The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1918-01-03
BELGIAN
ARMY IS
WONDER

Continued From Page One.)
an Antwerp newspaper who was
plotting me from place to place.
"How is this present larger
army possible, when you are cut
off from the great bulk Of your
population"
ITO understand that you must
know the Belgian character" he
replied.
Nobody will ever know
how many Belgians have been
killed by German bullets
while trying to get thru the
German lines to join their
own army.
But in spite of German watch
fitness our men have come-tens
of thousands of them. You used
to have underground railroads in
America in your slavery days,
yes?"
Must BE Marine, Too
/ saw the point instantly.
ANY able-bodied Belgian who
has not tried to get out of eastern
Belgium to join our army will
never be able to held his head up
after our country has been re-
stored to u.s." he said.
The Belgians have anything
but a desirable part of. the western
battle line to hold. Flanders mud
Is historic. The country Is low
and swampy and mile after mile
Of the trenches have been arti-
ficially constructed with bags of
sand, and dirt.
A Belgian soldier at night, pa
trolling his post, has to keep his
eyes open or he is likely to fall
from the paths into one of the
thousands Of pools that dot the
countryside.
He must be marine as we'll as
Q soldier.
Boats Are in Use
In the Belgian sector, for the
first time in Europe, l saw boats
being used for land" warfare.
Water separates nearly the en-
tire Belgian first line trenches
from the opposing German first
line trenches.
I'VE make many of our
night raids i'm boats" Bel
gian officer told me. I'VE
mount our machine guns in
the prows and many's tho
time we've taken the Boche
completely by surprise. It's
one very different way of
going over the top"
The Belgians hate the Germans
with ferocity that is terrible.
Fight Like Madmen
Practically every husband and
father in the army is cut Off CON-
pletely from his family and many
of them know too well that their
wives and daughters are undergo
ing unmentionable indignities at
the hands of their German mas
ters.
For this reason, the Belgian,
once at grips with his German foe,
fights like a mailman.
There are no halfway meas
ures. It's kill or get killed.
One story will suffice.
A few days before I visited a
certain part of the Belgian front
hne there had been a raid into a
German trench and a middle-aged
Belgian, hand grenade in hand,
had caught seven Germans I'M
aware In a concrete dugout.
They threw up their hands to
surrender but as they did so there
appeared several armed Germans
at the door.
1t looked like certain capture
for the Belgian.
Smile On His Face
There was a terrific explosion,
and 20 minutes later when the
trench was completely in posses
sion of the Belgians, his fellow
soldiers entered the dugout--and
found him dead in the midst of
seven dead Germans,
"And there was a smile Of salts
faction on his face" said the Bel
gfan soldier who told me the story.
The dead Belgian, before he
was able to escape from the Ger
mans to his own army had seen
his wife die of fright and his two
daughters assaulted by German
officers
This intense hatred of the Ger
man invaders probably accounts
for the fact that in single days
fighting in the fall of 1914 the
then little Belgian army suffered
nearly 10000 casualties.
The world must never for
get the heroic sacrifices of
the Belgian army. As q
famous French general OBJ
served to me once:
''The Belgians saved Eu-
rope in August, 1914"