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2o8 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
they have wrought among human habitations, churches,
pubhc buildings and objects of artistic and historic value.
Such losses are, of course, exceedingly regrettable. But
neither attacker nor defender can pay any attention to such
considerations when the fate of his country is at stake. If it
is noticed by an armed force advancing to seize a place serving
as a poiiit d’appui to the enemy, that the church tower is being
used as an observation post, the church tower is shot down.
When the Belgians suspected that Marche-les-Dames, the
chateau of the Duchess of Ahrenberg, near Namur, famous
for its priceless art treasures, was used for signalling purposes,
they burnt it down. When it is a question of rendering the
position of an invading army more difficult or of delaying its
advance or cutting its lines of communication, the defender
seems to shun no material sacrifices, even though he himself
is the principal sufferer. Of the numberless bridges blown
up by the Belgians in their own country, all in order to delay
their enemy, there must be many which were of no importance
whatever to the Germans. By so doing, the defenders brought
upon themselves a treble loss, namely, the loss of the bridge
itself, the cost of removal of debris, and the building of a new
bridge after the end of the war—all this caused by a single
blasting charge. But the defending army, which is always
inferior, is nevertheless compelled, in a far greater measure
than the attacking army, to effect wholesale destruction,
more especially of buildings of architectural or historic value,
whilst as often as not it lies in the interest of the attacker to
preserve them. The blowing up of bridges is in itself a van-
dalism, but is fully justified if it is thought that strategic
advantages can be obtained thereby. The destruction wrought
by the Germans in their advance has partly been involuntary,
and has partly had its cause in the conduct of the civilian
population. But the Germans have never destroyed simply
for the love of destruction. Assertions to the contrary are
intended to create false notions, and it may be assumed with
tolerable certainty that if the enemy armies had the oppor-
tunity of penetrating into Germany, they would, to say the
least, bring about as much destruction as has been wrought in
the countries now occupied by German armies.
During the first period after the capture of Namur all
windows facing the street had to be kept alight after dark,
whilst the streets themselves were not Hghted. The conse-
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