The Invasion of 1910/Book II/XII
CHAPTER XII
DAILY LIFE OF THE BELEAGUERED
They were dark days in London—days of terror, starvation—death.
Behind the barricades south of the Thames it was vaguely known that our Admiralty—whose chief offices had been removed to Portsmouth before the entry of the enemy into London—were keenly alive to the critical position. Reports of the capture of a number of German liners in the Atlantic, and of several ships laden with provisions, attempting to cross the North Sea were spread from mouth to mouth, but so severe was the censorship upon the Press that no word of such affairs was printed.
The London Gazette, that journal which in ordinary circumstances the public never sees, was published each evening at six o'clock, but, alas, in German. It contained Von Kronhelm's official orders to his army, and the various proclamations regarding the government of London. The Daily Mail, as the paper with the largest circulation, was also taken over as the German official organ.
At the head of each newspaper office in and about Fleet Street was a German officer, whose duty was to read the proofs of everything before it appeared. He installed himself in the editorial chair, and the members of the staff all attempted to puzzle him and his assistants by the use of London slang. Sometimes this was passed by the officer in question, who did not wish to betray his ignorance, but more often it was promptly crossed out. Thus the papers were frequently ridiculous in their opinions and reports.
The drawn game continued.
On one side of the Thames the Germans held complete possession, while on the other the people of London were defiant behind their barricaded bridges. West London was occupied in building barricades in all quarters to prevent any further entry into London, while Von Kronhelm, with his inborn cunning, was allowing the work to proceed. In this, however, the German Commander-in-Chief did not display his usual caution, as will be seen in later chapters of this history.
Once it was rumoured that the enemy intended to besiege the barricades at the bridges by bringing their field howitzers into play, but very soon it became apparent that Von Kronhelm, with discreet forbearance, feared to excite further the London populace.
The fact that the Lord Mayor had been deported had rendered them irritable and viciously antagonistic, while the terms of the indemnity demanded, now known everywhere—as they had been published in papers at Brighton, Southampton, Bristol, and other places—had aroused within the hearts of Londoners a firm resolve to hold their own at no matter what cost.
Beyond all this remained the knowledge of Gerald Graham's movement—that gigantic association, the League of Defenders, which had for its object the freeing of England from the grip of the now detested eagle of Germany.
Daily the League issued its bulletins, notices, manifestoes, and proclamations, all of which were circulated throughout South London. South Coast resorts were now crowded to excess by fugitive Londoners, as well as towns inland. Accommodation for them all was, of course, impossible, but everywhere were encampments over the Kentish hop fields and the Sussex pastures.
Some further idea of life in South London at this time may be obtained from the personal narrative of Joseph Cane, a tram driver, in the employ of the London County Council, living at Creek Road, Battersea. His story, written by himself, and subsequently published in the Daily Express, was as follows:—
"Five days have passed since the Germans bombarded us. I have been out of work since the seventh, when the Council suspended greater part of the tramway service, my line from Westminster Bridge included. I have a wife and four children dependent upon me, and, unfortunately, all of them are starving. We are waiting. The Defenders still urge us to wait. But this waiting is very wearisome. For nineteen days have I wandered about London in idleness. I have mixed with the crowds in the West End; I have listened to the orators in the parks; I helped to build the big barricade in the Caledonian Road; I watched the bombardment from the waterside at Wandsworth, and I saw, on the following day, German soldiers across on West Wharf.
"Since that day we South Londoners have barricaded ourselves so strongly that it will, I am certain, take Von Kronhelm all his time to turn us out. Our defences are abundant and strong. Not only are there huge barricades everywhere, but hundreds of houses and buildings have been put in a state of defence, especially the positions commanding the main thoroughfares leading to the bridges. As a member of the League of Defenders, I have been served with a gun, and practise daily with thousands of others upon the new range in Battersea Park. My post, however, is at the barricade across Tarn's Corner and Newington Causeway, opposite the Elephant and Castle.
"Every road to the bridges at that converging point is blocked. The entrances to St. George's Road, London Road, Walworth Road, and Newington Butts are all strongly barricaded, the great obstructions reaching up to the second storey windows. The New Kent Road remains open, as there is a barricade at the end of Great Dover Street. The houses all round are also fortified. From Tarn's, quantities of goods, such as bales of calico, flannel, and dress materials, have been seized and utilised in our barriers. I assisted to construct the enormous wall of miscellaneous objects, and in its building we were directed by a number of Royal Engineers. Our object is to repel the invader should he succeed in breaking down the barrier at London Bridge.
"All is in readiness, as far as we are concerned. Seven maxims are mounted on our defence, while inside Tarn's are hundreds of Frontiersmen, sharp-shooters, members of rifle clubs, and other men who can shoot. Yesterday some artillery men arrived with five field guns, and upon our barricade one has been mounted. The men say they have come across from Windsor, and that other batteries of artillery are on their way to strengthen us. Therefore, old Von Kronhelm, notwithstanding all his orders and daily proclamations about this and about that, has us Cockneys to deal with yet. And he'll find the Elephant and Castle a tough nut to crack. Hundreds of the men in our tram service are at the barricades. We never thought, a month ago, when we used to drive up and down from the bridges, that we'd so soon all of us become soldiers. Life, however, is full of ups and downs. But nowadays London doesn't somehow seem like London. There is no traffic, and the side streets all seem as silent as the grave. The main thoroughfares, such as the Walworth, Old Kent, Kennington Park, Clapham, and Wandsworth Roads, are crowded night and day by anxious, hungry people, eager for the revenge which is declared by the Defenders to be at hand. How soon it comes no one cares. There is still hope in Walworth and Kennington, and though our stomachs may be empty we have sworn not to capitulate. "Food is on its way to us, so it is said. We have regained command of the sea, therefore the ports are reopened, and in a day or two food will no longer be scarce.
"I saw this morning a poster issued by the League of Defenders, the Daily Bulletin, it is called, declaring that relief is at hand. I hope it is, for the sake of my distracted wife and family. The County Council have been very good to us, but as money won't buy anything, what is the good of it? The supply is growing daily more limited. Half a crown was paid yesterday by a man I know for a small loaf of bread at a shop in the Wandsworth Road.
"Our daily life at the barricade is monotonous and very wearying. Now that the defences are complete and there is nothing to do, everyone is anxious to have a brush with the enemy, and longing that he may make an attack upon us. As newspapers are very difficult to get within the barricades, several new ones have sprung up in South London, most of them queer, ill-printed sheets, but very interesting on account of the news they give.
"The one most in favour is called The South London Mirror. I think it is in connection with the Daily Mail. It now and then gives photographs, like the Daily Mirror. Yesterday it gave a good one of the barricade where I am stationed. The neighbourhood of the Elephant presents an unusual picture, for everywhere men are scrambling over the roofs, and windows of the houses are being half-covered with sheet iron, while here and there is seen protruding the muzzle of a Maxim.
"I hear on the best authority that explosives are already in position under all the bridges, ready to blow them up at any moment. Yesterday I went along to Southwark Bridge to see the defences there. They are really splendid. Before they can be taken by assault the loss of life must be appalling to the enemy. There are mines laid in front by which the Germans could be blown to atoms. Certainly our first line of defence is at least a reliable one. Now that Londoners have taken the law into their own hands, we may perhaps hope for some success. Our Army, our Navy, our War Office, our Admiralty, have proved themselves utterly incompetent.
"By day and by night we guard our barricades. The life is an idle one, now that there is no further work to do. Imagine a huge wall erected right across the road from Tarn's front to the public-house opposite, an obstruction composed of every conceivable object that might resist the German bullets, and with loopholes here and there to admit of our fire. Everything, from paving-stones torn up from the footpath to iron coal-scuttles, has been used in its construction, together with thousands of yards of barbed wire. Roughly, I believe that fully a thousand men are holding my own particular defence, every one of them members of this new League, which, encouraged and aided by Government, is making such rapid progress in every direction. Every man who stands shoulder to shoulder with me has sworn allegiance to King and Country, and will fight and die in the defence of the city he loves. During the past four days I have only been home once. Alas! my clean little home is now one of suffering and desolation. I cannot bear to hear the children cry for bread, so I now remain at my post, bearing my own humble part in the defence of London. The wife bears up in patience, as so many thousands of the good wives of humble folk are now doing. She is pale-faced and dark-eyed, for privation is fast telling upon her. Yet she uttered no word of complaint. She only asked me simply when this cruel war would end.
"When? Ay, when?
"It will end when we have driven the Germans back into the sea—when we have had blood for blood—when we have avenged the lives of those innocent Englishmen and Englishwomen who have been killed in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and Yorkshire. Then the war will end—with victory for our dear old England.
"Of tobacco and drink there is still an abundance. Of the latter, alas, we see examples of its abuse every day. Men and women, deprived of food in many cases, have recourse to drink, with terrible effect. In every quarter, as one walks through South London, one sees riotous drunkenness, and often a lawlessness, which, if not put down by the people themselves, would quickly assume alarming proportions. There are no police now; but the Defenders act the part of officers of the law, and repress any acts of violence or riotous behaviour.
"A certain section of the public are, of course, in favour of stopping the war at all costs, and towards that end are continually holding meetings, and have even gone the length of burning the barricade outside the police station in Kennington Road. This shameful act was committed last night, and one of its perpetrators was, I hear, caught and promptly lynched by the infuriated mob. The barricade is now in rapid process of rebuilding. On every hand, horses—or the few that now remain in South London—are being killed and used as food. Even such meat as that is at a price almost prohibitive. This afternoon a company of military telegraph engineers came to our barricade, and established telephonic communication between us and the similar obstructions at London Bridge, and on our right in Great Dover Street. From one hour to another we never know when Von Kronhelm may give the order to attack the bridges, therefore through the whole twenty-four hours we have to be alert and watchful, even though we may smoke and gossip around our stacks of piled arms. When the conflict comes it will be a long and bloody one, that is certain. Not a man in South London will shirk his duty to the Empire. The future, whether England shall still remain Mistress of the World, lies with us. It is that important all-present fact that the League of Defenders is impressing upon us from all the hoardings, and it is also the fact which stimulates each one of us to bear our part in the defence of our homes and our loved ones.
"Germany shall yet rue the day when she launched her legions upon us."
Life in London north of the Thames at that moment was more exciting than that within the fortress of South London. In the latter, everyone was waiting in hunger and patience the march of events, while north of the river the ever-present Germans in foraging parties were a constant source of annoyance and anger.
All roads leading into London from the west, right across from Hammersmith Bridge nearly to the Welsh Harp, were now heavily barricaded. More than once Von Kronhelm was inclined to forbid this, but the real fact was that he was pleased to allow the people some vent for their outraged feelings. Londoners declared that they would allow no more Germans to enter, and for that reason they were blocking the roads.
Had it not been for the fact that the bulk of London's millions had been driven south of the Thames by the bombardment and subsequent street fighting, Von Kronhelm, with his men now seriously reduced, would have found himself in a very queer position.
As it was, London was, for him, a hornets' nest.
The disposition of his troops was as follows: Along the northern heights of London was spread Frölich's cavalry division. The IXth Corps from Essex, who were still practically fresh, were guarding the lines of communication to Southminster and Harwich; the Xth Corps were occupying the City proper, the IVth Corps were encamped in Hyde Park and held West London, the Garde Corps were holding the Regent's Park neighbourhood, while the Saxons were outside London at Staines. From this latter quarter constant brushes with the British and with bodies of auxiliaries were being reported, and Staines Bridge had at last been blown up by the Germans.
Notwithstanding all Von Kronhelm's cunning and diplomacy, London was nevertheless a city of growing unrest. Union Jacks still flew, though the Germans were on the alert everywhere, and the Daily Bulletin of the Defenders, encouraging the people of London to hold out, made its appearance upon hoardings and walls in every quarter. Many homeless people were living in the ruins of houses, but, alas, hardly living, such was the acute state of affairs. Daily the enemy distributed soup, but only in meagre quantities, for, truth to tell, the portion of the Metropolis under German rule was quite as badly off for food as the huge fortress across the Thames.
"Courage" was everywhere the Londoners' watchword. A band of adventurous spirits, having captured a small party of German engineers in Pentonville Road as they were about to demolish some unsafe houses with explosives, seized the latter, and got safely away. The next day, the 26th, with great daring they made an attempt to blow up Von Kronhelm's apartments in the new War Office.
The manner in which it was accomplished, it appears, was by two of the number obtaining German infantry uniforms—exactly how it is not stated, but probably from dead soldiers—of the regiment who were mounting guard in Whitehall. Thus disguised, they were enabled to pass the sentries, obtain access to the long corridor leading past the big room of the Commander-in-Chief, and there place the explosive already prepared in the form of a bomb fired by clockwork, just beside the door. They ran for their lives, and just succeeded in escaping when there was a terrific explosion, and the whole front behind those columns of the façade on the principal floor was blown, with its furniture, etc., out into Whitehall.
Four German clerks and a secretary were killed; but Von Kronhelm himself, who was believed to have been at work there, had, half an hour before, gone across the road to the Horse Guards.
The sensation caused among Londoners was enormous, for it was at first rumoured that Von Kronhelm had really been killed. Upon this there were wild demonstrations on the part of the more lawless section of the public, a section which was indeed increasing hourly. Even quiet, respectable citizens found their blood boiling when they gazed upon their wrecked homes and realised that their fortunes were ruined.
The explosion at Whitehall resulted in a most vigorous inquiry. The German Field-Marshal's head-quarters were removed to another portion of the building, and within an hour of the outrage the telegraph instrument—which had been blown to atoms—was replaced by another, and communication with Berlin re-established.
Most rigorous measures were now ordered to be taken for the preservation of law and order. That evening still another of those famous proclamations made its appearance, in which the regulations were repeated, and it was also ordered that in consequence of the outrage any person found in the possession of arms or of explosives was liable to be shot at sight and without any form of trial.
The vagabond part of London was, however, to the fore in giving the Germans all the trouble they could. As the soldiers patrolled the streets they were closely scanned, pointed at, hooted, and assailed with slang that they could not understand. Often the people, in order to show their antagonism, would post themselves in great numbers across a street, say, in Piccadilly, Oxford Street, or the Strand, and refuse to move, so that the troops, to avoid a collision, were obliged to go round by the side streets, amid the loud jeers of the populace.
Whenever a German flag was discovered, a piece of crape was tied to it, or it received some form of insult. The Germans went about with self-possession, even with bravado. In twos or threes they walked together, and seemed as safe as though they were in large numbers. Sometimes a mob of boys would follow, hooting, ridiculing them, and calling them by opprobrious epithets. Occasionally men and women formed around them in groups and engaged in conversation, while everywhere during that first week of the occupation the soldiers of the Kaiser were objects of great curiosity on the part of the alien rabble of the East End.
Hundreds upon hundreds of German workers from Whitechapel fraternised with the enemy, but woe betide them when the angry bands of Londoners watched and caught them alone afterwards. In dozens of cases they paid for their friendliness with the enemy with their lives.
From the confident tone of the Berlin Press, coupled with the actions of Von Kronhelm, it was quite plain to all the world that the German Emperor was now determined to take the utmost advantage of his success, and, having England in his power, to make her drink the cup of adversity to the very dregs.
Many a ghastly tale was now reaching London from West Middlesex. A party of eleven Frontiersmen, captured by the Saxons five miles north of Staines, were obliged to dig their own graves, and were then shot as they stood before them. Another terrible incident reported by a reliable war correspondent was that, as punishment for an attack on a requisitioning party, the entire town of Feltham had been put to the sword, even the children. Eighty houses were also burnt down. At Bedfont, too, a whole row of houses had been burned, and a dozen men and women massacred, because of a shot fired at a German patrol.
The German Army might possess many excellent qualities, but chivalry was certainly not among them. War with them was a business. When London fell there was no sentimental pity for it, but as much was to be made out of it as possible.
This was apparent everywhere in London. As soon as a German was quartered in a room his methods were piratical. The enemy looted everywhere, notwithstanding Von Kronhelm's orders.
Gradually to the abyss of degradation was our country thus being brought. Where would it end?
England's down-trodden millions were awaiting in starvation and patience the dawn of the Day of Revenge.
It now became known that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had sent to the British diplomatic agents abroad (with a view to its ultimate submittal to the various European Cabinets) a protest of the British Government against the bombardment of London.