Capture of Brussels, Aug '14

[JustinL]

I'm not sure if this is the right part of the forum, but I'll try it anyway.

I know there has been a recent thread on the rape of Belgium in a wider sense, but I would like to know more about the capture of Brussels by von Kluck's 1st Army in late August 1914.

Can anyone please tell me which Divisions or Regiments were involved? More specifically, does anyone know anything about the process for rounding up British nationals and their transportation back to Germany for internment?

The pictures below (and on the next post) are taken from an article in the Melbourne Evening News of 27 Dec 1919. Matthew Lennard (born Matthias Levy) was my grandfather's cousin. His parents left Australia and moved to Brussels in 1905; Matthew joined them shortly afterwards.

He married a German woman, whom he had met while studying music in Dresden, in London in July 1914. The newly-weds went to Belgium on their honeymoon and were visiting his parents when the German army marched in! Matthew and his wife, Else, were interned in a small village in Hessia for the duration of the war. His parents, who were of German origin but had become naturalized British subjects, were spared on account of their age.

[JustinL]

Matthew’s brother wrote of his ordeal, ‘My brother was interned in a small village in the South of Germany, where he had to work on the land. He was repatriated in January last [1919] and is now in London; as far as I can judge, he must have gone through a great deal of mental and physical suffering. They had very little food and he was awfully thin when he came here, but is now putting on flesh again and becoming more normal.’

[Robert Dunlop]

Great photos. What a dramatic example of the effects of the blockade! Thanks

Robert

[healdav]

I don't think that British nationals were interned right away. Certainly, here in Luxembourg there were about a dozen British who were captured (ther were on holiday) and they were left in their hotel (at their own expense) until 1915.

One of the people was a well known writer/playwright at the time - Francis Gribble who wrote a book about his experiences called, 'In Luxembourg in War Time'. Long out of print and if anyone comes across a copy, please push it my way. Its demonstrably wrong in some places, probably becasue:

In early 1915 he applied to be repatriated to Britain via Holland (he was running out of money). He was well over military age and so, in theory should have been. He eventuially was taken to Cologne (with his wife) and there they sat for some time. He couldn't understand the delay, but finally discovered the reason. The Germans decided to intern all foreign nationals and had held on to him (and others) until the announcement was made. He ended up at Ruhleben where he wrote his book from memory. It was at first printed (or rather a summary was printed) in the Edinburgh Review in 1916 and then the book itself some time later in 1916.

The surprising thing is that the Germans don't appear to have looked at the manuscript as he makes some fairly fierce anti-German remarks in it.

Even then the Germans don't appear to have interned everyone as there was a British woman here (according to the census, and I know no more than that of her) who remained with her husband throughout the war.