The Invasion of 1910

“The conflict which is now about to begin will be one to the death. While, on the one hand, the Germans are bottled up among us, the fact must not be overlooked that their arms are superior, and that they are trained soldiers. Yet the two or three local risings of yesterday and the day previous have given us courage, for they show that the enemy cannot manœuvre in the narrow streets, and soon become demoralised. In London we fail because we have so few riflemen. If every man who now carries a gun could shoot we could compel the Germans to fly a flag of truce within twenty-four hours. Indeed, if Lord Roberts’s scheme of universal training in 1906 had been adopted, the enemy would certainly never have been suffered to approach our capital.

“Alas! apathy has resulted in this terrible and crushing disaster, and we have only now to bear our part, each one of us, in the blow to avenge this desecration of our homes and the massacre of our loved ones.

“To-day I have seen the white banners with the red cross – the ensign of the Defenders – everywhere. Till yesterday it was not openly displayed, but to-day it is actually hung from windows or flown defiantly from flagstaffs in full view of the Germans.

“In Kilburn, or, to be more exact, in the district lying between the Harrow Road and the High Road, Kilburn, there was another conflict this morning between some of the German Garde Corps and the populace. The outbreak commenced by the arrest of some men who were found practising with rifles in Paddington Recreation Ground. One man who resisted was shot on the spot, whereupon the crowd who assembled attacked the German picket, and eventually killed them to a man. This was the signal for a general outbreak in the neighbourhood, and half an hour later, when a force was sent to quell the revolt, fierce fighting became general all through the narrow streets of Kensal Green, especially at the big barricade that blocks the Harrow Road where it is joined by Admiral Road. Here the bridges over the Grand Junction Canal have already been destroyed, for the barricades and defences have been scientifically constructed under the instruction of military engineers.

“One of our reporters despatched to the scene has just given me a thrilling account of the desperate struggle, in which no quarter was given on either side. So overwhelming were the number of the populace, that after an hour’s hard fighting the Germans were driven back across Maida Vale into St. John’s Wood, where, I believe, they were held at bay for several hours.

“From an early hour to-day it has been apparent that all these risings were purposely ordered by the League of Defenders to cause Von Kronhelm confusion. Indeed, while the outbreak at Kensal Green was in progress, we had another reported from Dalston, a third from Limehouse, and a fourth from Homerton. Therefore, it is quite certain that the various centres of the League are acting in unison upon secret orders from headquarters.

“Indeed, South London also took part in the fray this morning, for the Defenders at the barricade at London Bridge have now mounted several field-guns, and have started shelling Von Wilberg’s position in the City. It is said that the Mansion House, where the General had usurped the apartments of the deported Lord Mayor, has already been half reduced to ruins. This action is, no doubt, only to harass the enemy, for surely General Bamford has no desire to destroy the City proper any more than it has already been destroyed. Lower Thames Street, King William Street, Gracechurch Street, and Cannon Street have, at any rate, been found untenable by the enemy, upon whom some losses have been inflicted.

“South London is every moment anxious to know the truth. Two days after the bombardment we succeeded at night in sinking a light telegraph cable in the river across from the Embankment at the bottom of Temple Avenue, and are in communication with our temporary office in Southwark Street. Over this we report the chief incidents which occur, and they are printed for the benefit of the beleaguered population over the water. The existence of the cable is, however, kept a strict secret from our pair of gold-spectacled censors.

“The whole day has been one of tension and excitement. The atmosphere outside is breathless, the evening overcast and oppressive, precursory to a storm. An hour ago there came, through secret sources, information of another naval victory to our credit, several German warships being sunk and captured. Here, we dare not print it, so I have just wired it across to the other side, where they are issuing a special edition.

LEAGUE OF DEFENDERS

CITIZENS OF LONDON AND LOYAL PATRIOTS

The hour has come to show your strength, and to wreak your vengeance.

TO-NIGHT, OCT. 4, AT 10 P.M., rise, and strike your blow for freedom.

A MILLION MEN are with Lord Byfield, already within striking distance of London; a million follow them, and yet another million are ready in South London.

RISE, FEARLESS AND STERN. Let “England for Englishmen” be your battle-cry, and avenge the blood of your wives and your children.

AVENGE THIS INSULT TO YOUR

NATION

REMEMBER: TEN O’CLOCK TO-NIGHT!

“Almost simultaneously with the report of the British victory, namely, at five o’clock, the truth – the great and all-important truth – became revealed. The mandate has gone forth from the headquarters of the League of Defenders that London is to rise in her might at ten o’clock to-night, and that a million men are ready to assist us. Placards and bills on red paper are everywhere. As if by magic, London has been flooded with the defiant proclamation of which the copy here reproduced has just been brought in to me.

“Frantic efforts are being made by the Germans all over London to suppress both posters and handbills, but without avail. The streets are littered with them, and upon every corner they are being posted, even though more than one patriot has paid for the act with his life.

“It is now six o’clock. In four hours it is believed that London will be one huge seething conflict. Night has been chosen, I suppose, in order to give the populace the advantage. The by-streets are for the most part still unlit, save for oil-lamps, for neither gas nor electric light are yet in proper working order after the terrible dislocation of everything. The scheme of the Defenders is, as already proved, to lure the Germans into the narrower thoroughfares, and then exterminate them. Surely in the history of the world there has never been such a bitter vengeance as that which is now inevitable. London, the greatest city ever known, is about to rise!

    “Midnight.

“London has risen! How can I describe the awful scenes of panic, bloodshed, patriotism, brutality, and vengeance that are at this moment in progress? As I write, through the open window I can hear the roar of voices, the continual crackling of rifles, and the heavy booming of guns. I walked along Fleet Street at nine o’clock, and I found, utterly disregarding the order that no unauthorised persons are to be abroad after nightfall, hundreds upon hundreds of all classes, all wearing their little silk Union Jack badges pinned to their coats, on their way to join in their particular districts. Some carried rifles, others revolvers, while others were unarmed. Yet not a German did I see in the streets. It seemed as though, for the moment, the enemy had vanished. There was only the strong cordon across the bottom of Ludgate Hill, men who looked on in wonder, but without bestirring themselves.

“Is it possible that Von Kronhelm’s strategy is to remain inactive, and refuse to fight?

“The first shot I heard fired, just after ten o’clock, was at the Strand end of Fleet Street, at the corner of Chancery Lane. There, I afterwards discovered, a party of forty German infantrymen had been attacked, and all of them killed. Quickly following this, I heard the distant booming of artillery, and then the rattle of musketry and pom-poms became general, but not in the neighbourhood where I was. For nearly half an hour I remained at the corner of Aldwych; then, on going farther along the Strand, I found that the defenders from the Waterloo Road had made a wild sortie into the Strand, but could find no Germans there.

“The men who had for a fortnight held that barricade at the bridge were more like demons than human beings; therefore I retired, and in the crush made my way back to the office to await reports.

“They were not long in arriving. I can only give a very brief résumé at the moment, for they are so numerous as to be bewildering.

“Speaking generally, the whole of London has obeyed the mandate of the League, and, rising, are attacking the Germans at every point. In the majority of cases, however, the enemy hold strong positions, and are defending themselves, inflicting terrible losses upon the unorganised populace. Every Londoner is fighting for himself, without regard for orders or consequences. In Bethnal Green the Germans, lured into the maze of by-streets, have suffered great losses, and again in Clerkenwell, St. Luke’s, Kingsland, Hackney, and Old Ford. Whitechapel, too, devoid of its alien population, who have escaped into Essex, has held its own, and the enemy have had some great losses in the streets off Cable and Leman Streets.

“With the exception of the sortie across Waterloo Bridge, South London is, as yet, remaining in patience, acting under the orders of General Bamford.

“News has come in ten minutes ago of a fierce and sudden night attack upon the Saxons by Lord Byfield from Windsor, but there are, as yet, no details.

“From the office across the river I am being constantly asked for details of the fight, and how it is progressing. In Southwark the excitement is evidently most intense, and it requires all the energy of the local commanders of the Defenders to repress another sortie across that bridge.

“There has just occurred an explosion so terrific that the whole of this building has been shaken as though by an earthquake. We are wondering what has occurred.

“Whatever it is, one fact is only too plain. Both British and Germans are now engaged in a death-struggle.

“London has struck her first blow of revenge. What will be its sequel?”

CHAPTER II

SCENES AT WATERLOO BRIDGE

The following is the personal narrative of a young chauffeur named John Burgess, who assisted in the defence of the barricade at Waterloo Bridge.

The statement was made to a reporter at noon on October 5, while he was lying on a mattress in the Church of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, so badly wounded in the chest that the surgeons had given him up.

Around him were hundreds of wounded who, like himself, had taken part in the sudden rising of the Defenders, and who had fallen beneath the hail of the German Maxims. He related his story with difficulty, in the form of a farewell letter to his sister, who was a telegraph clerk at the Shrewsbury Post Office. The reporter chanced to be passing by the poor fellow, and, overhearing him asking for someone to write for him, volunteered to do so.

“We all did our best,” he said, “every one of us. Myself, I was at the barricade for thirteen days – thirteen days of semi-starvation, sleeplessness, and constant tension, for we knew not, from one moment to another, when a sudden attack might be made upon us. At first our obstruction was a mere ill-built pile of miscellaneous articles, half of which would not stop bullets; but on the third day our men, superintended by several non-commissioned officers in uniform, began to put the position in a proper state of defence, to mount Maxims in the neighbouring houses, and to place explosives in the crown of two of the arches of the bridge, so that we could instantly demolish it if necessity arose.

“Fully a thousand men were holding the position, but unfortunately few of them had ever handled a rifle. As regards myself, I had learned to shoot rooks when a boy in Shropshire, and now that I had obtained a gun I was anxious to try my skill. When the League of Defenders was started, and a local secretary came to us, we all eagerly joined, each receiving, after he had taken his oath and signed his name, a small silk Union Jack, the badge of the League, not to be worn till the word went forth to rise.

“Then came a period – long, dreary, shadeless days of waiting – when the sun beat down upon us mercilessly and our vigilance was required to be constant both night and day. So uncertain were the movements of the enemy opposite us that we scarcely dared to leave our positions for a moment. Night after night I spent sleeping in a neighbouring doorway, with an occasional stretch upon somebody’s bed in some house in the vicinity. Now and then, whenever we saw Germans moving in Wellington Street, we sent a volley into them, in return receiving a sharp reply from their pom-poms. Constantly our sentries were on the alert along the wharves and in the river-side warehouses, watching for the approach of the enemy’s spies in boats. Almost nightly some adventurous spirits among the Germans would try and cross. On one occasion, while doing sentry duty in a warehouse backing on Commercial Road, I was sitting with a comrade at a window overlooking the river. The moon was shining, for the night was a balmy and beautiful one, and all was quiet. It was about two o’clock in the morning, and as we sat smoking our pipes, with our eyes fixed upon the glittering water, we suddenly saw a small boat containing three men stealing slowly along in the shadow cast by the great warehouse in which we were.

“For a moment the rowers rested upon their oars, as if undecided, then pulled forward again in search of a landing-place. As they passed below our window I shouted a challenge. At first there was no response. Again I repeated it, when I heard a muttered imprecation in German.

“ ‘Spies!’ I cried to my comrade, and with one accord we raised our rifles and fired. Ere the echo of the first shot had died away I saw one man fall into the water, while at the next shot a second man half rose from his seat, threw up his hands, and staggered back wounded.

“The firing gave the alarm at the barricade, and ere the boat could approach the bridge, though the survivor pulled for dear life, a Maxim spat forth its red fire, and both boat and oarsman were literally riddled.

“Almost every night similar incidents were reported. The enemy were doing all in their power to learn the exact strength of our defences, but I do not think their efforts were very successful. The surface of the river, every inch of it, was under the careful scrutiny of a thousand watchful eyes.

“Day after day passed, often uneventfully. We practically knew nothing of what was happening across the river, though we could see the German standard flying upon the public buildings. The ruins of London were smoking for days after the bombardment, and smouldering fires broke out again in many instances.

“Each day the Bulletin of our national association brought us tidings of what was happening beyond the barricades. We had regained command of the sea, which was said to be a good deal, though it did not seem to bring us much nearer to victory.

“At last, however, the welcome word came to us, on the morning of October 4th, that at ten that night we were to make a concerted attack upon the Germans. A scarlet bill was thrust into my hand, and as soon as the report was known we were all highly excited, and through the day prepared ourselves for the struggle. I regret to say that some of my comrades, prone to drink, primed themselves with spirits obtained from the neighbouring public-houses in York Road and Waterloo Road. Not that drunkenness had been the rule. On the contrary, the extreme tension of those long, hot days had had a sobering effect, and even men used to drink refrained from taking any. Ah! I have of late seen some splendid examples of self-denial, British patriotism, and fearless valour. Only Englishmen could have conducted themselves as my brave comrades have done. Only Englishmen could have died as they have done.

“Through all yesterday we waited, watching every movement of the enemy in our line of fire. Now and then we, as usual, sent him greetings in the form of a shell or two, or else a splutter from a Maxim, and in reply there came the sweeping hail of bullets, which flattened themselves upon our wall of paving-stones. The sunset was a red, dusky one, and over London westward there spread a blood-red light, as though precursory to the awful catastrophe that was about to fall. With the after-glow came the dark oppression of a thunderstorm – a fevered electrical quiet that could be felt. I stood upon the barricade gazing over the river, and wondering what would happen ere the dawn. At ten o’clock London, the great, mysterious, unknown city, was to rise and cast off the German yoke. How many who rebelled would live to see the sunrise?