Il serait d’extrême importance que ces troupes soient dirigées sur Gand avec le maximum de célérité: les heures ont en ce moment une exceptionnelle valeur.
Les hautes autorités militaires et le Gouvernement tout entier, consultés par moi, acceptent avec une véritable satisfaction l’entente qui s’est établie entre nous.
Le Gouvernement a appris avec un sentiment de véritable gratitude que, s’il venait à être fait prisonnier, le Gouvernement de la Grande-Bretagne ne traiterait pas sans son assentiment des questions intéressant le sort de la Belgique au moment où se négociera la paix.
Je me félicite tout particulièrement des relations si sympathiques que je viens d’avoir avec l’éminent homme d’Etat envoyé ici par la grande nation si hautement appréciée et aimée par la Belgique.
The matter had now passed into the region of pure action. Could Antwerp resist the enemy’s attack long enough to enable the French and British relieving force to come to her aid? Secondly, if this succeeded, could nine or ten Allied divisions at Antwerp and Ghent hold the Germans in check until the left wing of the main armies, advancing daily from the south, could join hands with them? In that case the Allied lines in the west might be drawn through Antwerp, Ghent and Lille. All this turned on a few days, and even on a few hours.
Judged by the number of troops available on both sides, the chances of the Allies appeared good. On paper they were nearly twice as strong as the enemy. But the Belgian Army had been left without aid or comfort too long. The daily destruction of their trusted forts, the harsh and unceasing bombardment of a vastly superior artillery, their apprehensions for their line of retreat, the cruel losses and buffetings they had suffered since the beginning of the war, had destroyed their confidence and exhausted their strength.
The prime and vital need was to maintain the defence of Antwerp against the unceasing artillery attack to which its whole southern front was exposed. The position behind the river was capable of being made a strong one. It was, potentially, stronger in many respects than the line of the Yser, along which a fortnight later this same Belgian Army, in spite of further losses and discouragements, was to make a most stubborn and glorious defence. But despondency in the face of an apparently irresistible artillery, and the sense of isolation, struck a deadly chill.
Meanwhile, however, help was hurrying forward. The Marines were already in the line. Armoured trains with naval guns and British bluejackets came into action on the morning of the 4th. The two Naval Brigades reached Dunkirk that night, and were due to enter Antwerp on the evening of the 5th. At the special request of the Belgian Staff they were to be interspersed with Belgian divisions to impart the encouragement and assurance that succour was at hand.
The British 7th Division and 3rd Cavalry Division, carried daringly across the water upon personal orders from Prince Louis in the teeth of submarines, began to disembark at Ostend and Zeebrugge from the morning of the 6th onward. The French division was embarking at Havre. Admiral Ronarc’h and his 8,000 Fusiliers Marins were already entrained for Dunkirk. If only Antwerp could hold out....
Meanwhile, also, it must be remembered, Sir John French was secretly withdrawing the British Army from the Aisne and moving round behind the French front to the neighbourhood of St. Omer with the intention of striking at Lille and beating in the German right. Every day that large German forces were detained in front of Antwerp helped and covered the detrainment and deployment of his army and increased its chances of success. But every day became graver also the peril to the Belgian Army of being cut off if, after all, the Germans should be the victors in the main battle.