renches waiting
for them, but we didn't expect anything like the smashing blow
that struck us. All at once, so it seemed, the sky began to rain
down bullets and shells. At first they went wide... but after a
time... they got our range and then they fairly mopped us up....
I saw many a good comrade go out."

During the early part of the battle Von Kluck directed his main
attack upon the British right, with a furious artillery bombardment
of Binche and Bray. This was coincident with the crumpling of the
French right at Charleroi by the army of Von Buelow, and its threatened
retreat by that of Von Hausen. The retirement of the French Fifth
Army, therefore, left General Haig exposed to a strong flank attack
by Von Kluck. Confronted with this danger, General Haig was compelled
to withdraw his right to a rise of ground southward of Bray. This
movement left Mons the salient of an angle between the First and
Second British Army Corps. Shortly after this movement was performed,
General Hamilton, in command of Mons, found himself in peril of
converging German front and flank attacks. If the Germans succeeded
in breaking through the British line beyond Mons, he would be cut
off and surrounded. General Hamilton informed his superior, General
French, of this danger, and was advised in return "to be careful
not to keep the troops in the salient too long, but, if threatened
seriously to draw back the center behind Mons."

[Illustration: GERMAN HOSTS INVADE AND CONQUER BELGIUM.

SIEGE GUN. FORTRESSES OF LIEGE, NAMUR, MALINES. VALIANT RESISTANCE
BY THE BELGIANS

One of the great siege guns that destroyed the fortresses in Belgium
and northern France and made possible the first great drive of
the German armies]

[Illustration: This bridge over the Meuse at Liege was blown up by
the Belgians to delay the German advance. The German army crossed
on pontoon bridges]

[Illustration: Belgian gunners and field gun in action on the firing
line between Termond and St. Giles, Belgium]

[Illustration: The fortress town of Namur, Belgium, whose once
impregnable fortifications were shattered in a few days by the great
German siege guns]

[Illustration: The city of Malines Belgium, from which the inhabitants
fled as the Germans advanced from Brussels]

[Illustration: A Belgian machine-gun corps taking up their position
in a beet field at Lebbeke on learning of the approach of the German
invaders]

[Illustration: Belgian artillery replyi