The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1914-08-20
B BRUSSELS
CAPTURED
Was Taken in Night
Attack.
BATTLE IN PROGRESS
Heavy Fighting All Along Forty
Mile Front.
FRENCH SWEEPING ALSACE
Threaten to Turn Flank of Bic
German Armies.
Threaten to Turn Flank of Bic
German Armies.

London, Aug, 20.-Persistent re-
ports we're received from various
that Brussels, the capital OF Belgium
was in the hands of the Germans.
Denial of these rumors was MADE
BY the Belgium embassy in London
and a despatch which purported 10
come from Brussels, seemed to lndi-
cate conclusively that the Belglans
still held the city. Both said that
heavy fighting was going on east ana
southeast of the capital.
Notwithstanding this, the report
spread to the various centres OF news.
Antwerp first announced hearing that
the Germans had taken Brussels IN
. night attack.
A short time later it was officially
announced in Paris that the rumor
had been received but not confirmed,
that the Belgian troops had left their
positions at Louvain and Brussels and
were falling back toward Antwerp,
which is heavily fortified. That some
credence was placed in the report was
indicated by the statement that such
. move was not unexpected, and that
It was entirely in accordance with
good military tactics.
II the report from Paris that the
defending forces are falling back from
Louvain and Brussels is true, it would
indicate that the supposed object OF
the German attack in Belgium-the
piercing of the allies lines and the
consequent separation of their armies
bids fair to be fulfilled.
Proof positive that at least part OF
the English expeditionary force is
fighting with the defenders in Bel
gium was furnished, when the British
press bureau officially announced that
three men had been killed and two
wounded in the war-torn country.
Heavy Fighting Going On.
Meantime, fighting of the heaviest
character, as reported from points all
along the forty mile front of the Ger
man army in Belgium, indicates that
s.ee-r.-=-. .55@@5i.el -nnilit 2 -
experts have been looking forward to
for days, is at last under way.
A despatch from Rotterdam says
the Cologne Gazette" asserts that the
German advance, although slow, has
not been seriously checked at any
point.
The "Corriere D'Italia" in Rome, re-
ceived a despatch from Berlin In
which the German war Office was said
to have announced that the German
rronvinn cfnodi1xr fnrxuo I'd
beyond Namur. This would seem to
mean that the kafser's troops are
pushing toward Givat and the extreme
southeast frontier of Belgium, as we'll
q farther north.
The situation at Liege, where the
vigorous defense of the Belgians up
set the German calculations at the
outset, is confused by the conflicting
reports. Berlin reports the fall of all
the forts. Several were destroyed by
the kaiser's heavy artillery and the
others will be used as base for the
Germans future movements.
From Rotterdam comes a version
that the Belgians had evacuated the
forts and had made them useless to
the Germans by dynamiting them.
Paris maintains that all the Liege
forts are intact and Offering resis.
tence as heretofore to the Germans. 4
Meagre dispatches that show every
evidence of having been ruthlessly
censored, are the only basis on which
the news from Belgium can be read,
but one thing remains clear. This Is,
that the struggle is raging fiercely at
many points, that the Germans are
pressing steadily onward and that the
long looked for big battle either is in
progress or the contact of the oppos-
ing forces is so general as to make
that great conflict a matter of hours
only.