Antwerp

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 47, 12 October 1914, Page 5

Antwerp

SCENES OF HORROR AND RUIN. Ghent, October 10. ! During Thursday, shells constantly fell in Antwerp, including the Palace Verte. Many places caught fire, and whole streets were reduced to ruins owing to the incendiary shells. A Zeppelin dropped bombs, tho Law Courts being hit. The diversion enabled the Germans to bring up fresh guns. The population was terrified by the continued scenes of horror, and the darkjness was only relieved by the burning jbuildings and exploding shells. | The Belgian army made a gallant 'sortie from the left bank of the Schjcldt. General de Guise, military governor j of Antwerp, was a pupil of General Brialmont (the well-known , Belgian general and of fortifications.) He is the youngest and most brilliant Belgian general. He assisted in organising the defence of Adrianoplo | when the Balkan war broke out. WAR CORRESPONDENT’S RELIABLE ACCOUNT. London, October 10. Mr Donohue’ reports that crowds of

wounded are pouring into Ostend. The Belgian medical arrangements appear to have broken down. Many of tho victims had been without food or water for long hours. At Ostend food is lacking. The wounded state that the German shell fire, in a particular section of the fortified enceinte at Antwerp has been terribly severe. One section having reduced two forts to powder, the enemy flung a heavy assaulting column against the breach, but the entrenched Belgians met it with a terrific machine-gun fire. The two columns wavered, and despite a liberal display of personal violence by the officers,' broke and fled in disorder, in which their losses were accentuated fourfold. After regaining shelter, their artillery fired on the trenches. Tho American Consul at Antwerp states that ho remained in the city on the first night of the bombardment. He was aroused at 11 o’clock at night by frightful noises in the air. With his family he crouched in the cellar all night. Every few minutes a dreadful whistling sound was followed hy a thunderclap, and the collapse of some buildings. He saw the whole front of a building torn out by a shell. The streets were crowded with all descriptions of vehicles, removing fugitives, who, after escaping from the’ town, found tho bridge across the Scheldt destroyed, bottling up the remainder of the inhabitants. It took him 13 hours to reach Ghent, owing to the road being packed with fugitives. PRISONERS LIBERATED FROM GAOL, «, ,v • _.rr _ } : Amsterdam, October 10. Fugitives state that the Germans held nine forts near Lierre on Friday. Shells fell in the prison, and the warders liberated the prisoners. PLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES. Amsterdam, October 9. Half-a-million refugees are now in Holland. Ghent, October 11. The sea is still free of Germans. Many refugees preferred to go to Bruges, Ghent and Ostend, the coast towns. Endless processions were on the roads throughout Thursday and Friday night, and they soon exhausted the food at the wayside inns apd farms. The scenes were unprecedented since tho Spaniards sacked Antwerp in 1686. ENEMY’S 42-CENTIMETRE CUN. BELGIAN KING WITH HIS) ARMY. GERMANS SHOT BY HUNDREDS. London, October 10. A correspondent describes tho firing of a 42-centimetre gun of the enemy. He says that ten minutes elapses between the shots. “There is a flame like a blasting furnace, a small cloud of smoke, a thunderous though hearable roar, then a hiss. The Gormans never fired wildly. Spies had worked the ranges of vulnerable points out to a yard, THE KAISER DECORATES HIS SON AUGUST WILHELM. Hague, October 11. The Kaiser has bestowed tho Iron Cross on his son August Wilhelm, who was among the first to penetrate the Antwerp fortifications. GENERAL ITEMS. London, October 10. King Albert, through a neutral attache, sent the German commander a plan showing the sites of tho Cathedral and other ancient monuments, which he begged might be spared. Many shells had already fallen near the cathedral. Tho King is in the field with his army. The Germans are using 200 guns, of 28, 30, and 42 centimetres. Ostend, October 10. Tho Germans have blown up all bridges from Ghent to lugelmunster, and destroyed the station at Yivesteloi. The Belgian Government is making a vehement protest against the Germans monopolising tho foodstuffs in Brussels and environs, reducing the native population to famine.