Under cover of darkness late on the night of 5 August 1914, five columnsrnrnof German assault troops, which had entered Belgium two days earlier,rnrnwere converging on the town of Liège, expecting little resistance. To theirrnrnsurprise they were halted by determined fire from the town's outlyingrnrnforts. This was a setback for the Germans: control of Liège was essentialrnrnbefore they could…