A few minutes later, the bombardment was resumed.  It seemed as though all the German batteries were together firing salvoes.
Nobody will ever be able to form any adequate idea of what the reality was like.  I have only learned since that when the big siege mortars entered into action they hurled against us shells weighing 1,000 kilos (nearly a ton), the explosive force of which surpasses anything known hitherto.  Their approach was to be heard in an acute buzzing; and they burst with a thunderous roar, raising clouds of missiles, stones, and dust.
After some time passed amid these horrors, I wished to return to my observation tower; but I had hardly advanced a few feet into the gallery when a great blast passed by, and I was thrown violently to the ground.  I managed to rise, and continued my way, only to be stopped by a choking cloud of poisonous gas.
It was a mixture of the gas from an explosion and the smoke of a fire in the troop quarters.  We were driven back, half-suffocated.  Looking out of a peephole, I saw to my horror that the fort had fallen, slopes and counter-slopes being a chaos of rubbish, while huge tongues of flame were shooting forth from the throat of the fortress.
My first and last thought was to try and save the remnant of the garrison.  I rushed out to give orders, and saw some soldiers, whom I mistook for Belgian gendarmes. I called them, then fell again.  Poisonous gases seemed to grip my throat as in a vice.
On recovering consciousness, I found my aide-de-camp, Captain Colland, standing over me, also a German officer, who offered me a glass of water.  They told me I had swooned, and that the soldiery I had taken for Belgian gendarmes were, in fact, the first band of German troops who had set foot inside the forts.

Lettera di un Ufficiale tedesco

General Leman's defence of Liege combined all that is noble, all that is tragic.
The commander of one fort (note: not Leman), at the moment when the bombardment was heaviest, went mad, and shot his own men.  He was disarmed and bound.  The cupola of another fort was destroyed by a bomb from a Zeppelin.  Other forts were swept away like sand castles on the seashore before the relentless waves of the oncoming tide.
As long as possible General Leman inspected the forts daily to see that everything was in order.  By a piece of falling masonry, dislodged by our guns, both General Leman's legs were crushed.
Undaunted, he visited the forts in an automobile.  Fort Chaudfontein was destroyed by a German shell dropping in the magazine.  In the strong Fort Loncin General Leman decided to hold his ground or die.
When the end was inevitable the Belgians disabled the last three guns and exploded the supply of shells kept by the guns in readiness.  Before this, General Leman destroyed all plans, maps and papers relating to the defences.  The food supplies were also destroyed.
With about 100 men, General Leman attempted to retire to another fort, but we had cut off their retreat.  By this time our heaviest guns were in position, and a well-placed shell tore through the cracked and battered masonry and exploded in the main magazine.  With a thunderous crash the mighty walls of the fort fell.  Pieces of stone and concrete twenty-five cubic metres in size were hurled into the air.
When the dust and fumes passed away, we stormed the fort across ground literally strewn with the bodies of the troops who had gone out to storm the fort and never returned.  All the men in the fort were wounded, and most were unconscious.  A corporal with one arm shattered valiantly tried to drive us back by firing his rifle.
Buried in the debris and pinned beneath a massive beam was General Leman.
"Respectes le general, it est mort," said an aide-de-camp.
With gentleness and care, which showed they respected the man who had resisted them so valiantly and stubbornly, our infantry released the general's wounded form and carried him away.  We thought him dead, but he recovered consciousness, and, looking around, said, "It is as it is.  The men fought valiantly," and then, turning to us, added: "Put in your dispatches that I was unconscious."
We brought him to our commander, General von Emmich, and the two generals saluted.  We tried to speak words of comfort, but he was silent - he is known as the silent general.  "I was unconscious.  Be sure and put that in your dispatches."  More he would not say.
Extending his hand, our commander said: "General, you have gallantly and nobly held your forts."  General Leman replied: "I thank you.  Our troops have lived up to their reputations."
With a smile he added: "War is not like manoeuvres" - a reference to the fact that General von Emmich was recently with General Leman during the Belgian manoeuvres.  Then, unbuckling his sword, General Leman tendered it to General von Emmich.
"No," replied the German commander, with a bow, "keep your sword.  To have crossed swords with you has been an honour," and the fire in General Leman's eye was dimmed by a tear.