German troops occupy Liège

On 7 August 1914 German troops entered Liège. On the third day of the fighting for the Belgian fortress they took the city itself, its bridges over the Meuse and the old citadel, but the ring of twelve forts around it remained in the defenders’ hands. The leading part was played by an officer of whom the whole world would soon hear: Erich Ludendorff.

The night attack

Ever since German troops entered Belgium, the strike force at Liège had been commanded by General Otto von Emmich. He had six infantry brigades, each with a squadron of cavalry, a battery of artillery and a battalion of Jäger. On 5 August he demanded free passage from the governor of the fortress, General Gérard Leman, and when this was refused he decided to take the city by a night attack. The brigades were to pass through the gaps between the forts, take the city and the citadel, and then take the forts from the rear.

On the night of 5–6 August the attack largely broke down. According to the British official history, two columns from the north lost their way and fell back with heavy losses, although one battalion reached the city and was captured there. One of the southern columns came to a halt, and in the other panic broke out and the men fired on each other. The same night a small party of German cavalry burst into Liège to seize Leman. According to the Belgian official account, all the attackers were killed.

Only the central column, the 14th Infantry Brigade, broke through. Its commander, General von Wussow, fell to machine-gun fire near Queue-du-Bois. Ludendorff, deputy chief of staff of Karl von Bülow’s Second Army, who was accompanying Emmich as an observer, took command and led the brigade on. As he recalled, the village had to be taken house by house, with field howitzers firing into the buildings. At about two in the afternoon of 6 August the brigade reached the heights of La Chartreuse, just above the city.

The citadel

Ludendorff was in a difficult position. The brigade was exhausted, ammunition was short, and there was no news at all of the other brigades. White flags did appear on the citadel, but the envoy sent into the city came back with word that they had been raised against the governor’s will. The Germans spent the night of 6–7 August in suspense, cut off inside the ring of forts with about a thousand Belgian prisoners. At about ten in the evening a company of Jäger took the bridges over the Meuse without a fight.

The Belgians, however, no longer had the means to defend the city itself. On 6 August the Belgian 3rd Division, which for three days had been fighting off a much more numerous enemy, was withdrawn to avoid encirclement and marched west to join the main body of the army on the Gete. At noon Leman moved to Fort Loncin and went on commanding from there. From then on the forts were to defend themselves on their own.

On the morning of 7 August Emmich gave the order to enter the city. The advance guard turned towards Fort Loncin, while Ludendorff, convinced that the citadel had already been taken, drove there in a commandeered Belgian car. When he arrived there was not a German soldier to be seen. As he himself described it, he banged on the locked gate, and the few hundred Belgians inside surrendered at his summons. During the day further brigades came up and the German soldiers taken prisoner in the night were freed.

A city under occupation

The inhabitants received the Germans in silence. Paul Hamelius, a professor at the University of Liège, recorded that in the morning the word went round the city: “They are passing.” Young German sentries were already standing on the Boverie bridge. The occupier’s first measures were the disarming of the civic guard and the taking of hostages to answer for the good behaviour of the population. Notices were signed by the burgomaster, with a heading stating that they were issued by order of the German military authorities.

The Germans’ position was nonetheless still uncertain. The forts were firing on the roads and railways along which the German armies were to pass, and according to Ludendorff the situation could be regarded as saved only once the eastern forts had fallen. To destroy them, heavy siege artillery was needed, and it opened fire on 12 August.

For Liège, Ludendorff and Emmich received the order Pour le Mérite from the Kaiser. The British official history later judged that the fortress’s resistance had cost the Germans four or five days, while the Belgians spoke of at least four. For Ludendorff it was the start of a great career: two weeks later he was summoned to the Eastern Front.