The Battle of Liege, 1914.

watching.                                                                                            The battle of liege was something of a moral victory for Belgium. The Battle of Liege ran for twelve days from 5th to the 16th August 1914, and resulted in surprisingly heavy losses upon the German invasion force, which definitely outnumbered the Belgians.                                                                            The Battle of Liege signified the first land battle of the war. It started when the German Army crossed the frontier into the neutral area of Belgium intending to attack France from the north. This marked the start of the German Schlieffen Plan.                                                                                                The initial aim of the Second Army, which comprised 320,000 men, was to seize the city of Liege, which blocked the narrow gap to the best entrance into Belgium and further more into France. However a ring of twelve heavily armed forts that were built in the 1880s, six on each side of the Meuse River and each 3-5km apart, defended Liege. The forts contained a total of 400 retractable guns and to some extent these forts made up for the relatively small force at Belgian with just 70,000 men.                                                                        The Germans, under General Emmich with a force of 30,000 men, attacked at night on the 5th of August, sustaining heavy losses and making little or no progress, much to the surprise of the German army.                                        Rather than continuing to attack the forts, the Germans called in the use of zeppelins to drop bombs into the city and citadel, and personally led 14th Brigade in between the forts into the city, forcing the Belgian garrison there to surrender on 7th of August.                                                                Nevertheless, the Germans could not hope to continue their advance through Belgium without first capturing the forts.  In order to assist with this the Germans introduced a weapon, which was unknown to the Allies. It was an Austrian-built 17-inch howitzer.  With the significant aid of the howitzers and the Big Bertha gun the forts were finally taken on 16th of August.                                        The following day the German Second Army, together with First and Third Armies, began to implement the next stage of the Schlieffen Plan, which was to embark upon a wide sweeping wheel through Belgium, forcing the Belgian army back to Antwerp.