BRITISH AND BELGIAN TROOPS RETREATING FROM THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP, ...

 British and Belgian troops retreating from the Siege of Antwerp, October 1914.

The following is the translated diary entry of Belgian grenadier Édouard Beer during the Siege of Antwerp in late September 1914. The fort he and his brother Charles Beer were defending was under heavy artillery fire when a shell struck an explosive munitions depot, causing a huge explosion. 

"We needed all our courage. What a ghastly sight! Bodies without heads or faces, detached limbs, chests laid open, groans and shrieks agonising to the ears. Most were without their dogtags, and so unidentifiable. 37 bodies lay there, while just four survived wounded, two of them seriously.

The stretcher-bearers refused to come forward, so our commandant asked for volunteers to take the two worst cases to the farm. Charles and I and two others came forward. The commandant shook our hands and said 'Good luck my children'.

As we crossed the open ground, shells fell all around us, sometimes very close. The wounded man groaned terribly at every step, and every twenty paces or so we had to stop because the blanket in which we were carrying him slipped in our muddy fingers."

On September 30, 1914, Édouard Beer wrote of the continuous German siege artillery:

"The spectacle is terrifying; in front of us as well as behind, we see flashes of the guns; to the north, south and west alike, there are only fires. The whole centre of the village is blazing like a torch, including thy church bell tower."

A few days later, he wrote:

"Our third night without rest... Four more men died in today's shelling, bringing to twenty the number killed in this stretch of trench... Oh! The rage of impotence. To see comrades fall at one's side, others wounded, and to be unable to avenge them! To see men lost to machine-gun fire who cannot perish fighting! This period of intense bombardment is intensely dispiriting."

"Evening soon comes, and with it new orders: we must exploit the fog to retake trenches beyond the village; they must be reoccupied 'at any cost', says the general, even if we lose half our strength on the way. The column marches forward in double file, observing absolute silence as we advance into the night. 

Soon, before us, looms a great red glade; it is blazing in Wacherbe; only ruins are left; here and there a burning house still stands; the animals abandoned by the inhabitants wander at will, seeking sustenance; we pass on, grimly impressed, our footsteps echoing on the pavé, where great craters mark the detonation of shells."

Thanks for reading leave your thoughts in the comments section below 

Read more on our Rare History Channel