Capitulation of Lille
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Western Front
- Date:
- 12 October 1914
- Author:
- Natalia
- Tags:
- France, Germany, Lille, German occupation
On 12 October 1914, after three days of siege and bombardment, the French garrison of Lille surrendered. The largest city in northern France, which at the beginning of September the Germans had briefly occupied and then left, this time remained in their hands until October 1918.
A garrison without a chance
Lille, surrounded by outdated forts, had been declared an open city as early as August and stripped of its defences. When, however, the Race to the Sea shifted the front northwards, the French command decided to hold it until units of General Louis de Maud’huy’s Tenth Army, then fighting at Arras, could arrive. The defence was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel de Pardieu. According to various sources he had under his command between about 2,400 and 3,000 soldiers, mainly older reservists from Territorial units, only a few guns and meagre stocks of ammunition.
Facing them were much stronger troops of the German Sixth Army, including units of the Saxon XIX Corps and Landwehr formations. The first shells fell on the city on the evening of 10 October.
The bombardment
The heaviest shelling came on the night of 11/12 October. According to French sources, the German artillery fired about 5,000 shells, mainly at the districts near the railway station and south-east of the centre. Fires broke out that there was nothing to put out with. Whole blocks along the rue Faidherbe, rue de Paris, rue de Tournai and rue du Molinel burned down. The number of buildings destroyed is given very variously, from about 900 to more than 2,000 houses, shops and tenements. At least a hundred civilians were killed, according to some sources more than two hundred.
The defenders repelled the German attacks but had no chance of resisting for long. Towards evening on 12 October, with their ammunition exhausted, de Pardieu and the last soldiers, shut up in the citadel, surrendered. The German monograph on the Battle of Ypres states that about 4,500 Frenchmen were taken prisoner, probably including soldiers who did not belong to the garrison but merely happened to be in the city. On 13 October the Germans took full control of Lille and posted the first decrees of the occupation authorities.
Four years of occupation
Lille became an important centre behind the German front, through which troops fighting in Flanders passed. Its inhabitants, as in other occupied cities of northern France, were subject to curfews, requisitions and levies, and machinery and raw materials were carried off from the factories. Hostages were taken, and in 1916 thousands of inhabitants of Lille and neighbouring towns were deported for forced agricultural labour. The Germans left the city only on 17 October 1918.
Remember the articles you have read? Only in this browser; nothing is sent anywhere.How it works
Read ·
Spotted a mistake?Report an error
Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 11 October 1914 · Asia and the PacificAustralians capture the yacht KometOn 11 October 1914 the Australian patrol vessel Nusa surprised the German government yacht Komet in a bay on New Britain and took her without a shot.
- 11 October 1914 · War at seaSinking of the cruiser PalladaOn 11 October 1914 the German U-26 torpedoed the Russian cruiser Pallada at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. The ship blew up with all hands.
- 13 October 1914 · War at seaU-boats on the Southampton–Le Havre routeOn 13 October 1914 a British torpedo boat came upon a German submarine off the Isle of Wight. The Admiralty diverted the Canadian convoy to Plymouth.
- 13 October 1914 · Eastern FrontBattle of Chyrów beginsOn 13 October 1914 the Austro-Hungarian armies launched a general attack on the Russian Eighth Army at Chyrów and Stary Sambor. A hard battle began.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 5 September 1914 · Western FrontGermans leave LilleOn 5 September 1914 the German detachment that had entered Lille three days earlier left the city. The Germans returned for good only in October.
- 9 October 1914 · Western FrontGermans occupy Armentières, Hazebrouck, Merville and EstairesA British chronicle records the German capture of four towns in French Flanders on 9 October 1914. In reality these were cavalry raids.
- 4 October 1914 · Western FrontThe Germans take Lens and BailleulOn 4 October 1914 the Germans entered Lens, centre of the Artois coalfield. The British chronology also records the capture of Bailleul.
- 26 September 1914 · Western FrontGermans occupy BapaumeOn 26 September 1914 German troops took Bapaume in Artois. The town stayed in their hands until March 1917 and became an objective of the Battle of the Somme.