20th September 1914,
The negotiations between General Humbert of the Moroccan Division and General Friedrich Sixt von Armin, commanding IV Corps had resulted in the German army delaying its attack on Leuze-en-Hainaut whilst the wounded were evacuated. The French general had promised that he would allow the repatriation of any of the severely wounded along with the doctors and nurses once they had been evacuated. Von Armin was happy to comply, his own Corps was able to use the time to reposition its forces after the victory at the Battle of Rumes previously. He had destroyed the bridges of the Scheldt and placed blocking forces at any of the likely crossing points. The delay was agreed until midnight on the 19th of September, by this stage von Armin had also received the orders from von Kluck that he was to attack at dawn on the 20th. As well as repositioning his infantry and artillery von Armin had gathered up every spare soldier that could be found, landswehr garrisons, transport drivers, military policemen, they were formed into three ersatz battalions ready as reserves for the big push.
The French had managed to bring up their 75mm guns along with the 65mm mountain guns, the French artillery men had been learning the hard lessons of the siege of Namur and the blood-letting in Lille and they had dug their guns in well, they would not expose the guns to counter battery fire until the last minute.
The captured 15cm guns were being moved back down the line. General Humbert having telegraphed for some heavy tractors to help with the evacuation of these guns whilst he was negotiating over the issue of the hospital train. Of the 8 15cm guns captured 4 were successfully evacuated when the truce ended along with samples of ammunition. None of the gunners had been captured when the town fell, they had retreated along with the surviving landwehr.
The 7.7cm guns were moved into reserve positions to support the defences these guns were given scratch crews made up of a leavening of the divisions gunners and anyone else detailed to the task including a number of Belgian men who claimed to have received artillery training in the past.
General Humbert had made an attempt to evacuate the civilians from the town, many had tried to resist but they had been prevailed upon to leave, Humbert knew what was coming and he didn’t want any more dead Belgians than could be helped. That said he did compel the assistance of many of the men of the town, those that had received military training in the past and with the Kings proclamation of a Levee En Masse were subject to military conscription anyway. Their weapon was the shovel, trenches were being dug everywhere, breastworks and roadblocks were prepared, and the engineers checked that their demolition charges were ready. The towns medical personnel were also compelled to remain, casualties would be heavy and the extra doctors would prove invaluable. The local priest remained along with several nuns and monks, they would give comfort and aid to the wounded.
General von Armin had used his machine guns and artillery effective to break the assaults of 6th army at Rumes, he new that the French force he was facing would have their highly effective 75mm gun with them and those guns and their machine guns would devastate his assault regiments unless they were supressed. The days pause had given his troop enough time to get a single spotting ballon aloft, they had dragged the thing backward and forward through France and Belgium but finally it had paid for all the trouble it had caused. It was connected directly to the heavy batteries attached to his Corps and his artillery observers had used it to identify suitable targets, nothing had been done at the time given the truce but that peace was about to end. The French were aware of the impact of observation ballons having a long history of them within their own armed forces and they had made serious efforts to avoid exposing anything of military value to the pitiless eyes in the sky. This contest was an unequal one between the unhurried observer looking down from above and the scurrying ant below knowing that he would soon be stomped by a furious weight of metal.
The truce expired at midnight, at one minute past midnight the German Artillery opened fire, most of the artillery strength of IV corps was available saving those 7.7cm guns that were overwatching the Scheldt. Every 10.5cm howitzer and all seven of the surviving 15cm guns were dedicated to reducing the French defences to rubble. The German gunners had more ammunition available than their comrades facing the north and they decided not on a hurricane of fire before the initial infantry assault but rather on a steady and methodical bombardment. Each gun was to fire at a steady 2 rounds per hour from midnight, a total of over 200 rounds aimed at the town and the outer defensive line. This steady drumbeat of fire was enough to disrupt the sleep of the French defenders, to knock down houses and render any movement above ground hazardous.
Whether by chance or good shooting the train carrying the German Artillery was hit by a 15cm shell from the heavy battery, the resulting chain of detonations was cataclysmic as over 10 tonnes of ammunition and propellant exploded. The blast stunned many of the defenders, however less were wounded or killed than perhaps a blast of that magnitude should have warranted as the French had recognised the risk of the train being hit and exploding and had ensured that as far as practical the area was unmanned. Little remained of the train and its cargo but twisted metal and a shallow crater blasted in the roadbed. Even if the Germans recaptured the town their own handy work had crippled the railway line for days until it could be repaired.
In the hour before dawn the gunners changed tempo. What had been a leisurely rate of fire was picking up, like the conductor of an Orchestra going from larghetto to allegretto to presto, so the guns went from 2 rounds per hour to 4 rounds per minute to 15 rounds per minute for the last five minutes.
As dawn broke on Leuze-en-Hainaut it was shattered, there was not a house left standing, the church was in ruins, the school and town hall both demolished and the ruins on fire. The French soldiers whose training before the war had emphasised the offense were still learning the value of the shovel. Recently published Staff notes and training had emphasised the value of hasty entrenchments but the regulars of the Moroccan division had not learnt all there was to know. Despite the weight of fire, the majority of men emerged, many lightly wounded, others nursing more grievous hurts but recognising the need to stand up and fight. Fight they would as the German infantry formed up for the first assault, von Armin had learnt much from his battle with the 6th army. His men did not form up in neatly dressed lines for the assault, the formation his men adopted was looser than that used recently. The reduced density reduced the impact of the 75’s and the machine guns but would also lessen the shock value of the charge. The French guns fired as his men emerged from the front line positions, the machine guns chattered and men fell. Von Armin had moved up to the front line, he needed to see the battle to control the battle and he could not rely on runners, messengers and the field telegraph it, instead it would be as in days of old by the sound of his voice.
His view from the start line was rewarded with horror, a section of infantry was moving forward under the hoarsely shouted commands of a feldwebel. When a 75mm high explosive shell bounced once and exploded, the section slightly bunched by fear and a desire to be close to their trusted leader was blown into bloody gobbets of flesh, nothing left of one man but a single boot and lower leg which incongruously remained upright stuck in a patch of mud. Despite the murderous fire of the French Artillery, clearly unsuppressed by his own gun’s efforts, the infantry moved forward, hunched slightly as though walking into rain. As well as the blast of high explosive and the sibilant hiss of shrapnel, to the cacophony of battle was soon added the stutter of machine guns and then the steady crack of rifle fire. His brigades were being slaughtered, but there was no option but to continue, he commanded the second brigade out of the line and into the attack, it to evaporated like a drop of water on a frying pan, but by now the first line was almost at the wire. The hung up on the wire, young men braying as they died, but their deaths allowed the second line to push forward, great rents blasted by the 65mm mountain guns that had now joined the battle. The French infrantry were out of their trenches now, maddened by their own fear and the cult of the bayonet they plunged forward into a melee, neither side giving or receiving quarter. Both sides had taken heavy casualties, artillery falling in the town trying to silence the French guns and prevent reinforcements from moving forward French 75’s firing as fast as they could cutting down the flower of German youth. General von Armin longed to fling himself into the fray, two of his three brigades had already been gutted and still the line held, he ordered the ersatz brigade into the attack next. This unit would have to soak up fire to enable the final infantry brigade to capture the town, it was a wasteful order, many of the men condemned by it were trained specialists from the Corps support echelon but they were German soldiers and they were just as proud and disciplined as their infantry comrades. The advance of the ersatz brigade seemed to tip the battle, French infantry seemed to flow out of their own defensive lines back into the town, they were not routed, they kept their arms but they no longer seemed will to stand in the maelstrom. With a great roar the remnants of the first two attacking waves and the triumphant third advanced. They had secured the trench before Leuze-en-Hainaut, the town beckoned. It was at this point that General Humbert played his last card.
He had kept one regiment of his division out of Leuze-en-Hainaut, they had been dug in to the south of the town in a wood, they had waited out the artillery fire and remained silent during the attack on the town but now with the division pushed back into the town three red flares blossomed overhead. The brigade surged forward, the men of the 2nd Mixed Colonial Regiment were from French North Africa caught the surging German troops off guard, their wholly unexpected attack into the flank turned triumph into terror. The adhoc artillery battery they had gained with the capture of the German 7.7cm guns merely added to the chaos, their shells fired perpendicular to the German attack proved highly effective.
General von Armin recognised the battle was at a critical point, he threw the last of his reserves into the fight for Leuze-en-Hainaut, the last infantry brigade was ordered forward, he and his staff joined it, perhaps it was not the place for a 63year old man but surrounded by his troops von Armin could do no less.
They slogged forward, taking fire from both the remaining defenders in the town and the force on the southern flank but compelled forward by discipline and pride. Their officers had let the men know of the likely outcome if Germany was defeated, Russian forces already occupying parts of East Prussia would seize even more driving their people from their ancestral lands whilst France and Belgium would grab all of Germany up to the Rhine in revenge for what had passed. The British, those schemers would carve up the empire overseas and soon Germany would be nothing but a series of petty states struggling to survive in a Europe dominated by France and Russia.
But fine words and courage are nothing compared to an 8mm bullet from a Lebel rifle, nor a bayonet in the guts, when the fine sentiments of the officers met the brutal reality of the Moroccan Division reality was the winner. The fighting raged back and forward but slowly the Moroccans fighting from the rubble that was all that remained of Leuze-en-Hainaut gained an edge, the colonial regiment whose lines had never been shelled provided a secure base of fire with which to lash the invader. As the remainder of the IV corps recoiled from Leuze-en-Hainaut, the broken body of their General was pressed into the mud by the boots of fearful men, the body would be discovered 50 years later by a Belgian farmer, another unknown soldier in a field where he harvested a few every year.