Here is a map illustration of the Siege Of Liege that I have finished for my new book on the First World War. It was drawn using Staedtler Fineliners and measures 210mm x 297mm. This illustration took me about 30 hours over two weeks to create. I had to pause working on it during the editing stage to create a font out of my handwriting. Up to this point, I planned to illustrate all the text by hand but it was taking too long. I was spending about 4 hours writing out a paragraph of text by hand and then another 4 editing the pencil marks out on Photoshop, and this was becoming unsustainable. Going forward all the text on the maps will still be drawn by hand, but the pages of text and short paragraphs of text under the map keys will be typed digitally in the font I have created.
The Siege Of Liege was one of the first actions of the First World War. Germany, fearing a two-front war with France and Russia, devised a daring strategy under General Alfred Von Sclieffen. The Schlieffen Plan called for a rapid knockout blow against France. German forces would sweep through Belgium, bypassing the French border fortifications, and encircle the French army from the west.
The Belgian city of Liege stood directly in the path of the German 1st and 2nd armies. Though small, Liege boasted a formidable ring of twelve modern forts. On August 5th, 1914, the German troops reached Liege and captured the city in two days. The Belgian defenders of the forts, under the command of General Gerard Leman, held out until August 16th. This allowed more time for British troops to mobilise and join the war effort.
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