BELGIUM'S NEW ARMY

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 257, 9 March 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

BELGIUM'S NEW ARMY

ALBERT AND HIS MEN. What are the Belgians doing Why do we hear little or nothing of their army? What has happened to it? writes F. A- M'Kenzie, the wellknown Daily Mail war correspondent. These questions have been freely asked for some little time past. To find an answer to tliem I have visited the Belgian lines and travelled from Boesiuglie, notth of Ypres, where the Belgians join up with the British, to the sea. I have found a new Belgian Army in existence, a powerful reserve force for the Allies waiting eagerly for the hour to come when it may advance. Out of the stricken remnant that survived the retreat from Antwerp and the battle of the Y.scr there has grown a fighting force of young men, led by officers seasoned in war, newly equipped, with an ample .supply of guns of every kind. They constitute a striking force of infantry and cavalry, with an ever-growing reserve ready to fill up iosses in the ranks. At the head is Kino; Albert himself. I met him among his men, a soldier among soldiers, dressed in the simple uniform of a Belgian gcreral, accompanied only by an A.D.C-. supervising, organising, sharing their life in the trenches and in the rest camps. It is impossible to see without some emotion this monarch moving from trench to trench in the little strip of his own territory yet left him, looking strangely young anl cheerful despite all. The people v. ho say that he has aged much in the last two years are misinformed. Active, confident, practical, and simple, he holds the hearts of his Belgian soldiers more surely to-day than ever he did. Contrast the Belgian Array of to-day and the army during my last visit two years ago. Then a little remnant, all that had escaped from Antwerp, was fighting with the fierceness of despair to save the last line of Belgian defence. To the rear, towards Dunkirk and Calais, were uncounted companies of wounded and invalids, of rags and dirt, a tragic spec'acle. The towns were choked with wounded and with refugees. There was a luck of cveiything- Invalids scarce able to crawl were burying the dead to save an epidemic. Forty odd thousand worn-out soldiers were clinging on to twenty miles of canal banks and vrccKcd towns, holding back the advance of 150.000 triumphant Germans _ Their very dress was mid-Victorian; their guns were outranged and outclassed; their munitions were scanty. French gunners and French cavalry flew to their aid, but even before the French came the force of the German attack bad been broken. I was there and speak of what I know. England, absorbed in the fighting then going on at Ypres, did not realise then—l doubt if she has realised yet—what Belgium did at the Battle of the Yser. Had she failed, all the splendid bravery of French's men would have been wasted, for our position would have been turned. Belgium emerged from that battle with her infantry reduced to 32,000, and with .half the remnants of her guns, saved from other fields, put out of action. Her little army in holding up the great German machine had been smashed oy it. That was yesterday. What of to-day? To-day the situation is transformed. A process of reconstruction was at once begun, and during the past- two years the Army has been rebuilt from the foundation. The quaint uniforms have disappeared, and have given place to the universal khaki—khaki with certain minor picturesque decorations which the Belgian loves. The uniforms are good; the boots are good; the very steel helmets of the cavalry are covered with khaki. The gas helmets are, to my mind, far better than those used by our own men when I was last with them.

Simplicity of life and cheerfulness of spirit are the note of this new army. To-day 1 lunched with the staff of one division. All sat together around one long plain table, the General-in-Chief sitting like a father in the centre. The mess-room was plain, the food was soldiers' fare, and there was a note of cheerfulness from top to bottom of the Toom. Later in the afternoon, while walking behind the trenches, I heard time after time sounds of singing. It was the rank and file gathered together •when the work was over. Nearly all the private soldiers are between twenty and thirty. Belgium had to obtain men. Numbers of those who had fought, on the Yser were broken in the fighting. Then new leeruits were raised by compulsory service among the Belgians living in England and France, and by the pressure of public opinion. The man whose sons were living in safety abroad was looked upon as little better than a traitor. Simultaneously with the raising of fresh troops the machinery for supplying the army with necessary equipment and munitions was recreated. The Frencn provided Belgium not only with fresh Government headquarters at Havre but also with considerable land in the north. Large parts of Calais wharves were loaned to them, and the little port of Gravelines became in effect Belgium. Munition factories arose in France.

Fresh officers' schooLs for young subalterns were opened. The medical service was extended and improved in a wry remarkable way. To-day there is a splendid service of hospitals behind the Belgian lines ready for the coming days when fighting in earnest is renewed. There are ambulances, many of them presents from England, staffed in nearly all cases by Belgians. I noticed one at work marked on the outside "Presented by the Wakefield Girls' High School. ' There are about five hundred doctors in the medical service. The hospitals right at the front contain 1800 beds for the seriously wounded, and behind them are others" ready for the cases »v he a they can be moved.

During the process of reconstruction the Belgians did not attempt an offensive. They were not in a position to do <■o. This doe* not mean that they hav:> had no fighting Along the different parts of tiie front, more particularly in the Boesiughe and Dixnmde dintiiits, the Germans have attacked lime after time as they have done lower down at Ypres. The Belgian Army hn.s had the common defensive ex}KM'ienccH of the British and the French. Very little lias been said about this fighting in England, because the Belgians have not yet organi.-ed their puhln it v hide.

To-dav. however, even this fighting has very largely died down and there is comparative jioace all along the northern front. This is due to the fact that the Germans have drawn away all po-nhlo men and munitions to the Sonune. 1 had a striking example of this mv.-olf a few hours ago. In company with a Belgian *taff officer, 1 visited one >cction of the trenches. My companion leaned leisurely over the parapet and pointer! out in detail the German )>ositions just across the banks of the Yser Canal. lie showed me their fir~t line, and then some way behind, a hit of rising ground where their second line could be *cen. For where we stood tho ruined countryside around us might have been deserted save for our sentries and 1 lie men in our own dtig-oufs. There was not a sound of ! : fo and not a sound

of activity. The officer istood up in full view of the lines. Only once did we hear tho sound of a rifle, and that was eomo distance away. The shells that we heard were being fired at Ypres. "What doe? this mean?" I a«kcd my guide. The commandant aniled. "The Germans are afraid," he said. '"They have been sent here, broken, to rest, and their chief fear is lest we should open out on them. They know that, if they send a bomb or a bullet over our lines we would hit back, and hit back hard."