The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-02-06
He viii Die Fighting in tho
Trenches First.
|HIS LITTLE ARMY IS WITH HIlA
His Forces Have Been Com
pletely Reorganised
And Newly Equipped From Cap
to Boots.
[By william Phillip simm.. ]


At Grand Headquarters. King Of
Belgium. Inside Belgian Frontier. via
Paris. Feb. e.-Doggedly determine !
never to surrender the remainder Of
his little kingdom to the Germans.
King Albert is here on the firing line.
directing the movements Of the re-
organized Belgian forces along the
User. Officers in close touch with the
king told me today that he would
never abandon Belgian soil, If tho
Germans made another advance.
He would enter the trenches inside
the frontier of his kingdom and meet
his end with a gun at his shoulder
one officer told me. and he added:
The whole Belgian army is satur-
ated with the same spirit
This is not the army that fell back
crushed under the weight of tho
kaiser's great human juggernaut. The
Belgians have been completely reor-
ganized. They have been newly
have had fest-and they needed 1t
after fighting like heroes for twenty
four hours day in an effort to stem
the German tide that flowed through
Liege and Antwerp. Today they 0c-
cupy three times as much Of the al
the fall OF Antwerp.
A Night I'm the Trenches.
1 was permitted to remain all night
in the trenches. Belgian hfflcers e.
corted me on tour of the advance
posts. Our trip took us et times to
within one hundred yards bf the Ger
man line. The country along tho
User Is q tragic waste. The most dis
NAL swamp would be arGarden OF
Eden by comparison. WAter stretches
:! across the fields from Duhkirls to Os-
tend: from the sea coast south Of the
by both armies 9n& dotted by tiny is-
flands occupied ~ ruinA Of deserted
farm houses y ending Aike s1ySnt seri-
tries from the nooo. The hottest
roads and islands. The slaughter 10
Ifrightful. Numberlesss = decomposed
bodies float about the marshes rotting
in mud and water. The stencil is too
horrible to describe.
The battles hereabout are the most
curious in history. During the day
there are bitter artillery duels. From
road to road, from island to island
guns belch forth shells across the
waste of water. The cannonading let's
up as night settles over the flood
area. Then small parties of from
fifty to one hundred and fifty soldiers
form small surprise storming parties
They cross the water to the attack on
RATS and scews drawn by men in hip
boots, who on the previous night had
explored the flood to find the most
wadeable route. The Germans keep
the night glowing with Illuminating
bombs which hang in the air to pre-
| vent surprises of this sort. Their
terry battlefield into a devastated Ven
ice.
A World Of It's Own.
This hell-hole il a world of its own.
1t is apart from the other world along
the battle line where men are fight
ing over firm ground. And the Bel
gianS have made dream world OF It,
They pretend each island in the flood
is a strange country. Their forces.
they say. are expeditionary forces sent
to subjugate the strange lands. 1t is
a game for boys. but the soldiers en-
joy it with all the enthusiasm of boy
hood, though sometimes whole parties
that set forth on a mission of conquest
to the strange land' never return.
The outposts are q new luxury for
the Belgians. They were unable to
establish them prior to the German
check, because the kaiser's army had
poured in on them too rapidly. The
reserve forces are another luxury.
The outposts. by preventing the SUR
prises. and the reserves, by doing re-
lief duty, insure regular periods of rest
for all.
These things are working wonders
toward keeping the soldiers in fine
condition physically and preserving
Ger told me that the Belgian army
was never SO effective, SO determined,
as now.
. King Albert's tenacity is the thing
that has inspired the men," he said.
He has refused to permit his own
spirit to be broken. he has imbued
his men with a fervor not unlike that
of the followers Of Joan OF Arc
Weather Forecast for Kansas.
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