Chapter 33: The Battle of Liège Fortress

Belgian front lines, Liège Fortress.

When the Anglo-French coalition arrived at the gates of the fortress, damn near every soldier was blown away by what they saw.

What stood in front of them wasn’t even a city — it was a fortress complex with a perimeter of over 50 kilometers, 24 massive gun batteries, 50,000 defenders, and more than 600 heavy guns of every caliber imaginable!

Without taking this fortress, there was no way they were getting into German territory.

No choice. They had to grit their teeth and go for it!

After two hours of artillery preparation, the coalition sent wave after wave of infantry charging at Liège Fortress.

But when the smoke from their bombardment finally cleared, the British and French soldiers were stunned to see the batteries they’d been shelling looked completely untouched.

Liège Fortress was built like a tank. The coalition’s shells just bounced off the bunker roofs — barely left a scratch.

The original Liège Fortress had bunkers with concrete thickness averaging 2.5 to 3 meters — permanent fortifications reinforced with steel and concrete.

But after the Germans tested it with their 420mm heavy guns, they decided that wasn’t good enough. At least, not good enough to survive German heavy artillery.

So to make sure no enemy could ever use German tactics against this fortress in the future, the Germans beefed it up even further.

Compared to the outdated, inferior concrete the Belgians had used 30 years earlier, the new concrete the Germans used was way harder and stronger.

After the reinforcement, the bunker defenses hit 3.5 meters thick — enough to shrug off any artillery under 305mm caliber!

So forget regular field guns — even the coalition’s big-ass howitzers couldn’t do jack shit to this fortress.

Just as the British finished their bombardment and the infantry started moving out, they spotted a hot air balloon floating up above Liège Fortress.

The Brits were still squinting through their binoculars, wondering what the hell that was about, when the experienced French officers next to them went pale:

"Move the artillery, now! They’re about to hit us!"

The words barely left his mouth before a dozen batteries roared to life.

Shell after shell screamed over their heads and slammed straight into the coalition’s artillery positions.

The defenders had already done precise surveys and measurements of the terrain around the fortress, marking every possible artillery position the enemy might use.

The hot air balloon was there for one reason — with the height advantage, they could spot the smoke from enemy guns firing and pinpoint exactly where their artillery was.

The French had been using this trick since Napoleon’s time, so they knew exactly what was happening.

But knowing it was coming didn’t help. It was already too late.

With the balloon’s spotting and the pre-measured firing parameters, the German artillery was dead accurate. The first salvo landed right on the coalition’s gun positions.

Massive explosions thundered from behind. The attacking soldiers couldn’t help but glance back — and watched in horror as a giant mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

That was the 305mm monster guns doing their thing!

Back in the day, heavy guns like this only showed up on battleships. But here at Liège Fortress, the coalition finally got to taste what it felt like to be on the receiving end of naval-grade firepower!

The German batteries hit the coalition’s artillery with three salvos, then swung their barrels around to hammer the troops massing for the attack.

Under that kind of bombardment, the coalition got torn apart. They never even got close to the fortress — couldn’t even cross the Meuse River before they were driven back.

By the end of day one, the coalition had over 10,000 casualties.

Dozens of artillery pieces were blown to scrap!

Meanwhile, their opponents? Despite eating a brutal bombardment, the German batteries were still standing — not a single one got knocked out during the day’s fighting.

"This war is unwinnable!"

After nightfall, the coalition commander crawled out of an underground bunker, covered in dirt and defeat.

If he hadn’t found that shelter, he figured he’d be dead from the German shelling.

"Our guns can’t touch their batteries. And just throwing infantry at them is the same as sending them to the slaughterhouse!"

"No kidding. Their machine gun fire is way too intense — and they’ve got the high ground. Our infantry can’t get anywhere near their positions."

The two commanders were deeply worried. Now they finally understood how the Germans felt when they faced Liège Fortress four years ago.

"All we can do now is wait for reinforcements to bring up the heavy siege guns. Without heavy artillery, there’s no way we’re taking this fortress!"

After saying that, the French commander couldn’t help but start thinking:

If this fortress was this hard to crack — what if they built fortifications like this all along the Franco-German border in the future? Wouldn’t that stop the Germans cold?

Maybe they figured the Germans wouldn’t leave their fortress to attack, or maybe they were just too confident in their numerical advantage.

Either way, that night, the careless coalition got hit with a German night raid.

The Germans only sent 3,000 men — but they caused absolute hell.

By dawn, when the coalition counted their losses, they found over 5,000 dead and wounded from the night fighting. The enemy had even slipped behind their lines, wiped out a command post, hauled off a pile of operational documents, and grabbed a dozen staff officers as prisoners on their way out.

...

The Liège Fortress battle report hit the desk of Marshal Foch, the Supreme Commander of the Entente forces on the Western Front. After reading the telegram, his face turned purple with rage.

The 2nd Army leading the attack didn’t have siege guns big enough to crack the reinforced fortress — that was understandable.

But why the hell didn’t they take proper precautions? How did they let the Germans hit them with a night raid and bleed them even worse?

Remembering how the Americans had also gotten hit by a German night raid, Marshal Foch’s instincts kicked in:

The Germans seemed to have a unit that was elite, well-equipped, and damn good at night infiltration operations.

This intel needed to be taken seriously. He had to warn frontline troops to watch out for enemy night raids — otherwise, they’d keep paying the price for it.

To take Liège Fortress, Marshal Pétain personally led the 1st and 3rd Armies to the front — dragging along 10 siege guns with a caliber of 370mm.

If the Germans could blast open Liège Fortress with siege guns back in the day, there was no reason the French couldn’t do the same.

When it came to artillery, France was Germany’s daddy!

...

But the first to reach the battlefield weren’t Pétain’s heavy guns — it was the coalition’s air force.

On January 24th, the Royal Air Force’s 97th Heavy Bomber Squadron took off with Britain’s special SN heavy bombs, flying over Belgian skies, ready to bomb Liège Fortress into rubble.

The SN bomb was a heavy bomb developed by the British during World War I.

Compared to the standard 50kg and 100kg aerial bombs of the era, this thing weighed 750kg — packing 363kg of "Amatol" high explosive. The blast power was absolutely insane, enough to level damn near any fortification in the world at the time.

Because the bomb was so heavy, the regular bombers of World War I couldn’t carry it.

Only the Handley Page O/400 heavy bomber could haul it — and even then, just one bomb per plane!

To destroy Liège Fortress’s batteries, the British went all in — sending over 20 bombers on this mission.

If those bombs actually landed, they might’ve knocked out a few German batteries.

But after spending that kind of money upgrading the fortress defenses, you think the Germans forgot about air defense?

As the British bombers lumbered toward the German positions at a whopping 100 kilometers per hour, every anti-aircraft gun on the batteries ripped off their covers, tilted their barrels skyward, and locked the enemy planes into their sights.