Flander's Fields

By the year 1914, kings no longer led their armies into battle. Along with their divine right had gone their right to command their country's armed forces. It was just as well. Kings were no more guaranteed to be good soldiers, or military strategists, than they were to be good rulers.. A shining exception to this rule was provided by Albert of the Belgians. Within days of the outbreak of the war, he proved that he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Belgian army in practice as well as in rank. This was in accordance with the Belgian constitution. 'Soldiers,' ran his first rousing Order of the Day, 'I am leaving Brussels to place myself at your head.'

And in the course of the three months of August, September and October 1914, King Albert was transformed from an apparently colourless, if well-intentioned, sovereign into a bold and resolute leader of men, the symbol of little Belgium's stand against a powerful and ruthless invader. While his allies, Britain and France, floundered about in a swamp of indecision, his country was to bear the brunt of the German attack and he to earn for himself the title of Albert the Brave.

As soon as it was certain that the Germans had crossed the border, Albert felt free to abandon his country's strictly observed neutrality and to appeal to France and Britain for help. Confident that the Allies would hurry to his aid, the King prepared to hold up the enemy advance until the arrival of reinforcements. But, unsuspected by Albert, no such reinforcements were planned. France, obsessed with regaining the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, lost to the Germans in 1870, was determined to make its thrust across the Franco-German frontier. Britain, after a period of uncertainty, sent four divisions to support, not the Belgians, but he French. And so, for over a fortnight, King Albert's forces faced the tremendous onslaught alone.

During the fortnight, the King was forced to make a series of momentous decisions. That they had to be made in the face of hostile criticism from his allies, his general staff, his troops and the civilian population, rendered them all the more significant. Two factors influenced his actions: he had to conserve his little army, and he had to keep it on Belgian soil as long as possible.

The first of these decisions was to prevent his army, which had early on repulsed the enemy before Liege, from launching an immediate counter-attack. The level-headed Albert realized that any such offensive would be suicidal. Another decision was to reject the Kaiser's suggestion that, as Belgium had 'upheld its honour' by this heroic resistance, she now allow the German army to pass through the country. His rejections of this tempting suggestion led to the bombardment of Liege into submission, and to a pouring of German troops across the River Meuse.

Again Albert made a sensible, if unpopular, move. He ordered his army to retreat to the fortified city of Antwerp, thus leaving central Belgium, including Brussels, to be overrun by the enemy.

'It isn't a question of shutting ourselves up in an entrenched camp,' explained Albert to the French, who had hoped that his army would fall back into France to join their lift wing, 'but of taking breath before an eventual counterblow.'

So while he, with Queen Elisabeth and their three children, as well as his government, remained in Antwerp, the Germans occupied Brussels and, in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan, swung southwards in a massive curve towards France. All that the King could do as he waited - in vain, as it turned out - for Allied relief, was to harry the enemy's flank.

During these harrying attacks, Albert was always to be seen in the thick of the fighting. He moved openly among the men, encouraging them and sharing their dangers. Although never sparing himself, he was extremely sparing of his troops. His calm, his common sense and, above all, his unostentatious courage earned him the trust and then the whole-hearted devotion of his soldiers. 'The attitude of the King and Queen through these tense and tragic days was magnificent,' wrote Winston Churchill, who visited beleaguered Antwerp at this time. 'The impression of the grave, calm Soldier-King presiding at Council, sustaining his troops and commanders, preserving an unconquerable majesty amidst the ruin of his Kingdom, will never pass from my mind.'

For that Albert's kingdom was being ruined, there was no doubt. The Germans, infuriated by the initial Belgian resistance, were carrying out a ruthless and systematic terrorization of the country. Already the German advance had been delayed and the Schlieffen Plan disrupted; to prevent any further Belgian resistance, the civilian population would have to be intimidated. So while King Albert looked on in impotent horror, his country was subjected to a series of atrocities - looting, burning, mass executions, the destruction of the ancient city of Louvain - the like of which had never before been experienced in European warfare.

'My heart bleeds', protested the Kaiser in a telegram to the United Stats President, Woodrow Wilson, for the sufferings of Belgium, caused 'as a result of the criminal and barbarous action of the Belgians'. Their resistance, he claims, had been 'openly incited' and 'carefully organized' by the Belgian government.

But the rest of the world knew better. If there had hitherto been any doubts as to why the war was being fought, the German rape of Belgium removed them. Not only had Belgian neutrality been violated but her stubborn stand against a powerful and merciless invader had won her widespread sympathy and adulation. A cartoon, published in Punch, captured this spirit of Belgian resistance. On the ruins of a devastated Belgium, the Kaiser and King Albert stand face to face. 'You see,' the Kaiser is saying, 'you've lost everything.' 'Not my soul,' replies Albert.

--quoted from "Crowns in Conflict" by Theo Aronson