By 20 August, Brussels was occupied by the Germans. The nursing school became a Red Cross hospital, treating casualties from both sides, as well as continuing to treat civilians. In September 1914, Edith was asked to help two wounded British soldiers trapped behind German lines following the Battle of Mons. She treated the men in her hospital and then arranged to have them smuggled out of Belgium into the neutral Netherlands. She became part of a network of people who sheltered Allied soldiers and Belgians eligible for military service, arranging their escape. Over the next 11 months she helped around 200 British, French and Belgian soldiers, sheltering them in the hospital and arranging for guides to take them to the border. On 5 August 1915,