In August 1914 the German main attack was conducted by the 2nd Army. It had the missions of taking the vital fortresses of Liege and Namur, and then defeating the Anglo-French-Belgian forces in the open plains of northern Belgium. The German attack on the Belgian fortress at Lige from 5 to 16 August 1914 had tremendous political and military importance. Nevertheless, there has never been a complete account of the siege of Lige. The German and Belgian sources are fragmentary and biased. The short descriptions in English are general, use a few Belgian sources, and are filled with inaccuracies. Making professional military use of both German and Belgian sources, this book for the first time describes and evaluates the construction of the fortress, its military purpose, the German plan, and the conduct of the German attack on the night of 5-6 August. Previous accounts emphasize the importance of the huge German "Big Bertha" cannon, to the virtual exclusion of everything else: the Siege of Lige shows that the effect of this gun was a myth, and shows how the Germans really took the fortress. This is how the whole bloody mess started.