British and Belgian soldiers retreating from the defense of Antwerp. The Belgian Army and the British forces that had come to defend the city evacuated on October 7 and 8, 1914.
Cliché Chasseau-Flaviens1914.. Blessés Anglais à la défense d'Anvers1914.. English wounded from Attwerp's defense16me Série16th SeriesLogo: ELD
"You must imagine old people struggling along over miles and miles of country roads; young girls, under burdens a man might not care to bear, tramping until they had to carry their shoes in their hands and go barefoot to rest their unaccustomed feet. You must imagine the pathetic efforts of hundreds of people to keep clean by washing in wayside streams or ditches; imagine babies going without milk because there is no milk to be had; families shivering in damp hedgerows or against haystacks where darkness overtook them; and you must imagine this not on one road, but on every road, for mile after mile over a whole countryside."
An excerpt from Arthur Ruhl's book Antwerp to Gallipoli, Chapter IV, 'The Fall of Antwerp.' Much of the rest of the country had already been occupied by German troops, and refugees had fled to Antwerp, the nation' last fortified city.
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 65, 66, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
Antwerp to Gallipoli, Ruhl, Arthur Ruhl, Fall of Antwerp, Antwerp, refugees, October, 1914, 1914-10-07
