Antwerp Surrenders to German Forces: October 9, 1914
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part II.
By September 12, 1914, the Germans had won a great victory over the Russians in the East and, in the West, had occupied most of Belgium and northwest France, which were rich in coal fields, iron mines, and factories. The Germans, of course, had failed to destroy the French army and so bring the war to an early end; moreover, they had retreated—a fact that allowed the Allies to claim a great victory in the Battle of the Marne. Yet, the German army was still in good fighting shape—far better shape than the French forces. And no sooner had the Germans completed their retreat than they were planning a new offensive against their enemies.
Because Moltke had failed to destroy the French army in six weeks, the German government replaced him with General Erich von Falkenhayn, who became chief commander of the armed forces. Falkenhayn had come to the conclusion that in modern battles, armies had to fight differently than they had in the past. He thought it was impossible to destroy the enormous armies used in modern warfare; thus, to win, one had to break the morale of the enemy’s soldiers and convince the enemy’s commanding officers that further resistance was useless. No sooner had Falkenhayn taken command on September 9, 1914, than he began to put his ideas into action.
Only a week following its retreat to the River Aisne, the German army began its second assaults on the fortresses surrounding Verdun. The strategy was not so much to capture Verdun itself as it was to cut off its communication with the French army. By their speed and heavy artillery, the Germans by September 25 had captured the town of Saint-Mihiel, through which ran one of two major railroads to Verdun. They also took an important fortress near Saint-Mihiel—Camp des Romains, which commanded the plains around it. Three days earlier, another German force captured a high hill in sight of the second major railroad running into Verdun. From this hill, the Germans with heavy artillery could destroy any trains carrying supplies or arms to Verdun. By October 1, 1914, the important ring of fortresses about Verdun was cut off almost entirely from the Entente armies and from sources of supplies.
Another major German objective was the capture of the Belgian city of Antwerp, perhaps the most important port city in continental Europe. The siege of the city began on September 27, 1914, and continued for nearly two weeks. With its enormous guns, the German army bombarded the defenses of the city but made very little progress. Nevertheless, this demonstration of the power of the German artillery drove fear into the hearts of the soldiers defending the city. Finally, the German threat to bombard the city if it was not surrendered—as well as the opening of a general bombardment—convinced defenders to surrender the city on October 9. Over the next 10 days, the Germans were able to drive out the enemy from most of Belgium and, on October 11, to capture the French city of Lille, an important manufacturing and railroad center.
Though the Germans had been unable to end the war against France in six weeks as they had originally planned, their accomplishments by November 1914 were impressive. Not only had the Germans seized control of Belgium and northwestern France, along with their rich natural resources and manufacturing centers, but they had greatly weakened the Entente’s forces. In the first four months of the war, the French, British, and Belgian armies combined had about 570,000 men missing, wounded, or killed; the Germans had lost 200,000. The French alone had lost 454,000 men, including many of the army’s veteran officers and soldiers. By the end of 1914, it seemed that the Germans were moving toward eventual victory.
Yet, all was not going well for the Central Powers. Following its victories in the West, the German army settled into defensive trenches, as did the Entente armies, and so began a fruitless war of attrition in which, over the next four years, millions would die. In the East, the Russians were more successful against Austria-Hungary than they had been against the Germans, and by the end of 1914 had driven the Habsburg armies out of Polish Galicia. Austria’s war against Serbia had not been successful. Only after three attempts, from late August to December 2, was the Austrian army able to capture Belgrade; but then, two weeks later, a combined Serbian and Montenegrin army drove the Austrians from Serbia altogether. In the Pacific, Japan took the German-controlled Chinese city and bay of Kiaochow on November 7, while Japanese and British fleets seized German island possessions in the South Pacific. In Africa, the German colony of Togoland fell to Entente forces.
Thus, by the beginning of 1915, the war that both sides had hoped would be short was clearly turning into a long, bitter struggle. The old hatreds and deep fears that had turned nations into armed camps, along with the spirit of nationalism that led people to glorify their own nation while despising all others, had utterly destroyed any sense that Europeans formed a kind of family, united by a common civilization and history.
The Great War, or as we more commonly remember it, World War I, was the final stage of the breaking apart of Europe that had begun in the 16th century when much of Europe rejected the unity that the Catholic Church had for centuries tried to give her.
