The Germans began to bombard Antwerp on the second day of October, and they took the city solely because they had better and bigger guns than the defenders. The Belgians, headed by their splendid King, put up a valiant fight, and England sent a party of British Naval Volunteers to help in the defence.
Now very few people know about the British Naval Volunteers. They are a fine force, dating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is a curious fact that Antwerp saw them for the first time under fire since the Napoleonic scare, which frightened quiet folk in England so very much more than the Kaiser with all his legions and terrifying threats has been able to do! It is, therefore, the more creditable that our officers and men acquitted themselves so excellently, showing remarkable firmness, discipline, and courage, and that though some of these Naval Volunteers had only been in training a very short time.
As Antwerp fell, some people regretted that this British force had been sent there. But they were wrong in so regretting. The presence of these volunteers heartened the defence, and in such a case as that we should all feel:
“’Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.”
CHAPTER XII
THE FAR-FLUNG BATTLE LINE
Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set
His Britain in blown seas and storming showers,
We have a voice with which to pay the debt
Of boundless love and reverence and regret