The siege of Antwerp was an engagement between the German and the Belgian, British and French armies around the fortified city of Antwerp during the First World War. German troops besieged a garrison of Belgian fortress troops, the Belgian field army and the British Royal Naval Division in the Antwerp area, after the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914. The city, which was ringed by forts known as the National Redoubt, was besieged to the south and east by German forces.
The Belgian forces in Antwerp conducted three sorties in late September and early October, which interrupted German plans to send troops to France, where reinforcements were needed to counter the French armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). A German bombardment of the Belgian fortifications with heavy and super-heavy artillery began on 28 September. The Belgian garrison had no hope of victory without relief; despite the arrival of the Royal Naval Division beginning on 3 October, the Germans penetrated the outer ring of forts. When the German advance began to compress a corridor from the west of the city along the Dutch border to the coast, through which the Belgians at Antwerp had maintained contact with the rest of unoccupied Belgium, the Belgian Field Army commenced a withdrawal westwards towards the coast.
On 9 October, the remaining garrison surrendered, the Germans occupied the city and some British and Belgian troops escaped to the Netherlands further north to be interned for the duration of the war. Belgian troops from Antwerp withdrew to the Yser river, close to the French border and dug in, to begin the defence of the last unoccupied part of Belgium and fought the Battle of the Yser against the German 4th Army in October and November 1914. The Belgian Army held the area until late in 1918, when it participated in the Allied liberation of Belgium.
Background
Strategic context
The city of Antwerp (military governor general, Victor Deguise) was defended by numerous forts and other defensive positions and was considered to be impregnable. Since the 1880s, Belgian defence planning had been based on holding barrier forts on the Meuse (Maas) at Liège and at the confluence of the Meuse and the Sambre rivers at Namur, to prevent French or German armies from crossing the river, with the option of a retreat to the national redoubt at Antwerp, as a last resort, until the European powers guaranteeing Belgian neutrality could intervene. The national redoubt consisted of a dozen older forts around 5 km (3.1 mi) outside to the city, completed in the 1860s, with an enceinte around the town abutting the Scheldt estuary at either end, with wet ditches around the enceinte and forts. The principal line of resistance comprised a ring of 21 forts, 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) outside the city, which had been built after 1882. A group of two forts and three coastal batteries defended the Scheldt and there were a small number of prepared inundations. Forts built at Liège and Namur on the Meuse were of similar construction and intended to be "barrier forts and bridgeheads", a first line of defence in the event of an invasion from the east or south-east.
German invasion
On 2 August 1914, the Belgian government refused the passage of German troops through Belgium to France and on the night of 3/4 August the Belgian General Staff ordered the 3rd Division to Liège to obstruct a German advance. The German army invaded Belgium on the morning of 4 August. Covered by the 3rd Division, the Liège fortress garrison, a screen of the Cavalry Division and detachments from Liège and Namur, the rest of the Belgian Field Army closed up to the river Gete and by 4 August, the 1st Division had assembled at Tienen, the 5th Division at Perwez, the 2nd Division at Leuven and the 6th Division at Wavre, covering central and western Belgium and the communications towards Antwerp. German cavalry appeared at Visé early on 4 August and found the bridge down and Belgian troops on the west bank. The Germans found a ford, crossed the river and forced the Belgians to retire towards Liège. By the evening it was clear to the Belgian High Command that the 3rd Division and the Liège garrison were in the path of a very large invasion force.
On 5 August the Battle of Liège began, when the Germans tried to capture the fortified city of Liège by a coup de main and then attempted a night attack, which collapsed in confusion until General Erich Ludendorff rallied the infantry. Ludendorff attacked again around noon on 6 August and found no opposition in the city, the Belgian 3rd Division having been withdrawn to the Gete. The Germans began a siege of the fortress, which fell on 16 August. On 10 August German cavalry reached the Gete and Jägers began to move northwards to Diest and Hasselt. On 12 August German cavalry and Jäger attacked at the Battle of Halen and were driven off after a ten-hour battle. By 17 August, a huge number of German troops had crossed into Belgium between the Meuse, Demer and Gete, despite the demolitions carried out by the Belgian Army and paramilitary Garde Civique. The Belgian position on the right (southern) flank of the Gete, was threatened by a flanking manoeuvre through Huy. On 18 August the Germans attacked again, captured Halen, entered Tienen and attacked the 1st Division frontally and on the northern flank, which the 1st Division repulsed only with great difficulty.
With information that five German corps and six reserve corps were in Belgium and with no support from the French Army and British Expeditionary Force (BEF) ready, the Belgian Field Army was ordered to withdraw towards Antwerp on the evening of 18 August. It arrived on 20 August, with little interference from German advanced parties, except for an engagement between the 1st Division and the German IX Corps near Tienen, in which the Belgians had 1,630 casualties. Brussels, the Belgian capital, was captured on 20 August, as the Belgian Field Army arrived at Antwerp. Namur fell on 24 August, at the same time that the field army made a sortie from Antwerp towards Brussels. The Belgian government of Charles de Broqueville left Brussels and moved to Antwerp to avoid capture by the Germans, who detached the III Reserve Corps from the First Army to mask the city from positions either side of the Dyle Canal. A brigade of the IV Reserve Corps was sent to occupy Brussels. The IX Reserve Corps was ordered to move to Antwerp on 22 August.
Prelude
German plan of attack
As part of the war planning conducted by Schlieffen and then Moltke between 1898 and 1914, a plan had been made to isolate Antwerp, to counter the possibility that Belgian forces reinforced by British troops, would threaten the northern flank of the German armies involved in the invasion of France. The plan anticipated operations by eleven divisions from seven reserve corps on the east of the National Redoubt, where inundations were impossible. In 1914 the siege was conducted by only six divisions, one of which was needed to guard the Liège–Brussels railway between Tienen and Brussels and the ground between Brussels and Antwerp. Beseler abandoned the pre-war plan and substituted an attack from south of Antwerp, towards forts Walem, Sint-Katelijne-Waver and then an exploitation northwards in the area of forts Koningshooikt, Lier, Kessel, four intermediate works, the river Nete and an inundation 400–500 yd (370–460 m) wide. The 6th and 5th reserve, marine and 4th Ersatz divisions forced Belgian outposts back 4–5 mi (6.4–8.0 km) on 28 September and formed a covering line from the Nete to the Scheldt at Mechelen. Behind the covering line, German siege artillery was installed to the east and south of Mechelen, ready to commence a bombardment on Forts Sint-Katelijne-Waver and Walem as the Dorpveld and Bosbeek redoubts, to the north-east of Sint-Katelijne-Waver were engaged by 8 in (200 mm) mortars and the field defences between the forts, the Nete bridges and Antwerp waterworks north of Walem were bombarded by other heavy guns.
Belgian defensive preparations
Work by Belgian engineers to construct field defences around Antwerp had gone on since the beginning of the war, building positions in the intervals between the forts, inundations formed and the foreground cleared of obstructions. The clearances proved unwise, since they made the forts visible, trenches could only be dug 1 ft (0.30 m) deep, because of the high water-table and had no overhead cover. During the German advance to Mechelen, most of the Belgian Army occupied the 4th Sector between the 3rd Sector and the Scheldt, only light forces held the 3rd Sector and the 4th Division held the sector around Dendermonde. The 1st and 2nd divisions were sent to the 3rd Sector and the 5th Division took up reserve positions behind them.
Siege
First sortie, 24–26 August
The Belgian Army made a first sortie from Antwerp to help French and British troops engaged in fighting at the Sambre and at the Mons Canal. The operation was intended to distract the III Reserve and IX Reserve corps observing Antwerp and to cut German communications through Leuven and Brussels. After reconnaissance on 24 August, four divisions advanced southwards from Mechelen the next day, leaving one division of infantry and the Cavalry Division in reserve. The sortie was halted on 26 August, after receiving news of the withdrawal of the French and British and that Joseph Joffre, commander of the French army, did not intend to attack immediately and the Belgian forces returned to Antwerp.
On the night of 25/26 August, the city was bombed by a German Zeppelin airship. Ten Belgian civilians were killed but the bombing failed to undermine the morale of the garrison. By 27 August reports to OHL led Moltke to believe that the Belgian army had lost its offensive capacity and ordered the brigade of the IV Reserve Corps at Brussels, to move south to rejoin the corps at Péronne. On 2 September German intelligence sources in Brussels reported that c. 40,000 British troops had landed at Ostend, occupied the coast westwards to Boulogne and reinforced the Belgian Army in Antwerp. Beseler attacked on 4 September, with three divisions on either side of the Scheldt towards Termonde, which captured the fortress and blew the bridges to the north.
Second sortie, 9–13 September
After the end of the first sortie, the Belgian field army joined the fortress troops in improving the defences between the forts, while the German besiegers consolidated their positions on an east–west line, about 8 mi (13 km) north of Brussels and 4–5 mi (6.4–8.0 km) away from the outer forts. On 31 August Beseler was made responsible for the security of the German forces around Antwerp from relief attempts from the west. Landsturm battalions were transferred from the Generalgouverneur appointed to administer occupied Belgium, Field Marshal Von der Goltz and a division of the Marinekorps was ordered to the area.
On 1 September, the Belgians received information that the Germans were preparing to advance towards the Belgian western flank, on the Scheldt at Dendermonde. The Belgian commanders had received reports that the IX Reserve Corps and the 6th Division of the III Reserve Corps, were being relieved by the Marine Division and Landwehr troops. The Germans had received agent reports of an imminent sortie from Antwerp, troops concentrations in western Belgium and northern France and the arrival of more British troops at Ostend. With the concentration of more troops and Landsturm at Brussels underway, the reports caused no alarm.
The Belgian Army Command considered that the German attack on 4 September was a feint and began to plan another sortie, to induce the Germans to recall the troops being transferred to France and to disrupt German communications in central Belgium. German troop withdrawals were observed from 5–7 September. A frontal attack was considered to be impossible given the extent of the German trenches but an attack on the eastern flank was considered possible. Two divisions were to remain inside the Antwerp defences, while three divisions and cavalry were to attack towards Aarschot. Important crossings over the Demer and Dyle rivers were quickly taken, Aarschot was captured and by 10 September, the cavalry reached the city of Leuven. The German 6th Reserve Division and IX Reserve Corps were recalled to the region, joining the 30th Division of XV Corps from Alsace, which conducted operations against the sortie between 10–13 September around Brussels. The Belgian advance was stopped and the army retired to Antwerp on 13 September.
Third sortie, 26–27 September
At Antwerp, the German concentration of troops on the south-eastern side of the line had left a gap to the north from the Dender to the Dutch frontier. The gap spanned about 13 mi (21 km) at the confluence of the Dender and the Scheldt rivers at Dendermonde, through which the defenders of Antwerp retained contact with western Belgium and the Allied forces operating on the coast and in northern France. After the Siege of Maubeuge in France, German super-heavy artillery was moved towards Antwerp which like Liège and Namur, would be untenable unless it could be incorporated into the main Allied front line, like the fortified regions of Verdun and Belfort in France. On 25 September the French General Staff (GQG) requested another sortie from Antwerp.