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Seventy-five men of the Marchovelette garrison were found dead amid its ruins nearly its total complement. Early on Friday morning of August 21, 1914, forts Andoy, Dave, St. Héribert and Malonne were subjected to a similar furious bombardment. After three hours of the cannonade Andoy, Dave and St. Héribert surrendered.
This fire was directed upon that evening against the two and a half miles of trench between the forts of Cognelée and Marchovelette, and in the morning of Friday, the 21st, the trenches were given up, and the German infantry was within the ring of forts north of the city. The point of Namur, as we shall see in a moment, was twofold.
The distance between each fort was on the average two and a half miles, with between two and a half to five miles from the city as the center of the circumference. Facing Von Bülow's advance, fort Cognlée protected the Brussels railway, while the guns of Marchovelette swept the space between it and the left bank of the Meuse.
The tremendous pounding of the German shells not only smashed the fort cupolas, and crumpled into ruin the interior stone and steel protective armor, but quickly put the Belgian guns out of action. Thus while fort Maizeret received some 1,200 German shells at the speed of twenty to the minute, it was able to reply with only ten shots. Forts Marchovelette and Maizeret were the first to fall.
Toward morning on August 21, 1914, the Belgians could stand the tornado of death no longer. The demoralized troops fled from the trenches, leaving the gap between forts Cognelée and Marchovelette open. The Germans then opened fire on the forts. In comparison with the new German siege howitzers, the old-fashioned Belgian guns proved to be weak weapons.
At sundown of August 20, 1914, Von Bülow was in position before Namur, three miles from its defenses. Darkness fell upon a hot and sultry August atmosphere. Presently the flashes and boom of the German guns began a bombardment of the trenches between forts Cognelée and Marchovelette. It continued through the night. But the Belgian fortress guns were outranged.
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