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TO BAPAUME 297
The guests included on this occasion Duke Ernst Giinther of
Schleswig-Holstein, brother of the German Empress, and
Duke Georg of Meiningen, who had lost his father and his
brother in the war. The Field-marshal proposed that I should
accompany him on the 29th of October to the front in the
region of Dixmude. As, moreover, General Bailer asked me
whether I was disposed to go with him and Councillor von
Lumm on a trip to the outer forts of Antwerp on the 28th, my
programme was well filled for the next few days.
October 28th broke with a clouded sky, and a thick mist
was lying over town and country in the morning. The two
gentlemen and the young lieutenant, who sat at the wheel
beside the chauffeur, came to fetch me in the morning, and
we started out on the familiar road to Malines.
As already mentioned, our purpose was to inspect as many
as we could of Antwerp’s southern forts and redoubts. I shall
not give any actual description of these fortifications. The
few words I will say concerning them are merely added in
order that the two or three photos which are reproduced here
may not be beside the context.
First of all we drove to Fort Waelhem, where a " 42-cm."
had gone right through the bed of concrete, here, as elsewhere,
five or six metres thick, and where an observation tower,
resembling a gigantic church-bell, had been thrown over on
to its side by the air-pressure. One of the turrets is supposed
to have been blown up by the Belgians themselves when they
evacuated the fort. A few Belgian 12-cm. guns inside and
outside the fort had been deprived of their breech-blocks.
Lying near a barrack-wall were heaps of cartridge cases, tin
boxes and baskets for carrying the shells. These latter were
as finely and slenderly woven as if they had been intended
for carrying grapes.
We drove on to the east and north-east, and our next
stopping-place was Fort Chemin de Fer, which had been
rather severely peppered with smaller shells, while its shattered
turret had been blown up from the inside by the defenders
themselves. Fort St, Catherine I have already mentioned,
and we will therefore pass on, via the village of Wavre,
with its wrecked church, to the Dorpfeld fortifications. An
object of particular interest was the infantry breastwork
surrounding this entrenchment. Sandbags, and sometimes
gabions, had been plentifully applied here. There were
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