Germans occupy Dendermonde

On 2 October 1914, during the siege of Antwerp, German troops once again occupied Dendermonde (French: Termonde). The town lies on the Scheldt, where the river Dender flows into it, some 25–30 kilometres south-west of Antwerp. Since the beginning of September it had changed hands several times, and by the time the Germans entered it again it was already largely a burnt-out ruin.

The key to the west bank of the Scheldt

Dendermonde’s importance derived from its position. Through it ran the road across the Scheldt to its west bank and on towards Ghent and the coast. Through this area ran Antwerp’s communications with the Channel ports, from which Allied help could come. Had the Germans crossed the Scheldt here, they could have cut the fortress off from the west and closed the Belgian army’s line of retreat.

A town burnt in September

The Germans first took Dendermonde on 4 September. After a brief defence the Belgian units withdrew behind the Scheldt, and over the following days German soldiers plundered the town and systematically set it on fire. The fires lasted several days and consumed more than half of the houses and most of the public buildings. Further burning in mid-September destroyed the town hall with its belfry and the municipal archives. Of more than 10,000 inhabitants only a small fraction remained in the town. Dendermonde became one of Belgium’s “martyr towns”, a symbol of the German reprisals against the civilian population in 1914.

Fighting went on around the ruins throughout September. During sorties from Antwerp the Belgians recovered the town several times, and the Germans kept coming back. On 26 September, during the fighting at nearby Buggenhout, the Germans withdrew from the ruins on news of the approach of the Belgian 4th Division. The next day the German siege began at Antwerp, and soon the heavy mortars started destroying the forts on the eastern sector of the fortress.

The struggle for the crossings

The occupation of Dendermonde on 2 October coincided with the hardest days of the defence of Antwerp, when Fort Walem fell and the Belgian divisions were falling back behind the river Nete. The Belgians nevertheless held the west bank of the Scheldt, and the Germans could not cross the river at the first attempt. On 5–6 October the Germans tried to cross the river at Dendermonde, Schoonaarde and Baasrode, but were driven back. Only on the morning of 7 October, under cover of thick fog, did two Landwehr battalions cross by boat at Schoonaarde, and in the following hours the Germans crossed the Scheldt at other places as well.

By then, however, it was too late to close the Belgians’ road to the west. On the night of 6–7 October the field army began to leave Antwerp, crossing the Scheldt in the city itself, and withdrew towards Ghent. Dendermonde remained under German occupation until the end of the war.