The range had been found and soon the 2,000-pound shells were “stripping away armour plate and blocks of concrete, cracking arches and poisoning the air with heavy brown fumes.”41 By 12:30 Fort Pontisse was a wreck, its garrison physically incapacitated, and it surrendered. Fire then shifted to Fort Embourg, which surrendered at 17:30; Fort Chaudfontaine had been destroyed by the explosion of its magazine at nine o’clock. On 14 August it was the turn of Fort Liers, 09:40 hours, and Fléron, 09:45 hours. Finally, on 15 August, the howitzers, one of which was by now emplaced in the main square of
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