This week Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday
Beselare in the early days part one
Friday the 31th of July 1914, around 10 pm the mayor of Beselare Jozef Bayart is told that all soldiers ‘klasse 13’ are called in, the next morning all these men have to leave, there is no panic, but it is hard to leave women and children behind. They keep in mind that it will not be for long, just a precaution like in 1870. They were so wrong, their village would be totally destroyed and some will not return at all. The first to fall is Rene or Remy Sylvere MASSCHELEIN 26/09/1893 – 06/08/1914 son of Henri Victor and Florence Marie Durnez. He was a farmer living at ‘de molenhoek’ He died at Boncelles and is buried there between his comrades of the ‘ 1 chasseur a pied /jagers te voet’. In total 46 men who lived in Beselare died as a soldier.
As long as it was quiet in the village, the inhabitants would go praying to the field chapels every evening. Two to three times a week some would hold a pilgrimage to the basilica in Dadizele, even the not so catholic people would join in.
Everyone had to have identity papers, because without you could be seen as a spy , the garde civic had to check every one, only by the end of August they were disbanded . All firearms had to be handed in. On the 23 of August the first German patrols are spotted in Dadizele.
Some Soldiers with Beselare roots ended up being interned in Holland Arthur lapeire was one of them. Cyriel Costeur en Valeer Vermeulen are the first who end up in German hands. Cyriel or Cyrille was captured in Bioul ( provence Namur/Namen) on the 24th of August 1914 .In 1916 he was moved from kriegsgefangenenlager Celle to Kriegsgefangenenlager Soltau.
Vermeulen Valère / Valeer was captured a day earlier at Namur on the 23/08/1914 he was part of 1th chasseurs a pied ended up at Kriegsgefangenenlager Munster and moved to Saltau later on.
By the 14thof October the first British arrive in the village
Beselare fell into German hands on the 20th of October 1914. By noon German artillery fire starts . A shell lands in the courtyard of the family Delobel who lives at Hoge Molenhoek, no one is wounded but for sure the inhabitants run, there is no time to loose. Earlier that day a dozen people fled in the direction of ‘Reutel’ through the fields, they were stopped by English soldiers , not allowed to pass that way and ended up with an English soldier escorting them to the Poezelhoek, were an officer interrogated them about the situation in the village of Beselare. Another escort brought them to the hamplet Kantientje on the Menin road.
In and around the village square there were still about 30 civilians who could not decide what to do, stay or flee? The situation was getting worse and they decided to go to the cellars of the brewery. A few names : Henri Durnez, his wife and daughter Marie, Jozef and Paul Maerten, Hector, Zöe, Martha and Maria Vermeulen. In a few other cellars there are more people hiding. The first Germans scouts arrive at Terhand by 10 am, around noon RIR 245 arrives at the hamlet, with rifle at gunpoint , a row to the left and a row to the right, against the houses, every window watched. no trace of British troops in the hamlet, a part of RIR 246 arrive at Terhand. A few scouts were send out towards Beselare village. After half an hour they came back, two men short. Their impression is that the village was occupied by the British who are waiting for them to attack. At 1pm, the Germans moved in and spread along Kampstraat to Geluwe Street and partly into the Oosthoek. Still in full motion, the first English cannon salvos cracked loose on Terhand from the Poezelhoek. The bitter battle east and south of Beselare burns loose. As soon as the Germans west of Terhand have advanced three hundred metres, the English fire from their shelters, in the Abeel forest and from behind gorse hedges, trunks and willows.
The British soldiers routinely move backwards without being seen by the Germans. With every move the Germans make, screams could be heard and men are falling down. When around 4 o’clock the rain stopped and the fog cleared, fires could be seen everywhere, even the church tower had an opening under the bell towers, from which a thick cloud of smoke rose. When the English have retreated to the village square, the first Germans are already on the ‘molenhoek’. meanwhile, the horse and cyclist units appear at ‘ de potteriebrug’ (the pottery bridge). They set fire to an inn. The brits leave the village square via the convent, Molenstraat and ‘ het zwaantje’. Soon the square is empty, the people in the cellars are waiting in fear. Suddenly they can hear the German boots on the cobblestones . From the ‘Geluwestraat’ and at the ‘kruissstraat’ they invade the village. Excited, wild and famished, soaking wet. They bash in doors and windows, penetrate the houses looking for brits eventually they also find the civilians in the cellars. These are threatened with revolvers.
Was Machen sie hier ? Keine Englander hier ?
Everyone is scanned, hands up. They thoroughly examine the cellars after which they go back outside and admonish the civilians to stay there. When the Germans stormed into the village, the companies were all mixed up in the greatest disarray.
Brigadier General Von Reinhardt creates order in his troops. He sends 2 companies of RIR 246 into the Wervikstraat, but once they reach the last houses, in the open field a murderous infantry fire suddenly hits them, the confusion literally mowing down the first lines. At Zwaanhoek it is even worse. A group of British scouts stopped at the ‘maeldestede’ farm and for half an hour they shelled the Germans appearing at the Hazewind from a distance of thirty metres. When evening falls in, in the dark the British cannot see any targets but since they had measured the distance between the houses the past few days they keep sending bullets over the fields, many German will die that night.
More to come next week
Source :
Gedenkboek aan Beselare in de eerste wereldoorlog 1914-1918 J.H. Maes
Heemkring Zonnebeke database
Images postcard village my own collection, Von Reinhardt, red cross files, image grave