October 1914 ... The Siege of Antwerp
| Despite a lack of training, field equipment, and being armed with ancient Enfield charger-loading rifles issued only days before, at 05:00 on October 3rd, the men of the Naval Brigades were told they were going on active service. At this time, the Division had no engineers—as recruitment had only commenced in September—nor artillery, field ambulances, or other ancillary units. The Naval Brigades arrived at Dover following a long march. There they received an improvised meal—their only one in a twenty-four-hour period—and loaded stores onto two cross-channel steamers. They embarked in the early hours of the fourth and were escorted by destroyers in zigzag formation to Dunkirk. With conditions on board crowded, many of the men had to stand throughout the voyage. After disembarking, the brigades were informed that they would be under the command of General Paris. The Marine Brigade arrived at the Antwerp suburb of Edeghen at 01:00 on the fourth. The Brigade moved into the trenches at 09:00 and relieved the Belgian 21st Division on the western bank of the river Nethe, north of Lierre. The line at this point covered the breach in the outer defences made by the Germans two days earlier. The Chatham, Plymouth, and Deal battalions held the line, with Portsmouth in reserve. |
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 Map showing the Antwerp fortifications | |||||
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The fourth was relatively quiet and, that evening, after the men had unloaded the ships, the first of the trains taking the Naval Brigades to the front set out on its journey. The men were instructed not to sleep in case the train was attacked. The brigades were cheered by both Belgian civilians and soldiers as the advance party of the great British army, coming to drive the hated enemy back. The artillery at this point consisted of what had been left behind by the Belgians, a few naval guns, and the guns of an armoured train. These were totally inadequate against a numerically superior enemy equipped with the heavy siege guns used in the reduction of Liège and Namur.
During the night of the 4th–5th, the Germans brought up field guns capable of firing into the front line, and the Marine Brigade withdrew three hundred yards to the main support trench. The Belgian troops on the right flank fell back, allowing the Germans to take the west bank of the river. Later in the afternoon, the enemy also crossed north of Lierre, to the left of the Deal Battalion. Overnight, the Belgians counterattacked in an attempt to drive the enemy back across the river. The Belgian troops, already exhausted from the defence of the city, made initial gains, only for the Germans to counterattack and push them back once more. The Naval Brigades began to detrain on the morning of the sixth at the station in the city itself. Despite being untrained, the arrival of these brigades boosted morale throughout the city. The 1st Brigade marched to Wilryk, with Belgian civilians giving them food as they passed out of the station. Once they arrived at Wilryk, they were immediately ordered to march to Vieux Dieux. By 11:00, the position on the river had become untenable, and General Paris ordered the Marine Brigade to withdraw to a line between the river and the inner forts. Under heavy bombardment, the Marines fell back. The Germans had been held for three valuable days, and the Royal Marines had played no small part in putting up a stern resistance. | ||||
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At Vieux Dieux, the 1st Brigade was met by Churchill, who explained that the plan was to hold the Germans on the Nethe until the seventh, when the 21st Division and the French would attack the German flank. The Brigade was ordered into trenches between the current line and the Nethe. The 2nd Brigade marched directly to Vieux Dieux, where it received a great reception from the citizens of Antwerp, and went into billets on arrival at 16:00.
The 1st Brigade was ordered to support the Marine Brigade: Drake and Benbow to the right of Chatham, and Hawke and Collingwood supporting the Marines near Château Weyninex. In these positions, the Division put up stiff resistance against the German attempts to cross the Schoonaerde. However, a decision was taken to withdraw all troops except for the Belgian 2nd Division and the Royal Naval Division, which would continue to man the eastern defences. News of the withdrawal of the Belgian Field Army began to circulate during the afternoon, and this had a demoralising effect on the remaining Belgian troops. |
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At 02:00 on the seventh, General Paris ordered a withdrawal to the inner defences. The Marine Brigade was to be rested, with the 1st Brigade positioned between forts 2 and 5, and the 2nd between forts 5 and 8. Chatham later relieved the Belgians between fort 8 and the Scheldt. Two guns at the fort on the Anson front burst overnight, causing panic among the Belgian garrison. From this point, the guns in the fort were manned by members of the Battalion. On entering the trenches, the Division found them to be very basic and virtually useless against artillery, being built up rather than dug in, and broad and shallow. Where the fire step should have been, there were only primitive dugouts. The trenches were overcrowded, had no cooking arrangements, and offered nowhere to sleep. They were camouflaged with a network of foliage and branches. In front of the trenches, a line of electrified barbed wire was constantly swept by Allied searchlights. A number of buildings very close to the frontline were still occupied, with the inhabitants unwilling to evacuate. The Division was immediately set to work deepening the trenches. The day was relatively quiet as the Germans hesitated in their advance, but it became apparent that the fall of the city was inevitable, as reinforcements were not forthcoming. That night, the government left the city, ships in the dock were destroyed, and the oil dumps set ablaze. Shells flew over the heads of the Division and rained down on Antwerp, starting fires throughout the city. | ||||
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At 02:00 on the eighth, a German patrol was observed on the Drake front. Great excitement spread through the untrained men, and firing broke out to the left and right of the position, resulting in the death of a cow. Shortly after, the Germans started to shell the trenches, but the effect was limited, partly due to improvements in the trenches and partly because the shelling was moderate in intensity and not very precise. Nevertheless, the morale of the fortress troops was broken, and the Division had to man forts 2, 3, and 4. The inhabitants were informed to leave the city without delay, and the evacuation of Antwerp commenced. The Division held its front, but the Belgians were near breaking, and they continued to defect from the forts. Fort 1 was now deserted and had to be manned by the Naval Brigades. It was becoming apparent that the condition of the Belgians supporting the Royal Naval Division was no longer being met. At 17:00, with the route of withdrawal being threatened, General Paris informed Winston Churchill that he intended to pull the Royal Naval Division out of the defenses to save it from annihilation. The decision to withdraw did not meet with any objection. The Division, with the Portsmouth Battalion as rearguard, was to rendezvous at Zwyndrecht, where it would receive further orders. Because of confusion in relaying the orders, there was a delay in getting them to the Hawke, Benbow, and Collingwood battalions. The first of the battalions started to withdraw shortly after 17:00. Burdened by the stores they were carrying, lacking water, and with the roads heavily congested with refugees, the battalions began to arrive at Zwyndrecht around 23:30 and were ordered on to St. Gillaes-Waes, where the trains to evacuate the Division would be waiting. The men were exhausted but began to arrive at St. Gillaes-Waes around 07:00. |
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The Hawke, Collingwood, Benbow, and, consequently, Portsmouth battalions began to withdraw around 22:15, with Hawke leading the way and crossing the city bridge over the Schelde around midnight. By the time the other battalions arrived, the bridge had been destroyed, and boats were used to cross the river. The battalions halted at Zwijndrecht for two hours, awaiting further orders before commencing the march to St. Gillaes-Waes at 05:00. With the exception of the Marines, the units lagging behind began to lose cohesion, finally arriving at 15:45. The Germans had started to threaten the line of retreat, and to avoid capture by the enemy, a large proportion of the Naval battalions entered Holland but were picked up and interned for the duration of the war.
The Portsmouth Battalion marched to Kemzeke and, collecting around six hundred Naval battalion stragglers along the way, arrived at 20:00. The Marines entrained at Kemzeke but were derailed at Moerbeke by a German patrol. A large group of Marines, with some Naval personnel, were able to cut a way through the enemy and escape by road to Selzaete, but over nine hundred prisoners were taken after being surrounded by a slightly larger force of Germans, which quickly withdrew, taking its captives with it. |
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