The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-02-02
BRAVE ARMY OF
LITTLE BELGIUM
Reduced to Sixty Thousand Men. 1t
Is Yet in the Ring

thousand worn soldiers strung along
the User, where they checked the rush
of the German invaders toward Pas
de Calais, are all that are left of
the Belgian army of two hundred and
thirty thousand men under arms
when Germany invaded Belgium, but
one of King Albert's staff officers who
has been with the army since the
siege of Liege, asserts that the small
Belgian force today is a far more
efficient machine than that which met
the first German attack.
when we reached the User we were
beaten and demoralized army, al
most to the point of absolute disor-
ganization. Fighting for weeks with
out adequate support from our allies,
and with most of our men believing
that we had been left to our fate, the
chances of ever again making a fight
ing force of our army seemed re-
mote. That we did so was due to the
highest and lowest factors in our civ
ilization, the inspiration and activity
of our king and the fighting spirit of
our peasantry.
"The kings aristocratic regiment of
guards is thing of the past. They
have been disbanded and their places
taken by two regiments made up of
Flemish peasants and commanded by
active young officers in Belgium.
when the critical situation along
the User was realized the local peas
antry seemed to remember the glory
of their past when their people were
the terror of the invading Spaniard
4 and it needed only the actual leader
ship of the king to weld them into the
j fighting force you see here today.
The king is commander of this army
and during those nine terrible days in
i the trenches while the Germans hurl-
ed their hosts at US, and we waited in
vain for the expected support. the
king was not only an inspiration to
his officers and men as he fought be-
side them, but he proved himself a
capable military leader. Today the
army is an efficient fighting force, too
small of course, for we are unable to
give our men leave from the trenches
such as the French and English now
enjoy, and this has caused some nat
ural complaint. but in spite of this
as you can see for yourself, the spirits
of the soldiers could not be better.
These men are all veterans now and
most of them are young in years. The
officers. are picked for their work
without regard of their former rank
and many of the highest officers of
the army have been relegated to posts
/ where they are doing useful work,
but where they cannot repeat any of
the plumbers which marked the first
part of the war.
eve have no apologies to make for
our artillery. This service was the
really professional branch of the army
into which officers went for pure love
Of their profession, and from Liege
to the User they have proven them
selves worthy of the cause for which
they are fighting. Some idea of the
value placed on our artillery is indi-
Gated by the fact that Belgian cap
tain of artillery was placed in COM
mand OF two hundred French guns
and directed their fire continuously
for thirty-six hours in one of the
fiercest artillery duels of the cam
paign.
"Only second to our artillery are the
regular cyclist. corps and the volun-
| tary motor corps. The cyclists were
well trained and the Uhlans will long
have cause to remember their marks
manship. The automobile drivers vol
unteered from what might have been
called the butterfly class of society
youths, but they have proven as tough
as the battered cars which they drive.
They have endured incredible hard
ships and many of them occupy un-
marked graves, the sole reward for
some desperate scouting venture.
eThe less said about our infantry
existing at the beginning of the war
the better. but the work of the men
out there in the trenches has paid in
full for any past shortcomings In this
branch of the service We only have
a few square miles of our country left
and practically all of this is subject
to artillery fire, but the same spirit
which made the low countries famous