December 5, 1918 
LAND ^ WATER 
11 
The tales they had to tell were similar. First, they had 
been ordered by the Germans to go back. Then this order 
had been rescinded. Nearly all their horses, cattle, and live- 
stock in general had been requisitioned. Last year their 
seed-corn had been left them for sowing ; this year it was 
all taken away — a proof that the Germans foresaw the 
retreat. But that so rapid a retreat was not contemplated 
is shown by the fact that the big munitions factory at 
Bisseghern, near Courtrai, was kept working up to a late 
date, and that no attempt was made to remove the immense 
stores of munitions which were collected there. 
They complained that they were not merely rationed, but 
that they were atrociously punished for the least misunder- 
standing of the rationing orders. One farmer, who had 
killed one of his own pigs, told me that he was fined six 
times the value of the pig. Any wine or beer in the posses- 
sion of the farmers or villagers was long ago confiscated. 
They had little or no redress against the exactions of those 
billeted upon them ; against the word of a soldier, civilian 
evidence was generally of no avail. 
Of the concluding battles of the war I have two vivid 
recollections. One was at Heestut, just across the Bossuyt 
Canal ; the other was at Avelghem, on the River Scheldt. 
In the first occasion the infantry had crossed the canal, 
and had advanced to a line just beyond Heestut. Our 
major and myself, following up to choose the site for a battery 
position, crossed the canal and followed a railway line which 
had been systematically blown up at every junction of rails. 
We came to the village of Heestut. The shelling was not 
violent anywhere, as neither side knew precisely where its 
own front line was. There was a thin barrage not far away 
to our left, and a succession of heavy shells falling on our 
right ; the major and myself debated whether the.se shells 
were ours or the enemies, the point of doubt arising from the 
fact that the line ran very queerly just here, one part of the 
enemy's front being almost behind us. 
What was odd was that there were no troops to be seen. 
In an advance of this kind, where the infantry get beyond the 
range of the artillery, and feel their way forward, there are 
apt to be many gaps in the advanced line. We knew that 
the enemy was not far away, because machine-gun bullets 
were falling unplejisantly round us. But we could see no 
soldiers. We could see only some hundreds of civilians. 
A battle, of sorts, was going on, and the civilians were 
walking about their village. Some of them, of course, were 
frightened. One old woman was in violent hysterics. In 
-other cases whole families were hastening towards the west. 
But others were just standing about, wondering what they 
•ought to do ; and when they saw us they ran up to shake us 
by the hand and ask for advice. 
The other incident was at Avelghem, close to the banks 
■of the Scheldt. Our battery was in action there, consider- 
ably less than a mile from the front line. Our firing from 
this position constituted almost a record, as it was not 
intended that the infantry in fro.nt of us should advance 
during the engagement — rjnly the infantry to the north or 
left of us ; so that at the end of the engagement we might 
expect to be subject to the counter-battery work of the 
enemy, more especially as we. were completely overlooked 
from the important height of the Mont de L'Enclus. 
The bombardment lasted for four hours, and though we 
'were worried by gas-shells and high explosives, we fired our 
full number of rounds. At the end, as a parting gift, the 
enemy put forty or fifty big shells between our guns, but we 
had just got the men under cover. Scarcely had this ceased 
when parties of civilians began walking towards us from the 
\illage of Avelghem. Some wanted assistance, others went 
right on with no more than a hurried bon jour. Entering 
the village a little later, I found it in a doleful condition. 
The principal street had almost ceased to exist. The church- 
tower was perilously tottering on a flimsy support. The 
miserable villagers had, many of them, been taken away in 
ambulances. They had been subjected for two hours to a 
vicious gas bombardment, during which they had not dared 
to emerge from their cellars. Those cellars were, if they had 
but known, death-traps-r^the gas sank into them, and nearly a 
thousand out .of a population of four thousand succumbed. 
The remainder walked or were taken back to Courtrai. 
That was almost the last episode of the war on this front. 
On Sunday morning the infantry pressed on to Renaix, and 
occupied the town ; on Monday morning the armistice 
came into force. 
Its arrival was anticipated on Sunday night. I travelled 
back that evening from Avelghem towards Courtrai, and on 
the road, approaching Knokke, got held up among a mass 
of ditched transport. By good luck I found myself near 
my own brigade headquarters. I dined there, and was about 
to seek mv car again when suddenly the whole sky became 
alight with fireworks — that is to say, German cartridges 
were fired indiscriminately, Verey lights were sent up in rear 
areas, the search-lights began to play fantastic tricks, and 
the brigade sergeant-major appeared with triumphant, if 
inaccurate, news. Corps H.Q., when rung up on the tele- 
phone, were without information ; Army had nothing to 
say ; the news, it subsequently appeared, had been picked 
up from the German wireless. 
I got back to Courtrai. A bonfire was burning in the 
Square. As I approached by a side street, a crowd of Belgian 
factory women seized us by the arms, saying : " Come along ; 
peace has been declared." It was a delirious moment for 
all Courtrai. Respectable citizens, who for four years had 
never been out of doors after 8 p.m., paraded the streets 
till the small hours of the morning. 
The Condition of the Towns 
The population is already beginning to j-e-sort itself and 
to accustom itself to new conditions. It must be remem- 
bered that in the last six weeks of war a long belt of country, 
about thirty miles in depth, hitherto undevastated, has 
become a field of battle. The larger towns, on the whole, 
have suffered the least. Halluin and Menin, which were 
not far behind the old wilderness, have been badly knocked 
about, but they still contain many undamaged houses. 
Courtrai, though all the bridges were blown up, and some 
quarters of the town were badly shelled by the enemy, still 
remains a thoroughly habitable, and inhabited, town. In 
France, towns like Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing are almost 
undamaged — thanks to the method of attack, which gave the 
Germans no excuse for destroying these places. 
Villages, however, are in a different case. Some have 
escaped altogether — where the retreat was rapid. Others, 
notably at places on the lines which the Germans attempted 
to hold, have been almost completely destroyed. In the 
example of Avelghem to which I have already alluded, the 
village, in October, was a pretty and peaceful place that had 
known nothing of fighting. Now its streets are heaped with 
the debris of fallen houses. There are hundreds of small 
places which have suffered the same fate. 
Some of the inhabitants remained where they were till 
the war had swept past them. Others fled eastwards behind 
the German lines, or westward behind the British. Now, 
day after day they are drifting back. On every road you 
meet wagons drawn by old horses, or oxen, or even cows ; 
the wagons are heaped high with furniture, and on the top 
of all, a complete family — old men, women, children — wrapped 
up in blankets and shawls, recumbent, motionless, fatalis- 
tically patient. 
When they^et back to their old homes they at once begin 
to patch them up, if they admit of repair, and to estimate 
their losses in chairs, tables, crockery. If the house is ruined, 
they move temporarily into somebody else's house, pending 
the arrival of the proper owner. 
In towns such as Courtrai the inhabitants are cheerfully 
trying to get back to work. Owing to the removal or destruc- 
tion of machinery, the factories cannot yet be restarted. 
Gas and electric light plant have been destroyed. Industry, 
properly so called, is at a standstill. When we first arrived, 
the shops were still stocked with goods made in Belgium or 
Germany, and articles were exposed for sale at prohibitive 
German prices. These prices, of course, soon began to fall, but, 
owingtoscarcity of transport, the shop-people found it difficult 
to renew their stocks. Also they were at a loss to know how 
or from whom things could be bought — everything was un- 
familiar to them. 
The hatred which Belgians feel for the Germans is expressed 
in bitter speech. "It was too long," they exclaim; "we 
have lived for four years waiting ; we had almost given up 
hope." Some complain of the crverbearing despotism of 
the Kommandantur ; some, of the thefts which were ordered 
or countenanced ; some, at the meagre wages paid to those 
who were forced to work in the factories ; some, at arbitrary 
tyrannies such as that which consigned a certain barber to 
seven months' labour in the most dangerous kind of munition 
work because he steadfastly refused to shave Germans. 
Nearly all can adduce specific grievances. But I think what 
has rankled even more than definite injustices has been the 
general demeanour of the Germans, especially the officers. 
The studied curtness of manner, the insolence, the assumption 
of the air of conquerors and superior beings, irritated and 
aggravated the Belgians even more than acts of injustice. 
It is not surprising that amongst some of them their joy 
at the making of peace is modified by their longing for revenge. 
"I should have been satisfied," one of them said to me, "if 
only the war could have continued for as many months in 
Germany as it has lasted yeaxs in Belgium." 
