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Updated: June 12, 2025
Against such terrific odds the French line at Dinant and Givet broke, exposing the flank and rear of the whole army; and by the evening of that day, August 22, the passages of the River Sambre, near Charleroi, had been forced, and the Fifth Army was falling back, contesting every mile of the ground with desperate rear-guard action.
Soon the sound of firing from the other directions grew more faint; then ceased altogether. Chester put Hal in the care of a pleasant-faced Belgian woman, who came to the door now that the battle was over, and went forth in search of General Givet. The latter was about ready to give himself up to a much-needed rest, but permitted Chester to enter his hut.
Each day her car was ordered and ran to Rheims and Chalons through the battlefields, or through the mountains to Givet, Dinant or Namur. Changes passed over the mountains as quickly as the shades of flying clouds. The spring growth, at every stage and age from valley to crest, shook like light before the eyes. There were signs of spring, too, in the battlefields.
He was within a gunshot of the fortress of Charlemont, on the left bank, and in the vexation which the delay occasioned he dictated the following decree: "A bridge shall be built over the Meuse to join Little Civet to Great Givet. It shall be terminated during the ensuing campaign."
On Sunday, August 23, 1914, the Fourth Army, operating from the Meuse, was heavily outnumbered by the Saxon army around the river town of Dinant. They fell back, after furious fighting for the possession of the bridges, which the French engineers blew up as the army withdrew southward to the frontier. Soon after, at Givet, the Germans succeeded in wedging their way across the Meuse.
We were following our route, avoiding Malines, which was a fortified town, and at the time were in a narrow lane, with wide ditches, full of water, on each side. At the turning of a sharp corner we met the gendarme who had supplied O'Brien with a map of the town of Givet, "Good morning, comrade," said he to O'Brien, looking earnestly at him, "whom have we here?"
I wish I could go with you, but I am afraid it will be a day or two before I can walk." "Then I shall wait for you." "What! Then how about the letter to General Givet, at Louvain?" "It will have to wait." Chester raised himself feebly on one elbow and looked at Hal in surprise. "A fellow like you to say a thing like that?" he exclaimed. "That letter must be delivered at once.
The object of the generals on both sides was to keep their troops from dying of hunger; and it was an object by no means easily attained. The treasuries both of France and England were empty. Lewis had, during the winter, created with great difficulty and expense a gigantic magazine at Givet on the frontier of his kingdom. The buildings were commodious and of vast extent.
He was within a gunshot of the fortress of Charlemont, on the left bank, and in the vexation which the delay occasioned he dictated the following decree: "A bridge shall be built over the Meuse to join Little Civet to Great Givet. It shall be terminated during the ensuing campaign."
Upon orders issued by General Givet, the Belgian troops soon began to move in accordance with the plan by which the Belgian leader hoped to trap the Germans. Their movements were such as to lead the German outposts to believe that they were retreating. But instead of weakening his line where the Germans had planned to attack, General Givet strengthened it heavily.
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