Commemorative plaque Sart-Tilman

At this farm on the ridge of Sart-Tilman in Ougrée (Liège), on the night of August 5-6, 1914 (the 2nd and 3rd day of the war in Belgium), the 1st and 4th battalions of the Chasseurs à pied chased away the Germans who were holed up in this farm.

The plaque was only installed in 1984, 70 years after the event. The residents and their descendants have not forgotten the sacrifices the 1st and 4th battalions along with the 14th and 9th line regiments made for the community of Sart-Tilman and Liège in the first days of the war.

Both the 1st and 4th battalions Chasseurs à Pied and the 14th and 9th line regiments heroically held out against German superiority on the hill and forest of Sart-Tilman. Both the Germans and the Belgians suffered heavy losses on this hill. The Belgians managed to delay the Germans in their time path to take Liège. The heavy resistance put up by the Belgians was not factored in by the German high command which already delayed their advance under the “Von Schlieffen Plan. The intention was on the western front, defeat France, before the Russian army could mobilize to avoid a two-front war.

The opposite happened. Germany was eventually forced to fight an exhausting two-front war until October 1917, when the Russian army collapsed due to the revolution. Only then could Germany transfer large concentrations of troops to the western front. But by then, after 3 long years of war, it was too late. The Von Schliefen Plan had failed, and as foreseen in this plan, Germany would not be able to win a two-front war and would be exhausted. Even the final offensive that began from March 1918, the so-called “Kaiserschlacht” or “Operation Michael,” could no longer turn the tide for Germany to win the war. On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed.

The German high command thought it could overrun neutral Belgium. The opposite was true. The Belgians fought like lions to defend their country, freedom and neutrality. This plaque gives an example of that on those very first days of the 1st World War.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski