Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-10-20

ANTWERP. via London. October 90
Upon his arrival in Antwerp the cor
respondent of the Associated Press
found the city guarded by bluejackets
and marine infantrymen from the Ger
man stations at Kiel, Cuxhaven and
Wilhelmshaven. They were smelling
the salt water again after a campaign
of more than a month through Belgium
and awaiting further orders.
Detachments of sailors among them,
recruited from the German merchant
marine. were armed only with cutlasses
behind the army, taking no part in the
fighting, and evidently are destined for
sea duty after the capture of a port.
The German staff officers assured the
correspondent that the German COM
mander, Gen. Won Beseler, had found
easy victory in his campaign, where
hard fighting was expected and desper-
ate resistance where little trouble had
been anticipated The officers said
Antwerp had fallen eight days earlier
than expected, the Belgians evidently
being disheartened by their nine weeks
of defeat, and also because OF the easy
manner in which the fortified positions
behind the River Nethe were carried
October 6 and Z.
AS the correspondent drove through
miles of the streets of Antwerp the
city seemed to have suffered less from
the bombardment than had been be-
lieved. Indications of damage wrought
by the German shells were observed in
all quarters of the city, but the de-
struction usually was confined to in
dividua1 houses at widely scattered
points, the great mass of intervening
buildings being untouched.
Heaviest of Guns Not Used.
At the German headquarters it was
said this fact was due to the definite
plan of the Germans to convince Ant
werp with a minimum of damage that
the city was at the mercy of their
guns and that further resistance was
useless. The heavy twelve and sixteen
inch guns, it was stated, were not used
against the city proper, but shells from
me smaller mortars We're dropped
throughout the place, a few in each
section until every quarter had been
systematically visited
How accurately the public buildings
were avoided seemed to have been
proved by shell hole in the pavement
and in the destruction of a house
across the street from that building.
The Church of Our Lady, the pride Of
antwerp. Al has a hole eight or ten feet
and in an adjoining wall thirty feet
above the floor. Otherwise this edifice
was not damaged.
The artillery park of the Germans
before Antwerp was stronger than was
generally known. In addition to their
widely heralded sixteenth mortars
ana large number of twelye-inch
siege guns they had two Austrian auto
mobile batteries of twelve guns
Outer Forts Badly DAMAGED.
The effect of the big guns on Ant
werp's outer Notifications was more
striking than at Liege. Two armored
turrets at Fort de Wavre-St Catherine
were put out of action with a single
shot. their steel beds being broken in
two and the heavy masses of metal
hurled five or six yards away. In an
oeher rort the concrete embankment
was pierced like an egg shell and the
steel turret uprooted. Still another tur-
ret was completely appended and lies
with its base pointing skyward and it's
gun buried beneath. ! ~,i7., = :, = :
Behind Fort Waelhem, where. a
tweive-inch shell penetrated the maya
zine, q heavy steam. engine which fur
nished power for the light plant was
blown twenty yards from it's base The
entire top of the fort here was torn
Off and sixty men of the garrison are
said to have been buried beneath the
debris.
German staff officers say that when
the River Nethe was crossed the Bel
g1an defense virtually collapsed. The
Belgians abandoned their heavy artil-
lery and machine guns, while the Ger
mans 1ntrenched' themselves, expecting
counter attack.
Burgomaster Surrenders CITY.