The story of the great war . he Antwerp forts. Some were blownwide open; some were turned upside down. It was clear at oncethat every fort in Europe was w^orthless. The final scenes at Antwerp were dramatic in the extreme. Greatshells set fire to the city. The boom of the enormous cannon,the bursting of shells, the rain of explosives were plumes of dense black smoke rose from great oil tanks burningalong the river. And in the red glare of the burning city, under thisgreat black pall, hundreds of thousands of people fled in boatsdown the river or on foot along its banks, carryin
The story of the great war . he Antwerp forts. Some were blownwide open; some were turned upside down. It was clear at oncethat every fort in Europe was w^orthless. The final scenes at Antwerp were dramatic in the extreme. Greatshells set fire to the city. The boom of the enormous cannon,the bursting of shells, the rain of explosives were plumes of dense black smoke rose from great oil tanks burningalong the river. And in the red glare of the burning city, under thisgreat black pall, hundreds of thousands of people fled in boatsdown the river or on foot along its banks, carrying what little theycould in their hands, but otherwise homeless, penniless, starving. The Germans could not rest content with a line bent back fromParis to Antwerp and delivered in October and November theirfirst great drive along the coast on Calais. They were eager nowto do what they should have done before, occupy western France,shorten the trench line by many scores of miles, and deprive the FROISI THE MARNE TO ANTWERP 67. ••on - - - HON TAROIS -r JB CLAI-IECY V. V- .^ t > JT^-a JTso I \ f OIJON Current History Mag. N. Y. Times Co. The Numbered Arrows Show the Successive German Assaults from October, 1914, to February, 1915. The Solid Line is the Line of Battle IN February, 1915 British of the Channel ports as harbors in which to land their armyand the great stream of men and equipment which must maintainit. All but a tiny little strip of Belgium fell into their hands but 68 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR they did not reach Calais. The Channel ports were safe; thecommunications of the British army were safe; the submarineswould not be able to assail Allied shipping from bases on theChannel itself. The war now settled down in the west to a deadlock, and, withsmall changes, the trench line remained substantially the sameuntil 1918. It will therefore be clear that the battle of the Marnedid not win the war, for the war went on four years. But thebattle was the turning point
Size: 1526px × 1638px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
