The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-12
HOW GREAT GERMAN SWOOPED DOWN ON BELGIUM
Associated Press Correspon- dent Sends Detailed Story of Now Famous Invasion of Neutral Country

London, September 11.-C7 a. m.)-A cor respondent of the Associated Press, who has been through Belgium, sends long message from Rotterdam. which was rather critically censored throughout, but which appears to be an accurate account of the invasion of Belgium, obtained from German point of view.
 Something was deleted at the beginning. The story follows:
 From Brussels the German army poured over southern Belgium into France like a flood tide, spreading fan-like in the directions of Beaumont. Meubeuge, Mons and Lille. joining in the south of Belgium with other army corps proceed 1 ing from Gembloux, Dinant and Givet, | totalling 40 army corps, or over 1,50c.00 men.
 They went over the French border without serious resistance, and the French scattering before them in great diso ,der, leaving behind much war material, and all sorts of personal effects, their retreat extending as far as the Forest of Normal,
 in northern France.
 Several rear guard actions occurred, resulting in considerable losses to both sides and bringing up the losses of the Germans in Belgium to about 50,0OO
 Innumerable Skirmishes From the Binche country, soutbward l in the direction of Meubeuge, innumerable | skirmishes occurred from August 23 TO August 26.
 | At Bray, just west of Bnche, the | French and English were repulsed by tic 1 Germans. The French then retreated to
 Bonne Esperanto, where after another skirmish they fell back through Merbes, St. Marie and Marbes- Le- Chateau, o,ooo | English retiring to Beaumont at the same time.
 | Engagements in the vicinity of Buis- sierre at Thuin constituted the most de- termined resistance offered by the allies. 1 After two days continuous artillery duel | which swept the surrounding country and demolished almost every structure, the entire right wing. of the allies withdrew far to the southward.
 This gave the Germans an opportunity to sweep through the Beaumont neigh
 borhood and approach Maubeuge from the south.
 Meanwhile the other corps had ap- preached Maubeuge from the north en. tirely investing the fortress. The Eng
 fish and French were on August 23 driven
 across the Sambre river, where on tn.
 south bank of the river, fighting con
 tinued for three days.
 'The correspondent first saw actual fir.
 ing in the direction of Maubeug on Au-
 gust 26 while 'puffs of the German shrap-
 mel beclouded the horizon, but the for
 ward movement of the German columns
 was so rapid that when the correspond- ent reached the scene of the recent en- gagement, the firing line had advanced
 fully 10 miles southward.
 "An extensive trench system, laid out
 by the French infantry, marked the French retreat
 Wounded Uncared For T Tn the German army wounded were
 uncared for and the dead buried as fast
 as the army continued on the march
 while the French dead were left unburied and the wounded in some cases remained on the battlefield for three days before receiving attention. Large numbers of the
 French wounded were brought into So- lore-Sur-Sombre from the surroundiue woods whither many had dragged them selves to escape.
 Every conceivable kind of building such as the chateau, school and inn. was used as hospitals and here the wounded were housed and received prompt atten- ton, the French wounded being accorded the same care as the German wounded "A large proportion of the French wounded died from lack of prompt at tention and long exposure ins the open without food or drink.
 | No cases were observed where French medical men were left behind to take care of their wounded.
 'The German medical corps was fully occupied with the treatment of It's own Iwounded and was hastened forward by the forced marches of extraordinary speed and duration made by the Ger mans. The French dead in all sorts of eonveyances were a common sigh' and squares and cemeteries with un finished graves gave mute evidence of la nasty French retreat.
 Aeroplanes Used
 Dove shaped German aeroplanes whirred constantly over the country and occasionally one saw French avia- tors far enough aloft to be out of range of the special German Krupp guns de- signed for the destruction of air craft IT saw a duel between French and Herman air machines in which both
 were disabled in a hard struggle.
 After careening downward in gian' eagle circles the two machines plung ed
 to the earth almost upside down aho
 were completely shattered while the aviators were instantly killed While aloft both the pilots and their assist ants kept at a lively exchange of re- lvolver shots which were at first incl fectual and then simultaneously, judg- ing by the disturbed equilibrium of the machines, they reached their marks After vain efforts by the aviators to regain control, both machines Tell ko ba If lxa