Blog

During the First World War, Veurne occupied a ‘privileged’ place among the Flemish towns. After the front was paralysed in October 1914, it was the only Belgian town, which quickly developed into an administrative and logistical hub. The city enjoyed the status of open city, which immediately explains why, unlike the surrounding cities, it was not systematically destroyed. The misery of war was not less, it was regularly shelled and bombed. A school teacher named Jozef Gesquière kept a diary. It was published in 1979 and to find it today you need more than a bit of luck, took me years to get my hands on it.

I would like to focus in this blog on the German prisoners of war going through town.

The first time Jozef mentions them is on the 12 of October 1914 :

All day long, there is a lot of movement in town, apart from the hopeless refugees strolling back and forth, we see countless soldiers, cars, bicycles and horses. Also 800 German prisoners of war are led through the city towards France.( I don’t know how he got these numbers), Joseph also writes that refugees from Ostend tell that the city is occupied now by Germans.

17th of October: Veurne just a few kilometres from the firing line. All day long the cannon can be heard from the east, on the side of Diksmuide. In De Panne, the army authorities blew up a villa that belonged to a German family. Now the Name and the location :

Villa Maazi

Situated at the intersection of newly constructed roads in the dunes, the villa was a real fortification with concreted cellars whose openings gave onto the new roads. One would think they were shelters for cannons. In any case, it was a mysterious affair. Who knows, perhaps it was built with premeditation; and why was it blown up? Couldn’t the army have used this fortified villa itself? ( this is Jozef getting carried away if you ask me.)

Villa Maazi was not the only Villa owned by Germans in De Panne, Villa Sorgenfri, Villa edelweiss.

A group of Belgian soldiers arrives at the square with two ‘automitrailleuses’ , armoured cars which were captured from the Germans. A stop is made at the market, spectators curiously watch as soldiers check the cars; three German prisoners of war are led across the market. On 18 October it was an eventful Sunday, the artillery kept firing all night long. At 9 o’clock meat is distributed to soldiers returning from the firing line. Around 11 o’clock hundreds of refugees cross the city in the direction of France, they come from Diksmuide, Pervijze, Essen, Nieuwpoort and other towns along the “Yzer”.

The whole afternoon it is extremely busy in town. Red Cross wagons carry wounded soldiers to the St Jan’s Hospital, including wounded Germans . At 2 pm artillery fire increases along Diksmuide and Nieuwpoort and King Albert is also in town. Monday 19 October During the night drunken soldiers behaved badly, looting. In the morning around 10 o’clock another 3 German prisoners of war are brought in, they look very tired and downhearted. In the evening no gas in town, so no light in the streets.

Wednesday the 21th of October yet again 60 German prisoners are led through town on their way to France.

Thursday 22 October, wounded and killed, the cannon roar all night. A fierce battle must be going on. Numerous wounded, among them many Germans, are taken to St John’s Hospital and the Episcopal College. Also many dead, Belgian and German, are brought by ambulance to be buried in the municipal cemetery. Again, German prisoners of war are brought in large numbers. They are dressed in grey-grey uniforms. Some wear shiny black pin helmets with a copper eagle on them, others have only a grey flat cap with a red band. They all look worn out but proud nonetheless. There is not much to get out of them. They hardly answer the questions put to them. Iron discipline ! Eagerly they accept the refreshments offered to them. In the afternoon German wounded are again taken to the hospital. German fliers circle above the town. Friday, October 30: Air Fight, around 10 o’clock a German plane, a taube, comes circling over the city. Suddenly an English or French pilot appears from the sea and the taube takes off in a hurry to the east, further pursued by the attacking plane. A continuous rattling of machine guns resounds above, an air battle between the two pilots: Who will make it? Just before 4 a.m., 240 German prisoners of war are led down the Ooststraat to the Grote Markt. They were overpowered at Ramskapelle where, separated from the bulk of their army by the flooding, they had entrenched themselves and had kept up a fierce fight against the Turkos. There are officers with pin helmets among them. A large crowd has gathered on the Great Market Square where they have been holding court for some time. Some bystanders, few in numbers though, even insult and threaten the prisoners of war, others look at the disarmed enemies with pity. They were further led away along the Dunkirk road by Turkos.

journalist Mr. Scotland Lidell and T.E. Grant the photographer had been traveling through Belgium in his book : The Track of the War”, Simpkin Marshall, London, 1915. I found this small section on Veurne about the German prisoners :

suddenly we came to another road along which a crowd of German prisoners were being marched. We walked alongside them to the town. Near Fumes the roads were lined with soldiers. In silence they watched the prisoners go by. There were ninety-two white-faced Germans ,two officers and ninety men. Many of them were hatless. Some of them had dirty bandages around their heads. Some had woollen scarfs in place of helmets. Quite a number had big roamed goggles on. They were about as miserable looking a crowd as I have ever seen. Just before they entered the street that crossed the railway lines, when they were marching along an avenue of trees, they passed a Belgian flagbearer who had the standard of his regiment on his shoulder. One of the German officers saluted it as he passed. Tom Grant had climbed to the top of a Limousine car by this time, so he managed to get a photograph of the incident. Through the streets of the little Flemish town they went. The townsfolk hissed and groaned as the prisoners went by. One big man jeered at them.

“ La Route de Paris ! ” he shouted. La Route de Paris.”

The crowd laughed at the gibe. The men were marched to the Grand Place to the building up whose spire I had climbed. King Albert watched them from a first-floor window. There was only sadness in his face. Tom Grant took another photograph of the men» while I got behind a cart so that I was able to speak to some of the Germans without being stopped. Many of them were mere boys. One that I questioned was only sixteen and a half. Several others were schoolboys of seventeen. They had, they told me, had practically no training. After a few days’ instruction in the handling of a rifle they were packed off to the front. At Diksmuide they had been captured. When they were ordered into the comer building, next the Belgian Military Headquarters, they lay down at once on the straw-covered floor and fell asleep from utter exhaustion. After a time they were marched off to the railway station and taken away by trains to some unknown destination.

Sources : Veurne tijdens de wereldoorlog 1914-1914 dagboek van Jozef Gesquière

Scotland, L., “The Track of the War”, Simpkin Marshall, London, 1915.

Images : second one taken by T.E. Grant, for the “Daily Mirror

third image: © IWM Q 53436