[1] Now Lieutenant-Colonel, Commander of the 1st Line Regiment.
[2] The Battalion, at the moment, consisted of four contingents of militia, as the general mobilisation, decreed on July 31st, was not yet complete.
The First German Flag Taken
(August 5, 1914)
From the Account Given by Deputy Staff Major Collyns of the 12th Line Regiment
On leaving Visé, I went to Milmort, where, on August 5th, I received an order from General Leman to go immediately to Wandre and to prevent, at any cost, the Germans crossing the bridge over the Meuse.
On arriving, I made a brief survey of the position. As my Battalion was only four hundred strong, the defence meant principally the construction of barricades and the utilising of houses and walls for firing obliquely and from all sides over the bridge of the Meuse, over the canal bridge to the west, and over the roads leading to these bridges. With feverish activity, the soldiers set to work. In the various houses indicated, they broke the window-panes, arranged the bedding and sacks of earth against the windows, in order to shelter those who were firing. They then dragged carts, carried planks of wood and barrels, and all kinds of other material, to the bridge over the Meuse, piling everything up in such a way as to leave only a narrow passage, scarcely sufficient for one man to cross at a time.