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CHAPTER XII
ANTWERP THE DAY AFTER ITS FALL
FOR manifold and obvious reasons I will refrain from
any attempt to describe the progress of the German
army’s advance on Antwerp and of the operations
which culminated in the conquest of the city on the 9th of
October. Still less does it become me to pronounce judgment
on the manner in which the Belgians and the English defended
this city which the allies thought impregnable, especially
since certain parts of the country south of Antwerp had been
placed under water. All this will, in due course, be described
in the minutest detail by the German General Staff, and also
in a more popular form by Germans who took part. For me
it is sufficient to say a few words by way of preface to what I
saw myself.
To a layman it would appear a hopeless proposition to cap-
ture an " impregnable " fortress whose environs have been
inundated and whose forts and interior area are defended by
considerably over one hundred thousand men, but when that
layman learns that the Germans not only achieved the con-
quest but completed it in thirteen dayswith almost insignificant
losses, he is constrained to admit that the German army evi-
dently possesses qualities which make it greatly superior to
the allied armies and which mark it as the most consummate
instrument of war of our time. German generals of fortifica-
tions themselves admit that Antwerp, if not the strongest of
the world’s fortresses, may nevertheless be said to be one of
the three strongest, the other two being Metz and Paris.
But before the new heavy artillery even this bulwark of
Belgium’s and Britain’s hope was doomed. Nevertheless,
after the officers of the German General Staff, Artillery and
Engineers had thoroughly examined the equipment and re-
sources for defence, they were emphatic in asserting that had
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