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When German troops surrounded the heavily fortified Belgian city of Antwerp, it caused concern to the British. Should Antwerp fall into enemy hands, this would give them easy access to the channel ports – and thus potentially to British shores.

The British decided to redeploy troops who had been intended for action elsewhere, in a bid to thwart German progress, but the city fell on 9 October 1914.

Antwerp would not be liberated until the end of the war, in 1918.