sieges of Antwerp

Antwerp, sieges of (1814, 1832, and 1914). Antwerp's location on the Scheldt gives it commercial and strategic importance. In November 1576, when the city was part of the Spanish Netherlands, its garrison under Alba massacred thousands of citizens in the ‘Spanish fury’. Nine years later it was retaken from the Protestants by Parma.

Part of the Austrian Netherlands for the second half of the 18th century, Antwerp fell to the French early in the French Revolutionary wars. Napoleon saw it as ‘a pistol pointed at the heart of England’ and built its first dock. Besieged by the Allies in 1814, Antwerp was stoutly defended by Lazare Carnot, who had done much to raise French armies in the 1790s but had not been employed under the empire. In 1814 Holland and Belgium were united in a kingdom ruled by William of Orange. In 1830 fighting broke out between Dutch and Belgian elements, and in 1832 a French army under Marshal Gerard moved north to support the Belgians, besieging Antwerp, which was compelled to surrender. It became part of an independent Belgium.

In 1887 it was decided to turn the city into a ‘national redoubt’ protected by outlying forts designed by Henri-Alexis Brialmont. These embodied armoured cupolas and subterranean works like those at Namur and Liège. In 1914, as the Germans swept into Belgium, the Belgian field army fell back on Antwerp. German planners knew that Antwerp must be taken to safeguard the right rear of their armies swinging down into France, and initially allocated five reserve corps to the task. In the event Gen von Beseler had only six divisions, and was also responsible for guarding lines of communication through Belgium. He approached Antwerp from the south, covering Brussels against sorties, instead of from the east as planned, and thus had to cross the river Nethe. It was not until 29 September that, well provided with heavy guns like those which had already reduced Liège, he was ready to attack.

Beseler's guns speedily smashed the forts. The British first sent a naval and marine division, assembled from pensioners and recruits, and then on 5 October dispatched the 7th Division and 3rd Cavalry Division. The French agreed to send Marines and infantry under Adm Ronarc'h. On 9 October Beseler demanded Antwerp's capitulation, and its governor recognized that continued resistance was impossible.

The majority of the Belgian field army escaped westwards, and most of the British naval division also got away. Beseler was ordered to move on the Flanders coast via Ghent and Bruges, following up the Allies and covering the right flank of newly formed German reserve corps which were making for Ypres in the hope of turning the northern flank of the fast-evolving western front. He could not prevent the Belgians from taking up a position on the river Yser between Ypres and Dixmude, while Ronarc'h held the Dixmude area. The two British army divisions, which became Lt Gen Rawlinson's IV Corps, joined the British Expeditonary Force (BEF) at Ypres.

— Richard Holmes