
is worth.
There is no doubt that the battle in which the Belgians lost most
heavily was an early engagement on the Tirlemont lines, where, in the
dark, two regiments of Belgians mistook their line, and fired on each
other. Both lost many men. Under present conditions this must occur.
The airmen are asking that no aeroplane shall be fired upon. They
suffer from their friends.
Namur, Monday night.
Have you seen a fight between a hawk and a rook, or a hawk and
peregrine? That, or something like it, took place over the open square
by the station this afternoon.
An aeroplane appeared out of the west; it soared over the railway
against the cloudy sky, stooped, and suddenly, as if struck, shot with
a steep volplane on to this side of the Meuse.
There was a rush of cars and crowd. But before it touched a second
aeroplane appeared like a speck in the clouds. It rushed down with
extraordinary rapidity, in sharp dipping planes; hovered, as if
looking for its prey, swooped at the tower on the station, and with
extraordinary audacity wheeled twice above it in exquisite descending
spirals. The flight of the first had brought a crowd of soldiers and
Civic Guards on to every salient roof, and the circling challenge of
the pursuer was followed by a regular salvo of musketry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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