The Germans were using howitzers.

Where shells hit in the street they tore up the Belgian blocks for a radius of five yards, and made a hole as though a water-main had burst.

When they hit a house, that house had to be rebuilt.

Before they struck it was possible to follow the direction of the shells by the sound.

It was like the jangling of many telegraph-wires.
A hundred yards north of the cathedral I saw a house hit at the third story.