{"id":41884,"date":"2014-08-12T08:01:31","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T13:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41884"},"modified":"2014-08-12T12:42:41","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T17:42:41","slug":"battle-of-the-silver-helmets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=41884","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Silver Helmets"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a site, it was hard to miss the marching of the\u00a04th German Cavalry Division on August 12, 1914. \u00a0Wearing the spiked\u00a0Pickelhaube\u00a0<\/em>helmet, with steel lances and breastplates, and freshly-polished swords, the 4th Cavalry could have easily looked as if on parade. \u00a0Only instead of parade grounds, the men and horses of the unit marched through enemy Belgian territory.<\/p>\n

Ordered to charge against the southern flank of the small town of Haelen, the 4th Cavalry squared off against a fellow cavalry unit, equally resplendent in their dress uniforms. \u00a0The 4th Cavalry led, quite literally, with the tips of lances. \u00a0The Belgians, dismounted from their horses, led with their guns. \u00a0The gentlemanly charm of the 19th Century military was about to collide with the vicious precision of the 20th.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

Speed had been the essence of German military planning for a war in Europe.<\/p>\n

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The somewhat romanticized view of the Battle of Haelen – dashing German cavalry units charging headlong into the Belgian line<\/p><\/div>\n

The infamous Schlieffen Plan had counted on Germany making light work of French forces, defeating them in 40 days and occupying Paris. \u00a0With Germany now confronted with a two-front war against the expansive Russian Empire, the German General Staff knew their only long-term hope was a decisive blow against France. \u00a0The two-front war had already undermined the principles of the Schlieffen Plan – instead of the 1.3 million troops Schlieffen had deemed the minimal necessary to conduct his operation, von\u00a0Moltke had only 970,000 at his disposal.<\/p>\n

Worse for Moltke, if the French understood the German intention to drive around and between their lines of communication (a sort of 1914\u00a0blitzkrieg<\/em>, if you will), they could potentially retreat to the Verdun\u2013Marne\u2013Paris defensive axis and hunker down for a protracted fight. \u00a0Thus, the German army had no time to suffer fools in Belgium. \u00a0The longer the Belgians stood in the way, the more likely Germany’s plans would come to naught.<\/p>\n

The result was a General Staff desperate for results, and willing to overlook (or even encourage) brutality against Belgian civilians.<\/p>\n

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The accurate view of Haelen – German horses were caught between barbed wire and Belgian guns<\/p><\/div>\n

Nearly 1.5 million Belgians (almost 20% of the country’s population) fled the German advance. \u00a0Those who remained were a mix of the young, the old, and women. \u00a0A few\u00a0Francs-tireurs\u00a0<\/em>(“free-shooters”) also stayed behind to harass the German line with sniper attacks and sabotage. \u00a0The moves had little effect on German progress. \u00a0But the German response had a massive effect on world opinion.<\/p>\n

Throughout the many small towns doting Belgium, German troops launched reprisal attacks on civilians wherever they faced unexpected resistance. \u00a0Some were killed amid the “fog of war” as German troops in 1914 faced the same confusion modern soldiers do to distinguish between a civilian and a guerrilla fighter. \u00a0But other acts were certainly orchestrated. \u00a0Faced with a destroyed railway, which was putting the Germans further behind schedule, German General\u00a0Count von der Goltz ordered retribution comparable to the Nazis. \u00a0Every village within miles of the sabotage was burnt to the ground, their mayors lined up and shot, and all able-bodied males captured.<\/p>\n

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The “Rape of Belgium”: German war crimes in Belgium rallied world support against the Kaiser. While some acts were fabricated, others (such as purposeful burning of the city of Leuven) were as horrific as anything the Nazis would commit a generation later<\/p><\/div>\n

The Germans called it “British propaganda” but in truth, the “Rape of Belgium” was being more systematically conducted than not.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

The campaign of carnage was likely totally unknown to the men of the German II Cavalry Corps.<\/p>\n

The Corps had been delayed a week due to the lack of oats for the horses. \u00a0And despite time being of the essence, the unit lumbered, like so much of the German army, through its assigned route. \u00a0The II Cavalry Corps was considered a\u00a0reconnaissance unit, scouting out Belgian positions in the hopes that weak points could be rapidly exploited. \u00a0And the II Cavalry found a major potential weak point at Haelen.<\/p>\n

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Ypres, Belgium: the city would be the scene of 5 different battles from 1914 to 1918. This picture in 1919 shows the level of destruction visited upon so many Belgian cities caught in the crossfire between the Entente and Germany<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the major crossing points for the River Gete, Haelen also represented the extreme end of the Belgian army’s left flank. \u00a0If the Germans could turn Haelen, they could get behind the entire Belgian army – and Haelen was practically undefended. \u00a0The Belgians, seeing this vulnerability, immediately sent cavalry commander\u00a0Lieutenant-General L\u00e9on de Witte to Haelen to hold the bridge and block any German advance. \u00a0Unfortunately for de Witte, the Germans had already noticed Haelen’s lack of a garrison, and 6,000 men from the II Cavalry, 4,000 of them on horseback, were rushing to cross the bridge. \u00a0De Witte would have to hold the line with less than half that number.<\/p>\n

For a moment, it looked like Belgium might see the sort of true cavalry battle last witnessed in the Napoleonic era. \u00a0De Witte, the old cavalry hand that he was, wanted to meet the II Cavalry Corps’\u00a0Georg von der Marwitz on an open battlefield – horse vs horse. \u00a0The Belgian General Staff thought better of it, and advised de Witte to dismount his unit and hold the line instead of attacking. \u00a0Cavalry was suppose to be on the offensive, not defensive. \u00a0But de Witte was nothing if not a dutiful soldier, and obeyed his orders.<\/p>\n

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Belgian troops after the Battle of Haelen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Marwitz advanced on August 12th, 1914 with a direct charge into Haelen. \u00a0Belgian engineers blew the bridge, the main objective of the town, but didn’t completely destroy it, allowing the Germans to get at least 1,000 men into Haelen. \u00a0But de Witte had chosen to conduct the fight outside of the town, in an obstructed defensive position. \u00a0Marwitz, unable to see the strength of the defenders, charged with his cavalry. \u00a0Men with lances were shot down by machine-gun fire. \u00a0Horses became tangled in barbed wire near the Belgian lines and panicked, throwing riders or shredding themselves before gunfire finished the grisly task. \u00a0Marwitz managed to bring up his artillery, but with de Witte’s men well covered, the shells hit dirt and sometimes, German horses.<\/p>\n

By the day’s end, Haelen was littered with\u00a0Pickelh\u00e4ube\u00a0<\/em>(some of which still reside in Belgian museums, lending to the battle’s name to the Belgians as the “Battle of the Silver Helmets”) and 750 dead or wounded Germans. \u00a0400 dead horses and 300 captured troops added to the II Cavalry Corps’ defeat. \u00a0The centuries of cavalry power, at least on the Western Front, could not exceeded the killing power of machine guns and well-defended marksmen.<\/p>\n

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A Belgian sentry stands watch over the ruins of Haelen. A tactical victory for the Belgians, the victory was short-lived as the Germans managed to occupy most of the country and established their own military government<\/p><\/div>\n

Haelen marked the end of many illusions. \u00a0The Germans assumed Belgium could be easily swept aside en route to crushing France, or that cavalry could still play it’s traditional role of mobile warfare, outflanking and surrounding the enemy. \u00a0Both sides, at least among the cavalry corps, believed some amount of chivalry accompanied their profession. \u00a0But bedazzled soldiers executing civilians and raping women were no more noble than conscripted grunts in drab army clothes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a site, it was hard to miss the marching of the\u00a04th German Cavalry Division on August 12, 1914. \u00a0Wearing the spiked\u00a0Pickelhaube\u00a0helmet, with steel lances and breastplates, and freshly-polished swords, the 4th Cavalry could have easily looked as if on parade. \u00a0Only instead of parade grounds, the men and horses of the unit marched through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,281],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-ringer","category-ww1-fact-and-myth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41884"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46353,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41884\/revisions\/46353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}