This week sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday focusing on the Fusilier Marins early Oktober 1914
Les Fusiliers Marins before they arrive in Diksmuide
Their first task is to defend Paris at a time when the Paris garrison is about to stop the Germans at the Marne. The French succeed and the Germans withdraw after the battle at the Marne on the 12th of September 1914.
The second task is to reinforce the Belgian army in Antwerp. However, the Fusiliers Marins arrive too late. By the time they reach Gent, Antwerp has almost fallen into German hands. Their mission remains essentially the same: to strengthen the Belgian army.
On route pour la Belgique
The 8th of October 1914, early morning, two regimental trains passed each other in the station of Torhout. one of these trains contained Belgian carabiniers: its opposite, marine fusiliers. From one train to the other they were yelling and shouting. Vive la France! Where are you going, asked a Belgian officer. To Antwerpen. Where are you going? To France. He explained that the ‘carabiniers’ were recruits , who were sent to our lines to complete their training. You will train them quickly,” said a Fusilier Marin to the officer, and pointing his fists at the horizon, “and rest assured, my lieutenant. We’ll get them in the end, those bastards! The Belgian officer who reports the scene, was Eduard de Kayzer,( I cannot find him at the moment, maybe his name is spelled incorrect) he left Antwerp during the night. Was unaware that the resistance was at the end of its rope, that the evacuation of the troops had begun. The Fuslier Marins were no better informed. the railway line was cut after Gent. in the night of the 8th to 9th the situation: six divisions of the Belgian army in retreat from Antwerp towards Brugge, staggered between these two points. on its arrival in Gent, the population gives them everything in profusion and everyone shouts ‘vive la France’. the next day October 9 in the morning the brigade occupies the ground of maneuvers of Ledeberg. The 2nd regiment, which was in reserve, left the town and took the direction of Melle. the 1st and 2nd battalions of the second regiment are at the river l’escaut ( schelde) on their side Belgian en British troops, the enemy attacked 7 times during the night of the 9th to the 10th but without success to penetrate Gent via this route. the situation threatens to become critical, because the Belgian army continues to retreat, towards the west, while the enemy pushes energetically its attacks Kwadrecht and Gontrode.
here is how it proceeded: the germans infiltrated, as soon as one saw it, until the houses located at approximately 100 m of our line, then, they progressed towards it by using a field of beets. When they got within 40 meters of our riflemen, the Germans answered the call of an officer, which could be heard perfectly, and then, one by one, in a crawl, they went to lie down on the road in a column of 4. When the column included a certain number of individuals, at the whistle of an officer, they all got up as one man and with inarticulate cries leapt towards our line, bayonet in front. the ‘Marins’ then opened fire and broke their momentum by mowing them down , not once did the counter-attacking section have to give; seven times during the same night they began the maneuver with an absolute contempt for death.
The next day the fusiliers marins took Gontrode, but not without a raid on the helmets. They found that the slain were men of at least forty years of age. In the meantime they took some prisoners. The 7th Company of the 2nd Regiment had the honor of taking the first prisoner of the brigade, an infantry lieutenant whose troops had been decimated during the night. On the morning of 11 October, the Fusiliers Marins were attacked by German regiments, preceded by groups of uhlans and cyclists who were trying to cross the Schelde. 45 fusilier marins were put out of action, and some of the allies too, the “boche” wanting to cross the Schelde at all costs, lost from 800 to 900 men.
The cemetery of Melle contains 9 graves of the 2e régiment de fusiliers Marins who died on the 9th of October ,Emile Encelin is one of them.
pictures : Monument for the Fusiliers Marins in Melle collection Lucien Ravier, Deatn certificate Emile
sources : la brigade des Jean de Gouin histoire documentaire et anecdotique des fusiliers-marins de Dixmude, memoires des hommes, erfgoedbanklandvanrode, Dixmude les fusiliers marins by Charles Le Goffic