The sky of Charleroi was gray and hazy, with smoke and coal particles almost visible to the naked eye.
When Colonel Fred led his troops to retreat here, they almost fled due to the suffocating air.
Charleroi City was rich in coal mines and had developed large-scale industries such as smelting, glass, chemicals, machinery, steel, and textiles around the Kazir Forest Coal Mine.
Looking around, the banks of the River Somme were almost entirely factories. Huge chimneys belched out thick, rolling smoke into the sky, and wastewater of various colors poured through massive drainage pipes into the river, turning the entire river black and filling the air with a nauseating stench.
(The image above shows the ruins of the Kazir Forest Coal Mine in Charleroi, which was the center of the city's development. In 1956, a major mining accident there killed 262 miners, and it was subsequently converted into a historical museum.)
