Stories
Story of André Houwen, witness of WW1
Source: www.reningelst.be
Free translation of the story - Mr. Vanhoorne
The women, who remained in Reningelst, did the washes for the soldiers and were selling souvenirs. Practically every house was a shop: postcards, fruit, lace, etc. They were allowed to sell 24/7. The British paid well. They had a lot of cash in their pockets. All refugees survived that way. When the soldiers got paid, their money had to be spent before they got back to the trenches at the front. We had a pub, seven feest square. We could receive a lot of guests in the pub. My younger sister played the piano in the pub. Among the British soldiers, there were some great musiciens, also among German troops. My sister knew the song 'It's a long way to Tipperary'. After singing she collected easily 300 to 400 Belgian Francs (7,50 to 10,00 EUR). When the soldiers had to get backk to the trenches, they usually left at 8 o'clock. "Fucking trenches", they said. The money they still got in their pockets was quickly spent on more beer and wine. Sometimes they paid more than they have been drinking, because the soldiers couldn't use their money in the trenches.
Dangerous games
We got used to shooting and bombing. When we heard the bombs whistling, we watched them blow up 200 yards further away. The bombs didn't scare us anymore. All children caught up all day with the soldiers. Across the park of the Reningelst Castle, there was a double railway to Westouter. Small carts or wagons were used to transport ammunition to Dikkebus and Wijtschate. There was only one wagon with a brake. That was ours! The British had nothing to say. They could use the bad carts. We were hiding the cart in the stables of the castle with a stolen chain and lock. That was peanuts! In De Klijte or Dikkebus British policemen stopped us and ordered us to go back. They asked what we were doing over there. "It is too dangerous with all the bombs", they said. We tried to explain that we would go a bit further away so the bombs couldn't hit us. We were really not afraid of the bombs. We sometimes took huge risks. I wouldn't dare it anymore. We broke the lock of ammunition box with a pickaxe. We put a bomb on the railway to acquire the gunpowder. Or we put a complete box of bullets to each other and chopped on them with a pickaxe. Bang bang bang ... Sometimes we set the gunpowder on fire and quickly threw it away. It was like a firework. If you were a second too late, you could get burned seriously. I still can't believe that we never got killed.
New Year's day
We fled to Rouen in France during the war. Early November 1918, we received our papers to get back home to Reningelst, as the peace signed on the 11th of November. On the 23th or 24th of November we arrived in Reningelst. I can't describe what I saw that day. Everything was destroyed: not a house was still standing. We started building a barrack. There was plenty of material You had to break down what you could use and it was yours: wood, plates, etc. At New Year's Day in 1919 went to Kemmel. We were not frightened of seeing for what we could see. We had already seen many dead bodies. But when we passed De Klijte, we saw a real disaster. Everything was death: soldiers, horses. They didn't had the time to bury them yet. Some bodies were covered with a pile of dirt or ground, others with a sheet or a blanket. I saw a head sticking out of the ground. I still remember seeing the bodies of German and British soldier, both with their bayonet into each other's body. Stabbed in action at the same time, fallen together. We couldn't make it to Kemmel. The smell was unbearable. We had to get back to Reningelst.
