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GERMAN TERROR
INERANCE

ARNOLD J. XOYNBEE

jCate bellow ofBaEiQ College, Oxford

Walter Clinton Jackson Library

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Special Collections & Rare Books

World War I Pamphlet Collection

THE

GERMAN TERROR IN FRANCE

With the Comj)limenis

Professor W . Macneile Dixon
{University of Glasgow).

8, Buckingham Gate,
London, S.W. 1,
England.

^oblentzd

STRASBOURG,

Mulhausen

.'SWITZERLAND

THE

ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE

Late Fellozv of Balliol College, Oxford

HODDER & STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

MCMXVII

THE INVADED COUNTRY

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.'SWITZERLAND

THE

ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE

Late Felloiv of Balliol College, Oxford

HODDER & STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2010 witii funding from

Lyrasis IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/germanterrorinfrOOtoyn

PREFACE

"The German Terror in France" is a direct
continuation of "The German Terror in Bel-
gium" which was published several months ago.
The chapters are numbered consecutively
throughout the two volumes, and between them
they cover all the ground overrun by the German
Armies in their invasion on the West.

For the purpose of the book and the scheme
on which it is written, the reader is referred to
the preface of the earlier volume. But it may be
mentioned that, while Chapter IV in the present
volume is on the same scale as those which pre-
cede it, Chapters V, VI, and VII are considerably
compressed. In these later chapters, as in the
others, full references to the sources are given in
the footnotes ; but the sources themselves are not
quoted so freely in the text, and I have in many
cases been content to reprint summaries of the
first-hand evidence already made by the French
and Belgian Commissions, instead of re-analysing
and re-summarising the original material myself.
ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE.

zoth June, iQi?-

TABLE OF CONTENTS

IV. FROM LIEGE TO THE MARNE

(i) From Liege to the Scheldt
(ii) From the Scheldt to the Oise

(iii) Across the Oise

(iv) The Crossing of the Marne
(v) From Liege to the Sambre

(vi) From the Sambre to the Marne

V. BETWEEN NAMUR AND VERDUN ..

(i) Andenne and Namur
(ii) Through Dinant to Champagne
(iii) Through Luxembourg to Champagne
(iv) Through Luxembourg to the Argonne

VI. THE RAID INTO LORRAINE . .

(i) From the Frontier to St. Mihiel
(ii) From the Frontier to Luneville

(iii) Luneviele

(iv) Across the Meurthe " . .

(v) In the Vosges . .

VII. FROM MALINES TO THE YSER

(i) Termonde and Alost
(ii) Across the Scheldt . .

PAGE
I

22
32
46

93
93

107
127

'33

142
142
150
162
172
179

195
195

208

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Senlis — Ruined Street

Senlis — Rue Bellon

Senlis — Ruins

Barcy Church— Interior

Courtacon

Chatillon-sur-Morin

Reims Cathedral

Chateau de Baye

Coizard .

St. Prix— the Church

Suippes

Iluiron .

Auve . ...

Heiltz-le-Maurupt

Etrepy .

Clermont-en-Argonne

SomTiieilles .

Vassincourt .

V^assincourt .

lirabant-le-Roi

Revigny

Sermaize

.Sermaize

Sermaize

Audun-le-Romain

Nomeny

FOLLOWING PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Rdmer^ville

Crevic . . . . ■

Lundville— Faubourg d'Einvilie

Lun^ville— Place des Carmes

Gerb^viller .

Gerbeviller . . .

Gerbdviller— la Prele .

Gerbeviller — la Prele .

Gerbdviller- la.Prele .
Donciferes
Nossoncourt
Menil-sur-Belvitte
St. Barbe
St. Barbe (House where Mile. H
was burnt alive)

Baccarat

Badonviller— Faubourg d' Alsace
Badonviller— Church Interior .
Raon I'Etape— Rue Jules Ferry
Raon I'Etape— Rue Jules Ferry
Raon I'Etape- Les Halles
St. Michel-sur-Meurthe

St. Die

Termonde . • ■

Termonde- Interior of Church

FOLLOWING PAGE

128

aite

144

160

176

192

202

LIST OF MAPS

The Invaded Country

Sketch Map

5> ))

III

)1 )1

Frontispiece

End of Volume

Note. — A reference is given to a map at the foot of every page
in the text.

ABBREVIATIONS

Alphabet, letters of the : —

Capitals

Lower Case.

Ann (ex)
Belg.

Bland

Bryce

Appendices to the German White Book
entitled : " The Violation of International
Law in the Conduct of the Belgian People' s-
War " (dated Berhn, loth May, 1915) ;
Arabic numerals after the capital letter
refer to the depositions contained in each
Appendix.

Sections of the " Appendix to the Report of
the Committee on A lleged German Outrages,
Appointed by His Britannic Majesty's
Government and Presided Over by the
Right Hon. Viscount Bryce, O.M." (Cd.
7895) ; Arabic numerals after the lower
case letter refer to the depositions con-
tained in each section.

Annexes (numbered i to 9) to the Reports
of the Belgian Commission [vide infra) .

Reports [numbered i to xxii) of the Official
Commission of the Belgian Government on
the Violation of the Rights of Nations and
of the Laws and Customs of War. (Eng-
Ush translation, published, on behalf of
the Belgian Legation, by H.M. Stationery
Office, two volumes.)

" Germany's Violations of the Laws of
War, 1914-5 " ; compiled under the Aus-
pices of the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and translated into English with
an Introduction by J. O. P. Bland.
(London : Heinemann. 1915.)

Appendix to the Report of the Committee
on Alleged German Outrages appointed by
His Britannic Majesty's Government.

XIV

ABBREVIATIONS

Garnets

Davignon

Five

Mercier

" Garnets de Route de Conibattants Alle-
mdnds ; " Traduction Integrale, Intro-
duction et Notes par Jacques de Dam-
pierre, Archiviste-paleographe. (Paris :
Berger-Levrault. 1916.)

" Belgium and .Gennany," Texts and
Documents, preceded by a Foreword by-
Henri Davignon. (Thomas Nelson and
Sons.)

Republique Fran^aise : Documents Rela-
tifs a la Guerre 19x4-1915-1916 : Rap-
ports et ProCi's-Verbaux d'Enquete de la
Commission Instiiuee en Vue de Constater
les Actes Commis par I'Ennemi en Viola-
tion d'u Droit des Gens : Decret du 23
Septembre, 1914. V. (Paris : Imprimerie
Nationale. 19 16.)

Pastoral Letter, dated Xmas, 1914, of His
Eminence Cardinal ¥Iercier, Archbishop
of Malines.

Morgan

Numerals, Roman
lower case

One

" German Atrocities : An Official Investi-
gation," by J. H. Morgan, M.A., Professor
of Constitutional Law in the University
of London. (London : Fisher Unwin.
1916.)

Reports {numbered i to xxii) of the Belgian
Commission {vide supra).

Republique Frangaise : Documents Rela-
tiis a la Guerre 1914-1915 : Rapports et
Proces-Verbaux d'EnquSte de la Commis-
sion Instituee en Vue dx Constater les Actes
Commis par I'Ennemi en Violation du
Droit des Gens : Decret du 23 Septembre,
1914. I. (Paris : Imprimerie Nationale.
1915-)

" Reply to the German White Book of
May 10, 19 15." (Published, for the Bel-
gian Ministry of Justice and Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, by Berger-Levrault,
Paris, 1916.)

Scraps of Paper" " Scraps of Paper " : German Proclama-
tions in Belgium and France. (Hodder
and Stoughton. 1916.)

R(eply)

ABBREVIATIONS xv

Two . . . . L'Allemagiie et le Droit des Gens : Atten-

tats contra les Personnes des Non-Com-
battants et contre les Propriet^s Privees :
Deuxicnte Rapport Ptesente a M. le
President du Conseil par la Commission
Instituee en Vue de Consiater les Acies
Commis par VEnnemi en Violation du
Droit des Gens : Decret du 23 Septembre,
19 14. (Paris : Imprimerie des Journaux
Of&ciels. 1915.)

N.B. — Statistics, where no reference is given, are taken from
the Belgian Reply and the first and second Annexes to the
Reports of the Belgian Commission. They are based on
official investigations.

THE GERMAN
TERROR IN FRANCE

IV. FROM LIEGE TO THE MARNE.

) From Liege to the Scheldt.

The German advance from Liege towards
Antwerp, in the latter part of August, 19 14, was
accompanied by terrible outrages upon the civil
population. The massacres at Aerschot, the bom-
bardment of Malines, the devastation of the vil-
lages between Malines and Louvain, and the sack
of the city of Louvain itself, were all directly
connected with this military movement, and have
made it notorious above all other German opera-
tions in the European War. Yet from the strate-
gical point of view it was a subsidiary movement
— a diversion on the extreme right flank, to cover
the main German armies in their sweep across
Belgium into the heart of France. Moving at an
almost incredible speed, these armies traversed a
vast extent of territory before they were checked
and thrown back at the Marne, and the outrages
they committed in their passage probably
amounted to a greater sum of crime and suffering

[Frontispiece]
G.T. B

2 FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

than the horrors concentrated between the Belgian
frontier and Liege, or between the Demer and the
Senne.

The right wing of the invaders was formed by
the armies of von Kluck and von Biilow.
Screened by the covering force on their northern
flank, these two armies poured through the gap
between the Belgian fortresses of Antwerp and
Namur — von Kluck on the right and von Biilow
on the left (von Kluck's right flank columns
wheeled through Brussels). Moving abreast in
an immense curve, they crossed the Scheldt and
the Sambre, the Somme and the Oise and the
Marne, and were defeated on the lines of the
Grand and the Petit Morin. At the end of their
advance they were still abreast, but their fronts
were facing south instead of west, and they were
due east of Paris.

" At Rosonx'' ^ wrote one of von Kluck's
soldiers in his diary on Aug. 17th, "wine by
the cask. We live like God in France; the villa
of a Belgian General supplies everything." The
soldier had anticipated his objective, for Rosoux
lay within the first stage of his march — from Liege
to the Scheldt. He and his fellows committed

many worse outrages than drunkenness and

^ Bryce pp. 170-1.

[Frontispiece]

ROSOUX, LINSMEAU, MELIN 3

pillage before they passed out of Belgium again
across the French frontier.

On the road from /odoigne^ to Wavre, on
Aug. 1 8th, a detachment of Bavarian cyclists
advanced upon the Belgian outposts with the cure
of Jodoigne in front of them as a screen. The
Belgian fire, more fortunate than on other occa-
sions, struck down the leading Bavarians, and
the cure escaped. The village of Linsmeau
suffered more severely. Eighteen civilians were
killed there, and the whole male population was
carried off to work for the invaders. A Belgian
soldier^ saw three of the corpses at Linsmeau
lying in the cowshed of a burnt farm. They were
a man and two children — " one of them a boy of
fourteen, the other a girl of ten." Seven houses
were burnt at Linsmeau altogether. At Melin two
houses were burnt and 200 plundered (out of
327) ; three of the inhabitants were killed. Beyond
Biez,^ again, at the bridge of Lives, the Germans
used civilians as a screen — this time women and
children, who were brought down by the Belgian
fire. Thirty-seven houses were burnt altogether,
and twenty-seven civilians killed, in the Canton
of Jodoigne.

- XV p. 21.

^ k 19.

* vii p. 53 (f).

[Map I]

B 2

4 FROM LltlGE TO THE SCHELDT

At Wavre fifty-eight houses were burnt, and a
Belgian despatch rider,^ who traversed the town
after the Germans had passed, saw the body of
a girl lying on the pavement. It was naked, and
had been ripped open. Yet on Aug. 27th, after
these events, the Burgomaster of Wavre received
the following communication from the German
Lieutenant-General von Nieber^: —

"On Aug. 22nd, 1914, the General Com-
manding the Second Army, General von Biilow,
imposed on the town of Wavre a war levy of
3,000,000 francs, payable before Sept. ist, to
expiate the heinous conduct, contrary to Inter-
national Law and the customs of war, of which
the inhabitants were guilty in making a surprise
attack on the German troops. . . . The town of
Wavre will be set on fire and destroyed if the
payment is not made when due, without dis-
tinction of persons; the innocent will suffer with
the guilty."

It was " contrary to International Law," as
formulated in the Hague Convention of 1907
concerning the Laws and Customs of War on
Land, to impose a collective penalty on Wavre
for the acts of individual inhabitants, even if these
acts were serious and beyond dispute. In the case

6 ks.

® Davignon p. 91.

[Map i]

WAVRE, THE DYLE 5

of Wavre, however, no evidence whatever is
offered in the German White Book in support of
the sweeping accusations in the German pro-
clamation of Sept. 1st, 1914.

Beyond the Dyle the German fury increased.
"About midday," writes a -German diarist on
Aug". 19th, ^ "we reached a village which had been
terribly ravaged — houses burnt, everything
smashed to atoms, abandoned cattle wandering
about the streets bellowing, and inhabitants lying
shot. A company of the Infantry Regiment
No. 75, which had bivouacked not far from the
village the night before, had been fallen upon by
the inhabitants and had made a shambles. Sixty-
nine good soldiers were killed or wounded. As
punishment the village was wiped out.

"Aug. 20th.-^We again passed through vil-
lages whose inhabitants had fired. The usual
punishment had been inflicted."

The acts of the Germans are admitted by the
Germans themselves; the alleged provocation on
the Belgian side can be better judged by the con-
duct of von Billow's troops in Ottignies and
Mousty, where our evidence is more comiplete.

Keeping in touch with von Kluck's left, von
Billow's main forces passed across Southern
Brabant, sweeping round the northern forts of

'' Bryce p. 178.

[Map i]

6 FROM LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

Namur. So long as they encountered no resist-
ance from the Belgian Army they spared the
civilians their lives, and chiefly plundered and
burned. At Autre-Eglise they only killed three
civilians, but plundered 150 houses out of 232.
They plundered ari'other 1 50 houses at Ramillie's,
and burned 22 (out of 176). At NoviUe-sur-
Mehaigne they plundered 185 and burned 3 out of
197; at Thoreinbais 250 and 3 out of 269. In the
Canton of Perwez they plundered 527 and burned
9 altogether. Then, on Aug. 19th, von Billow's
Uhlans were checked by Belgian outposts at
Ottignies^ on the line of the Dyle, a few miles
above Wavre. One Uhlan was wounded and two
were killed.

Early next morning the Belgian troops retired,
and the Germans poured into Ottigni^s and
Mousiy — a village half an hour's distance off.
They fired frantically in the air; they fired at
people who tried to run away; they began to
plunder the houses and set them on fire. The
majority of the civilians were herded together in
the square — we have the narrative of one of them
who was carried away captive with 104 other men,
and was only released at Gembloux on Aug. 27th.
The story is completed by the diaries of the Ger-
mans themselves. " At Ottignies yesterday even-

* Anns. 5 and 6 ; Bland p. 138.

[Map i]

OTTIGNIES, MOUSTY 7

ing," writes one of them on Aug. 20th, " an Ober-
leutnant and 4 Uhlans were shot — by the civil
population, in the back (sic). To-day the terrible
punishment ensues. The officer had also had his
finger cut off, to have his wedding ring stolen.
This was not the first instance of such atrocities "
(or, in other words, of the deliberately propagated
legend of the Belgian francs-tireurs). " The in-
habitants," continues the diarist, " stood in the
market-square under guard. Several men were
condemned to death by the court-martial and shot
immediately. The women went away in black —
like a solemn procession. How many innocent
victims fell by those shots just fired. The village
was literally plundered — the Blonde Beast is
revealing himself. The Huns and Landsknechts
of the Middle Ages could not have beaten it. The
houses are still burning, and where the fire was not
enough, what is left is being levelled with the
ground. ..."

This German repeated the legend, but he was
not easy in his mind. Another diarist, who passed
through Ottignies on the same date, speaks in
plainer terms : " March on Vays through Ottignies.
Halt at Ottignies, requisition a pig. Uhlan patrol
killed here with one officer. Place set on fire after
we had passed through. Court-martial. People
always decent if we behave civilly ourselves. In

[Map I]

8 FROM LIME TO THE SCHELDT

our company there is a good tone — a contrast to
others. Pioneers bad, artillery a gang of robbers."

At the Dyle von Biilow swung round and
headed for the Sambre between Namur and Char-
leroi; von Kluck, with his right wheeling through
Brussels and his left pivoting on Nivelles, swept
westwards out of Brabant towards the line of the
Scheldt.

At Braine-le-Comfte and Soigjties, in the Pro-
vince of Hainaut, a number of houses were burnt.®
At Obourg " the lunatic asylum, containing 200
women patients, was set on fire. At N'lmy ^^ the
British were entrenched to resist the German ad-
vance, and the Germans ran amok. They plun-
dered and massacred, and set the houses on fire.
Eighty-four houses were destroyed at Nimy, and
17 of the inhabitants, including four women, were
killed. The rest were driven forward, as a screen,
as the Germans pressed on to Moits. For the
British holding Mons at the top of the Avenue de
Berlaimont, this pitiful crowd of civilians was the
first indication that the Germans were within
range. ^^ " We waited for the advance of the
Germans," states a British officer; "some civilians
reported to us that they were coming down a road

9 1 12.

'" xxii p. 135.

'' xxii pp. 135-6.

12 g 5, 6, 8 ; XV p. 31.

[Map z]

OBOURG, NIMY, MONS 9

in front of us. On looking in that direction we
saw, instead of German troops, a crowd of civi-
lians— men, women and children — waving white
handkerchiefs and being pushed down the road in
front of a large number of German troops." —
" They came on as it were in a mass," states a
British soldier, "with the women and children
massed in front of them. They seemed to be
pushing them on, and I saw them shoot down
women and children who refused to march. Up
to this my orders had been not to fire, but when
we saw women and children shot, my sergeant
said : ' It is too heartrending,' and gave orders to
fire, which we did." — " I saw the Germans ad-
vancing on hands and knees towards our posi-
tion," states another; "they were in close forma-
tion, and had a line of w^omen and children in
front of their front rank. Our orders at that time
were not to fire on civilians in front of the enemy."
A Belgian standing in a side-street ^^ saw the
German tactics close at hand. He saw six of the
victims shot by the Germans for trying to get
away. The Burgomaster of Mons himself had
been seized in the streets, and was driven forward
with the others.^* The Germans renewed these
tactics on the other side of Mons on Aug. 24th,

g 9;

^* xxii p. 136.

[Map 2]

10 FR03I LIEGE TO THE SCHELDT

when the British were in retreat. ^^ " They had
collected a number of women and children from
the houses in the town. ... I could see that
the Germans had their bayonets fixed and pointed
to the backs of the women and children, to make
them advance." — " It was about 1 1 a.m. . . .
They were being pushed along by the Germans.
One old man was very old and bent. I noticed
two women in particular who had two, or possibly
three, children, and they were holding them close
in as if to shield them. One of the women had a
blue apron on. Altogether, I suppose there were
1 6 to 20 women there, about a dozen children, and
half-a-dozen men. I was in the last file, and I
kept on looking round as we were retiring. . . ."

This same screen was driven right on against
the British positions in Frameries; we have the
evidence, again, of British soldiers, who were
waiting for the Germans there.^^ "When they
were motioned to draw to the side by one of our
own men," states a soldier, " they were fired on by
the Germans from behind for doing so. I should
think 50 people were shot down. In some cases
the children had been walking, in others they
were carried by the women."

A German diarist" gives his own version of

^^ g 3> 4, 7, 10, II.

16 g 12-13.

i"" Bryce p. 162.

[Map 2]

FRAMERIES, JEMAPPES, QUAREGN ON 11

these events : " In fine spirits we marched next
morning through the village of Paturages, that is
to say, on Aug. 24th, before we had cleared the
suburbs of the town of Mons and set the houses on
fire — we marched through the aforementioned
village. Inhabitants came in crowds out of the
houses into the open. Here heartrending scenes
occurred ; it was really terrible to watch."

This was how the Germans made their way
through Mons. "Sept. i6th, behind Mons,"
writes another German soldier ^^ who passed this
way when the work was done. " Here again
countless houses have been destroyed, and the
population looks bitter and gloomy."

At Jemaffes}^ west of Mons, a hundred houses
were burnt and about 70 people were killed. A
hundred and fifty houses were burnt at Quare-
gnon}^ " Jemappes," deposes a German pri-
soner ^^; " Pillage ! As for the inhabitants, not a
soul left. One of my comrades takes a watch.
Finally, on Aug. 25th, the French frontier is
crossed, and from that point onwards the atrocities
have been less."

Meanwhile, von Kluck's right wing, outflanking
the British left, bore down from Brussels upon

'■^ Bryce p. 180.

'^ R p. 127 ; xxii'p. 136.

2" xxii'p. 186.

21 R p. 127.

[Map 2]

12 FROM LIME TO THE SCHELDT

Tournai on Aug. 24th, with the Death's Head
Hussars in the van. At Rumillies,"'^ where they
encountered French dragoons, they dragged the
inhabitants out of their houses, and with this
screen ^^ in front of them they made their way
into Tournai itself. " I was taken to Tournai,"
states a Belgian civilian from Antoing^*; "there
were about 400 civilian Belgian prisoners there —
men, women and children. A fight took place
there between French and Germans. All the
prisoners, including myself, were marched in front
of the German forces. Two of these who did not
move quickly enough were shot by the Germans."
As the French fell back through the city, the Ger-
mans recruited their screen from the suburbs of
Chateau and La Tombe}^ In the suburb of
Morelle, where the French troops made a
stand, the Germans seized and shot a number of
civilians in reprisals, burned a dozen houses, and
pillaged more. They shot a middle-aged civilian
who was helping a wounded French soldier in the
street; they shot a lame boy thirteen years old;
they shot a girl whom they had first raped in
public. ^^ The Burgomaster of Tournai, with the
city councillors and sheriffs, was brought under

"2 XV pp. 21-2.

2^ X p. 70.

24 g 23.

25 XXU p. 134.
-« k 34.

[Map 2]

TOURNAI, VALENCIENNES 13

arrest to the H6tel-de-Ville, to hear a proclama-
tion condemning the city to furnish 200 hostages
and pay 2,000,000 francs in gold. The money
must be forthcoming within three hours ; otherwise
the city would be destroyed and the population
exterminated. At the appointed time 1,700,000
francs were delivered, and the balance was covered
by a promissory note, which the municipal coun-
cillors signed. But the councillors and the Bishop
(an old man of seventy-four) were still detained;
they were carried off that night to Ath, and on
Aug. 25th 400 more of the inhabitants were forced
to accompany the German advance, and were not
released till they had been 36 hours on the march.

ii) From the Scheldt to the Oise.

At Tournai the Germans crossed the Scheldt,
and pushed forward into France.

"Aug. 25th," writes a German diarist,^^
" marched to Orchies. Houses searched. All
civilians taken prisoners. A woman was shot
because she did not halt at the word of com-
mand, but tried to run away. Thereupon the
whole place was set on fire. At 7 o'clock we
left Orchies in flames and marched towards
V aleticiennes.

"Aug. 26th. Marched off at 9 a.m. towards

2" Bland p. 123.

[Map 2]

14 FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

the eastern entrance of Valenciennes to occupy
the town and keep back fugitives. All the male
inhabitants from 1 8 to 48 were arrested and sent
to Germany."

Between St. Amand and Valenciennes a Belgian
civilian, whom the Germans had dragged with
them from the other side of Brussels,^^ saw a
chateau pillaged and set on fire. "After setting
fire to the chateau, the soldiers placed the
baron " (who owned it) " with twenty other civilians
who lived near by, consisting of young and old
men, and also some women and even children,
and shot them all. . . . The soldiers smashed
the windows of every house on the way. ... I
saw three workmen's cottages near the chateau
and five or six other houses further along the road
to Valenciennes burnt by the Germans. They
first shot at the houses and the occupants fled,
and then the Germans fired the houses. I do not
know what happened to the occupants. . . ."

The invaders spread over the region between
the Scheldt and the Somme. At Beaunio7it-
Hamel^^ in the Department of the Somme, a
village of 380 souls, they imposed a war contribu-
tion of 8,000 francs on the commune, threatening
to carry the men away captive if the money were

28 1 12.

2^ Five 1 3 1-4.

[Map 2]

VALENCIENNES, BEAUMONT-HAMEL 15

not paid. The mayor raised i,8oo francs, and
the Germans obtained the rest by robbing private
individuals. A week after their arrival they
accused four women of espionage on frivolous
grounds. An officer of the German Infantry
Regiment No. no, who examined them, offered
three of them their lives if they would denounce
the fourth. They refused, and were given three
minutes to change their minds. " Then," states
the fourth victim, " we were dragged to the church
wall, the officer superintending in person. He
had his watch in his hand. We were given one
minute to confess or die. We did not give in.
He counted, ' One . . . two . . . / but the fatal
' three ' did not issue from his lips " — they were
led back again, and given half-an-hour's grace
more. They entrusted what money they had on
their persons to another woman, but the officer
interrupted the transaction, counted the money
out, and appropriated it for the benefit of the war
contribution. He told the fourth woman that she
should be " buried alive in front of the church,"
but finally the Colonel of the iioth Regiment
commuted their penalty to imprisonment. A
hundred and seventy inhabitants of Beaumont-
Hamel altogether were taken as prisoners to
Cambrai. After five months' detention the elders
were sent home, but they were brutally separated

[Map 2]

16 FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE 01 SE

from the children, who were not allowed to
return.

The Germans entered Lahoussoye ^^ on Aug.
30th, pillaged the shops and houses, rifled the
linen from the drawers, and slaughtered the cattle.
They raped a woman of eighty, and murdered a
man of sixty-five. He was found in his cellar,
with a bullet in his heart, on the following day.

Pont-Noyelle,^^ too, was plundered on Aug.
30th. A paralysed man, who could not open his
gate quickly enough for the Germans' satisfac-
tion, was ridden down by an officer on a horse.
The Germans stole seven or eight hundred bottles
of his wine, and compelled him to witness their
debauch, forcing a pickelhaube on to his head,
and treating him with every kind of indignity.
They stole his provisions, plate and horses, and
jewels to the value of more than 1,500 francs. At
Querrieu^" a refugee returning to look after his
cattle was killed by a sabre-stroke in the stomach.
All but four of the houses in Querrieu were plun-
dered, and two were burnt.

At M ericourt-sur-Somme ^^ three German sol-
diers dragged a girl of seventeen into a cellar,
violated her in succession, and seized all the

^^ Five 105-7.
^' Five 101-4.
^'' Five 108-111.
^^ Five 90-4.

[Map 2]

LAHOVSSOYE, mMICOVUT, PROYART 17

jewellery and money on her person. Another
woman, enticed out of her house at night by a
soldier with the story that her husband was ill,
was saved from violation by neighbours who went
with her.

At Proyart^^ on Aug. 29th, an Uhlan patrol
fired down into a cellar where the inhabitants of
a house had just taken refuge, and killed an old
man of seventy-four. They broke everything in
this house, and sacked the whole village. " Six
or seven deaconesses in black clothes, with white
coifs and Red Cross armlets, went into the houses
with the soldiers and took anything that
pleased them."— "On Sept. ist," states another
witness, " I saw the Germans load M. Wable's
furniture on motor-cars and then set fire to the
house — throwing in something that exploded." —
" I saw quite distinctly," states a French soldier
who was lying wounded in the street, " how they
went from house to house, setting them on fire.
I saw them set a dozen houses on fire in this way,
notably a big farm."

On Aug. 29th the Germans also burned seven
houses and two barns at Framerville?^ Their
methods show that the incendiaries of Framerville
and Proyart were the same. " One heard an ex-

"^ Five 96-8.
^^ Five 99-100.

[Map 2]
G.T.

18 FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

plosion," states the cure of Framerville, " and
then the house took fire immediately. Each time
a building was burning they played a pianola
which they had taken from M. Francois
Foucard's house." At Proyart, while M. Wable's
house was in flames, they had danced to the sound
of a gramophone.

At Maucourt^^ on Aug. 29th, a German cyclist
patrol found four agricultural labourers sitting in
a cafe. He levelled his rifle at them, and two of
them tried to escape. The German fired twice
at the first, who dragged himself a hundred yards
and then died. The second took refuge in a barn.
More Germans then came up and demanded
matches to burn the barn over his head, but find-
ing none they put five bullets into his brain.
Next day they wounded a French dragoon from
an ambush in the village, and finished him off
with the butt-ends of their rifles in order to plunder
his pockets. On Sept. 25th they returned in force
to Maucourt, and when the French artillery
opened on them they seized five men of the vil-
lage as a screen to cover their retreat. " I was
arrested," states one of these victims, " by a
German sergeant with a serrated bayonet. . . .
They immediately placed us in front of them,
telling us that the French were going to kill us.

"^^ Five 1 14-12 1.

[Map 2]

FRAMEEVILLE, MAUCOUET, LIANCOURT 19

. . . We could not escape, for we had a soldier
with fixed bayonet on either side of us." — " Four
times," states the village schoolmaster, "we were
knocked over by the shock of the (French) shells."
Returning next day, the Germans imposed a war
contribution on the commune. " How many in-
habitants have you ? " asked the German com-
mandant. " Three hundred and fifty," he was
told. " I must have lo francs per inhabitant,"
he answered. " If you have not produced the sum
in gold or silver within an hour, everyone will be
searched; anyone found with money on him will
be shot, the village will be burnt, and we shall
carry off hostages." Fifteen hundred francs in
gold were paid by the village baker, the rest by
other individuals. " No receipt was given," states
a witness. " Our commune was completely pil-
laged. I found my own house sacked, the cloth
torn off the billiard-table, and everything in a
state of indescribable confusion." On the same
day, Sept. 26th, the French troops returned, and
Maucourt was delivered.

At Liancourt-Fosse^'^ the Germans, fighting
with a French regiment for the possession of the
village, seized twelve of the inhabitants as a
screen, and drove them forward in three ranks.
The French slackened their fire, but three of the

^"^ Five 126-7.

[Map 3]

C 2

20 FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

civilians were seriously wounded, and another
mortally.

In the Commune of W elles-Perennes,^^ in the
Department of the Oise, the Germans surprised
two farm lads, eighteen and nineteen years old,
driving in a cart to Montigny to buy bread. One
of them, wounded in the stomach, dragged him-
self back to the farm and died. The other was
taken to Creve-Cosur^^ and shot while trying to
escape. This was on Aug. 31st, and the Germans
had entered Creve-Coeur that day. " Many of
them were drunk. They broke open the doors of
a number of houses of which the owners were
away, and gave themselves up to pillage. . . .
Soldiers dragged a young man *° up to two officers
on horseback, and one of them shot him point-
blank." At Ferrieres " six houses were set on fire
by means of bombs, and a man and his wife suf-
focated in their cellar, because a French soldier
had fired in the street and taken refuge in a house.
At Ravenel,^^ on Sept. ist, the Germans loaded a
wagon with their plunder; on Sept. 13th they
shot down a civilian who was bicycling along the
road. At Nourard-le-Franc,^^ on Sept. 3rd, three

^® Five 72.

39 Five 73-4.

*" Not identical with the farm boy from Welles-Pirennes.

4' Five 75.

*2 One 374-5.

*3 One 414-5 ; Five 88-9.

[Map 3]

CREVE-CCEUR, NOURARD, MONCHY 21

Germans with Red Cross armlets burned six
houses and a barn, and fired indiscriminately in
the streets. They wounded one man — his wife
died of shock. "After this," states a witness,
" they left in the direction of M esnil-sur-Bulles''
and here," on Sept. 4th, three Germans (evidently
the same) shot a professor on the doorstep of a
house. Uhlans had been looting in Mesnil two
days before.

Mortemer,^^ on the road from Roye to Com-
piegne, was pillaged by the Germans on Aug. 31st.
Next day they demanded tobacco from the grocer,
M. Huille. Having none, he guided them to the
tobacconist's, and was shot point-blank as he
turned to go home. At Marque glise *^ the Ger-
mans carried off eight civilians as hostages, includ-
ing the cure and the mayor, and shot four other
hostages — two Frenchmen from St. Quentin and
two Belgians from Jemappes — when they retreated
through Marqueglise on Sept. i6th. At Monchy-
Humieres,'^^ on Aug. 31st, a German officer ordered
three Uhlans to fire on a crowd of about forty
people, because he thought he heard the word
" Prussian " muttered among them. A man and
a little girl were wounded, and a boy of fifteen
was killed.

** One 412-3.
*'5 Five 76-9.
^6 One 430-1.
*^ One 372-3.

[Map 3]

22 FROM THE SCHELDT TO THE OISE

Ckoisy-au-Bac,^^ in the angle between the Oise
and the Aisne, was entered by the Germans on
Aug. 31st. "On Sept. ist and 2nd," states the
town clerk, " they deliberately burned a quarter
of the houses in Choisy, on the absolutely false
pretext that they had been fired on. Before set-
ting the houses on fire they pillaged the whole
place under their officers' eyes. Two military
doctors with Red Cross armlets pillaged Madame
Binder's house with their own hands. The booty
was carried off in carts stolen on the spot. Forty-
five houses were destroyed." On Sept. 8th the
Germans shot in his garden an inhabitant of
Choisy who had just returned from Compiegne.
They carried off four others on their retreat — one
escaped, one is known to have been shot, and the
others were not heard of again.

(iii) Across the Oise.

Between the junction of the Aisne and a point
due north of Paris, von Kluck's Army made their
passage of the Oise, and Comfiegne *^ was the first
place they reached on the further bank of the river.
From the famous Palace of Compiegne only a few
objects were taken, but Count Orsetti's chateau,
facing it, was completely sacked — " especially by

*^ One 416-8.
^^ One 419-423.

[Map 3]

CHOISY, COMPIEGNE, NOGENT 23

non-commissioned officers, in the sight and with
the cognisance of their superiors. Plate, jewels,
and other objects of value were carried off, and
the pillagers indulged in a regular orgy. Part of
the plunder was brought into the courtyard of the
chateau, checked, entered, packed, and loaded on
two furniture vans flying Red Cross flags." This
is the testimony of the Director of the Museum
at Compiegne, and he adds that a German captain,
appealed to to interfere, replied : " It is war, and
besides — I have no time."

Meanwhile, von Kluck's right wing, heading for
Paris, arrived on Sept. 2nd at N o gent-sur-O'ise p
" The Germans," states a witness, " forced their
way into my house, broke the doors and windows,
smashed the furniture, and carried me off, mis-
handling me on the way. They dragged me as far
as Creil, and both at Nogent and at Creil I saw
them entering houses to pillage them. As they
came out the houses took fire. About eight
houses," he states, "were burnt at Nogent "; and
another inhabitant describes how, after they had
broken open his shutters and taken everything
from his house that they wanted, they attempted
to burn it by drenching a bundle of clothes in
petrol and setting them alight.

From Nogent the Germans passed straight on

^" One 405-6.

[Map 3I

24 ACROSS THE OISE

to Creil.^^ " They came to Creil on Sept. 2nd,"
states the Mayor's Assessor, M. Georges, "and
their occupation lasted till Sept. 9th. There was
wholesale pillage, and 43 houses were burnt by
the enemy by means of fuses and grenades. To
palliate these excesses, they alleged that they had
been fired on by civilians, but I certify that this
excuse is absolutely false. None of my fellow-
citizens committed the slightest act of hostility.
If shots were fired, they were fired at the moment
of the Germans' entry by the French military
engineers who were blowing up the bridge." This
testimony is confirmed by the Germans them-
selves. " Creil," writes a diarist; " the iron bridge
had been blown up. For this whole streets were
burnt and civilians shot." — -" I saw an Uhlan kill
M. Parent," states a restaurant keeper at Creil,
" as he was returning quietly from lunch. The
Uhlan fired at a distance of seven or eight paces,
and his victim was hit full in the chest and fell
stiff. Four or five Uhlans threw themselves on
his body and rifled it." Another inhabitant, M.
Alexandre, was found lying in the street with his
skull smashed in. A third, M. Breche, a bar-
keeper, was carried off and shot because he could
not serve the Germans fast enough. "A man
killed?" remarked an officer; "we think nothing

51 One 398-404 ; Bland p. 121.

[]\Iap3]

CREIL, NERY, T rum illy 25

of it, one sees so many. Besides, we are fired at
everywhere, so we kill and burn." He added that
Breche was a blockhead.

The Germans intended the pillage of Creil to
be systematic. A group of civilian prisoners were
interrogated in turn as to who were the richest
men in their respective quarters of the town.
About lOO civilians were seized in Creil altogether
and were compelled to dig trenches for the Ger-
mans and to cut down a crop of maize to improve
their field of fire. The Germans kept them work-
ing a week, during which time they gave them
nothing to eat, but the women of Creil managed
to bring them food.

At Nery,^^ on Sept. ist, the Germans seized
the manager of a sugar factory and his staff —
twenty-six persons, including women and children
— and used them as a screen to protect their flank
against the British artillery fire. A foreman was
wounded ; a woman was hit in the stomach and
died within forty-eight hours. The Germans
plundered the whole village of Nery, breaking
in the doors, and burned one house down. They
plundered Trumilly ^^ on Sept. 3rd. A lady com-
plained to a colonel of a non-commissioned officer
who had stolen jewels from her worth 10,000

^2 One 376-8.
53 One 424-9.

[Map 3]

26 ACROSS THE 01 SE

francs, but the colonel replied with a smile : " I
am sorry, Madame, but it is war." The same non-
commissioned officer forced another woman to lie
with him by threatening her with his rifle — her
husband was with the colours. Crefy-en-Valois ^^
was entered on Sept. 2nd, and for four days
the Germans poured through. The place was
thoroughly pillaged — linen and jewellery were, as
usual, most eagerly sought after, and all the safes
were broken open. The Germans reached Villers-
Samt-Frainbourg^^ too, on Sept. 2nd, at 9
o'clock at night. " They seized horses, slaughtered
cattle, stole bicycles, and emptied nearly all the
cellars." They also murdered here a civilian
brought from Senlis ^® — tieing him to a post with
his hands behind his back and bayoneting him
to death. " He was not killed by bullets, for his
stomach had been gashed open, and the wall
behind him showed no trace of bullet-marks."
That night at Villers-Saint-Frambourg a soldier
violated a woman, who took refusfe with neig"h-
hours when the man had gone away. " I was well
advised to do so," she remarks, " for numbers of
soldiers came to my house, directed, no doubt, by
the first. They broke the windows out of spite at

^* One 407.
^^ One 396-7.
^8 Cp. One 387.

[Maps]

CR^PY, VILLERS-ST.-FRAMBOURG 27

not finding me there, and stole my pig, poultry,
and rabbits, as well as my pots and pans."

On Sept. 2nd Senlis^'^ was sacked. "About
half-past three in the afternoon," states the town
clerk of Senlis, " I was informed that the Germans
were at the H6tel-de-Ville, and that the Mayor,
M. Odent, was asking for me. . . . The Mayor
was surrounded by a group of officers, and one of
them, doubtless the highest in rank, said to him :
' Our men have been fired on.' When M. Odent
protested, he repeated : ' Our men have been fired
on.' I then proposed to M. Odent that I should
go and find his Assessors, but he did not wish it,
and said that ' one victim was enough.' " After
this, the Mayor was led off by the German officer to
the Hotel du Grand Cerf, to expedite the serving
of dinner for forty persons which the officer had
ordered ; the officer also ordered the Mayor to see
that the town was lighted up that night. " About
ten minutes later," continues the town clerk, who
had been requested by the Mayor to see to this
order, " a fusillade — the first firing there had been
— broke out between the German troops in the
Rue de la Republique and French soldiers who,
as I afterwards learnt, were posted in the neigh-
bourhood of the hospital."

The Germans immediately seized a number of

s^ One 379-395-

[Map 3]

28 ACROSS THE OISE

civilians and drove them down the Rue de la
Republique as a screen.^^ " I was acting as inter-
preter between M. Dupuis and the Germans,"
states one woman, " not far from my house. The
Germans dragged me off. My little daughter
Claire, five years old, saw me in the middle of
them and came running up. I asked permission to
take her back to the house; the Germans refused.
' If we are not fired on,' they said, ' you shall be
released.' Then they made us walk down the
middle of the road, while they themselves kept to
the side. At a certain moment a shot came from
a window — I saw a black face. The house was
instantly riddled with bullets. Opposite the hos-
pital, while we were still walking in the middle of
the (German) troops, the Moroccans opened a
fusillade. The Germans replied, and my child
was wounded by a bullet in the thigh — the wound
is not healed yet." ^^ — " I was taken along to the
neighbourhood of the hospital," states another
inhabitant, " with various other civilians, and when
the black troops fired on the Germans, the latter
exposed us to the bullets and compelled us to
walk in the middle of the road."

Meanwhile, the Germans were setting the town
on fire. " The enemy," states M. de Parseval, one

58 One 381, 385-6, 391.
^^ Nov. 20th, 19 1 4.

[Maps]

SENLIS— CIVILIAN SCREEN 29

of the Mayor's Assessors, " were furious at meeting
with resistance, and, pretending that it was
civilians who had fired on them, deliberately-
started conflagrations in two districts of the town.
A hundred and five houses were burnt on Sept.
2nd and the following day." ^'^ — " On Sept. 2nd
and 3rd," states a gardener,^^ " I was constantly
about in the streets, keeping an eye on the premises
under my charge. I saw the Germans in the act
of setting fire to several houses. They came up
in column, and, at a whistle from an officer, certain
of them stepped out from the ranks to break in
the doors and house-fronts with axes. Others
then came and set the house on fire. After that,
patrols came round to see if the fire had caught
properly, and shot into any houses where the
flames were not spreading quickly enough. They'
all shouted like savages while they were at work.
To start the fire, the incendiaries used tubes,
fuses, and grenades."

Incendiarism was accompanied by murder.
" We were exposed to the French bullets," states
one of a group of four men who were driven in
the civilian screen.*'^ " I immediately saw Ley-
marie fall mortally wounded, and as I was prop-
ping him against a wall I was struck myself by a

. ^ One 379.
«i One 380 ; cp. 386, 390.
62 One 384.

[Map 3]

30 ' ACROSS THE 01 SE

bullet above the knee. Levasseur was killed next.
At this moment a (German) officer appeared, made
me get up, ordered me to show him my wound,
and proceeded to fire a bullet point blank into my
shoulder. My fourth companion was also wounded
by a German." Four other men went to look at a
granary which the Germans had set on fire. They
were shot at by a patrol of Uhlans, and took refuge
in a stable, but when they ventured out again
they were received with another volley. One was
killed outright; a second had three fingers carried
away and was wounded in the groin — he died in
hospital after a week.*'^ A bar-keeper, whose
premises the Germans were looting, was dragged
out and shot dead on his threshold for raising his
hand.''* A householder, whose door had been
broken in and who was bringing the Germans
wine on their demand, was found by his wife, a
few minutes afterwards, lying dead on the stairs,
with a bullet wound through his chest.^^ A feeble-
minded person lying in bed in the hospital was
shot dead by a German officer who forced his way
thither in a state of frenzy .^^ Ten civilians alto-
gether were murdered here and there in Senlis
on Sept. 2nd by individual German soldiers and

6^ One 389-390.
c* One 386.
6^' One 388.
^'^ One 395.

[Map 3]

SENLIS— MURDERS 31

officers. The German Higher Command com-
pleted the work by the massacre of the Mayor and
six other citizens in the Commune of Chamant,
outside the town.

" We were led next to the hamlet of Poteau,"
states an inhabitant of Senlis who had survived
the ordeal in the Rue de la Republique.*^^ " Here
we found the Mayor, M. Odent, who was a
prisoner, and were taken along with him to
Chamant. The Mayor was brutally maltreated by
German soldiers on the way. They snatched his
gloves from him and threw them in his face ; they
struck him violently over the head with his cane.
At Chamant two officers took command of our
guards. Then a third arrived, and walked up to
M. Odent. Twice over he charged him with
having fired, or incited others to fire, on the Ger-
man troops, and then informed him, in spite of his
protestations of innocence, that he was going to
be shot. The Mayor then asked permission to
bid us farewell. It was granted him, and he came
and shook our hands, saying : ' I am going to be
shot. Good-bye.' He was immediately led away
to a distance of about a dozen yards, and two
soldiers were ordered to fire on him. He fell
without a cry, and was buried immediately."—
" He advanced very bravely to the spot," adds

67 One 381.

[Map 3]

82 ACROSS THE 01 SE

another witness *'^; "it was eleven o'clock at
night."

The six other victims had already been mas-
sacred. "On Sept. 1 2th," states the municipal
clerk of the works,*^^ " I went to Chamant Lo see to
the disinterment of M. Odent's body. I also had
the bodies of six other persons who had been
shot by the Germans disinterred. . . . All were
perfectly well recognised and identified by
members of their families. Some of them had
wounds in the chest, others in the head." ■

(iv) The Crossing of the Marne.

The treatment of Senlis on Sept. 2nd was the
measure of what Paris had to expect within the
next few days. At Gouvieux^^ east of Senlis in
the direction of the Oise, Uhlan advance-guards
fired on a woman driving with her son and
daughter in a trap — the son and daughter died of
their wounds; the mother, though seriously
wounded, survived — and in the same commune a
young man was murdered as he was bicycling
along a road. Paris was barely twenty miles off,
but at this point von Kluck suddenly changed
direction, and, swerving aside from Paris, headed
south-eastward for the Marne.

.«8 One 382.
''" One 394.
'0 Five 84-7.

[Map 3]

J-^F^^

\ !■

'■f9m ^^S

GOJJVIEUX, BARON, DOUY 88

At Baron"^^ a civilian, M. Alberic Magnard,
fired on the Germans who had surrounded his
villa, killing one soldier and wounding another —
the first authenticated case of firing by a civilian
in the whole course of von Kluck's advance from
Liege. The villa was set on fire, and M. Magnard
shot himself in the flames. In further reprisals
the commune was plundered — " under the direc-
tion of officers," states the notary, " or, at any rate,
with their consent. One officer forced me to
open my safe," he continues, " and took posses-
sion, in my presence, of a sum of 8,300 francs
which the safe contained. I refused at first to
obey, but he ordered two men to load their rifles.
... I saw another officgr wearing nine women's
rings on his fingers, and three bracelets on either
arm. . . . The soldiers who burned M. Magnard's
house bore the word ' Gibraltar ' on their sleeves.
The officer with the rings on his fingers and the
bracelets on his arms belonged to the same
corps."

At Douy-la-Ramee^'^ in the Department of
Seine-et-Marne, the Germans burned down the
mill and tried to throw a mill-hand into the flames
No provocation was given them at Douy, and they
had been inquiring after the exact situation of the

'•^ One 408-41 1.
'- One 8-9.

[Map 3j
(i.T. • D

34 THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

mill at the villages on their way. Their plans
were going amiss ; they were nearing the turning-
point of their progress, and, like the other Ger-
man armies abreast of them, they vented their rage
on everything they encountered on their path.
At Barcy^^ they burned down the archive room
at the Mairie, shelled the hospital, and killed
eighteen wounded French soldiers lying there. At
Penchard ^^ they burned three houses ; at Netif-
montiers ^^ three ricks and a farm. At Chanconin ^°
they carried off two vanloads of booty, and burned
five houses and six barns. Chauconin looks down
from its hill upon Meaux and the valley of the
Marne, but the Germans did not descend on
Meaux or cross the river here. They had to face
the threat to their flank from Paris, and, leaving
a rearguard to meet it, they swerved, again, still
further to the east.

They reached the Marne at Vareddes^ pillaged
the place, and carried off seventeen hostages, in-
cluding the cure. Three at least of these hostages
were killed — one of them a man seventy-three
years old. " He was taken to Coulombs," states
his brother-in-law^®; "by Wednesday he could

" One 7.

'■» One 5-6.

" One 8.

7« One 1-2.

" One 17-19 ; cp. 4.

" One 4.

[Map 3]

CHAUCONIN, VAREDDES, LIZY 35

no longer walk ; next day he was given a bayonet
stroke in the forehead and a revolver shot in the
heart. I myself brought his body back from
Coulombs and buried it at Congis." At Congis
the Germans arrested a man sixty-six years old
near a spot called Gue-a-Tresmes, tied him to a
cattle-tether, and shot him— out of spite, because
they found no money in his purse. (Two civilians
from Vareddes were compelled to remove corpses
at Gue-a-Tresmes, and clean up the chateau
there.^®) After this murder the Germans prepared
to set Congis on fire. " They stuffed twenty
houses with straw and drenched them with petrol,
but the arrival of the French troops fortunately
prevented them from carrying out their purpose."
At Lizy-sur-Ourcq ^^ they pillaged systematic-
ally from Sept. 3rd to Sept. 9th — the period of
their occupation. The contents of chemists' shops,
ironmongers' shops, bicycle shops were loaded on
motor-lorries and horse-waggons and hand-carts.
" The most eager pillagers were men wearing the
Red Cross badge." — " If one attempted to stop
and watch them at work, they came and thrust
their revolvers at one's chest." The Inspector of
Gendarmerie at Lizy states that all the communes
in his district were plundered in this thorough-

"^ One 19.
"" One T0-12.

[Map 3]

D 2

36 THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

going fashion, and the booty carried off in
vehicles commandeered from the inhabitants.
Mary-sur-Marne,^^ too, was plundered, and a cus-
tomer was killed here at a bar by a German cavalry
patrol. At Mary the Germans carried off their
plunder in their own army carts. At May-en-
Multien ^^ they carried it off in motor-lorries.
Here, too, there was wanton firing on civilians —
none were killed outright, but a woman lost her
arm and died in hospital at Meaux.^®

This was west of the Ourcq, but several of von
Kluck's corps came down to the east of that river,
moving from Compiegne through Villers-Cotterets.
Near Vivieres,^^ in the Department of the Aisne,
on Sept. 2nd, they shot an agricultural labourer
seventy-seven years old. " My men were a little
too quick," the German non-commissioned officer
remarked — the old man had not heard, at 300
yards, the officer's order to halt. At D amfleux^^
on the edge of the forest, they shot a civilian from
Villers-Cotterets. At Noroy-sur-Ourcq ^^ they
murdered a garde-champetre, sixty-nine years old,
in his cottage. He was found with his skull beaten
in, lying in a pool of blood. At Chouy ^^ they

®' One 20-1.

*2 One 13-15.

*^ One 16.

s* Five 61.

*^ Five 63-4.

*^ P^ive 69-71.

'*'' Five 67-8 ; cp. 62.

[Map 3]

AISNE, SEINE-ET-MARNE 37

carried off the blacksmith, and his wife had no
news of him till she heard, a month later, that he
had died in hospital at Soissons. He was seen on
Sept. 9th at Neuilly-Saint-Front. "I saw him
pass," states a witness, " tied to the tail of a horse,
going through the town in the direction of
Chateau-Thierry. An hour later I saw him come
back in the same plight. By then his face was
covered with blood, and appeared to have been
slashed with a sabre. I heard of his death at
Soissons later." Neuilly-Saint-Front ^^ was pil-
laged by the Germans. They requisitioned an
inhabitant to remove their plunder with his own
horses and cart, and then sent him to an intern-
ment camp in Germany. At Bre2dl^^ near Neuilly,
they wounded two women on their v/ay into town
to buy bread — one of them was injured seriously.
Crossing the Ourcq, they pillaged Brumetz^'^
on Sept. 3rd ; on the 4th they burned a tobac-
conist's shop there, on the 7th a chateau. Cross-
ing the Marne, above its junction with the Ourcq,
they came, on Sept. 4th, to Jouane^^ in the Depart-
ment of Seine-et-Marne, and plundered it in the
usual way. " The loot was loaded on motor-cars
marked with the Red Cross. The troops followed
one another in an endless stream, and the pillage

^ Five 62.
"^ One 435-6.
*' Five 58.

[Map 3j

38 THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

began again as each new corps arrived — as far as
there was anything left to take. The total losses
notified exceed 600,000 francs."

Sablonnieres,^^ on the Petit Morin, was entered
by the Germans on Sept. 4th. Their cavalry
caught a civilian on a bicycle, and made him ride
behind them when they were fired at by French
chasseurs and were beating a retreat. An officer
fired his revolver at him ; a trooper knocked him
off his bicycle with his lance ; finally, they stripped
him to the waist, and in four encounters with the
French compelled him to stand erect while they
themselves took cover from the bullets. "On
Sept. 4th," states a peasant of Sablonnieres, " I
was minding my cows in a field near the village,
v/hen a German infantryman, who was lagging a
little behind his column, knelt down and covered
me with his rifle from about 150 yards off. I said
to myself : ' He is not really going to fire at me,'
but the thought was hardly in my mind when the
rifle cracked and I received a bullet in the left
cheek. You can see the scar." — " My commune
was thoroughly pillaged," states the Mayor of
Sablonnieres. "A cane-trunk factory was par-
ticularly badly looted. The stolen trunks were
used for carrying off the rest of the plunder. A
bicycle shop was also sacked, as well as a general

91 One 44-8.

[Map 3]

SABLONNIERES, REBAIS 39

shop and some private houses." On Sept. 8th,
when the Germans were being driven out, one of
them wounded a civilian who had taken refuge
under a bridge. The man was carried to a British
military ambulance, and died.

At Rebais,^^ on Sept. 4th, the Germans, as they
entered, shot down several British troopers who
were retiring before their advance. The English-
men lay in the street, and one of them, pinned
down by his dead horse, lifted his arm in token of
distress. A German officer came up and shot him
through the head. A second Englishman had got
to his feet and raised both arms in surrender, but
a German private felled him with his rifle-butt
and finished him off with repeated blows. " Three
times," states a witness, " I heard him cry for
mercy." After this, the Germans gave themselves
up to pillage. They pillaged a jeweller's shop
in the usual way, loading its contents on a waggon
at the door. " Then they bored holes in the walls
and the floor, and, an instant later, the neighbours
saw that the shop was on fire. They noticed the
soldiers throwing in grenades to make the fire
catch quicker." — ■" I saw one soldier," states
another witness, " set fire to three houses in suc-
cession. He broke the window-panes and threw
in blazing straw." The pillage and arson were

^■^ One 49-53, 60-2.

[Map 3]

40 THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

accompanied by extreme personal violence. xA.n
old man of seventy-nine was hit repeatedly over
the head, had his watch stolen from him and
800 francs, and was shot at with a revolver — the
bullet grazed his forehead. A w^oman was beaten
over the head and about the body, stripped naked,
and kept for an hour and a half in this condition
in the middle of a crowd of German soldiers.
" Finally," she states, " they bound me to my
counter and signified their intention of shooting
me. There were quite a number of officers among
them. At the moment when, without doubt, they
were going to carry their threat out, they were
called away to another house. They left me in
charge of a soldier who told me he was an
Alsatian. This soldier unbound me, and I
escaped." The next day, Sept. 5th, they hanged
a woman because she resisted their attempts to
violate her (after looting her shop). " My feet,"
she states, " were already about twenty inches from
the ground, when I managed to get my penknife
out of my pocket, open it, and cut the cord. I fell
to the ground, and m.y assailants began to be-
labour me with blows. An officer, fetched by
someone who had seen what was going on, ordered
them to go away. They obeyed, but came back
before long, and tried — unsuccessfully — to break
open my shutters."

[Map-3]

REBAIS, COULOMMIERS 41

In a villasfe between Rebais and Coulommiers
the body of a woman was found by the British
troops. " She had been stabbed between the
breasts," states a British corporal,^^ " and was quite
dead. The priest said she had been outraged.
The Germans had, I think, left the village the
night before. The house and all the other houses
had been ransacked and turned upside down."
At Saint-D enis-les-Rebais^^ too, a woman was
violated by an Uhlan, but was not killed.

"At Coulommiers^^ on the Grand Morin, a
German officer arrested the Procureur de la
Republique. The Procureur had not known
where oats were to be found in the town, and they
had now been found by the Germans themselves.
The officer broke out into abuse : " You are a liar,
you pig." — " You pig, you shall be shot." — " You
pig, shut your mouth." — " If you have not found
more oats within an hour, you shall be shot." —
" We know the town is rich ; a million francs, two
millions, could be exacted here ; if to-morrow morn-
ing, by 8 o'clock, you have not collected 100,000
francs, you shall be shot, and the town shall be
bombarded and burnt." The Procureur, with the
Mayor and the Town Clerk, was shut up in the
lavatory of a private house for the night. A

"■■^ Bryce p. 193.
»< One 54^6.
^•' One 30-2,

[Map 3]

42 THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

soldier showed the Town Clerk a bucket of petrol
on the stairs : " If we are fired on, we shall send
a shot into that bucket and burn the house with
you in it." At 2 in the morning they were led
out to be shot. The firing-party cleaned their
arms and lined up opposite them; the prisoners
stood thus for 20 minutes, then, instead, they were
driven along with the army, and finally released
on the road. There was the usual pillage at
Coulommiers — plate, blankets, linen, boots and
bicycles were loaded on to motor-lorries and car-
ried off. A woman was violated in the presence
of her husband and children — the husband was
terrorised by the assailants' arms.

At /ouy-sur-Morin^^ two Germans came into a
house carrying looted bottles of champagne, and
violated a girl of eighteen — the mother was kept
off with the bayonet by each soldier in turn; the
father was away.

The chateau of La Masure^"^ in the commune
of la Ferte-Gaucher, was visited by four Germans
— one of them an officer — on Sept. 6th. There
were three civilians on the premises — the owner,
M. Quenescourt, aged 'j'j\ his maid, aged 54; and
a woman of 40, the wife of a refugee, who was
receiving shelter in the chateau, with her twelve-
s' One 57.
^'' One 58-9 ; Bland pp. 93-7 ; Bryce p. 195 ( = Bland pp. 93-5).

[Map 3]

JOUY, LA MASURE 43

year-old son. The Germans took refreshment
and went off; but between 7 and 8 in the even-
ing all four returned. " They seemed the worse
for drink, especially the officer." They began
firing through the gate, and hit one of the watch-
dogs, which had to be put out of its misery. When
the gate was opened to them they demanded food
and lodging. The maid cooked them food, and
then M. Quenescourt advised both women to con-
ceal their whereabouts for the night. They
attempted to do so, but the Germans searched for
them, and found first the refugee and then the
maid. " The officer dragged me up to the attic,"
states the former, "tore off all my clothes, and
tried, unsuccessfully, to violate me. Meanwhile,
one of the soldiers robbed me of my purse con-
taining 30 francs. At this moment M.
Quenescourt, wishing to save me, fired up the
staircase with a revolver. He was shot imme-
diately, and the officer then made me leave the
attic and compelled me to step over M.
Quesnescourt's body." Finally the officer handed
over his victim to his three companions. They
threw her on to the murdered man's bed and vio-
lated her there, while the officer went to look for
the maid. " He brought me," states the latter,
"to see the body of my master. It was lying
on the stairs, with one wound in the head and

[Map 3]

U THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

several others in the chest. . . . The officer then
made me strip completely naked and violated me;
he ordered me to make him coffee ; he forced me to
lie with him all night, keeping his rifle within
reach, and gripping me tight all the time to pre-
vent me from getting away." In the morning the
women had to prepare coffee and chocolate for
the four Germans. The officer dragged in two
male civilians, and stripped the younger woman
naked in their presence. " He aimed his revolver
at us several times, and looked about for petro-
leum to fire the chateau and the farm. They all
went off that morning about 8 o'clock. . . ."

In the town of La Ferte-Gaucher^'^ the Germans
broke into a house and violated a woman in the
presence of her four-year-old child. Pressing
on from the Grand Morin to the Aubetin, they
entered Mauferthzds^^ on Sept. 6th, seized a
civilian from his house, and shot him at the other
end of the street, as well as one of the hostages
dragged hither from Vareddes.^ They also seized
and shot two caretakers in a neighbouring farm.
In another farm, near Amillis^ they violated a
woman, attacking her with bayonets drawn and
revolver in hand. At Beton-Bazoches ^ they vio-

^ Five 60.

«" One 37-43-

' See p. 19 above.

^ Five 59.

^ One 33.

[Map 3]

MAUPERTHVIS, COURTACON, SANCY 45

lated a woman whose husband was with the
colours, with her child three years old in the room.
At Courtacon,^ on Sept. 6th, they burned a num-
ber of houses, sprinkling them first with petrol
and with one of the specially prepared inflammable
liquids which they carried with them for this pur-
pose. " Inhabitants," states the Mayor, " were
compelled to provide matches and faggots." The
troops who did this belonged to the Prussian
Guard. Their next act was to drag the Mayor,
four men of the commune, and a boy of thirteen
to the firing-line, and use them as a screen. These
five escaped with their lives, but the Germans
led up a boy belonging to the conscript class of
19 14, and asked the Mayor whether he were a
soldier. " I told them," states the Mayor, "' that
he had been passed for military service, but that
his class had not yet been called up. They
stripped off his trousers to see if he were sound ;
then they let him dress again, and shot him fifty
yards from where we were. I saw him fall." The
boy was buried by his mother next day. At Sancy-
les-Provins,^ on Sept. 6th, a woman whose hus-
band was with the colours and who was alone in
her house with four children, was violated by a
German cyclist quartered on her for the night.

"• One 27-9.
'•' One 22-6.

[Map 3]

46 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

That evening the Germans collected about eighty
inhabitants of Sancy in a sheep-fold, and next
morning early, when they evacuated the village,
they carried thirty of them, including the cure,
away. They took them to a barn, where a German
Red Cross ambulance was stationed. " A German
surgeon-major," states the cure, "said something
to the " (German) " wounded, and these at once
loaded four rifles and two revolvers. I saw that
they were going to execute us. A French hussar,
wounded and a prisoner, said to me : ' M. le cure,
come and give me absolution; I am going to be
shot, and then it will be your turn.' I fulfilled his
wish, and then, unbuttoning my cassock, went and
stood against the wall between the Mayor and
another of my parishioners. But at that moment
two French mounted chasseurs arrived and saved
our lives, for the Germans surrendered to them
immediately. The hussar and all my companions
made off, and we returned to the village without
any further incident." It was the turn of the tide.
Von K luck's Army was in retreat.

(v) From Liege to the Sambre.

While von Kluck passed westward out of
Brabant to the Scheldt, von Biilow, on his left,
wheeled southward to the Sambre, and made his
way to the Marne by more easterly routes.

[Frontispiece]

GEMBLOUX, P^RONNES, FAURCEULX 47

Leaving Brabant behind them and skirting the
forts of Namur, von Billow's Army traversed
Gembloux on their way into Hainaut. In the
market-place of Gembloux a Belgian despatch-
rider*^ saw the body of a woman pinned to the
door of a house by a sword driven through her
chest. The body was naked and the breasts had
been cut off. In Hainaut, von Billow's right flank
spread out westwards, to keep touch with von
Kluck's left in the direction of Mons. At
Peronnes'^ they burned 63 houses and shot
8 civilians, including the Burgomaster. " They
shot the Burgomaster and his servant," states a
Belgian witness,^ " in front of the H6tel-de-Ville.
They bandaged the Burgomaster's eyes with his
tricolour scarf of office. The relations of the dead
men were ordered not to touch the bodies, which
were left in the street forty-eight hours. . . .
Three or four days before the Germans arrived,
the Burgomaster had informed the civilian
population, by means of circulars distributed to
each house and placards, that all guns and fire-
arms must be deposited at the H6tel-de-Ville,
and this was done." At Fauroeulx^ on Aug. 24th,
the Germans sacked the communal building, the

^v.

xxii p. :

[36.

b 16.

xxii pp.

142-

-3-

[Map 2]

48 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAME RE

school, and the schoolmaster's house. For the six
ensuing days they made requisitions without
vouchers or payment in cash. Then, on Aug.
30th, they drove all the inhabitants out. The
latter, when at the end of a fortnight they were
allowed to return, found that 98 out of 104 houses
in their village had been pillaged. The same
method of pillage after expulsion was applied to
ten other neighbouring villages — notably Haul-
chin, Bienne-les-H affart, Peissant, Merbes-le-
Chdteau, and Sars-la-Buissiere — all situated in
the obtuse-angle between the French frontier and
the Sambre. The Germans admit (by excusing)
their conduct in the statement^" that at Peissant
they found the doors and shutters of the houses
barred and loopholed — as doubtless they did, for
the British troops had been before them in this
district and had made preparations for defence.

The French, too, on von Billow's main front,
defended the line of the Sambre, and the civilian
inhabitants of the towns and villages alonof the
river were treated atrociously by von Billow's
troops in revenge for the military resistance they
encountered.

At M onceau-stir-Sainbre,^^ on Aug. 22nd, the
first Uhlans suffered casualties from French

^^ German White Book, Appendix 52.

" b 17 ; xxii p. 142 ; Ann. 5 ; R pp. 129-132 ; German White
Book, Appendix 46.

[Maps I, 2]

^m'- '91

■^ . •.-.,!

m ' !'

!k.L * ^'

^ 1 '

In ',

^Ri^'

w^'

i
i

if'

1
1

SARS, MONCEAU 49

pickets on the outskirts of the town, and when
they approached the river they were caught by
French machine-gun fire from the bridge at
Marchienne. " They proceeded," states an in-
habitant of Monceau, whom they had taken
prisoner, " to fire into the windows of the houses
and break open the doors with their rifle-butts
or with the axes which certain German infantry-
men carry for this special purpose. . . . Shrieking
like savages, they entered the houses and dragged
out the inhabitants, making prisoners of men,
women, and children alike. They then set fire to
all the houses in the Rue de Trazegnies." The
arson was effected by the usual method — a second
squad of soldiers threw in bombs, hand-grenades,
petrol or naphtha after the first squad had broken
in the windows and doors. Two hundred and
fifty-one houses altogether were burnt down or
gutted by the fire ; sixty-two others were pillaged.
On a rough valuation, it is estimated that 1,500,000
francs' worth of real property was destroyed and
personal property to the value of 500,000 francs,
not reckoning in what the German pillagers carried
away. The slaughter was in proportion to the
destruction. Twenty-eight of the inhabitants were
massacred as they came out of their houses ; thirty
received wounds from which they subsequently
died ; twelve were executed in cold blood. By

[Maps I, 2]
G.T. E

50 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

Nov. 4th, 19 1 6, seventy inhabitants of Monceau
had died at the hands of the Germans altogether.
The circumstances of the massacre were atrocious.
An old man of seventy-seven was killed as he was
leaving his burning house. Entire families were
killed — in one case ^^ a father, a mother, and a boy
eight years old. " The woman was shot point-
blank in the courtyard of her house. The father,
holding the child by the hand, took refuge in the
garden ; they were discovered by a German soldier
and were both shot dead." In another house-
hold ^^ they shot a boy of eighteen in the garden,
carried off the other son and the father to the
Chateau Baslieu, and shot them there, with other
civilian prisoners, against a wall. " They shot the
son first ; then they compelled the father to stand
close to his son's feet and to fix his eyes upon
him, and shot him in that position." The boy shot
in the garden had been carried into the house by
the neighbours, at his mother's entreaty, and laid
on a bed. Next morning the Germans asked what
had happened to the corpse, and, hearing, piled
straw round the bed and set it on fire — the whole
house was burnt down.

"At Monceau," as a German diarist^* describes
it, " when our v/ork was done, we assembled out-

'- xxii p. 142.

13 b 18.

14 Ann. 5.

[Maps I, 2]

MONCEAV, MARCHIENNE-AV-PONT 51

side the town, where the whole population had
been gathered together for sentence, and all those
who were found with weapons in their possession
(sic) were shot." The remainder, including the
Burgomaster, and numbering several hundred
altogether, were driven before the Germans as a
screen in their advance across the Sambre. " The
soldiers," states one of these prisoners,^^ " struck
us with their rifle-butts and bayonets. The Uhlans
rode us down and struck us with their lances. I
saw one man whose whole body was slashed by
stabs from the lance. We were driven up the
Rue de Trazegnies in the middle of the flames.
The houses on either side of the street were
burning." At the first halting place five of the
prisoners were singled out and shot. " We heard
the reports, and the firing-party returned to con-
tinue their meal. Others were playing gramo-
phones and accordions taken from the pillaged
houses. . . . We were then placed in ranks of
four, followed by eight soldiers with loaded rifles.
We were warned that if a single shot were fired,
by civilians or soldiers, we should all be shot.

" When we were approaching the railway station
at M archienne-au-P ont}'^ the soldiers saw several
civilians in the street and fired at them, happily

1^ Reply p. 131 ; vii p. 53.
>•' b 22 ; xxii p. 139.

[Maps I, 2]

E 2

52 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

without result. We continued on our way in the
middle of the flames; from time to time we had
to turn aside to avoid the corpses of civilians and
horses lying in the streets." Twenty-four civilians
were massacred at Marchienne ; one of them was
an old woman of seventy-four, and another a girl
of seventeen, who had cried " Vive TAngleterre,"
mistaking the Germans for British troops. This
girl's body was seen two days later lying in a field.
" It was quite naked, and the breast was cut and
covered with blood."

" At last," continues the witness, " we arrived at
Montigny-le-Tilleul,^'^ where we were shut up for
the night in a small barn. About fifty people from
Montigny — young men, old men, women, and
babies in arms — were crowded in there as well.
We were so crowded that we could not move.
The heat was intolerable."

Five more of the prisoners from Monceau were
shot that night, and two inhabitants of Montigny
were shot as well. But next morning the prisoners
from Montigny were released, and only those from
Monceau were driven on — against the French
positions at Gozee, which the Germans were
marching to attack. " All the big farms in the dis-
trict of Gozee and Thuillies were pillaged, and the
fine horses carried away."

*'' xxii p. 139.

[Maps I, 2]

MONTIGNY-LE-TILLEUL, JUMET 53

Meanwhile, further east, other columns of von
Billow's were marching on Charleroi. At Gos-
selies ^^ they seized thirty civilians and drove them
forward to fumet}^ " The Germans entered
Jumet," states a witness, "on Aug. 22nd. I saw
them driving before them, to a place where French
troops were entrenched, about 100 Belgian
civilians, including some persons I knew. There
were several women among them, and I noticed
one child. The French fired on them, but none
were killed. The civilians were kept in line in
front of the Germans by cavalry on either side of
them. When the French began to fire, the Ger-
mans fired on the civilians who were at hand and
killed several. I was fired on, but not hit. The
Germans fired into the houses on either side of the
road." Ten civilians were killed at Jumet. " At a
house close to mine," continues the witness, " the
Germans banged on the door, and when my neigh-
bour opened it to them he was shot in the face
and killed " ; but the worst violences were com-
mitted against women. One woman was driven
along with blows from rifle-butts and added, with
other women and children from Jumet, to the
screen. Another, hiding in her cellar, was
wounded by eight bullets and died in hospital.

^* xxii p. 137.

^^ b 19 ; xxii pp. 138-9, 140.

[Map i]

54 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

Another, hiding in an oven, was wounded, and
died the following day. Another woman was
wounded in the nose, another in the back, another
in the knee, another in the face. Six women
testified to having been shot at and wounded by
the Germans without provocation. In one house
at Jumet, on the Brussels road, five women were
living — the youngest sixteen, the eldest sixty-
eight. " The Germans put us in a field," they
state, "where they bound us to five men. They
told us that we should be shot. We remained there
about twenty minutes. During this time the
soldiers kept levelling their rifles at us and
threatening us with their bayonets."

Advancing from Jumet to Lodelinsart^ the
Germans were received by French machine-gun
fire and ran amok. At Lodelinsart twenty-four
civilians were killed. " I saw there," states the
last witness, "the dead bodies of two young men.
They had been shot. The neighbours told me
that these two young men and their father had
been bound together by the Germans, and that,
after the two sons had been shot, one of the
father's hands was cut off. He was taken to the
civil hospital at Charleroi." — "At Jumet and
Lodelinsart," another witness states,^^ " I saw two
German stretcher-bearers, who appeared to be

20 xxii pp. 137, 140.
-^ xxii p. 140.

[Map i]

JUMET, LODELINSART, CHARLEROI 55

drunk, leave their stretcher and go and set fire to
the houses."

In Charier o'l itself ^^ i6o houses were burnt, in
the finest streets of the town. The incendiarism
was carried out systematically, under officers'
command. Here, too, civilians were driven as a
screen before the German troops. There were
two doctors ^^ among them, wearing Red Cross
badges on their arms. An old man, over sixty,
tried to reach his house. "The Germans seized
him by the legs, dragged him back into the street,
and shot him dead with rifles." — " While I was
in the streets," states another witness, " a number
of German cavalrymen came into the town. At
the time there were a large number of civilians in
the streets. The Germans, without any warning,
shot at the civilians, and I saw four men shot
dead." — " I had hidden in a cellar with some of
my friends," states a third. " The Germans found
us and fired in. I was not wounded myself, but
one of my companions fell dead on my arm. . . .
They tied our hands behind our backs. . . . We
were obliged to bury the dead. ... As we were
going away they shot at us and killed a man from
Alost.

" The next day," the same witness continues,

22 b 21, 24-5 ; Reply pp. 120-1 : xxii p. 141 ; German White
Book, Appendix 63 (uncorroborated by other evidence).
'" Mentioned by name.

[Map i]

56 FROM LIJ^GE TO THE SAMBRE

" I saw the Germans putting straw into the cellars
of houses which had been burnt the day before,
but in the cellars of which there were still living
people, and setting the straw on fire. I was in
the street when they were doing it. There were
hundreds of Germans. There were officers order-
ing them to do this. I afterwards saw the cellars
full of dead bodies." Forty civilians in all at
Charleroi were shot, burnt, or suffocated to death.
At Marcinelle,^^ on Aug. 25th, a party of Uhlans
were seen driving a body of fifty or sixty civilians
before them. One old man, exhausted, was forced
along by blows. At Couillet ^^ four civilians over
sixty years old were killed, and eighteen alto-
gether. On Aug. 25 th, the day the Germans
entered Couillet, a young man returning home m
the evening found his father, his mother, and his
nephew (a child) lying dead in the house. " My
father's body had eight bullet wounds in it, of
which three were in the head and five in the body.
My mother's body had five bullet wounds in it,
one in the temple, one in the back of the skull, and
three in the back. My nephew had been killed
by a bayonet or sword — there were four wounds
in the head and one in the stomach. There were
twenty-seven bottles lying in the room, all of

XV p. 21.

b 23 ; xxii p. 138.

[Map i]

COUILLET, GILLY, FARCIENNES 57

which were empty except one. These bottles had
contained red wine." The father had been killed
by eight German artillery officers because he had
no bread in the house. They had killed the
mother after she had brought them the wine. A
few minutes later other Germans broke into the
house, carried off the young man to Charleroi,
and sent him with fifty other Belgian civilians in
cattle-trucks to Aix-la-Chapelle. Here, after
twelve days, a Bavarian soldier helped him to
escape. When he returned to Couillet he found
that his house had been burnt.

Other German troops advanced through
Boignee,^^ where they shot a woman in a field,
and Pironckamps,^^ where they murdered four
civilians, including a man of sixty and a girl of
fifteen. At Gilly^^ they murdered six civilians.
Two women were thrown into a cistern, and a
baker's wife had her jaw shattered by a bullet as
she was standing in her shop. Twenty-three
civilians were killed at Farciennes^^ on the
Sambre. Three of them were over sixty years
old, three were children — one five months old and
in its mother's arms. At Chdtelet^^ a proclama-
tion, signed by Baron von Maltzahn, Comman-

-° xxii'p. 139.
'" xxii p. 137.
■* xxii pp. 138, 139.
■^ xxii p. 140.

[Map i]

58 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

dant, ordered every inhabitant having in his house
a French or Belgian soldier, wounded or not, to
notify the same at the H6tel-de-Ville, on penalty
of being hanged himself and having his house
burnt down.

The Germans marched into Moittigny-sur-
Samhre on Aug. 22nd. " First," states a Belgian
witness,^" " came the cyclists, about twenty ; then
about fifty infantry ; then a good hundred Belgian
hostages collected from the neighbouring villages,
two or three of whom I knew personally — one F.,
a priest, and another priest whose name I do not
know; then more cyclists, then more infantry.
Then followed nearly three hundred hostages,
generally five in a row, though sometimes only
four. There was a large new rope round them,
and the front, rear, and outside men had to hold
it in their hands. They were escorted by soldiers
with fixed bayonets.

"A detachm-ent halted in the street and put
down their arms. The Belgians gave them every-
thing they wanted — food, cigars, soap, towels, I
think — so that they might have no harm done to
them or their houses and shops. . . ."

At this moment the French troops holding the
crossing of the river opened fire on the Germans
with two machine-guns posted outside the town.
" The instant the French fired," continues the

30 b 18.

[Map i]

MONTIGNY-SURSAMBRE 59

Belgian witness, " the Germans set fire to houses
all along the main street — I believe the total
number was 131. They chased all the inhabitants
out, saying that there were French soldiers there.
There were no soldiers there, and they did not
find a single one. . . ,

" All these houses were totally destroyed. The
street opens out into a circular place. There they
burned every house except three, one of the in-
habitants of which spoke German and asked them
not to. They each carried a little bag containing
pellets of an explosive nature. ^^ They were a
regular corps of incendiaries, and each of them
had the word 'Gibraltar' on the left arm of his
tunic. There were others who set fire to houses
with petrol, but the regular incendiaries used these
explosive pellets. They were thrown in in hand-
fuls and made the fire burn very fiercely.

" About 10.30 p.m. about 200 hostages passed.
At about the same time they put about fifty men,
women, and children on the bridge over the
Sambre, and kept them there till 5 a.m. The
200 hostages I saw at 10.30 were from Montigny
itself. . . .

"On Saturday night (Aug. 22nd) many of the
Germans were drunk. They pillaged all the
shops. The whole town was full of them. ... A

^* The witness handed two samples of these to the Bryce
Committee,

[Map i]

60 FROM Llt^GE TO THE SAMBRE

school prepared for Red Cross work, with beds all
ready but not yet occupied by wounded, was burnt.
It was a large building belonging to the Christian
Brothers. Four of the latter were among the
hostages I saw at 10.30 p.m., and were very badly
treated. An officer, on inquiring what that large
building was which was on fire, and learning that
it was the Christian Brothers' temporary hospital,
said: 'That is stupid.' ^^ They marched the
Christian Brothers to Somzee, more than 20 kilo-
metres away. They beat them and tore their
clothes."

The witness himself was seized as a hostage
early on the morning of Aug. 23rd. "They
charged me with not keeping the population in
order, and said I was responsible for civilians
firing on the soldiers. I replied that 1 had told
everyone not to fire on the soldiers, and that I
was sure that they had not done so. I explained
that it was the French who had fired, and pointed
out the position of their machine-guns. An officer
said : ' It was the Garde Civique.' They had
been disbanded on the Friday night, but I had
not time to tell him so. All their rifles were in
the H6tel-de-Ville. The Germans themselves
had found them there and destroyed them, and

^2 Another officer sent a soldier to save a priest's house from
burning, when appealed to by the priest's niece, who spoke
German.

[Map i]

MONTIGNY-SUB-SAMBRE 61

set the H6tel-de-Ville on fire. The officer said he
would destroy the whole town with big guns.

" It was about an hour later when they took
three men from among the hostages and shot
them. It was said that these three had been found
hidden in a cellar, and that there had been a
revolver found in a chest of drawers on the first
floor. There was no trial of any sort. . . . When
they shot them, they told them to march forward,
and then said : ' Halt ! Right about turn ! ' and
shot them the moment they turned. Next day
they put up a notice that all persons found with
arms would be shot and their houses burnt."

After these executions, the witness and the rest
of the hostages were marched about the country-
side all day. As they started, they were harangued
by the German officer in command : " If we are
fired at in the villages we are going through, you
will all be shot. If we are not fired at, you will
be set at liberty to-morrow." At their evening
halt one of the hostages, a feeble-minded boy,
tried to escape. He was shot in the thigh, and
left to bleed to death. " The officer came up
upon hearing the shots. He repeatedly struck
the five men who were nearest the one who had
tried to escape, with clenched fists, and banged
their heads against the wall behind. Then he
ordered the soldiers to shoot them. They led

[Map I]

62 FROM LIBGE TO THE SAMBRB

them away a little distance and I heard the shots.
He was in such a rage he could hardly speak."

Next morning the witness was released, and
returned to Montigny with a pass. " I visited the
hospital," he states, " and saw twenty-seven lying
dead. = . . Several of them had been killed in the
presence of their wives."

At Bouffi,oulx^^ on Aug. 22nd, ten civilians
were killed — three of them being over sixty years
of age. " I saw a man lying dead in the street,"
states a witness, " shot through the chest about
fifty yards from his house. He was an old man
of sixty-five, in his ordinary clothes. His brother-
in-law told me, next day, that he had been dragged
out of his house when he was alone there with his
wife. ... In Boufiioulx about one-third of the
houses were burnt down, and they tried to burn
many others. I met one of my workmen sitting
on his doorstep crying because they had burnt
everything of his. I saw a friend dead in his
house in the Chaussee d'Acoz. He had been shot
in the chest, and his throat was cut." At Les
Tiennes the same witness saw twenty-five cottages
burning. He saw two men shot by the Germans
as they tried to get out of a cellar, through the
grating, to escape from the flames. In a hospital
he saw a man and his wife — the man had been
shot in the chest while getting out of his cellar;

^^ b 20 ; xxii p. 138.

[Map i]

BOUFFIOULX, ACOZ, GOUGNIES 63

the woman could not get out, and was found
there afterwards, terribly burnt. She died in hos-
pital of her injuries.

Aco2 ^* was evacuated by its inhabitants, at the
request of the French Command, as soon as the
Germans crossed the Sambre. " I met only very
few people," states Lieutenant Huck, one of the
German witnesses, who entered Acoz on Aug.
24th ; " they were remarkably friendly, and offered
me milk, and even water to wash with." In the
H6tel-de-Ville the Germans found the rifles and
cartridges— each packet of cartridges ticketed with
the owner's name — which had been deposited
here, as in most other Belgian communes, at the
Burgomaster's request. Shots, however, were
fired at the Germans from the deserted houses
(doubtless by a French patrol), whereupon the
Germans broke down the doors, shot the only
three inhabitants they found in the village, in-
cluding the cure, who was nearly seventy years
old, and set the village on fire. The Communal
building, the post-office, a convent, and a school
were among the houses burnt.

At Gougnies,^^ on Aug. 23rd, the Germans
burned twenty-seven houses, including one which
the owner had converted into a Red Cross

^^ Mercier ; Reply pp. 108-9 ; German White Book, App. 4;;
^* Reply p. 122 ; German White Book App. ■^^i-

[Map i]

64 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

hospital. Ten wounded French soldiers were
burnt to death in this house, and the owner, an
old man, was shot next day. Two other civilians
were shot at Gougnies, one of them being eighty-
three years old.

At Hansmne, in the Canton of W alcourt,
39 houses were burnt, at H ansinelle 73, at Somzee
34. " At Somzee," states a witness in the German
White Book,^^ " a number of civilians were shot "
— because a German transport column was fired
at by persons unascertained. In the Canton of
Walcourt, 260 houses were burnt altogether.

Von Billow's left flank columns crossed the
Sambre close under the western forts of Namnr.
At Jemeffe they burned 2 1 houses ; at Ham, 44 ;
at Auvelais they burned 123, and killed about 55
of the inhabitants. Above Auvelais, they crossed
the Sambre at T amines f' on Aug. 21st.

At Tamines, again, the French disputed the
Germans' passage. There was an artillery duel,
and French rifle fire swept the approaches to the
bridge. The Germans collected the inhabitants
of Tamines and lined them up as a screen. " We
were about 800 persons," states one witness,^^ " in-
cluding women and children. They put us into a

^6 App. 34.

^"^ b 14-15, 20 ; x p. 70 ; xi pp. 84-7 ; xxi pp. 1 19-123 ; Ann. 9
Morgan p. 97.
^^ xxi p. I20-.

[Map i]

CANTON OF WALCOURT, TAMINES 65

meadow on the road to Velaines, The French
ceased firing when they saw us. Then the German
army defiled past us." — " I was seized with my
father and brother," states another witness,^^ " in
the cellar where I had taken refuge. There were
about sixty of us, all men. The Germans put us
in front of them as a shield. The French there-
upon ceased firing. They allowed the Germans
to cross the bridge and mass themselves in close
formation, still preceded by us. About 5 o'clock
the French opened fire with machine-guns. We
threw ourselves on the ground ; some ten of us
were killed or wounded; the French did all they
could to spare us." A third witness*" watched the
scene from a house on the further side. As soon
as they were across, the people in the screen tried
to save themselves by turning into the first houses
beyond the bridge; the Germans fired on them,
and several ran mortally wounded into the house
in which the witness was standing, where they
died.

" During the battle," states the last witness but
one, "the Germans set fire to all the houses in the
Rue de la Station, the Place Saint-Martin, and
the Rue de Falisolle. They did not look to see
if there were people in the houses." Two hundred

XXI p. 122.

X p. 70.

[Map I]
G.T.

66 FROM LIME TO THE SAMBRE

and seventy-six houses were burnt down in
Tamines from first to last. Meanwhile, the sur-
vivors of the screen, their function accomplished,
were marched back and locked up for the night in
the church of les Alloux. " The children were
crying and screaming. . . . Everybody was
begging for mercy." "

The pillage and incendiarism continued through
the night. One household,*^ where the family had
taken refuge in the cellar since 5 p.m. on Aug.
2ist, was roused at 3 a.m. on the 22nd by German
soldiers beating on the door. " They came in with
their revolvers in their hands, saying : ' You see
the fire all round you. Get out of this ; it is all to
be burnt.' They then began to break everything,
and to set fire to the house by means of little
syringes. They broke the pumps to prevent us
from extinguishing the flames. They drove us out
with the butt-ends of their rifles. . . . Together
with the children, we climbed a twelve-foot wall
and found ourselves in a garden. German soldiers
fired at us from the road adjoining the garden.
My brother-in-law had two bullets in his left arm.
At the screams of the children (there were six of
them — four very young) the firing ceased. . . ."

The last act at Tamines was reserved for that
afternoon. " About 4.30," continues the witness,

*i xxi p. 120.

*2 xxi p. T2I.

[Map I]

TAMINES— WOMEN AND CHILDREN 67

" the German troops arrived at the Place Saint-
Martin in large numbers. Some soldiers saw us.
We came out, and they took us to a superior officer.
He drew his revolver, aimed it at the men of the
family, and told the soldiers that we must all be
shot. We knelt dov/n and begged for mercy for
the children. The soldiers then took us to the
station, where another officer said : ' They must
all be shot.' They set us against the wall and
the soldiers pointed their guns at us. My sister-
in-law went in search of the officer. The children
cried : ' Have mercy upon us.' Then the officer
called out : ' Halt ! ' He was quite a young man.
He sent us to the church of les Alloux, where
there were already 2,000 persons. The soldier
said : ' You have been firing on us ; you will all
be shot.' "

What happened to the men is told by one of
their number." " The Germans forced the in-
habitants (women and children as well as men)
to leave their houses and go to the church." While
we went out by the front door the Germans entered
by the back and set our houses on fire, so that in
a very short time the whole commune was one
vast furnace. When the whole population was
assembled at the church, the women and children

'^^ Morgan p. 97.

** Of Saint-Martin, adjoining the Place.

[Map i]

F 2

68 FROM LIEGE TO THE SAMBRE

were sent off towards the nunnery, while the men
— 400 of us — were forced to march in ranks of
four towards the open, between a double line of
German soldiers. While we were marching the
Germans kept on firing at us, and in this way piti-
lessly massacred a considerable number of my
fellow-citizens. Seeing that numbers of my com-
rades were being struck down by the shots, I fell
to the ground myself, though I was not wounded,
and remained lying there among the corpses,
without moving, till about midnight. That was
how I saved my life."

This witness was more fortunate than most.
At the first salvo ^^ nearly all the 400 had fallen,
whether wounded or not ; others had thrown them-
selves into the Sambre. The latter were drowned
or were shot by the Germans in the water. Those
lying unwounded on the ground got up upon a
German word of command, and were mown down
immediately by a second hail of bullets — this
time, it is said, from a machine-gun. Even then
only about half the 400 were dead ; the rest lay
wounded on the ground, and the Germans went
round the square, " finishing off " any who showed
signs of life by bayonet thrusts or blows from the
butts of their rifles. By the light of lanterns they
carried on the slaughter far into the night. Many

*' Reply p. 144.

[Map I]

TAMINES—THE MEN 69

of the slaughterers wore Red Cross badges on
their arms. The witness last quoted found after-
wards that only thirty of the 400 had survived,
and of these only four were unwounded besides
himself.

This witness was requisitioned next day for
burying the dead. '' On reaching the square,"
states another Belgian witness*® requisitioned for
the same task, " the first thing we saw was the
bodies of civilians in a mass, covering a space of
at least forty yards by six. They had evidently
been drawn up in rank to be shot. . . . Actually
fathers buried the bodies of their sons, and sons
the bodies of their fathers. The women of the
town had been marched out into the square, and
saw us at work. All around were the burnt houses.
In the square there were Germans — both officers
and soldiers. They were drinking champagne.
The more the evening drew on, the more they
drank. . . . We buried from 350 to 400 bodies.
. . . Then four mounted officers came into the
square, and, after a long consultation, we were
made to form into marching order, with our wives
and children as well. We were taken through
Tamines amid the debris which obstructed the
streets, and led to Velaines between two ranks of
soldiers. We all thought that we were going to

*^ xi pp. 85-6.

[Map i]

70 FROM LIME TO THE SAMBRE

be shot in the presence of our wives and children.
I saw German soldiers who could not refrain from
bursting into tears on seeing the women's
despair. . . ."

During the burial terrible incidents occurred.
The last witness saw a German doctor order a man
who was still alive to be buried with the rest.
" The plank on which he was lying was borne,
on again, and I saw the man raise his arm elbow-
high. They called to the doctor again, but he
signified by a gesture that he was to go into the
grave with the others."

Most terrible of all were the scenes of recogni-
tion. " I saw M. X carrying off the body of

his own son-in-law. He was able to take away
his watch, but was not allowed to remove some
papers which were on him." — "A friend," states
another witness,*^ " told me gently what had hap-
pened. I went to the public square and saw it
littered with corpses in all kinds of positions. I
did not see the bodies of my wife and child then.
... I saw them for the first time when the dead
were being buried that afternoon. My wife's body
had a stab in the head, and also one in the breast,
on the left side. My little girl had a stab in the
neck. I saw also the body of the cure of the
Church of les Alloux. His ears and one arm were

4^ b 15.

[Map I]

TAMINES—THE DEAD 71

cut and nearly severed from the body. Among
those who had been shot down the day before
was m)^ nephew, sixteen years of age." — " On
Aug. 24th," states one of the witnesses quoted
above/^ who had been confined in the Church of
les AUoux, "we went to the Place Saint-Martin,
where we saw traces of blood. My sister-in-law
recognised her husband's cap. We walked along
the Sambre, and saw corpses on the banks and in
the water. Of these last, forty-seven were taken
out of the river — my husband among them. At
the beginning of September, when the communal
authorities were permitted to exhume the bodies
and bury them in the old cemetery round the
church, we learnt that my father-in-law and
brother-in-law were among those shot, and my
husband among those who had been drowned."

In addition to the great massacre, the Germans
also committed isolated murders at Tamines. A
witness whose shop looked on to the square,^^ saw
them shoot a boy of fifteen, a girl of fifteen, and
her two little brothers of twelve and eight. They
also shot, in her sight, an old man of seventy
whom they had requisitioned to help them pick
up their own wounded. Three hundred and thirty-
six of the Belgian civilians killed by the Germans

XXI pp. 1 2 1-2.

b 14.

[Map i]

72 FROM LIME TO THE SAMBRE

at Tamines are known by name. The total number
of the victims runs to at least a hundred more.

The German column which had crossed the
Sambre at Tamines went forward towards the
south. At Falisolle they burned 31 houses; at
Arsimont, 163; at Fosse, 70. "Advanced with
my section into the village of Fosse," writes a
German officer in his diary. ^° " Some shots were
fired from a farm, so it was burnt, and Mey with
it. . . . When the battalion entered the village
there was a hail of bullets, so we burned the whole
village, and the Seventh Company got 2,000
francs." On the road from Fosse to Vitrival, a
fugitive Belgian soldier ^^ saw a party of civilian
refugees— ten women and several children — over-
taken by twenty-four Germans. "A soldier ap-
proached one of the women, intending to violate
her, and she pushed him away. He at once struck
the woman in the breast with his bayonet. I saw
her fall. Some of the man's comrades laugrhed
as he showed them the bayonet dripping with
blood. He then wiped the bayonet on his coat.
I am certain that the whole of the twenty-four
soldiers had been drinking."

At Roseli&s^^ the Germans killed the cure. At

°" Bland p. i6o.
^1 b 5. .
^- Mercier.

[Map I]

CANTON OF FOSSE 73

Biesmes ^" they killed eight civilians and burned
seventy-two houses. At Oret they burned seventy-
three houses. At St. Gerard they burned fifty-four
houses. At Ernieton-sur-B'iert they burned
eighty-six houses and killed six civilians. " In
front of the village of Ermeton," writes a German
diarist on Aug. 24th, ^* "we made 1,000 prisoners;
at least 500 were shot. The village was burnt
because there had been shooting by the inhabitants
too. Two civilians were shot at once. While
searching a house for beds we stuffed ourselves
to our heart's content. Bread, wine, butter, jelly,
and all sorts of other things were our booty. We
washed off the blood, and cleaned our side-arms.
. .' . That night we found our best quarters yet —
plenty of clean linen, preserved things, wine, salt
meat, and cigars. . . ."

This was how von Billow's Army made its pas-
sage of the Sambre. The whole tract along the
river, from the forts of Namur on the left flank
to the forts of Maubeuge on the right, was visited
with slaughter and devastation. A thousand and
eleven houses were burnt in the Canton of Fosse,
and 769 in twenty communes °^ of the Province of
Hainaut, Arrondissement Charleroi. In these
twenty communes — which include neither

^^ German White Book, App. 34.
^ Bryce pp. 177-8.
™ xxii pp. 140-1.

[Map'i]

74 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

Charleroi itself nor Montigny-sur-Sambre nor
Tamines (which lies just within the Province of
Namur) — 2,221 more houses were partially burnt
and pillaged; no men, 9 women, and 8 children
were killed; 34 men, 12 women, and 3 children
were wounded; more than 300 men, 250 women,
249 children, and 63 entire families disappeared.
The value of the houses burnt was 4,795,937
francs ; of the houses partially burnt or pillaged,
1,911,799 francs; of the goods and crops destroyed
or stolen, 2,914,014 francs; of the furniture
destroyed 2,850,529 francs; amounting to nearly
12,500,000 francs in all — and it is reckoned that
the destruction in the remaining communes of the
Arrondissement of Charleroi amounted to twice as
much again. To this must be added the official
requisitions of von Billow's Army and the war con-
tribution imposed upon the city of Charleroi and
its urban area, which was fixed at 10,000,000
francs.

(vi) From the Sambre to the Margie.

Maubeuge, the French fortress on the Sambre,
held out till Sept. 7th, but von Biilow swept past
it towards the Marne.

On Aug. 26th a Belgian civilian prisoner^*" saw
other civilians shot near Maubeuge, in a field.

5« b 21.

[Map 2]

3IAUBEUGE, ANDERLUES, ST. QUENTIN 75

" Those who were shot were those who were
running in front of the Germans and stopped a
little. Those who did not stop were not shot."

The diaries of German soldiers show von
Billow's columns pouring southward over France.

"Aug. 19th," writes one," "could not find the
regiment; remained with ammunition column.
Then, when we halted, plundered a villa, had
much wine.

"Aug. 22nd, bivouack near Anderlues.
Marauded terribly, fed magnificently.

"Aug. 26th, went into bivouack about 6 p.m.
As always, the surrounding houses were plundered
immediately. Found four rabbits, roasted them,
dined magnificently. Plates, cups, knives and
forks, glasses, etc. Eleven bottles of champagne,
four of wine, and six of liqueur were drunk.

"Aug. 27th, marched off at 6.30. All still
supplied with bottles of wine and champagne.

"Aug. 28th, Si. Quentin. Had to bivouack in
the market-place. Cleared out the houses,
dragged out beds into market-place, and slept on
them."

A second diarist ^^ takes up the tale : " Aug.
23rd, march through the big town of ' Zur-Sell.' "
{Courcelles, north-west of Charleroi, between

*' Bryce p. 176.
•^^ Bryce p. 174.

[Maps 2, 3]

76 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

Gosselies and Anderlues.) " The people stand in
the street, and give us whatever they have. . . ..

"Aug. 30th, march through the garrison town
of Noyon and are shot at from the houses. A
main bridge is blown up just before we can get
over it; we are under fire from all the houses in
front of us. Everyone goes for the houses im-
mediately, and everything is turned upside-down.
We happen to get into a hotel, and anything that
anyone can use is taken along. Here a steel
watch comes into my hands. A bakery is stormed ;
all shops are cleaned out. This makes it a good
day for us, for we eat what we like — biscuits, figs,
chocolates, preserves, marmalade. An English
officer shot with four men, because he wanted to
blow up a bridge ; otherwise everything quiet.

" Sept. I St, Soissons. Everything usable taken
along. Wine treated literally like water. . . ."

This was on von Billow's extreme right flank, in
contact with von Kluck. His other columns came
down the other side of Maubeuge, east of the
Sambre and the Oise. Between Landrecies and
Guise, a soldier ^^ in the British Army, retreating
before von Billow's advance, " saw a party of
women and children coming along a road. Imme-
diately behind them were about eight Uhlans, who
were pushing the women and children along in

'" g 14-

[Maps]

NOYON, SOISSONS, BRAISNE 77

front of them. The latter were screaming. . . . We
worked round the Uhlans' flank," the witness con-
tinues, " opened fire, and killed three of them.
The others were driven round to the rear of our
battalion and shot there. We found that the
civilian party consisted of seven or eight women
and five or six very young children. . . ."

Coming on through Laon, the Germans made
for the Aisne. "At Courtecon," writes a German
in his diary on Sept. 24th, " the inhabitants of the
village are rounded up and led away. The
assistant burgomaster is shot, because he is in
telephonic communication with the French Arm.y
and has thus betrayed our movements."

Crossing the Aisne, the Germans entered
Braisne, on the Vesle. " Two miles from
Braisne," states another British soldier,^ " I
saw an old man of about seventy lying in a
garden with his head split open by a sabre,
and a young man on the ground shot dead. In
the next garden I saw another young man, about
twenty, tied to a tree and riddled with shot as if
they had been practising at him. There had been
a lot of destruction there, and the people were
starving."

This was what von Billow's troops left behind
them in their retreat; but they penetrated far

^° Bryce p. 191.

[Map 3]

78 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

further than the Aisne before they were turned
back. Following the road from Soissons on the
Aisne to Chateau-Thierry on the Marne, the
Uhlans came to H artennes-et-T aux "^ on Sept.
2nd. " They pillaged the whole commune," states
the Mayor, "carrying off linen, wine, and jewel-
lery."— " The inhabitants," it is stated in a report
from the British General Staff, " had all taken
refuge in the cellars of their houses. There were
only three men in the village, the rest of the popula-
tion consisting entirely of women and children." A
French cavalry patrol fired on the Uhlans and
retired; the Uhlans searched the village, and
finding the three civilian men in a cellar where
they had taken refuge, heaped straw at the open-
ing of the cellar and suffocated them to death.
*' I saw them light the fire," states a witness, " and
heard the men in the cellar coughing. After about
twenty minutes, when the fire had gone out, I was
ordered to go and fetch the bodies. I got out two,
and fell half-suffocated myself." ^^

At Bezu St.-Germain^^ two Germans violated a
girl of thirteen. At Chierry ^^"^ they plundered

^1 One 457-460 ; Bland pp. 325-6.

*^^ The Germans appear to have thought that the men in the
cellar were the soldiers who had fired on them, but this does not,
of course, excuse their action.

^^ One 447-8.

^^"- One 437-9.

[Map 3]

HARTENNES, CHlTEAU -THIERRY 79

houses and chateaux. "At the Chateau of
Varolles,'' states a gardener's wife, " I saw them
feeding the fire with petrol and using torches to
spread the flames. I also saw them looting the
cellars. There were officers there." At the Chateau
of Sparre, " pictures had been taken out of their
frames and carried off, the tapestries in the dining-
room had been ripped up with sword-cuts. The
mirrors were broken. The whole cellar had been
sacked." The damage done to these two chateaux
was estimated respectively at 20,000 and 110,000
francs.

At Chateau-Thierry ^^ a band of soldiers broke
into a house at night. First the owner was bound ;
his wife escaped to a neighbour's by the window,
but four soldiers followed her and violated her
there in turn. Two other soldiers violated this
lady's niece, aged thirteen. " Chateau-Thierry
was completely pillaged," states the acting mayor.
" The work was done under the officers' eyes, and
the loot was cari-ied away in waggons. German
prisoners have been found in possession of jewels
stolen here, and articles of clothing obtained from
the plunder of the shops have likewise been found
among the effects of German doctors who remained
behind at Chateau-Thierry when their army left —

^^ One 454-6.

[Map 3]

80 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

and this at the moment when these doctors were
being exchanged."

At Charmel ^^ tiie Germans, arriving on Sept.
3rd, pillaged the houses and cellars and burned a
chateau. A woman was violated by a soldier.
" He stretched me on a table," she states, " and
gripped me by the throat." At [aulgonne,^^ on
the same date, the Prussian Guard pillaged pro-
perty worth about 250,000 francs and killed two
civilians- — one eighty-seven, and the other sixty-
one years old. The former was found lying shot
in a field; the second was seen by the Germans
talking to a French soldier (who escaped), and
was seized as a hostage — he was killed next morn-
ing. " One of the Germans," states a witness,
" gave him a bayonet stroke in the side. There
was a dreadful rattling in his throat, and they
finished him off with a revolver-shot in the fore-
head."— " I found two wounds," states the man
who afterwards buried him, " one in the stomach,
through which the intestines were protruding, and
another in the head." On Sept. 3rd the Germans
also entered Varennes. " We are received with a
heavy fire," states one of the diarists quoted
above,®^ who had marched thither from Noyon.
" It has cost the battalion four dead and several

8° One 444-5.
^^ One 440-2.
^'^ Bryce p. 174.

[Map 3j

JAVLGONNE, VARENNES, CR^ZANCF 8l

wounded. Corpses are lying about everywhere
in the street. — Sept. 6th, the village is set
on fire, because civilians have joined in the
shooting."

Crossing the Marne, von Billow's troops mur-
dered, at Mezy-Moulins,^^ an old man of seventy-
two. At Crezancy "^^ they pillaged a chateau — the
damage was estimated by an expert at 123,844
francs. The owner was not present — fortunately
for himself, for a shopkeeper at Crezancy, who
protested against the looting of his shop, was
driven off, blindfolded and stumbling, but urged
on by blows and bayonet thrusts, to Charly, where
he was shot. Another inhabitant of Crezancy was
also taken to Charly and killed. " He had a
lance-thrust or bayonet-thrust near the heart."
Another, a young man of eighteen, was dragged
out of a house and shot on Sept. 3rd, the day the
Germans arrived. After the murder, the German
ofScer inquired whether the victim were a soldier,
and remarked, on learning that he was not : " Well,
he might have become one, anyway." Kx. Con-
nigis ^' the Germans murdered a man and violated
a girl in the presence of her mother-in-law, taking
it in turns to keep her father-in-law at a distance
— her husband was with the colours.

<« Five 65-6.
^^ One 449-452.
70 One 432-4, 453-

[Map 3]
G,T, G

82 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

Passing out of the Department of the Aisne
into the Department of the Marne, von Billow's
Army came to Montmirail, on the Petit Morin.
Some of his officers lodged in the neighbouring
Chdteaii of Beau7nont "^ — their traces were the
words " Excellenz," " Major von Ledebur,"
" Graf Waldersee," chalked up on the doors, and
the state in which they left the chateau. In the
town of Montmirail/^ on the night of Sept. 4th, a
non-commissioned officer assaulted a lady in the
house where he was billeted. " When I called for
help," she states, " my father, aged seventy-one,
rushed up to protect me. At this moment about
fifteen or twenty soldiers who v/ere billeted on
one of our neighbours broke open our front door,
seized my father, dragged him into the street, and
shot him to death. They began trampling furiously
on his body, and my daughter, aged thirteen,
opened her window to see what was making so
much noise. She was struck by a bullet, which
passed right through her, and died in agony after
twenty-four hours."

\ At Fontaine -Arm,ee^^ in the Commune of Rieux,
they pillaged a farm and shot the farmer, who
would not leave his fields. His wife found his
body. " He had received shots in the head which

" One 128.
'^^ One iic-2.
^* Five 17-8.

BEAUMONT, CHAMPGUYON, ESTERN AY S8

had blown out his eyes. A sum of 800 francs
which he had on him had disappeared."

At Gault-le-Foret'^*' they carried off a garde-
champetre and shot him in a neighbouring vil-
lage. A farmer, his wife, and his little son of
eleven were fleeing from their farm for fear it
should be burnt over their heads. As they fled
the farmer was shot dead, the wife received a
bullet in the thigh, and the child was hit in the
calf and died a week later of gangrene.

At Chamfguyon ^^ they burned fifteen houses,
using hand-grenades, petrol,, and one of their
special inflammatory liquids. They shot three
civilians in cold blood, besides two French
prisoners of war. One man was dragged to his
death before the eyes of his wife. "The blood
was pouring from his ears. I could do nothing
to help him, for his tormentors thrust their rifle-
muzzles at my tHroat."

At Esietnay^'^ on Sept. 6th, the Germans pil-
laged nine-tenths of the houses. " The pillage
was organised/' states the Mayor's Assessor; ^' the
objects taken were loaded on carts. My wife
saw them put a sideboard on a cart which the pil-
lagers had filled with bottles of champagne."
Thirty-six hostages were seized, including ten

^* One 69-72.

'^» One 107-9 5 Five 35-6, 42-3.

^^ One 1 13-7 ; Bland pp. 97-100.

G 2

84 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

women — one of them with a baby six months old.
A man was dragged into the street and shot in
front of the church. Five women were discovered
by the Germans hiding in a cellar. "Are you
going to kill old women?" asked one of them.
They hustled her out of the room, and shouted
to the rest : " All strip naked." None of them
moved; the Germans aimed their rifles; a woman
raised her arm to push aside one of the barrels,
and the Germans fired. Two women were
wounded, one of whom died next day^

Chdtillon-sur-Monn " was pillaged by the
Germans on Sept. 6th. They burned twenty-one
houses out of thirty-six, and two French soldiers
perished in the flames. They pillaged Cotd-r-
givaux '^ on the same date, and murdered a cow-
herd. " There was a bullet wound in the back of
his head and a bayonet wound in his chest," But
von Billow penetrated no further to the south, for
here d'Esperay fell upon him. from the west, and
Foch from Sezanne,

This was the track of von Billow's right. His
left wing — the Prussian Guard — came down by
the road that leads through Hirson and Reims
and Epernay.

At Courey, north-east of Reims, their work is

" Five 51.
'^ Five 25-6.

[Map 3]

CHlTILLON-SUR-MORIN, REIMS 85

recorded by a German soldier stationed there a
month afterwards. " The village and the work-
men's houses," he writes in his diary, "^^ " have
been looted and gutted from top to bottom.
Horrible. There is, after all, something in all the
talk about the German barbarians."

The Germans entered Reims ^^ on Sept. 3rd.
" There was no fighting either in the town itself
or in the immediate neighbourhood," states the
Mayor, " and the forts had been evacuated by our
troops." The Germans imposed requisitions on
Reims, for which they demanded a security of
1,000,000 francs in cash, and. on Sept. 4th the
Mayor was negotiating about this with German
officers at the H6tel-de-Ville when a German bat-
tery began to bombard the town. On this occa-
sion the damage suffered by the cathedral was
slight, and the bombardment did not begin again
till Sept. 1 2th, when the town was evacuated by
the Germans. On that date they seized a body
of civilian hostages to cover their retreat. A
proclamation was posted in the streets, signed
" The General Commanding," and dated " Reims,
Sept. I2th, 1914." — "In order," it announced,
" sufficiently to ensure the safety of our troops
and the tranquillity of the population of Reims,

^s* Bland p. 200.

'■^ One 121 ; Bryce p. 185 ( = Bland pp. 102-4; "Scraps o\
Paper" pp. 24-5).

[Map 3]

86 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

the persons mentioned have been seized as
hostages by the Commander of the German Army.
These hostages will be shot if there is the least
disorder. On the other hand, if the town remains
absolutely quiet, these hostages and inhabitants
will be placed under the protection of the German
Army." The Mayor was compelled to make the
same announcement in a proclamation signed by
himself. A list of eighty hostages was appended,
with a note that "several others" had been taken
as well. " A hundred hostages," states the Mayor
in his evidence, " including myself, were led out
into the country, five hundred yards beyond the
last houses of Reims." The work of destruction
that followed is notorious. Driven out of the
town, the Germans vented their spite on the cathe-
dral and the inhabitants. By October 7th, 19 14,
three hundred of the civilian population which
the German Army had "taken under its protec-
tion " had already been killed by German shells.
Marfaux^^ south-west of Reims, was entered
by the " Elisabeth Regiment " of the Prussian
Guard on Sept. 3rd. " Nineteen houses were
burnt out of thirty-six," states an inhabitant ; " the
pillage was systematic. The valuables and linen
taken by the soldiers were loaded at once on
waggons. I and several other inhabitants tried

so One 67-8.

[Map 3]

REIMS, MARFAUX, J ON QUERY 87

to save our beasts. We were immediately seized
and lined up against a wall by order of the Com-
mandant. We were kept there till lo next
morning."

At fonquery,^^ on Sept. 3rd, a German aeroplane
alighted, and was followed by a detachment of
infantry in the course of the day. Next day the
Mayor was conveyed by a German officer in a
motor-car to the spot where the aeroplane lay,
and was informed (though this was not the fact)
that inhabitants of the commune had fired on the
aviators, and carried off the corpse of one of them
towards Romigny. " He gave me till 8 o'clock
next morning," states the Mayor, '^to reveal the
names of these persons. If I failed to furnish the
information, I should be shot and the village
burnt." Next morning the Mayor was duly
seized, taken to a farm, and placed against a wall
with three other men and a woman. One of the
men attempted to escape, and the Germans shot
him. Then they led the Mayor round the com-
mune, to make the people come out of doors with
their cattle. "At this moment the school was set
on fire, and soon seventeen houses out of the
thirty-five in the village were in flames."

Efernay^"" on the Marne, was for a brief time

*^ Five 40-1.

*^ " Scraps of Paper " pp. 20-3.

[Map 3]

88 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

the quarters of von Moltke, the Chief of the
German General Staff. " Private property," he
announced in a proclamation dated " Epernay,
Sept. 4th, 19 1 4," and signed with his name, "will
be absolutely respected by the German troops.
Supplies of all kinds serving the requirements
of the German troops, and particularly provisions,
will be paid for in cash." Meanwhile, the Direc-
tor of the Commissariat of the Prussian Guard,
an official named Kahn, had demanded from the
municipality, for Sept. 5th, 120,000 kilogram.mes
of oats, 21,000 of bread, 500 of roasted coffee,
10,000 of preserved vegetables and semolina, and
12,000 of salt bacon and lard. The municipality
met the whole of this requisition within the ap-
pointed time, except for the salt bacon, of which
there were only 2,000 kilos in the town; where-
upon Kahn imposed a fine of 176,550 francs on
Epernay, payable on Sept. 6th at noon, " for
having failed to deliver in time the provisions
necessary for the troops." An emergency meet-
ing of the municipal council was held that evening
at 9.15 p.m. "In spite of the Mayor's en-
deavours," it is recorded in the minutes of this
meeting, "he had not been able to obtain either
the items of the sum claimed or any reduction in
the am.ount of the fine. In default of paym^ent
of this sum, the German authorities threatened

[Map 3]

E PERN AY, MONTMORT, FROMENTlMES 89

to take the most rigorous proceedings against the
population itself, and to conduct forcible perquisi-
tions in the houses of the inhabitants. On
account of the threats made," the municipality
appealed to private individuals to collect the sum
demanded. Von Biilow, in his proclamation of
the day before, had informed the people of
Epernay that the civil authorities, by obeying his
injunctions, were " in a position to save the in-
habitants from the terrors and scourges of war."
But on Sept. 5th the Chief of the German
General Staff had other things on his mind.

At Mo7ttmort,^^ across the Marne, on Sept. 5th,
the Prussian Guard shot a notary whom they met
on the road, and another person, unidentified.
At la Caure^^ on Sept. 6th, they burned six
houses, and twice tried to set the Mairie on
fire. An officer to whom the Mayor protested
replied, " It is war." — " The incendiarism," states
the Mayor, "was the work of pure malice, for
there had been no fighting in the village, and the
Germans alleged no complaint." At Corfelix^^
on Sept. 7th, the Germans carried off twelve host-
ages and shot one of them on the road. At Fro-
mentieres^'^ on the same date, they drove all the

^^ Five 12-4.
8* Five 50.
"5 One loi.
^^ One 99.

[Map 3J

90 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

remaining inhabitants into the church at the point
of their bayonets, confined them there for three
hours, and plundered the village at their leisure
— a method already practised in the villages round
Louvain.®^

At Baye^^ the Germans pillaged practically
every house in the village, but they busied them-
selves above all with the chateau, which contained
a famous collection of objects of art, and was
appropriated as quarters by the Duke of Bruns-
wick and the staff of the Tenth German Corps.
Baron de Baye's own bedroom suffered worst of
all. " The drawers had been left open and
numbers of objects were lying scattered about the
floor." The words "I. K. Hoheit " and " Egel-
berg " were found chalked up on the bedroom
door. "On Sept. 7th," states an inhabitant of
Baye, " I was requisitioned by the Germans to
pick up at the chateau a cart loaded with four
packing-cases and drive it to the neighbourhood
of Rethel. The cart was ready loaded, and I had
only to harness my horse to it. When I reached
my destination three of the cases, which were
badly nailed up, were emptied into a waggon.
They were full of little parcels. The third was
not opened. It was loaded on the waggon as it
was."

^" See Vol. I. p. 139.
^* One 123-5

[Map 3]

BAYE, BAIZIL, ETOGES 91

i.A.t Baizil,^'^ on Sept. 5th, three Germans entered
a house, tried unsuccessfully to violate the owner's
two daughters, and then shot his wife in the
stomach — out of spite because the others had
escaped. The woman died in hospital on Oct.
loth. Etoges^^ too, was pillaged on Sept. 5th.
" The cellars, in particular, were completely
emptied," states the Mayor. " Women attached
to the Germian Red Cross," he adds, " participated
in the thefts committed at the general shop,
chateau, and private houses." There were fifteen
inhabitants hiding in a cellar, and one of them
went out because a German had fired at a pile of
straw near the entrance of the cellar and set it on
fire. The others heard him cry : " Mercy ! Don't
hurt me ! I have a wife and children." A moment
after they, too, were dragged out by the Germans
and saw his corpse lying by a wall. His wife,
daughter, and sister were among the party, and
heard the words he spoke. At Beaunay " a civilian
was shot at by an Uhlan, but escaped with a wound.
Coizard ^^ was pillaged, and seven houses there
were burnt. A French officer, wounded and a
prisoner, was murdered by the Germans, in a farm
near Coizard, when they were compelled to retreat.

83 Five 15-6.
^^ Five 19-22.
^^ Five 23-4.
^2 Five 54-6.

[Map 3J

92 FROM THE SAMBRE TO THE MARNE

At Vert-la-Gravelle ^^ a peasant was wounded
mortally by a lance-thrust. He dragged himself
to the door of a house and died. At lo. Fere Cha?n-
fenoise ^* the town clerk was carried away captive
by a detachment of the Prussian Guard.

The column to which this detachment belonged
had come down the high road which runs south-
ward through Vertus from Epernay. They were
the extreme left wing of von Billow's Army, and
they penetrated as far south as his right, which
had come through Chateau-Thierry and Mont-
mirail to the Grand Morin. His centre, striving
to keep in line, descended from Fromentieres and
Baye and Coizard into the hollow basin of St.
Gond, where the Petit Morin River takes its rise.
The battalions and batteries of the Prussian Guard
adventured themselves on the solid-seeming clay,
but on Sept. gth the rain came down and turned
the clay to mire. The Prussian Guard were caught
by the French fire as they battled with the waters,
and were smitten like Pharaoh and his hosts.

^^ One 104.
9^ One 105-6.

[Map 3]

V. BETWEEN NAMUR AND VERDUN.

Andenne and Namiir.

The Marshes of St. Gond were the mid-point
of a battle-iine which stretched from the Oise to
the Argonne, and ran on eastwards from the
A.rgonne to the Vosges. In history, perhaps, it
will be remembered as the line on which German
strategy was foiled; for the people of France, it
was the limit of German outrage and devastation.
North and east of that line there was murder, rape,
plunder, arson; south and west of it the farms
and villages stood, and the women and children
only knew by hearsay the fate which — over there —
had been inflicted on their flesh and blood by the
invaders. In the preceding chapters of this and
of a former volume'® the course of half these
invading armies has been described — from the
German frontier, where the terror began, to the
limit set by defeat. The other half of the record
remains to be told, and it could be told in equal
detail, town by town, hom.estead by homestead,
from the testimony of those who survived the

®° " The German Terror in Belgium." ,

[Frontispiece]

§4 ANDENNE AND NAMVE

outrages and of those who inflicted them. For the
individual actors in the tragedy each scene was
equally intense; from day to day the guilt and
agony were renewed ; they were as poignant at
la Fere Champenoise on Sept. 6th as on
Aug. 4th at Vise by Liege. But for those who
read the tale there comes a point where imagina-
tion rebels or is blurred by mere repetition, and
the remainder shall therefore be more briefly
written — to complete the record rather than to
sharpen the impression.

Half the German armies crossed the Meuse
between Liege and the Dutch frontier, and
wheeled through Belgium into France. The
other half crossed the river higher up, between
Namur and Verdun, overran the Champagne fiats,
and penetrated into the hill-country of the
Argonne. The two groups were linked together
by the left flank columns of von Billow, whose
task was to seize the crossings of the Meuse
bety/een Liege and Namur and take the fortress
of Namur itself, while von Billow's main body
swept forward through the open country to the
north and w^est.

In the struggle for the passage of the Meuse

the civil population suffered as cruelly as on the

Sambre. In the Arrondissement of Huy, above

Liege, 255 houses were destroyed, and about

[Frontispiece]

ELY, ANDENNE 95

58 people killed.^** Further up the river, at
Andenne^'^ in the Province of Namur, 250 people
were killed and 'i,'] houses destroyed. The Bel-
gian Reply to the German White Book sum-
marises the evidence as to how the massacre
occurred : —

" The town of Andenne is situated on the right
bank of the Meuse, between Namur and Huy. A
bridge gives it communication with Seilles, which
is built beside the river, on the left bank. Before
the war Andenne had a population of 7,800 souls.

" The German troops, wishing to cross to the
left bank, reached Andenne on the morning of
Wednesday, Aug. igth. The advance-guard of
Uhlans reported that the bridge was useless; it
had been blown up the same day at about 8 a.m.
by a Belgian infantry regiment. The Uhlans
withdrew after seizing the communal funds and
ill-using the Burgomaster, Dr. Camus. The latter
had for several days past taken the most minute
precautions to prevent the population taking any
part in hostilities. Notices enjoining calmness had
been posted, and all arms collected in the Town

^® Flemalle : a 19, 21 ; xvii p. 65. Huy : b 4 ; xvii p. 61. (N.B.
In the following notes, where no reference is given after a name,
the implied reference is to the statistical tables on pp. 139-144 of
the Belgian Government's Reply and in Annexe 2 to the Belgian
Commission's Reports).

^ b 1-4 and Bryce p. 184 ; xi p. 87 ; xxi p. 123 ; Reply iii and
pp. 464-8 ; German White Book B.

[Map I]

96 ANDENNE AND NAMVR

Hall. The authorities had approached some of
the inhabitants personally to explain to them what
they should do.

" The main body of the troops reached Andenne
in the afternoon. The regiments spread through
the town and its suburbs while awaiting the com-
pletion of a bridge of boats, which was not finished
till the next day.

" The first meeting of the invaders with the
townsfolk was peaceable enough. The troops
made requisitions and obtained what they
demanded. At first the soldiers paid for their
purchases and for the drinks which they had in
the cafes. But towards evening the situation
changed for the worse in this respect. Whether
it was that discipline slackened or that alcohol
began to take effect, the soldiers refused to pay
the inhabitants, who were too frightened to dare
to raise objections. There was no trouble, and the
night passed without incident.

" On Thursday, Aug. 20th, the bridge was ready
and the troops passed in great numbers through
the town, making for the left bank of the Meuse.
The inhabitants watched their passage from inside
their houses. Suddenly, at about 6 p.m., a rifle-
shot rang out in the street, and was immediately
followed by a burst of firing. The movement of
troops was arrested and the ranks fell into

[Map i]

ANDENNE—THE OUTBREAK 97

disorder, panic-stricken soldiers firing at random.
A machine-gun posted at a cross-roads opened fire
on the inhabitants. One field-gun was unlimbered
and discharged three shells at the town in three
different directions.

"At the first shot the inhabitants of the streets
through which the soldiers were passing guessed
what was about to happen, and took refuge in their
basements or climbed over walls and garden-
hedges and sought safety in the fields or in distant
cellars. A certain number of men who would not,
or could not, flee were soon killed.

" The sack and pillage of the houses in the chief
streets of the town began immediately. Wmdows,
shutters, and doors were smashed with hatchets;
pieces of furniture were broken open and
destroyed. The soldiers rushed into the cellars,
drank themselves drunk, broke all the bottles of
wine they could not carry off, and finished up by
setting some of the houses alight. During the
night the firing burst out again several times. The
whole population, trembling with fear, hid them-
selves in their cellars.

"On the morrow, Friday, Aug. 21st, at 4 a.m.,
the soldiers scattered through the town and hunted
all the population into the streets, compelling men,
women, and children to walk with their hands
above their heads. Those who were too slow in

[Map i]
G.T. II

98 ANDENNE AND NAMVR

obeying, or who did not understand orders given
them in German, were immediately struck down.
All who tried to escape were shot. It was at this
stage that Dr. Camus, for whom the Germans
seemed to reserve their special hatred, was killed.

"A Flemish clockmaker, who had only started
business in the town a short time before, left his
house when the soldiers ordered him out, sup-
porting his father-in-law, an old man of over
eighty. This, of course, prevented him from
holding up both his hands. A soldier rushed at
him and struck him on the neck with his hatchet.
He fell dying before his own door, and when his
wife tried to go to his assistance she was driven
indoors and had to look on helplessly at her hus-
band's death-agonies. A soldier threatened to
shoot her Math his revolver if she crossed the
threshold.

" In the meantime, the whole population was
driven towards the Place des Tilleuls. Old
men, sick people, even helpless invalids, were
taken there on barrows, while others were helped
or carried by their relations. The men were then
separated from the women and children. All were
searched, but no arms were found on them. One
unlucky man had some empty German or Belgian
cartridge cases in his pocket. He was immediately
seized and led aside. The same thing happened

[Map i]

AN DEN NE— THE MASSACRE 99

to a shoemaker who had had a wound in his finger
for a month past. A mechanic was arrested for
having in his pocket a screw-wrench, which was
considered to be a weapon; and another man,
because his expression appeared to show indiffer-
ence to, or contempt for, what was going on around
him. All these poor men were shot out-of-hand in
the sight of the crowd. They met their end
bravely.

" At their officers' command the soldiers selected
forty or fifty men at random from the assemblage,
led them away and shot them, some by the Meuse,
the rest near the police-station.

" The men were for a long time kept in the
square. Two unfortunates had been brought
there, one of whom was shot in the breast, the
other wounded by a bayonet thrust. They lay
face downwards on the ground, reddening the
dust with their blood and begging for water.
The officers forbade the Germans to assist them;
a soldier was reprimanded for wanting to offer his
water-bottle to the wounded men, both of whom
died in the course of the day.

" While this tragedy was being enacted in the
Place des Tilleuls, other bodies of troops spread
themselves over the neighbouring districts, pur-
suing their work of destruction, pillage, and in-
cendiarism. Seven men belonging to the same

[Map i]

H 2

100 ANDENNE AND NAMUR

family were taken into a meadow fifty yards away
from the home of one of them, where some of them
were shot and the rest killed and mutilated with
axes. A tall, red-haired soldier, with his face
marked by a scar, distinguished himself by the
ferocious way in which he mutilated the victims.
A child was killed in its mother's arms by blows
from an axe. One young boy and one woman
were shot.

"At about lo a.m. the officers sent the v/omen
back with orders to remove the dead and clean
up the pools of blood which reddened the streets
and houses. At noon the surviving men, about
800 in number, were interned as hostages in three
little houses near the bridge. They were not
allowed out on any pretext, and were so closely
packed that they could not possibly sit down.
In a short while these prisons became stinking
pest-houses. The women were presently invited
to take food to their relations. Many of
them had fled, fearing violation. The hostages
were not released finally till the follov/ing
Tuesday.

" The statistics of the sack of Andenne are
these : nearly 300 people were butchered in
Andenne and Seilles; about 200 houses were
burnt in the two places together. Many of the
inhabitants are missing. Almost all the houses

[Map I]

ANDENNE—THE HOSTAGES 101

were ransacked and pillaged. The pillaging
lasted several days.

" The many townspeople who have been ques-
tioned are unanimous in maintaining that not a
single shot was fired at the troops. As they can-
not account for the catastrophe which bathed their
town in blood, they put forward various sugges-
tions to explain it. Many of them are convinced
that Andenne was sacrificed to establish a reign
of terror. They instance words dropped by officers
which go to show that the sacking of the town was
premeditated, and recall remarks made by troops
marching towards Andenne, to the effect that they
were going to burn the town and massacre the
whole population. They think that the destruc-
tion of the bridge, the blocking of a tunnel near
by, and the resistance of the Belgian troops were
among the causes of the massacre. All of them
maintain that nothing could possibly justify, or
excuse the behaviour of the German forces."

The whole Canton of Andenne^^ was ravaged
as the Germans flooded up the right bank
of the Meuse, and then the wave of destruction
swept over Namur?'^ What happened here Is

^* Goyet : xv p. 21. Haltinne. Maizeret. Loyers.
^ b 8, 11-12; Bryce p. 184; xi pp. 81-4; vii p. 53; Bland
p. 127.

[Map i]

102 ANDENNE AND NAMUR

recorded in the Eleventh Report of the Belgian
Commission : —

"On Aug. 2 1 St, 19 14, the Germans bombarded
the town of Namur, without any previous notice
being given. The bombardment began at about
I p.m. and continued for twenty minutes. The
besieger was in possession of long-range guns,
which enabled him to fire upon the town before
the forts had been taken. Shells fell upon the
prison, the hospital, the burgomaster's house, and
the railway station, causing conflagrations and
killing several persons.

"On Aug. 23rd the German Army pierced the
exterior line of defence, and the Belgian 4th Divi-
sion retreated by the angle between the rivers
Sambre and Meuse, while the greater number of
the forts were still uninjured and continuing to
resist. The German troops penetrated into the
town of Namur on the same day about 4 p.m.

" On this day order was preserved ; officers and
soldiers requisitioned food and drink paying for
them sometimes with coined money, more often
with requisition-certificates. Most of the latter
were bogus documents, but the townspeople were
trustful and ignorant of the German language,
and so accepted them without making difficulties.

" Matters went on in the same way on Aug. 24th

[Map i]

NAMUR—INCENDIARISM 103

till 9 o'clock in the evening. At that hour shoot-
ing suddenly began in several quarters of the
town, and German infantry were seen advancing in
skirmishing order down the principal streets.
Almost at the same moment an immense column
of smoke and fire was seen rising from the central
quarter of the place ; the Germans had fired houses
in the Place d'Armes and four other spots, the
Place Leopold, Rue Rogier, Rue St. Nicolas,
and the Avenue de la Plante.

" All was now panic among the peaceable and
defenceless townsfolk. The Germans began break-
ing open front doors with the butts of their rifles,
and throwing incendiary matter into the vestibules.
Six dwellers in the Rue Rogier, who were flying
from their burning houses, were shot on their own
doorsteps. The rest of the inhabitants of this
street were forced to avoid a similar fate by escap-
ing through their back gardens. Many of them
were in t'-eir night-clothes, for they had not the
time to dress or to pick up their money.

" In the Rue St. Nicolas several workmen's
dwellings were set on fire, and a larger number,
together with some wood-yards, were burnt in
the Avenue de la Plante.

" The conflagration in the Place d'Armes con-
tinued till Thursday. It destroyed the Town
Hall, with its archives and pictures, the adjacent

[Map i]

104 ANDENNE AND NAMUR

group of houses, and the whole quarter bounded
by the Rue du Pont, the Rue des Brasseurs, and
the Rue Bailly, with the exception of the Hotel
des Quatre Fils Aymon.

" No serious attempt was made to prevent the
fire from spreading. At its commencement some
of the townspeople came out at the summons of
the fire-bell, but they were forbidden to stir from
their houses. The Chief of the Fire Brigade,
though the bullets were whistling round him, got
as far as the site of the disaster; but an officer
arrested him in the Place d'Armes, and then,
acting under the orders of his superior, sent him
away under an escort.

"The Germans, with the object of justifying
their proceedings, alleged that shots had been
fired against their troops on the Monday evening.
Every circumstance demonstrates the absurdity of
this statement. The juxtaposition of observed
facts and the sequence of concordant evidence
lead to the conclusion that the incidents at Namur
were deliberately prepared, and merely formed
part of the general system of terrorism which was
habitually practised by the German Army in
Belgium.

" Fifteen days back the people of Namur had
given over to the Belgian authorities all the fire-
arms that they possessed. They had been

[]\Iap i]

NAMUR^PILLAGE 105

informed by official notices about the rules laid
down in the laws of war, and had been called on by
the civil and military authorities, by the clergy, and
the Press to take no part with the belligerents. The
Belgian troops had evacuated the town thirty-six
hours before the conflagration. The people, even
if they had possessed weapons, would not have
been so insane as to rise and attack the masses
of German troops who filled the town and
occupied all its approaches. And how can any-
one account for the strange fact that, at all the
five points at which the alleged rising was sup-
posed to have broken out, the Germans were found
in possession of the incendiary substances which
were required for the prompt burning of the
place ?

" The disorder which followed assisted the
pillage in which the German Army habitually
engages. In the Place d'Armes houses were
thoroughly sacked before they were set on fire.
In the quarter by the Gate of St. Nicolas the
inhabitants, when they returned to their homes,
found that everything had been plundered; in
one case a safe had been broken open and 17,000
francs' worth of securities had disappeared.

" On the following days, though things were
comparatively quiet, pillage continued. In several
houses where German officers were quartered the

[Map i]

106 ANDENNE AND NAMUR

furniture was broken up, and wine and under-
clothing (even female underclothing) was stolen.

" Our witnesses have detailed to us several out-
rages on women. In one case we have evidence
concerning the rape of a girl by four soldiers. A
Belgian quartermaster of gendarmes saw the
daughter of the proprietor of the hotel in which
he was staying outraged by two German soldiers,
without being able to intervene for her protec-
tion, at 4 o'clock in the morning.

" Many inhabitants of Namur perished during
the fire and the fusillade. Some aged people
were left in the burning houses ; others were killed
in the streets or shot in their own dwellings. In
all, seventy-five civilians perished in one or other
of these ways on Aug. 23rd, 24th, and 25th."

" We crossed Namur during the bombardment
of the town," states a Belgian soldier,^ " and the
streets were full of the corpses of men, some Bel-
gian soldiers, priests, women, and children. I
also saw the headless corpses of a woman and
child lying over a balcony of a house in one of the
streets. I think they had been killed during the
bombardment of the town. In a street at Namur
I and my two comrades (we had changed into
civilian clothes meantime) mixed with a crowd of

1 b 8.

[Map i]

NAMUR— MASSACRE 107

about 150 people, when the German soldiers came
up from side streets and without a word of warning
fired on the unarmed people. Only ten persons
escaped — I being one of them."

When Namur had fallen it was the turn of
the villages on the north,^ sheltered hitherto by
the circle of the Namur forts. At Champion, on
Aug. 24th, 10 houses were burnt and the popula-
tion imprisoned in the church for shots which
German patrols, on their own confession, had fired
into the air. In the Canton of Namur Nord,
78 people were killed and 449 houses destroyed
altogether.

Through Dinani to Champagne.

This was how von Billow's left flank carried
out its work from Liege to Namur ; beyond Namur,
in the angle between the Sambre and the Meuse,
von Billow joined hands with von Hansen, whose
Saxon army had crossed the Meuse above the
junction of the two rivers.

The Saxons entered Belgium at Gouvy,^ near
the head-waters of the Ourthe. " Here," writes
a German diarist on Aug. 8th, " there was firing

^ Franc Waret. Gelbressee : b 9. Marchovelette : b 7. Bon-
nine : b 8. Champion : Reply p. 117 ; German White Book, App.
36. Bouge. Vedrin. Temploux : b 10.

^ Bddier p. 21 ; German White Book, App. 13.

[Map i]

108 THROUGH DINANT TO CHAMPAGNE

by Belgians on German troops, so we pillaged
the goods station straight away. Some cases there.
Eggs, shirts, and anything eatable dragged out of
the cases. The safe gutted and the money divided
among the men. Securities torn up."

" A child and an old woman were shot," writes
another near Erezee.^ " A wounded Belgian was
carried away half-dead. All revolting and hor-
rible. From where we are bivouacking we see the
burning houses in the valley. It is revolting. . . .
North of our route we passed another large village
reduced to ashes." ,

"At Braibant," writes a third ^ on Aug. 19th,
"whatever did not come of its own accord was
plundered — fowls, eggs, milk, pigeons, calves.
Many jolly happenings during the plundering.

" Aug. 20th. — The cavalry and the Marburg
Jaegers are playing the devil in the surrounding
villages."

" At Spontin,'' writes a fourth on Aug. 23rd,^ " a
company of the 107th Regiment and the io8th
had orders to stay behind and search the village,
take the inhabitants prisoners, and burn the houses.
At the entrance to the village, on the right, lay
two young girls, one dead, the other severely

* Bland pp. 162-3.

" Bryce p. 175.

^ Bland pp. 192-3 ; Reply p. 432.

[Map I]

EREZEE, SPONTIN, DINANT 109

wounded. The priest, too, was shot in front of the
station. Thirty other men were shot according to
martial law, and 50 made prisoners."

And so, plundering and burning and killing,^
the Saxons descended on Dinant^ to force the
passage of the Meuse. At Dinant 606 civilians —
men, women, and children — were massacred,
mostly between the morning and evening of
Aug. 23rd. The circumstances are described in
a report from M. Tschoffen, the Public Prosecutor
of Dinant, who survived this terrible day and
returned to bear witness after three months' deten-
tion in a German prison camp : —

" From Aug. 6th — that is, before the arrival of
the first French troops, who came from Givet —
German cavalry appeared at Dinant and Anser-
emme. These patrols sometimes penetrated into
the heart of the town, and were met by rifle fire
when they came into contact with the Belgian
troops, who were then holding both banks of the
Meuse.

" This is a statement of the incidents as they
occurred. I mention them merely because they

'' Yvoir, Houx, Sorinnes, Gemechennes : xx p. 94 ; for Sorinnes
see also German White Book, Apps. 31-2.

" Dinant (including Leffe, Bouvignes, Dina.nt, les Rivages, Neffe,
Anseremme) : b 26-30; Bryce p. 171 ; xi pp. 90-3 ; xx ; xxi pp.
125-7 ; Ann. 3 (list of victims) ; German White Book C ; Reply iv,
and pp. 468-482 ; Bedier p. 12 ; Bland pp. 112, 134-;, 175-7 ;
Garnets pp. 19-24.

[Map i]

110 THROUGH DINANT TO CHAMPAGNE

show that the populace entirely abstained from
attacks on the enemy.

" On Aug. 6th, at Anseremrne (Dinant and
Anseremme, although two separate communes,
form a single group of houses), Belgian engineers
fired on a hussar patrol and wounded a horse. At
Furfooz the dismounted soldier took a farmer's
horse in exchange for his wounded one.

" The same day or the day after, three hussars
appeared in the Rue de Jacques (Ciney road).
The Belgian carabineers or chasseurs wounded
one and took him prisoner, and also another, whose
horse was hit. The third escaped. These men
belonged to a Hanoverian regiment.

"On the 1 2th, at ' aux Rivages ' (Dinant) a
detachment of the 148th French Infantry annihi-
lated a cavalry patrol, only one man escaping.
About the same date another detachment opened
fire at ' Ponds de Leffe.' Two German cavalry-
men were killed.

" On Aug. 15th the Germans attempted to force
the Meuse at Anseremme, Dinant, and Bouvignes,
but were repulsed. During the day several Ger-
man detachments entered the city, but did not
molest the townsfolk at all.

" The city and its inhabitants had very little to
suffer from this engagement, which was, however,
a very sharp one, and lasted all day. A M.

[Map 1]

D1NANT~AUG. 6th to AUG. 22nd ill

Moussoux was killed while assisting the wounded,
and a woman was slightly wounded. On the right
bank a French shell fell on a house, and a German
shell on the post-office. Several houses on the left
bank were struck by German shells. From the
beginning of the action the Germans fired on the
hospital, which was in full view and was flying
a large Red Cross flag. In a few minutes six
projectiles damaged the building. One shell
entered the chapel just as the orphanage children
were coming from mass. None were hurt.

" On the 17th or i8th the French ceased to hold
the right bank in force, and contented themselves
with patrolling it. Each day rifle and cannon fire
was exchanged between the two banks. . German
cavalry again began to enter the city, where they
moved about with impunity. Thus, about midday
on the 19th, an Uhlan, coming from the direction
of Rocher-Bayard, went off by the Ciney road
without molestation. He crossed almost the
whole width of the city. At nightfall on the same
day another cavalryman made the same journey
and also went off in safety.

"During the night of the 2ist-22nd brisk
firing suddenly began in the Rue St. Jacques
(Ciney road). Some Germans had arrived in
motor-cars and were firing on the houses, whose
occupants were peacefully sleeping. They broke

[Map 1]

112 THROUGH DINANT TO CHAMPAGNE

open the doors and severely wounded three
people, one at least with the bayonet, and went
away after setting fire to fifteen or twenty houses
with bombs. They left a number of these behind,
and the inhabitants threw them into the water.
They assert that these were incendiary bombs.

" No one was able to understand this be-
haviour. The newspapers had reported that
atrocities were committed near Vise, but no one
believed it. Eventually they came to the con-
clusion that this attack was the work of drunken
men, and awaited events without undue anxiety.

"On Aug. 23rd the battle between the French
and German armies began early with an artillery
duel. The first two rifle shots of the Germans
were aimed at two young girls who were looking
for a better shelter than the one they had.

" Everyone took refuge in the cellars.

" The Germans descended on Dinant upon
Aug. 23rd by four main roads — all about the same
time — nearly 6 a.m.

" These roads were : From Lisogne to Dinant;
from Ciney to Dinant; Mont St. Nicholas, by
which the troops which were on a part of the
plateau of Herbuchenne arrived; and, lastly, the
Froidval road, running from Boiseile to Dinant.

" I. The first of these roads leads to the dis-
trict called ' Fonds de Leffe.'

[Map i]

DINANT—AUG. 23rd 113

" Directly they arrived the soldiers entered the
houses, expelled the occupants, killed the men,
and set fire to the houses.

"M. Victor Poncelet was killed in his house in
front of his wife and children. M. Himmer,
manager of the factory at Leffe and Vice-Consul
of the Argentine Republic, was shot with a number
of his workmen. One hundred and fifty-two of
the staff of the factory were murdered.

" The Premonstratensian Church was, I am
informed, entered during mass. The men were
dragged out and shot on the spot. One of the
Fathers also was murdered.

" But what is the good of giving further details ?
One circumstance will sum up all. Of the whole
population of this district, only nine men (apart
from old men) remain alive. The women and
children were shut up in the Premonstratensian
Abbey, which was afterwards pillaged. We were
to see soldiers parading the city in the vestments
of the monks.

" II. The same scenes of fire and murder oc-
curred at the Rue St. Jacques, which terminates
the Ciney road. The victims, however, were not
so numerous. Many of the residents in this dis-
trict, more alarmed than the rest of the city by
the events of the night of the 2ist-2 2nd, had
abandoned their houses.

[Map i]
G.T. I

114 THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

" From the Rue St. Jacques the Germans spread
over the whole district. They killed people, but
not so many as at Leffe. The inhabitants were
shut up in the Premonstratensian Abbey. Every-
thing was set on fire. They burned the tower and
roof of our fine old Gothic church. They set fire
to the doors, but did not succeed in completely
destroying them.

" Farther on, the Grand Place and the Rue
Grande, as far as the Rue du Tribunal, were
spared for the time being. The Germans did not
go there. The inhabitants were not interned until
the next day.

"On the evening of the 24th and on the 25th,
they set this part of the city on fire. Only one
building, the Hotel des Families, remains.

"III. From the Rue du Tribunal to the other
side of the prison the crimes were committed by
the forces coming down from Mont St. Nicholas.
I noticed the numbers, looth and loist Foot
(Saxon).

" On this route as the troops arrived they
behaved in the same way as at the Rue St. Jacques
and at Fonds de Leffe — murder of a number of
men, and arrest of the women and children.

" In the rest of the district the people suffered
various fates.

" Having been gathered together and kept for
[Map I]

DIN ANT—CIVILIAN SCREENS 115

some time in a street where they were sheltered
from the dangers of the battle, many of them —
men, women, and children — were taken to a spot
where the street is only built on on one side. The
other side runs along the Meuse. The prisoners
were arranged in a long row to serve as a screen
against the fire of the French, while the Germans
defiled behind this living rampart.

" As soon as the French realised who were the
victims offered to them, they ceased fire. A young
lady, twenty years old. Mile. Marsigny, was, how-
ever, killed before her parents' eyes. She was
struck in the head by a French bullet. Among
those so exposed were my deputy, M. Charlier,
M. Brichet, the inspector of forests, M. Dumont,
the road surveyor, and their wives and families.
The prisoners were exposed in this way for nearly
two hours and were then taken back to prison.

" The same thing happened to a group of citizens
who were exposed in the prison square to the fire
of the French. They were made to keep their
hands raised. They included a man of eighty, M.
Laurent, the honorary president of the Tribunal,
his son-in-law, M. Laurent, the judge, and the
latter's wife and children. There were no casual-
ties, as the French ceased fire, and the Germans
were able to cross without risk. After two hours
they were shut up in the prison. I mention the

OMap i]

116 THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

names of some, because they are magistrates and
officials with whom I am personally acquainted,
but the number subjected to this treatment was at
least 150.

" The other residents in this district were, like
my family and myself, taken to Bouille and
crammed into the house, stable, and forge. They
even overflowed into the street.

" The people in the forge, including myself,
were, as I have stated, brought out about two
o'clock and taken to prison.

" About six o'clock the others were taken to a
place in front of my house, not far from the
prison. There the able-bodied men were taken
out and lined up in four rows against my garden
wall. An officer addressed them in German, and
then, in the presence of the women and children,
gave the order to fire. All fell down. The
soldiers looking on from the terrace formed by
the garden of M. Franquinet, the architect, burst
into fits of laughter. Encircled by the flames
which were consuming almost the entire district,
those whose age or sex had saved them were set
at liberty.

" I believe the exact number killed here was 129.

" The volley which struck them down was the
one that we heard when we were placed in the
prison yard to be led to death. Thank God, we

[Map I J

DINANT— FIRST MASSACRE 117

were late. One hundred and twenty-nine men
were killed at this spot, but the number con-
demned was still larger. Several fell when the
order to fire was given, and others were only
slightly wounded and succeeded in escaping dur-
ing the night. Not all those whose bodies were
removed were killed on the spot. Some of those
who escaped told me that M. Wasseige, the
banker, was heard to say at the beginning of the
night to a wounded man : ' Don't move. Keep
still.' A passing soldier at once finished him
off.

" Not until Wednesday could any attention be
given to these victims. All movement was for-
bidden before then. On Monday and Tuesday
the wounded were heard crying out and moaning.
They died from want of attention.

" IV. The troops who came by the Froidval
road occupied the district of ' Penant.' The in-
habitants were seized on the arrival of the Ger-
mans and kept under guard near Rocher-Bayard.
When the fire of the French slackened, the Ger-
mans began to construct a bridge, but they were
still annoyed by a few shots. As these were in-
frequent, the Germans — honestly or otherwise —
came to the conclusion that they were fired by
francs-tireurs. They sent M. Bourdon, the assis-
tant registrar of the Court, to announce that if the

[Map i]

118 THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

firing continued, all the prisoners would be exe-
cuted. He did so, and, recrossing the Meuse,
surrendered himself and informed the German
officers that he had been able to make sure that
only French soldiers were firing. A few more
French bullets came, and then a monstrous event
took place, which one's mind would refuse to
believe were it not that the survivors who bear
witness and the gaping wounds of the corpses
furnished absolutely conclusive proof. The whole
mass of prisoners — men, women, and children —
were pushed up against a wall and shot.

" Eighty victims fell at this spot.

" Was it here or at the Neffe Viaduct, which I
mention later, that a three months' old child was
killed.'^ I no longer remember.

" That evening the Germans searched among
the bodies. Under the heap a few poor wretches
were still living. They were dragged out and
added to some prisoners brought from elsewhere
and put to dig a grave for the dead. They were
to be deported to Germany. Among them was a
fifteen-year-old boy, the son of Registrar Bourdon,
who was found under the bodies of his father,
mother, sister, and brother.

" Those buried included a woman who was still
alive. She groaned, but it mattered not. She
was thrown into the trench with the others.

[Map i]

DINANT—SECOND MASSACRE 119

" Right bank of the Meuse : The Germans
crossed the river.

"St. Medard suffered relatively little. Not
many were killed, and it is there that the greatest
number of houses remain standing.

" In the Neife district the Germans searched the
houses, burning a fair number but leaving the rest
alone. Some of the people were left at liberty;
others were expelled from their homes and shot
on the road ; others again were arrested and taken
to Germany. In some cases entire families were
murdered without regard to age or sex (in par-
ticular the Guerys and the Morelles). One house
caught fire where a woman with a broken leg was
lying, still alive. Some of the people asked per-
mission from the soldiers to rescue her. It was
refused, and she was burnt alive.

" About forty people took refuge in a viaduct,
under the railway line. Shots were fired and hand-
grenades thrown at them. The survivors decided
to come out, and the men were arrested to be taken
to Germany.

" On Monday the 24th the Germans arrested
the people of the Grande district, which they had
spared the day before. They were shut up in the
Premonstratensian Abbey.

" The few people who took the risk of coming '
out of the houses that were spared from the flames

p\Tap t]

120 THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

in the other districts were either arrested or chased
by shots. Several were killed, especially by
soldiers firing across the Meuse.

" The heights which dominate the city were
guarded. Some inhabitants who tried to escape
that way succeeded, but more were arrested or
killed.

" Priests and monks, professors at Belle Vue
College, brothers of the Christian faith and lay
monks were seized and interned in a convent at
Marche. Towards the middle of September,
General von Longchamp, the military governor
of the Province of Namur, released them with the
apologies of the German Army !

"All Monday and Tuesday the pillaging was
continued, and the destruction of the city by fire
was completed.

"Altogether, in this city of 1,400 dwelling-
houses and 7,000 inhabitants, 630 to 650 were
killed, of whom more than 100 were women,
children under fifteen, and old men. Not 300
houses remain.

"Were women outraged?

" Only one case came directly under my notice.
A very respectable citizen told me that, under
the pretence of searching for weapons, his wife
had been searched under her underclothes.

" Dr. X. told me that there were numerous cases

[^fap I]

DINANT— HOSTAGES AND PILLAGE 121

of rape. He knew of three clear cases in his own
practice alone.

" Pillage was openly carried on. They brought
carts on three consecutive days to my house to
take away the plate, bedclothes — of which none
remain — furniture, men's and women's clothing,
linen, trinkets, ornaments from the mantelpiece, a
collection of weapons from the Congo, pictures,
wine, and even the decorations which belonged to
my grandfather, my father, and myself. The
mirrors and the dishes and plates were broken to
pieces.

" Sixty thousand bottles of wine were stolen
from the cellars of M. Piret, the wine merchant.

" To my own knowledge, in not one of the houses
left standing was the safe not broken open, or did
not show clear marks of attempted robbery.

" But why burden this report by recounting the
personal misfortunes of the many citizens who
have told me their harrowing stories? The facts
are all the same, and what I have set out is enough
to prove that murder, arson, and pillage were sys-
tematically organised and carried out in cold
blood, even when the battle was over."

The facts are indeed witnessed to by the Ger-
mans themselves. " The civilian corpses littered
everywhere are a sight which defies description,"

[Map i]

122 THROUGH BIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

writes an officer of the 178th Saxon Regiment on
Aug. 23rd, when the butchery was done.^ " In most
cases shots at point-blank range have carried away
half their skull. Every house along the whole
valley has been turned upside down, and the
inhabitants dragged out of the most unlikely
hiding-places. The men have been shot, the
women and children placed in the convent. Shots
came from the convent, and it had a narrow escape
from being set on fire. . . ."

" In the evening at 10 o'clock," writes a private
in the same regiment on the same date,^" " the first
battalion went down into the village that had been
burnt to the north of Dinant. Right at the en-
trance of the village about 50 civilians lay dead;
they had been shot for having fired on our troops
from ambush. In the course of the night many
others were shot in the same way, so that we
could count more than 200. The women and
children, lamp in hand, were obliged to watch the
horrible scene. We then ate our rice in the midst
of the corpses, for we had not tasted food since
morning."

Across the Meuse the Saxons turned south, and,
keeping in touch with von Biilow on their right,
went forward by forced marches into France, still

^ Garnets, p. 22.
1" B^dier, p. 12.

[Map I]

HASTlERES-PAR-DELl, SURICE 123

slaughtering and devastating on their way. In the
Canton of Dinant^'^ they destroyed 1,588 houses
and killed 632 civilians in all; at Hastieres-'par-
dela, in the Cantofi of Beauraing, they destroyed
66 and killed 18; in the Canton of Florennes}'^
666 and 52. At Szmce, in this canton, they shot
18 men in the sight of their mothers and daughters
and wives. There were live ecclesiastics among
them, and boys of sixteen and seventeen. " M.
Schmidt's little boy of fourteen," states a Belgian
witness, " was nearly put into the line — the soldiers
hesitated, but finally shoved him away in a brutal
fashion. At this moment I saw a young German
soldier — this I vouch for — who was so struck with
horror that great tears were dropping on to his
tunic. He did not wipe his eyes for fear of being
seen by his officer, but kept his head turned away."
Those who were not killed by the first volley were
clubbed to death; the corpses were plundered;
the whole village was sacked, and 130 houses out
of 172 were burnt.

"At Villers-en-Fagne'' in the Canton of
Philippeville, writes the Saxon officer quoted
above, " the inhabitants had warned the French of

^' Onhaye, Waulsort : xx p. 95. Hasti^res-Lavaux : Mercier ;
XX p. 95. Hastieres-par-dela : xi pp. 93-4 ; xx p. 95.

^- Morville, Hermeton-sur-Meuse : xx p. 95. Anthee : xx p. 95 ;
German White Book, App. 38. Stave. Surice : b 1 1 ; Reply
p. 454 ; X p. 78 ; xi pp. '94-6 ; xx p. 95. Franchimont. Rome-
denne : xx p. 95.

[Map I]

124 THROUGH DIN ANT TO CHAMPAGNE

our Grenadiers' approach by a signal from the
belfry. The enemy artillery had fired several
shells, and wounded or killed some Grenadiers.
Thereupon the Hussars set fire to the village, and
the cure and other inhabitants were shot." In the
whole Canton of Philippeville the Germans
burned J J houses down; in the Canton of
Couvin '^ they burned 298 houses and killed
6 civilians. On the road from Philippeville to
Mariembourg, in this canton, the German cavalry
drove Belgian peasants in front of them as a
screen."

At Gue cTHossus von Hansen's army entered
France. " Thank heaven," writes the Saxon ofhcer
on Aug. 26th, ^^ "that for once in a way the divi-
sional command has intervened energetically
against this incendiarism and massacre of
civilians. The charming village of Gue d'Hossus
appears to have been delivered to the flames when
entirely innocent. A military cyclist fell off his
machine, and this made his rifle go off. There-
upon the male inhabitants were simply thrown into
the flames. One hopes such horrors will not re-
occur. At Leffe about 200 were shot — there an
example was needed. It was inevitable that some

^^ Mariembourg. Dourbes. Frasnes. Couvin : Mercier ;
German White Book, App. 42.

1* Garnets, p. 31.

[Map t]

GVt: D'HOSSUS, BETHEL 125

innocent people should have to suffer, but verifica-
tion ought to be insisted upon in cases where there
is suspicion of guilt, in order to put bounds to
this indiscriminate shooting of all the men."

" Village stormed and looted," writes another
German at Novion}^ "Monday, Aug. 31st. — We
passed through the town of Rethel, where we had
a two hours' halt. Wine and champagne in
abundance; we looted with a will."

" Live like God at Rethel," writes the Saxon
ofScer,^^ who arrived there on Sept. ist. "On
Sept. 2nd the town is half destroyed by fire. . . .
There is a touch of superfluity about French com-
fort, but the interiors of the houses were a sight
to see. All the furniture turned upside dow^n, the
mirrors bashed in. The Vandals could have done
no better. It is a stain on our Army's honour.
... It lies heaviest on the troops serving the line
of communications, for they have the time to pil-
lage and destroy. Property worth millions has
been annihilated here. They did not even stop at
safes."

But here, as further west, the invasion was
nearing its term. The Saxons crossed the Aisne
at Rethel, and then, below Chalons, the Marne,
and found themselves, with the Prussian Guard

^'° Bland pp. 12 1-3.
^^ Garnets, p. 43 seqq.

[Map 4]

126 THROUGH DINANT TO CHAMPAGNE

on their right, in the open plains of Champagne
under the French artillery fire. At Ecury-le-
Refos^^ in the Department of the Marne, they
pillaged houses and carried hostages away; at
Lenharree}'^ on Sept. 7th, they assassinated the
mayor; but vengeance was at hand. " This deci-
sive victory has cost terrible sacrifices," writes the
Saxon officer after the fighting on Sept. 8th.
" The surgeons say the 178th Regiment has about
1,700 severely wounded, without counting the
dead. It was, after all, just hell. As for officers,
there are practically none left."

The illusion of victory died hard. " Brigade
order this evening," he writes again on Sept. 9th.
^' '' After the results obtained to-day, the 'x^2nd
Infantry Division is removed from the army
formation and will be transferred to the north to
be employed for other tactical fur-poses! We
are amazed and rack our brains. I had all the
sensations of a retreat when at six in the evening
our division, by the blood-red light of the sinking
sun, broke contact with the enemy. . . . We
passed again across that fearful field of fire, by
Lenharree and through the underwood where we
had suffered so terribly from the shells. . . ."

And thus the destroyers of Dinant fell back
over the Marne.

^ 18 One 98. ~ '

^^ Five 30-4.

[Map 4]

BASTOGNE, ROSIJ^RES, BlEVRE 127

(iii) Through Luxemhozirg to Chamfagne.

To the left of the Saxons the Duke of Wiirtem-
berg's army marched through Luxem.bourg and
crossed the Meuse on the French side of the
Franco-Belgian frontier.

At Bastogne^^ where this army broke into the
Belgian Province of Ltixemhourg after traversing
the Grand Duchy, the Burgomaster was shot. At
Rosieres ^^ they shot 6 civilians, burned a number
of houses, and marched on, burning and killing
in all the villages on their route. At least 120
civilians were killed and 135 houses burnt by
these troops in the Province of Luxembourg ^^ ;
in the Canton of Gedinne, of the Province of
Namur, they killed 12 and burned 399.^^ "The
enemy had occupied the village of Bievre and
the edge of the wood behind it," wrote a German
non-commissioned officer on Aug. 23rd. " The
3rd Company advanced in the first line. We
carried the village and pillaged and burned nearly
all the houses." ^*

On Aug. 24th they were in France, crossing

^^ Bryce pp. 171, 174-5.

^^ Reply p. 457 ; German White Book, Apps. 11-2.

^^ Libin : viii § 2. Villance, Maissin, Anloy, Neufchateau,
Bertrix : viii §§ 3-4.

^•^ Bourseigne-Vieille. Louette-St. Pierre. VVillersee. Bievre.
AUe.

-* Bedier p. 22.

[Map I]

128 LUXEMBOURG TO CHAMPAGNE

the Meuse at Sedan. " Lost a few men at Sedan,"
writes one of them in his diary on that date.^^
" A long halt at Launois in the afternoon. Com-
pletely looted the stationmaster's empty house.
. . . March on with many drunk." At Rethel and
above it they crossed the Aisne, and broke into
Champagne with the Saxons on their right.

By Sept. 3rd they were at Somme-fy, in the
Defartment of the Marne. "A horrible blood-
bath ; the village burnt down ; the French thrown
into the blazing houses; civilians burnt with the
rest." ^ At Suiffes " they burned 84 houses by
the usual methods, pillaged all but two (which
belonged to a German immigrant and his father-in-
law), violated a girl of thirteen, and made an
attempt on a woman of seventy-two. At St.
Etienne^^ they burned 24 houses out of 53; at
Lepine, ^P At Chdlons their right flank columns
crossed the Marne and pressed on south along
the western bank of the river, keeping abreast
with the left flank, which remained on the further
side.

West of the Marne they tortured a woman at
M aisons-en-Chamfagne ^° ; burned down houses

-=■ Bland pp. 177-8.
2s Bland p. 155.
^^ One 82-9.
2® One 94-7.
29 One 63-5.
™ Five 2, 37.

[Map 4]

SOMME-PY, SUIPPES, SOMPVtS 129

with their special incendiary apparatus at Blacy ^^
and Glannes ^^ and Huiron ^^ ; and carried
the cure of Somfuis ^* into captivity with a number
of his parishioners.

The fate of these hostages is described by
the French Commission in their summarising
report ^^ : —

"Abbe Oudin, an old man of seventy-three,
afflicted with asthma, was arrested and locked up
in his cellar without food till the following day,
with his maid, Mile. Cote, aged sixty-seven,
and MM. Mougeot, Arnould, Poignet, and
Cuchard. On the 8th they were taken to
Coole, where they had to pass the night — still
without food. Then they were marched to
Chalons-sur-Marne. On the way to Chalons the
aged priest, who had been belaboured with rifle-
butts and reduced to complete exhaustion, was
unable to go further, so they put him with his
maid on a butcher's cart, which the other prisoners
had to drag along. . . .

" From Chalons they were removed to Suippes,
and taken into a house to be examined. The abbe,
who could scarcely stand, was seized by the

^1 Five I, 57.

^2 One 73.

'^'^ One 77.

^* One 102-3 ; Five i-6.

"^^ Five pp. 8-9.

[Map ^]
G.T. K

130 LUXEMBOURG TO CHAMPAGNE

shoulder and roughly shaken by an officer, who
questioned him in an insulting tone. He came
out from the examination dazed and tottering,
and was then made to spend the whole night in
the rain, in the courtyard of a school.

"On the nth they reached Vouziers and were
kept there till the 14th in a stable, where they had
to lie on sodden sawdust. The 13th was a par-
ticularly atrocious day. Soldiers, especially
officers, came in large numbers with the deliberate
purpose of amusing themselves by tormenting the
cure. They spat in his face, flogged him with
their horse-whips, threw him in the air and then
let him fall on the ground, kicked him or slashed
him with their spurs all over the arms, thighs, and
chest.

"After these abominable outrages M. Oudin
was reduced to such a condition of weakness that
his groans were hardly audible. On the 15th he
was taken to Sedan, and in a hospital there he
almost immediately succumbed. Mougeot, one
of his companions in misery, who had also been
beaten about the body and had several ribs broken,
was removed about the same time to the Fabert
Barracks. There, as a witness describes it, the
Germans threw him on the straw like a dosf and
left him to die untended.

" Mile. Cote was also the victim of monstrous
[Map 43

AUVE, M ARSON, HEILTZ-LE-MAURUPT 131

cruelties in the course of this terrible journey.
Before reaching Tannay she was tied to a
carriage-wheel. At the halting place the soldiers
rolled her in the mud, struck her brutally, and
dragged her by the hair. Next they pushed her
into the church, where four of them threw her
down on the altar steps, caught hold of her again,
and threw her among the benches in the nave. . . ."

East of the Marne they burned Somme-
Tourbe^^ and Auve^"^ — at Somme-Tourbe the
church escaped; at Auve it was burnt with the
rest, and a woman over eighty years old inside it.
About 130 houses were burnt at Auve ouL of 150
in the village.

They burned many houses at Poix}^ At
M arson ^^ they murdered a civilian, exacted a war
contribution of 3,000 francs, and on two occasions
set the place on fire. They murdered another
civilian at Possesse}^ They burned down Heiltz-
le-M aufuft ^^ systematically on Sept. 6th. On
the 8th they broke into a girl's room and violated
her at [ussecoMrt-Minecourtf- From the 6th to

^^ One 74.

^^ One 75-6 ; Five 47.

^8 Five 38.

^^ Five 49.

*" Five 27-9.

« One 66.

" One 120.

[Map 4]

K 2

132 LUXEMBOURG TO CHAMPAGNE

the 8th they pillaged H eiltz-V Eveqiie ,^^ keeping
the inhabitants confined in the church. At
Eirefy^^ they clubbed a woman of eighty-three
to death, and were so thorough in their incen-
diarism that 63 families out of "jo were left without
a roof over their heads. At Bignicourt-sur-Saulx "
they burned houses (11 people were suffocated in
a cellar) and carried away hostages — women and
children as well as men. At Lisse ""^ they burned
42 houses out of 64. At Changy ^^ they shot a
civilian for saying : " Here come the Prussians."
At Merlaut^^ they killed two — one by shooting
him, and the other, an old man of seventy, by
dragging him across country at the tail of a horse.
At Viiry-en-P erthois ^^ they violated two women,
one of whom was eighty-nine years old and died
of the effects. But Vitry was the last town in
France where the Duke of Wiirtemberg's army
committed its abominations, for here, at the junc-
tion of the Marne and the Ornain, it suffered its
defeat.

*3 Five 38-9.

*^ Five 52-3.

*^ One 92-3 ,- Five 48.

■*" Five 44-6.

" Five 7-8.

*** Five 9-1 1.

*9 One 1 1 8-9.

[Map 4]

ARLON, ROSSIGNOL. ETALLE 133

(iv) TJirough Ltixembourg to the Argoi2Jie.

This was what the Duke of Wiirtemberg did
in Luxembourg and Champagne ; but Luxembourg
was also ravaged by the Crown Prince of Prussia,^"
who passed across it on the Duke of Wiirtemberg's
left, forced the Meuse below Verdun, and pene-
trated the Argonne.

At Arlon, near the sources of the Semoy, the
Crown Prince sacked 47 houses and extorted a
war contribution of 100,000 francs. At Rallies
he burned 28 houses. At Rossignol he burned
the whole village. One hundred and five of the
inhabitants of Rossignol were carried away to
Arlon, and shot in public at the railway station
in batches of ten — one of them was a woman, and
she was shot last, after having to witness the
execution of the rest. At les Bulles several
civilians were shot, and the church and 34 houses
were burnt down. At Etalle 30 houses were

"" Arlon : viii § 2. Houdemont : viii §§ 3-4 ; White Book
App. 18. Rulles : viii § 3; White Book, App. 18; Reply
p. 456. Thibesart : White Book, Apps. 25-6. Rossignol : viii
§§ 3-4 ; White Book, Apps. 23, 28 ; Reply pp. 135, 459-460. Les
Bulles : viii § 3 ; White Book, Apps. 23, 28 ; Reply pp. 459, 462.
Etalle : viii §§ 3-4 ; Mercier. Ansart : viii § 3 ; White Book,
Apps. 19, 27. Tintigny : viii §§ 3-4 ; Mercier ; White Book,
Apps. 18, 20-25. Jamoigne : viii § 3 ; White Book, Appc. ig
29-30 ; Reply p. 458. Meyen : viii § 3. Izel : viii § 4. St.
Leger : viii §§ 3-4. Musson, Baranzy : viii § 3. Mussy : viii § 3 ;
Mercier. Signeulx, Bleid : viii § 3. Ethe : viii §§ 3-4 ; Reply
p. 454 ; Bland p. 114. Latour : viii § 4 ; Mercier.

[Map 4]

134 LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

burnt, II civilians shot, and the cure hanged in
the church ; at Tiniigny and Ansart 90 were shot,
including the cure. Only three houses at Tin-
tigny were left standing. At Baransy only four
houses were left, and the cure was shot with two
of his parishioners. At Ethe 197 were shot. " In
the night," writes a German diarist, " Ethe was
entirely in flames, and it was a magnificent sight
from a distance. The next day, Aug. 23rd, Ethe
was in ruins, and we looted everything that was
left in the way of provisions. We carried off
quantities of bacon, eggs, bread, jam, tobacco,
cigars, cigarettes and, above all, wine for our
regiment." At Laiour, beyond Ethe, on the way
to the French frontier, they shot the cure, his
retired predecessor, and 69 other civilians. In
these districts of Belgian Luxembourg which were
traversed by the Crown Prince's army 523 civilians
are known to have been massacred; and it is
reckoned by the Belgian Commission that in the
whole province a thousand were massacred alto-
gether, and more than 3,000 houses burnt, by the
Crown Prince and the Duke of Wiirtemberg
between them.

Passing the Meuse below the forts of Verdun,
the Crown Prince carried the German Terror into
the Argonne. Clermont ^^ was the first town in

*' One 157-9.

[Map 4]

TINTIGNY, ETHE, LATOUR. CLERMONT 135

the Argonne which he destroyed; its fate has
been described by the French Commissioners in
their summarising report on the Department of
the Meuse ^^ : —

" The little town of Clermont-en-Argonne, on
the slope of a picturesque hill in the middle of a
pleasant landscape, used to be visited every year
by numerous tourists. On Sept. 4th, at night, the
i2ist and 122nd Wiirtemberg Regiments entered
the place, breaking down the doors of the houses
and giving themselves up to unrestrained pillage,
which continued during the whole of the next day.
Towards midday a soldier set fire to the dwelling
of a clockmaker by deliberately upsetting the
contents of an oil lamp which he used for making
coffee. An inhabitant, M. Monternach, at once
ran to fetch the town fire-engine, and asked an
officer to lend him men to work it. Brutally
refused and threatened with a revolver, he re-
newed his request to several other officers, with no
greater success. Meanwhile, the Germans con-
tinued to burn the town, making use of sticks on
the top of which torches were fastened. While
the houses blazed the soldiers poured into the
church, which stood by itself on the height, and
danced there to the sound of the organ. Then.

'"' One pp, 19-20.

[Map 4]

136 LUXEMBOUBG TO THE ARGONNE

before leaving, they set fire to it with grenades as
well as with vessels full of inflammable liquid,
containing wicks.

"After the burning of Clermont, the body of
the Mayor of Vauquois, M. Poinsignon (which Vv-as
completely carbonised), and that of a young boy
of eleven, who had been shot at point-blank range,
were found.

"When the fire was out pillage recommenced
in the houses which the flames had spared. Furni-
ture carried off from the house of M. Desforges
and stuffs stolen from the shop of M. Nordmann,
a draper, were heaped together in motor-cars. An
army doctor (medecin-major) took possession of
all the medical appliances in the hospital, and an
officer of superior rank, after having put up a
notice forbidding pillage on the entrance door of
the house of M. Lebondidier, had a great part of
the furniture of this house carried away on a
carriage, intending it, as he boasted without any
shame, for the adornment of his own villa."

At SL Andre ^^ the Germans herded the in-
habitants into a barn, and shot a man who had
stayed behind to watch over the dead body of his
wife — she had been killed the day before by a
shell. They burned down two- thirds of Btilain-

■''^ One 170,

[Map 4]

ST. ANDFE, BULAINTILLE, TRIAUCOURT 137

ville'^^ with their special apparatus. At Nube-
court ^^ they carried away the cure, and he was
never seen again. Their conduct at Triaucourt^^
is described in the French Commissioners'
Report " : —

"At Triaucourt the Germans gave themselves
up to the worst excesses. Angered, doubtless, by
the remark which an officer had addressed to a
soldier, against whom a young girl of nineteen,
Mile. Helene Proces, had made complaint
on account of the indecent treatment to
which she had been subjected, they burned the
village and made a systematic massacre of the
inhabitants. They began by setting fire to the
house of an inoffensive householder, M. Jules
Gand, and by shooting this unfortunate man just
as he was leaving his house to escape the flames;
then they dispersed amongst the houses in the
streets, firing their rifles on every side. A young
man of seventeen, Georges Lecourtier, who tried
to escape, was shot. M. Alfred Lallemand suf-
fered the same fate; he was pursued into the
kitchen of his fellow-citizen, Tautelier, and mur-
dered there, while Tautelier received three bullets
in his hand.

5* One 140-1.
'"^ One 168.
^ One 1 5 1-6.
^'^ One pp. 18-9.

[Map 4]

138 LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

" Fearing, not without reason, for their lives.
Mile. Proces, her mother, her grandmother
of seventy-one, and her old aunt of eighty-
one. Mile. Laure Mennehand, tried with the
help of a ladder to cross the trellis which
separates their garden from a neighbouring pro-
perty. The young girl alone was able to reach
the other side and to avoid death by hiding in the
cabbages. As for the other women, they were
struck down by rifle shots. The village cure
collected the brains of Mile. Mennehand on
the ground on which they were strewn, and had
the bodies carried into Proces' house. During the
following night the Germans played the piano
near the bodies.

"While the carnage raged, the fire rapidly
spread and devoured 35 houses. An old man of
seventy, Jean Lecourtier, and a child of two
months, perished in the flames. M. Igier, who was
trying to save his cattle, was pursued for 300
metres by soldiers who fired at him ceaselessly..
By a miracle this man had the good fortune not
to be wounded, but five bullets went through his
trousers. When the cure Viller expressed his in-
dignation at the treatment inflicted upon his parish
to the Duke of Wiirtemberg, who was lodged in
the village, the latter replied : ' What would you
have? We have bad soldiers just as you have.'

[Map 4]

TRIAU COURT, VAUBECOURT 139

" In the same commune an attempt at rape was
made which was unsuccessful by reason of the
obstinate and courageous resistance of the victim ;
three Germans made the attempt on Mme. D.,
forty-seven years old. Further, an old woman
of seventy-five, Mme. Maupoix, was kicked so
violently that she died a few days afterwards.
While some of the soldiers were ill-treating her,
others were ransacking her wardrobes."

At Vauhecourt^^ they burned io6 houses out
of 22 2. At Lisle-en-Barrois^^ they shot two
civilians. At Givry-en-Argomie ^° a German officer
threatened to burn the village if the mayor's
assessor did not hand over to him a girl of fifteen
who had excited his lust — the outrage was only
averted by the arrival of French troops. Som-
meilles ®^ was completely burnt on Sept. 6th.
" When the incendiarism started," states the
Mayor, "M. and Mme. Adnot (the latter about
sixty years old), Mme. X. (thirty-five or thirty-six
years old), whose husband is with the colours, and
Mme. X.'s four children all took refuge in the
Adnots' cellars. They were there assassinated
under atrocious circumstances. The two women

^•^ One 147-150.
59 One 160.
'■'' One 100.
"1 One 133-8.

[Map 4]

140 LUXEMBOURG TO THE ARGONNE

were violated. When the children shrieked, one
of them had its head cut off, two others one arm,
and the mother one of her breasts, while everyone
in the cellar was massacred. The children were
respectively eleven, five, four, and one and a half
years old."

At Loupfy-le-Chdteau^'^ they violated three
women and two girls — the eldest of the women
was seventy-one years old, the girls were thirteen
and eight. At Villers-aux-V ents ,^^ on Sept. 7th,
they stripped a man naked and shot him in a field.
On the 8th they burned the village to the ground,
so systematically that not a single house was left.
At Laimont^^ they carried off seven hostages,
who never returned. At V as sine our t,^^ where the
French Army turned on them and compelled them
to retreat, they burned, in rancour, the houses left
standing by the shells. At Revigny ^^ they burned
two-thirds of the houses. At Sermaize-les-Bains ®^
they burned 760 out of 800. The incendiarism at
Sermaize and Revigny was perhaps more elaborate
in its methods and more effective in its results than
any other piece of material devastation which the
Germans perpetrated in Belgium or France. The

62 One 161-7.

6^ One 143-6 ; Five 139-140.

"^ One 169,

•^^ Five 135-8.

^ One 127-132.

«^ One 78-81.

[Map 4]

VlLLERS-AtJX-VENTS, nEVlGNY 141

wilderness of rubble with gaunt chimneys rising
out of it, and, here and there, a fragment of wall,
remains as the Crown Prince's monument in
France, marking his limitless will for evil at the
limits of his power.

VI. THE RAID INTO LORRAINE.

(i) From the Frontier to St. Mihiel.

The Bavarian army which crossed the frontier
on a line between Thionville and the Vosges was
intended to take the fortress of Verdun in the
flank and rear, force a passage south of it across
the Meuse, and join hands with the Crown Prince
in the valley of the Marne, as the Saxons joined
von Biilow, between Meuse and Sambre, round the
southern flank of Namur. But the Bavarians were
checked at an earlier stage in their invasion than
the armies on their right. The howitzers which
had shattered the forts of Namur made no impres-
sion on the field-works of Verdun — thrown up at
a week's notice, when the fall of Namur had shown
the weakness of the old system and the possibility
of improvisation. Verdun remained a barrier
between the Bavarians in the Woevre and the
Crown Prince in the Argonne. Instead of passing
the Meuse, they seized, too late for use, the single
bridge-head of St. Mihiel. Pont-a-Mousson held
out against them, almost within range of the guns
of Metz, and Nancy was never in their hands.
Yet though they failed of their strategic aim and

[Frontispiece]
142

AUDUN-LE-ROiMAIN 143

were held up nearer the frontier than any other of
the invading armies, the outrage and devastation
they committed in the few square miles of French
territory which they overran was not surpassed by
their companions who marched from Liege or
Luxembourg to the Marne through the heart of
Belgium and France.

Audtm-le-Romain^^ in the Departmemt of the
Meurthe and Moselle, the first village in French
territory on the direct road from Thionville to
Verdun, was occupied by the Germans on
Aug. 4th, and for seventeen days the invaders
confined themselves to requisitions and threats.
But on Aug. 2 1 St the German advance-guards fell
back in disorder eastwards through the village, and
the Germans in garrison there ran amok.

" They began to set fire to the houses," state
the French Commission,*'^ " and to fire into the
windows and at the inhabitants. Seven women
(mentioned by name) were wounded, and the fore-
man roadmender, M. Chary, was shot dead as he
came out of the church. M. Martin, agriculturist,
was dragged out of his house, received three
bullets, and fell dead at his door, before the eyes
of his wife and daughters. The Uhlans fell upon

^s One 367 ; Five 165-176.
^^ Five pp. 26-7.

[Map 4]

144 FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MlHlEL

the body and stabbed it with their lances, while
one of them clove the head with his sabre. A
young officer shot down M. Somen, the ex-mayor,
with his revolver, when the victim was just shutting
his barn door. M, Michel, the mayor's assessor,
and M. (Edouard) Bernard tried to see to him, and
for this they were taken, bound, to Ludelange, and
shot there the following day.

"Next day, Aug. 22nd, there was an engage-
ment between the invaders and some French
troops. The enemy was at first compelled to
retire, but soon returned in force and occupied the
village once more. Six men (mentioned by name)
and two Italians were then massacred in their
homes or in the public streets. One of them —
Thiery — was only eighteen years old, and his
mother, who was present at the execution, was on
her knees, imploring mercy for him, while he was
being shot.

" During these two days of slaughter almost all
the houses were burnt down, not only at Audun-
le-Romain, but in the neighbouring commune of
Malavillers as well. At Audun there were about
400 houses, and hardly a dozen of them are left.''*

There were even worse outrages at Jarny^^
another village near the frontier, but further south,
on the road to Verdun from Metz : —

'0 Five 178-184.

[Map 4l

AVDUN-LE-kOMAlN, JAKNY 145

" On Sept. 25th one of the many Italians work-
ing in the local factories shot his dog, and the
Germans immediately pretended that he had fired
at them. This was quite sufficient to provoke out-
rages of the worst kind. A fire was immediately
started which consumed twenty-two houses and
the church steeple, while the soldiers roared out
songs, to the accompaniment of a pianola, in an
inn beside the church. While the house of Mile.
Anna Francois was burning, the tax-collector, M.
Daval, noticed five Bavarians in front of the
building, rifle in hand, and — to use his description
— in the attitude of a sportsman waiting for a hare
to start from its form. The incendiaries, in fact,
often behaved in this way, giving their victims
only the choice of being burnt alive or shot.
Several people met their death under these tragic
circumstances, and it was thus that the members
of the Perignon family perished — father, mother,
and son were struck down by bullets as soon as
they left their blazing house. The daughter,
Mme. Leroy, escaped death, but had her arm frac-
tured by a bullet.

" The same day other murders took place. For
no reason whatever, M. Fournier, a cafe proprie-
tor, and his nephew were arrested at home, carried
off in a motor-car, and both shot, six hundred yards
from their house. A Bavarian soldier of the 4th

[Map 4]
G.T. L

146 FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

Infantry Regiment levelled his rifle at M. Lher-
mitte, as he was going indoors, and killed him.
He then opened the breech of his rifle to extract
the empty cartridge and quietly got into a regi-
mental cart.

" Mme. Berard, the wife of a soldier on
active service, was ordered to give some men of
the 66th and 68th Bavarian Regiments something
to drink. She had already drawn a large number
of buckets of water for them, when an officer —
or a non-commissioned officer — considering that
she had done enough, commanded her to go back
home. As the Germans were firing at the house,
Mme. Berard hid herself in the cellar with her
three children — Jean, aged six; Maurice, aged
two; Jeanne, aged nine — and the Aufiero family.
But soon she noticed petrol being poured through
the ventilator, found herself suddenly surrounded
by flames, and rushed out wildly, carrying one of
the little boys under each arm, while her little
daughter and young Beatrice Aufiero ran beside
her, clinging to her dress.

" Just as the party were crossing the stream
called the Rougeval, a few steps from the house,
the Bavarians opened fire on the fugitives. Little
Jean was struck in the thigh, low down on the leg,
and in the breast, and cried out : ' Oh ! mother, I
am hurt ! ' He died immediately. Beatrice

[Map 4l

JARNY 147

Aufiero received a bullet which almost completely
severed her right arm; and her sister Angele, a
child of nine, who was following close behind
her, was wounded, not quite so badly, in the
calf.

" Mme. Berard was then joined by Mme.
Aufiero, and reached the road, where an awful
sight met their eyes. About twenty yards away
the Germans were executing Aufiero, whom they
had brought out of the cellar. One of them,
turning to the wife of the man they were about to
execute, said to her with a grin : ' Just watch us
shoot your Mann ! ' — ' Oh ! my poor Come ! ' she
screamed. — ' Shut your mouth ! ' they replied.

" The two women and the children were then
taken to the meadow of Pont-de-l'Etang, where
a general ordered them to be shot. But Mme.
Berard flung herself on her knees and begged
mercy, crying and clutching his hands, till he con-
sented to spare them. One of the officers present
pointed to the corpse of little Jean, to whom the
mother still clung, and said : ' There's one who
will never fight against our men later on.' Next
day the unhappy woman, who had spent the night
in a place called the Zeller Barriere, was told that
she must dispose of her child's remains as quickly
as possible. Finding nobody to make a coffin, she
procured from the canteens a couple of cases in

[Map 4]

L 2

148 FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

which rabbits had been packed, and nailed them
end to end. She then placed the body inside and
went to the end of the garden to dig the grave. A
Bavarian officer had the shamelessness to ask her
to sell him — as a souvenir, no doubt — a medallion
containing a photograph of the little murdered
boy which she wore on her neck.

"On the 26th the Germans continued the
slaughter. M. Genot, the mayor, Abbe Vouaux,
and MM. Fidler and Bernier, who had been ar-
rested the day before, were lined up along a fence
behind the Blanchon inn, and shot on the word of
command. Besides these victims, M. Plessis, a
retired gamekeeper, was dragged out of his house
and killed in front of it, and many Italians were
put to death.

"It need hardly be said that at Jarny, just as
everywhere else, pillage was the accompaniment
of murder and incendiarism. The soldiers carried
off ornaments and objects of worship from the
sacristy of the parish church; and banners, altar
cloths, and even grave cloths were found after-
wards in the streets and fields."

Fresnes^^ in the Woevre, was occupied by the
Bavarians for six days, and on Sept. 15th, when
they evacuated it, they shot the acting mayor and

"1 Bland pp. 334-5.

[Map 4]

JARNY, FRESNES, COMBRES 149

his son, set their house on fire, and threw the son's
wife and another woman alive into the flames.
They burned 50 houses at Fresnes altogether,
besides a girls' school and the town hall. The
houses were plundered systematically before they
were burnt; the loot was carried off in motor-cars
to Germany, and 58 families at Fresnes were left
without a home.

At Combres,''^ a few miles further south, on the
eastern heights of the Meuse, the whole popula-
tion was dragged out on the morning of Sept. 22nd
and herded on to a hillside as a screen for the
Bavarians against the French fire. Twelve hours
later, at dusk, they were herded back, and given
an hour to collect the barest necessaries from their
(already plundered) homes. Then they were
locked up in the church for the night, and at
4 o'clock next morning herded out again on to the
hillside for a second day. After that they were
confined in the church for five days consecutively,
till finally the men were separated from the rest
and transferred by slow stages to the German
internment camp at Zwickau — half-starved on the
way and exhibited to the German populace at
every station where the train made a halt. The
women and children were kept in the church night
and day for a month, with disgusting restrictions

''2 Two pp. 13-5 (5 centime edition).
[Map 4]

150 FROM THE FRONTIER TO ST. MIHIEL

on sanitation which produced an outbreak of
dysentery and croup.

The Germans left their trail in the Woevre from
north to south. " At Loupmont," writes a diarist
on Sept. 5th/^ "a fine country house; beautiful
room with Persian carpet; on carpet slaughtered
sow; in the bed sucking-pig, also slaughtered;
blood running down the stairs."

Loupmont lies a few miles south-east of St.
Mihiel, where the Bavarians reached the Meuse
and were brought to a stand.

(ii) From the Frontier to Luneville.

Further east, the Bavarian centre never reached
the Meuse at all. Poitt-a-M ousson,^^ on the
Moselle, was bombarded year in and year out
from the beginning of the war, and by Nov. loth,
19 14, fourteen of the civilian inhabitants had
already been killed, but the Bavarians never
entered the town, and it escaped the horrors per-
petrated by the 2nd and 4th Bavarian Infantry
Regiments at Nomeny ^^ on the Seille.

" We experienced real horror," state the French
Commission, "when we found ourselves before
the lamentable ruins of Nomeny. With the ex-

^^ Bland pp. 197-8.

^* One 173

"^^ One 174-198 ; Bland pp. 200-215.

[Map 4]

LOUPMONT, NOMENY 151

ception of some few houses which still stood near
the railway station in a spot separated by the
Seille from the principal group of buildings, there
remains of this little town only a succession of
broken and blackened walls in the midst of ruins,
in which may be seen here and there the bones of
a few animals partly charred and the carbonised
remains of human bodies. The rage of a mad-
dened soldiery has been unloosed there without
pity.

" Nomeny, on account of its proximity to the
frontier, received from the beginning of the war
the visits of German troopers from time to time.
Skirmishes took place in its neighbourhood, and
on Aug. 14th, in the courtyard of the farm de la
Borde, which is a little distance off, a German
soldier killed by a rifle shot without any m.otive
the young farm servant Nicholas Michel, aged
seventeen.

" On Aug. 20th, when the inhabitants sought
refuge in the cellars from the bombardment, the
Germans came up after having fired upon each
other by mistake, and entered the town towards
midday.

" According to the account given by one of the
inhabitants, the German officers asserted that the
French were torturing the wounded by cutting off
their limbs and plucking out their eyes. They

r^Iap 5I

152 FROM THE FRONTIER TO LU NEVILLE

were then in a state of terrible excitement. That
day and part of the next the German soldiers gave
themselves over to the most abominable excesses,
sacking, burning, and massacring as they went.
After they had carried off from the houses every-
thing which seemed worth taking away, and after
they had despatched to Metz the booty of their
pillage, they set fire to the houses with torches,
pastilles of compressed powder, and petrol, which
they carried in receptacles placed on little carts.
Rifle shots were fired on every side ; the unhappy
inhabitants, who had been driven from the cellars
before the firing, were shot down like game — some
in their dwellings and others in the public streets.

"MM. Sanson, Pierson, Lallemand, Adam
Jeanpierre, Meunier, Schneider, Raymond,
Duponcel, and Hazotte, father and son, were
killed by rifle shots in the streets. M. Killian,
seeing himself threatened by a sabre stroke, pro-
tected his neck with his hand. He had three
fingers cut off and his throat gashed. An old man,
aged eighty-six, M. Petitjean, who was seated in
his armchair, had his skull smashed by a German
shot. A soldier showed the corpse to Mme.
Bertrand, saying : ' Do you see that pig there ? '
M. Chardin, town councillor, who was acting-
mayor, was required to furnish a horse and car-
riage. He had promised to do all he could to

[Map 5]

NOMENY 153

obey, when he was killed by a rifle shot. M.
Prevot, seeing the Bavarians breaking into a
chemist's shop of which he was caretaker, told
them that he was the chemist and that he would
give them anything they wanted, but three rifle
shots rang out and he fell, with one deep sigh.
Two women who were with him. ran away and were
pursued to the neighbourhood of the railway
station, being beaten all the way with the butts of
rifles, and they saw many bodies heaped together
in the station garden and on the road.

" Between 3 and 4 in the afternoon the Germans
entered the butcher's shop of Mme. Francois.
She was then coming out of her cellar with her
boy Stub and an employee named Contal. As
soon as Stub reached the threshold of the entrance
to the door he fell severely wounded by a rifle
shot. Then Contal, who rushed into the street,
was immediately murdered. Five minutes after-
wards, as Stub was still groaning, a soldier leant
over him and finished him off with a blow of a
hatchet on the back.

" The most tragic incident in this horrible scene
occurred in the house of M. Vasse, who had col-
lected a number of people in his cellar in the
Faubourg de Nancy. Towards 4 o'clock about
fifty soldiers rushed into the house, beat in the
door and windows, and set it on fire. The

. . [Map 5]

154 FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNEVILLE

refugees then made an effort to flee, but they were
struck down one after the other as they came out.
M. Mentre was murdered first; then his son Leon
fell with his little sister, aged eight, in his arms.
As he was not killed outright, the muzzle of a rifle-
barrel was thrust against his head and his brains
blown out. Then it was the turn of the Kieffer
family. The mother was wounded in the arm and
shoulder. The father and a little boy aged ten and
a little girl aged three were shot. The murderers
went on firing on them after they had fallen.
Kieffer, stretched on the ground, received another
bullet in the forehead, and his son had the top of his
head blown off by a shot. Last of all M. Strieffert
and one of Vasse's sons were murdered, while
Mme. Mentre received three bullets, one in
the left leg, another in the arm on the same side,
and one on her forehead, which was only grazed.
M. Guillaume was dragged into the street and
there found dead. Sim.onin, a young girl of seven-
teen, came out last from the cellar with her sister
Jeanne, aged three. The latter had her elbow
almost carried off by a bullet. The elder girl
flung herself on the ground and pretended to
be dead, remaining for five minutes in terrible
anguish. A soldier gave her a kick, crying
' Kaput ! '

" An officer arrived at the end of this butchery,

[Map 5] . ,

NOMENY, NANCY 155

ordered the women who were still alive to get up,
and shouted to them ' Go to France ! '

" While all these people were being massacred,
others, according to an expression used by an eye-
witness, were driven like sheep into the fields
under the threat of immediate execution: The
cure, in particular, owed his escape from being
shot to extraordinary circumstances."

At least 50 civilians were killed at Nomeny —
that number are known by name, and the list is
probably incomplete. " At 5 o'clock," writes a
soldier of the 8th Bavarian Regim.ent, "we were
ordered by the officer in command to shoot all the
male inhabitants of Nomeny and raze the town to
the ground, because the inhabitants were foolishly
attempting to stop the German troops' advance by
force of arms. We broke into the houses and
dragged off all who resisted, to shoot them ac-
cording to martial law. Houses not destroyed
already by the French artillery or our own were
set on fire by us, so that nearly the whole town
was reduced to ashes. It is a terrible sight when
helpless women and children are reduced to utter
destitution and driven forth into France."

South of Nomeny, Nancy^^ like Pont-a-
Mousson, escaped with a bombardment — the

''^ One 171-2 ; Five 141-3.

[Map 5]

156 FROM THE FRONTIER TO LU NEVILLE

official list of civilian victims over a period of
many months is given in the fifth volume of the
French Commission's Reports — and there was
no point west of Luneville where the Bavarians
reached the Meurthe. They bore down in strength
upon Luneville from the north, burning and kill-
ing on a broad front as they advanced.

Brin^'^ the first village on the French side of
the frontier, was plundered and burnt. At Erbe-
viller ^® the male mhabitants were arrested,
threatened with death, and locked up in a barn,
on the pretext that German sentries had been
shot at by one of them. " I am not certain that
it was these men who fired." the German officer
confided to a woman of Erbeviller the same
evening, "and I will let them go to-morrow
morning if you can pay me immediately a thou-
sand francs." The ransom was paid, and the
receipt which the officer signed for it is in the
French Commissioners' hands. '^

Renter ev'ille ^° was plundered and burnt sys-
tematically on Sept. 7th. A hundred and six
houses were burnt here, and 29, including the
Mairie, at Courbessaux^^ where the Bavarians

" One 370 ; Bland p. 198.
''^ One 357-8.
'9 One 358.
««;One 350-3.
^1. One 356.

[Map 5]

REMMM'ILLE, MAIXE, CREVIC 157

fired on an inhabitant who tried to extinguish the
flames. Thirty-five were burnt at Drouville,^^ and
36 at Maixe}^ At Maixe, also, 9 men and i
woman were massacred. The woman was shot in
a cellar; the men were killed in various ways —
one was burnt alive in his house, while his wife
was kept at a distance by force. At Crevic ^* the
Germans took especial pleasure in burning the
house belonging to General Liautey, who is a
native of the place. They burned 75 other houses
here as well, and killed 3 inhabitants, one at least
of whom was burnt alive. At Sojjwierviller^^
they shot two old men aged seventy and sixty-five,
and looted the shops. At Detixville ®® they
burned about 15 houses, carried off the mayor
and cure as hostages, and shot them at Crion on
Aug. 25th. At Hudiviller^'^ they shot a man in
cold blood, in the sight of his fifteen-year-old son.
At Vitrimoni^^ on the north-western outskirts of
Luneville, they shot a man of sixty-nine on Aug.
24th, two days after their first entry, and burned
32 houses on Sept. 6th, when they passed through
the village again in their retreat.

82 One 354-5.

*^ One 289-298.

** One 279-283 : Five 162-4.

^^ One 319-322.

*" One 284-7.

^'^ One 342.

^* One 359-360.

[Map 5]

158 FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNEVILLE

Other Bavarian columns descended on Lune-
ville by parallel routes to the east. At Anacourtf^
where these crossed the frontier, they shot a
civilian and burned 5 houses. Their officers
plundered and defiled the Chateau de Bauze-
mont ^° — staff officers' wives were observed remov-
ing the loot in motor-cars, and when the French
troops returned they found that the floors and beds
had been carefully covered with filth. At Ein-
ville ^^ the Bavarians murdered four civilians —
one of them after brutal torments. " They led
him past our house," states a witness®^; "his nose
had been almost hacked off, his eyes were hag-
gard, and he seemed to have aged ten years in a
quarter of an hour. A high officer came up and
said something in German, and eight soldiers led
the prisoner away to his fate. Ten minutes later
I saw them return without him, and one of them
said in French : ' He died before . . .' " — before
what refinement of torture will never be known.
In the course of an action with the French the
Bavarians forced the Mayor of Einville to find
civilians to bury the dead. Three of those im-
pressed were wounded and one killed while
engaged on this task. The mayor himself, with

«» One 368-9.
^" One 299-300.

SI One 309-318.
s^ One 315.

[Map 5]

BAUZEMONT, EINVILLE, CHANTEHEUX 159

his assessor and another inhabitant, was carried
off as a hostage on Sept. 12th, when the Bavarians
evacuated the place, and was confined for six
weeks in a German prison. At the farm of Remon-
ville^^ near Einville, four civilians w^ere killed.
The bodies of two of them were recovered later;
both the heads had been cut off, and one of them
bashed in.

At Bonviller ^^ the Bavarians burned 26 houses.
At J olivet ^^ they shot an inhabitant, plundered
the place, and sent off their loot in waggons before
they retired. At Chanteheux'^^ they passed the
Vezouse, and their outrages here are summarised
in the French Commission's Report : —

" The village of Chanteheux, situated quite
close to Luneville, was not spared either. The
Bavarians, who occupied it from Aug. 22nd to
Sept. 1 2th, burned there 20 houses in the cus-
tomary manner and massacred 8 persons on Aug.
25th, MM. Lavenne, Toussaint, Parmentier and
Bacheler, who were killed, the first three by
rifle shots, the fourth by two shots and a blow with
a bayonet; young Schneider aged twenty-three,
who was murdered in a hamlet of the commune;

^' One 317-8.
9* One 306-8.
ss One 304-5.
"^ One 245-253.

[Map 5]

160 FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUNM'ILLE

M. Wingerstmann and his grandson, whose deaths
we have recorded in setting out the crimes
committed at Luneville; lastly, M. Reeb, aged
sixty-two, who certainly died as the result of the
ill-treatment which he suffered. This man had
been taken as hostage with some forty-two of his
fellow-citizens, who were kept for thirteen days.
After having received terrible blows from the butt
of a rifle in his face and a bayonet wound in his
side, he continued to follow the column, although
he lost much blood and his face was so bruised
that he was almost unrecognisable, when a
• Bavarian, without any reason, gave him a great
wound by throwing a wooden pail at his forehead.
Between Henamenil and Bures his companions
saw that he was no longer with them; no doubt
he fell by the way.

"If this unhappy man was to suffer the most
cruel martyrdom of all, the hostages taken with
him in the commune had also to suffer violence
and insult. Before setting fire to the village the
hostages were set with their backs to the parapet
of the bridge while the troops passed by, ill-treat-
ing them. As an officer accused them of firing on
the Germans, the schoolmaster gave him his word
of honour that it was not so. ' Pig of a French-
man,' replied the officer, ' do not speak of honour ;
you have none.'

[Map 5]

CHANTEHEUX, CROISMARE 161

" At the moment when her house was burning
Mme. Cherrier, who was coming out of the cellar
to escape suffocation, was drenched with an in-
flammable liquid by some soldiers who were
sprinkling the walls. One of them told her that
it was benzine. She then ran behind a dunghill
to hide herself with her parents, but the incen-
diaries dragged her by force in front of the blaze,
and she was obliged to witness the destruction of
her dwelling."

At Croismare,^^ a mile or two further up the
Vezouse, on Aug. 25th, the Germans fired at every
civilian they saw as they were passing through the
village in retreat. A mounted officer shot one
man outright, and then made two others line up
in front of him while he reloaded his revolver.
He dropped three cartridges, and made them pick
them up. They asked for mercy and he answered :
" Nicht pardon, cochon de Franzose ! Kaput ! "
With that he fired twice, wounding one victim in
the shoulder and maiming the other's hand. A
night or two later, in the streets of Croismare, the
report of a rifle was heard. " That is enough to
get you and the burgomaster shot," remarked a
German officer to the cure. " Sir," replied the
cure, "you are too intelligent not to recognise

''" One 346-9.

[Map 5]
G.T. M

162 FROM THE FRONTIER TO LUN^VILLE

the sharp report of your own German rifle. I
certainly recognise it myself." The officer, the
cure adds, did not pursue the conversation further.
At Embermenil^^ further east again, the
Bavarians shot a woman with child and a young
man in the sight of the rest of the inhabitants;
but this was later — -on Nov. 5th — ^and meanwhile
their columns, advancing from north-west and
north and north-east, had occupied Luneville for
three full weeks — Aug. 22nd to Sept. nth — and
had perpetrated there some of the worst atrocities
of any that were done in the whole invasion of
Belgium and France.

(iii) Luneville.

The outbreak of the Bavarians at Luneville ®^
on Aug. 25th bears a sinister resemblance to the
outbreak at Louvain, on the same date, of other
German troops ; but there is little likelihood that
these outbreaks were timed to coincide, and little
evidence, even, that either of them was precon-
certed, at a fixed hour, by the Higher Command.
The outbreaks themselves, and the extraordinarily
similar courses they followed, are accounted for
by the general spirit which the Higher Command
instilled into the German soldiery, and by the

^^ One 363-5.

'^ One 199-244 ; Five 144-7 ; German Ptoclamaiio/u : "Scraps
of Paper," pp. lo-ii ( = One 302 = Bland pp. loo-i), 12-3, 14-5.

[Map 5]

EMBEBMt:NIL, LUNtlVILLE 103

standing orders they gave to the hierarchy of
officers through whom their executive orders
reached the men in the ranks. The private
soldier was encouraged to look on every French
and Belman civilian as an unconfessed and
treacherous franc-tirenr. The company officers
and N.C.O.'s were instructed upon the least sus-
picious circumstance — a light, a tramp of feet, the
report of a rifle shot fired no matter by whom —
to forestall trouble by unleashing the worst pas-
sions of their men. The Higher Command accom-
plished its policy of " Frightfulness " by more
subtle methods than is commonly supposed. Its
influence on its subordinates' mmds was pene-
trating in proportion as it was indirect, and its
responsibility was often greatest where the indi-
vidual soldier's action appeared to flow spon-
taneously from criminal tendencies in himself.

The evidence relating to the conduct of the
German Army at Luneville is summ.arised as
follows by the French Commission^: —

" Luneville was occupied by the Germans from
Aug. 2ist to Sept. nth. During the first few
days they were content to rob the inhabitants with-
out molesting them in any other way. Thus, in
particular on Aug. 24th, the house of Mme.

' One pp. 23-6.

[Maps]

M 2

164 lun£:ville

Jeaumont was plundered. The objects stolen were
loaded on to a large vehicle in which there were
three women, one of them dressed in black and
the two others wearing military costumes, and ap-
pearing, as we were told, to be canteen-women.

"On the 25th the attitude of the invaders sud-
denly changed. M. Keller, the mayor, went to
the hospital about half-past three in the afternoon,
and saw soldiers firing in the direction of the attic
of a neighbouring house, and heard the whistling
of the bullets, which appeared to him to come from
behind. The Germans declared to him that the
inhabitants had fired on them. He protested, and
offered to go round the town with them in order
to prove the absurdity of this allegation. His pro-
posal was accepted, and as at the beginning of the
circuit they came across the body of M. Crombez
in the street, the officer commanding the escort
said to M. Keller : ' You see this body. It is that
of a civilian who has been killed by another civilian
who was firing on us from a house near the Syna-
gogue. Thus, in accordance with our law, we have
burnt the house and executed the inhabitants.' He
was speaking of the murder of a man whose timid
character was known to all, the Jewish officiating
minister Weill, who had just been killed in his
house, together with his sixteen-year-old daughter.
The same officer added : 'In the same way we

[Map 5]

INCENDIARISM 165

have burnt the house at the corner of the Rue
Castara and the Rue Girardet, because civilians
fired shots from there.' It is from this dwelling
that the Germans alleged that shots had been fired
into the courtyard of the hospital, but the posi-
tion of the building makes it impossible for such
a statement to be true.

" While the mayor and the soldiers who accom-
panied him were pursuing their investigation, the
conflagration broke out on different sides ; the
H6tel-de-Ville was burnt as well as the Syna-
gogue, and a number of houses in the Rue Castara
and the Faubourg d'Einville were in flames. The
massacres, which were continued until the next
day, began at the same time. Without counting
M. Crombez and the officiating minister Weill and
his daughter, whose deaths we have already men-
tioned, the victims were MM. Hamman, Binder,
Balastre (father and son), Vernier, Dujon, M.
Kahn and his mother, M. Steiner and his wife,
M. Wingerstmann and his grandson, and finally
MM. Sibille, Monteils, and Colin.

" The murders were committed in the follow-
ing circumstances : —

"On Aug. 25th, after having fired two shots
into the Worms tannery to create the belief that
they were being attacked from there, the Germans
entered a workshop in this factory, in which the

[Map 5]

166 LUNEVILLE

workman Goeury was working ni company with
M. Balastre, father and son. Goeury was dragged
into the street, robbed there and brutally ill-
treated, while his two companions, who were found
trying to hide themselves in a lavatory, were killed
by rifle shots.

" On the same day soldiers came to summon
M. Steiner, who had hidden in his cellar. His
wife, fearing some misfortune, tried to keep him
back. As she held him in her arms she received
a bullet in the neck. A few moments after,
Steiner, having obeyed the order which had been
oiven to him, fell mortallv wounded in his o^arden.
M. Kahn was also murdered in his garden. His
mother, aged ninety-eight, whose body was burnt
in the conflagration, had first been killed in her bed
by a bayonet thrust, according to ihe account of an
individual who acted as interpreter to the enemy.
M. Binder, who was coming out to escape the
flames, was also struck down. The German bv
whom he was killed realised that he had shot him
without any motive, at the moment when the un-
fortunate man was standing quietly before a door.
M. Vernier suffered the same fate as Binder.

" Towards three o'clock the Germans broke into
a house in which were Mme. Dujon, her daughter,
aged three, her two sons, and M. Gaumier, by
breaking the windows and firing shots. The little

[Map 5]

MUBDER 167

o-irl was nearly killed, her face was burnt by a
shot. At this moment Mme. Dujon, seeing- her
youngest son, Lucien, fourteen years old, stretched
on the ground, asked him to get up and escape
with her. She then saw that his intestines were
protruding from a wound, and that he was hold-
ing them in. The house was on fire ; the poor boy
was burnt, as well as M. Gaumier, who had not
been able to escape.

"M. Wingerstmann and his grandson, aged
twelve, who had gone out to pull potatoes a little
way from Luneville, at the place called ' Les
Mossus,' in the district of Chanteheux, were un-
fortunate enough to meet Germans. The latter
placed them both against a wall and shot them.

" Finally, towards five in the evening, soldiers
entered the house of the woman Sibille, in the
same place, and without any reason seized
upon her son, led him 200 metres from the house
and murdered him there, together with M. Vallon,
to whose body they had fastened him. A witness,
who had seen the murderers at the moment when
they were dragging their victim along, saw them
return without him and noticed that their saw-
edged bayonets were covered with blood and bits
of flesh.

" On the same day a hospital attendant named
Monteils, who was looking after a wounded enemy

[Map 5]

168 LUNEVILLE

officer at the Hospital of Luneville, was struck
down by a bullet in the forehead while he was
looking through a window at a German soldier
who was firing.

" The next day, the 26th, M. Hamman and his
son, aged twenty-one, were arrested in their own
house and dragged out by a band of soldiers who
had entered by breaking down the door. The
father was beaten unmercifully ; as for the young
man, as he tried to struggle, a non-commis-
sioned officer blew out his brains with a revolver
shot.

"At one in the afternoon M. Riklin, a chemist,
having been informed that a man had fallen about
30 metres from his shop, went to the spot indi-
cated and recognised in the victim his brother-in-
law, M. Colin, aged sixty-eight, who had been
struck in the stomach by a bullet. The Germans
alleged that this old man had fired upon them.
M. Riklin denied this statement. Colin, we are
told, was a harmless person, absolutely incapable
of an aggressive act and completely ignorant of the
means of using a firearm.

" It appeared to us desirable to deal also at
Luneville with acts which are less grave, but which
throw a peculiar light on the habits of thought of
the invader. On Aug. 25th M. Lenoir, sixty-
seven years of age, and with him his wife, were

[Map 5l

PILLAGE 169

led into the fields with their hands tied behind
their backs. After both had been cruelly ill-
treated, a non-commissioned officer took posses-
sion of eighteen hundred francs in gold which
M. Lenoir carried on him. As we have already
stated, the most impudent thieving seems to have
formed part of the customs of the German Army,
who practised it publicly. The following is an
interesting example : —

" During the burning of a house belonging to
Mme. Leclerc, the safes of two inhabitants resisted
the flames. One, belonging to M. George, Sub-
Inspector of Waters and Forests, had fallen into
the ruins; the other safe, belonging to M. Goud-
chau, general dealer, remained fixed to a wall at
the height of the second storey. The non-com-
missioned officer Weiss, who was well acquainted
with the town, where he had often been welcomed
when he used to come before the war to carry on
his business as a hop merchant, went with the
soldiers to the place, ordered that the piece
of wall which remained standing should be blown
up with dynamite, and saw that the two safes were
taken to the station, where they were placed on
a truck destined for Germany. This Weiss was
particularly trusted and esteemed by the persons
in command. It was he who, installed at Head-
quarters, was given the duty of administering the

[Map 5]

170 LUNPJILLE

commune in some sense and was in charge of the
requisitioning.

"After havino- committed numerous acts of
pillage at Luneville, after having burnt about
70 houses with torches, petrol, and various in-
cendiary machines, and after having massacred
peaceful inhabitants, the German military authori-
ties thought it well to put up the following pro-
clamation, in which they formulated ridiculous
accusations to justify the extortion of enormous
contributions in the form of an indemnity : —

" ' Notice to the Population.

" ' On Aug. 25th, 19 14, the inhabitant.-s of Lune-
ville made an attack by ambuscade against
the German columns and transport. On
the same day the inhabitants fired on hos-
pital buildings marked with the Red Cross.
Further, shots were fired on the German
wounded and the military hospital contain-
ing a German ambulance. On account of
these acts of hostility a contribution of
650,000 francs is imposed on the Commune
of Luneville. The mayor is ordered to
pay this sum — 50,000 francs in silver and
the remainder in gold — on Sept. 6th, ?t
9 o'clock in the morning, to the representa-

[Map 5]

BLACKMAIL 171

tive of the German Military Authority.
No protest will be considered. No exten-
sion of time will be granted. If the com-
mune does not punctually obey the order
to pay the 650,000 francs, all the goods
which are available will be seized. In case
payment is not made, domiciliary visits
will take place and all the inhabitants will
be searched. Anyone found to have de-
liberately hidden money or to have at-
tempted to withhold his goods from seizure
by the military authorities, and anyone
attempting to leave the town, will be shot.
The mayor and the hostages taken by the
military authorities will be made respon-
sible for the exact execution of the above
order. The mayor is ordered to publish
these directions to the commune at once.
'Henamenil. Sept. 3rd, 1914.
' Commander-in-Chief,
' Von Fasbender.'

" On reading this extraordinary document one
is justified in asking whether the arson and
murders committed at Luneville on Aug. 2 5lh and
26th by an army which was not acting under the
excitement of battle, and which during the pre-
ceding days of its occupation had abstained from

[Map 5]

172 LUNEVILLE

killing, were not ordered on purpose to make more
plausible the allegation which was to serve as a
pretext for the exaction of an indemnity."

(iv) Across the Meurthe.

While Lunevilie was being sacked by the
Bavarian troops who occupied it, other Bavarian
columns were pressing southward over the Meurthe.
At Herimenil ^ they shot six civilians — including
women of eighteen and twenty-three and a man
of seventy-seven — and deliberately burned 22
houses, after pillage. To facilitate the pillage the
inhabitants were confined in the church. " I did
not want the church door opened," a Bavarian
captain shouted when a woman ventured out to
find milk for the children ; " I wanted the French
to shoot their own people." And, in fact, a French
shell fell on the church and killed 24 of those
inside. At Rehainviller^ the Germans carried off
the cure and shot him, and deliberately set the
village on fire. They burned three houses at
Mont} At Lmnath^ they carried off the mayor
and two others as hostages to Germany, and shot
a man seventy years old. At Fraimbois ^ they

2 One 335-341-
■■^ One 323-8.
4 One 334.
i One 329-330.
6 One 331-3-

[Map 5]

UmiMt^NIL, FRAIMBOIS 173

shot a municipal councillor and an invalid from
Gerbeviller. " I saw German soldiers," states a
witness from Fraimbois, " firing at fowls in the
gardens. At that moment a patrol came by and
arrested me on the pretext that it was I who had
fired. I was brought before a council of war, but
chanced to be acquitted." Advancing from Fraim-
bois and Lamath, the Bavarians fought their way
into Gerbeviller '^ on Aug. 24th.

" At Gerbeviller," the French Comimission
report,® " the enemy's troops hurled themselves
against some sixty chasseurs-a-pied, who offered
heroic resistance and inflicted heavy losses upon
them. They took a drastic revenge upon the
civilian population. Indeed, from the moment
of their entrance into the town the Germans gave
themselves up to the worst excesses, entering the
houses with savage yells, burnmg the buildings,
killing or arresting the inhabitants, and sparing
neither women nor old men. Out of 475 houses,
20 at most are still habitable. More than 100
persons have disappeared, 50 at least have been
massacred. Some were led into the fields to be
shot, others were murdered in their houses or
struck down as they passed through the streets,
while they were trying to escape from the con-

' One 254-278.
^ One pp. 27-9.

pviap 5]

174 ACROSS THE MEURTHE

flagration. Up to now 36 bodies have been
identified " (names follow). ...

" Fifteen of these poor people were executed
at a place called ' la Prele.' They were buried
by their fellow-citizens on Sept. 12th or 15th.
Almost all had their hands tied behind their backs ;
some were blindfolded; the trousers of the
majority were unbuttoned and pushed down to
their feet. This fact as well as the appearance
of the bodies made the witnesses think that the
victims had been mutilated. We did not think
we ought to adopt this view, ihe bodies being in
such an advanced state of decomposition that a
mistake on the subject might be made. Besides,
it is possible that the murderers unbuttoned the
trousers of the prisoners so as to encumber their
legs, and thus make it impossible for them to
escape.

"On Oct. 1 6th, at a place called le Haut-de-
Vormont, buried under fifteen to twenty centi-
metres of earth, we found the bodies of ten
civilians with the marks of bullets upon them.
On one of them was found a laissez-fasser in the
name of Edouard Seyer, of Badonviller. The
other nine victims are unknown. It is believed
that they were inhabitants of Badonviller, who had
been taken by the Germans into the neighbour-
hood of Gerbeviller to be shot there.

[Map 5]

GEBBt:VILLER—LA PRtlLE 175

" In the streets and houses during the day the
town was sacked the most tragic scenes took place.

" In the morning the enemy entered the house of
M. and Mme. Lingenheld, seized the son, thirty-
six years of age, who was wearing the brassard of
the Red Cross, tied his hands behind his back,
dragged him into the street, and shot him. They
then returned to look for the father, an old man
of seventy. Mme. Lingenheld then took to flight.
On her way she saw her son stretched on the
ground, and as the unhappy man was still moving
some Germans drenched him with petrol, to which
they set fire in the presence of the terrified mother.
In the meantime M. Lingenheld was led to la
Prele, where he was executed. i

" At the same time the soldiers knocked at the
door of the house occupied by M. Dehan, his
wife, and his mother-in-law, the widow Guillaume,
aged seventy-eight. The latter, who opened the
door, was shot point-blank, and fell into the arms
of her son-in-law, who ran up behind her. ' They
have killed me ! ' she cried. ' Carry me into the
garden.' Her children obeyed, and laid her at
the end of the garden with a pillow under her
head and a blanket over her legs, and then
stretched themselves at the foot of the wall to
avoid shells. At the end of an hour the widow
Guillaume was dead. Her daughter wrapped her

[Map 5]

176 ACROSS THE MEURTHE

in a blanket and placed a handkerchief over her
face. Almost immediately the Germans broke
into the garden. They carried off Dehan and shot
him at la Prele, and led his wife away on to the
Fraimbois road, where she found about 40 people,
principally women and children, in the enemy's
hands, and heard an officer of high rank say : ' We
must shoot these women and children. We must
make an end of them.' However, the threat was
not carried into effect. Mme. Dehan was set at
liberty next day, and was able to return twenty-one
days later to Gerbeviller. She is convinced, and
all those who saw the body share her opinion, that
her mother's body had been violated. In fact, the
body was found stretched on its back with the
petticoats pushed up, the legs separated, and the
stomach ripped open.

"When the Germans arrived, M. Perrin and
his two daughters, Louise and Eugenie, had taken
refuge in a stable. The soldiers entered, and one
of them, seeing young Louise, fired a shot point-
blank at her head. Eugenie succeeded in escap-
ing, but her father was arrested as he fled, placed
among the victims who were being taken to la
Prele, and shot with them.

"M. Yong, who was going out to exercise his
horse, was struck down before his own house.
The Germans in their fury killed the horse after

[Map 5]

^ ■ ^t,\

■. vi

GERBj^VILLER—RAPE 177

the master, and set fire to the house. Some others
raised the trap-door of a cellar in which several
people were hidden and fired several shots at
them. Mme. Denis Bernard and the boy Par-
mentier, seven years of age, were wounded.

" At five in the evening Mme. Rozier heard an
imploring voice crying, ' Mercy ! Mercy ! ' These
cries came from one of the two neighbouring barns
belonging to MM. Poinsard and Barbier. A man
who was acting as interpreter to the Germans
declared to a certain Mme. Thiebaut that the Ger-
mans boasted that they had burnt alive in one of
these barns, in spite of his entreaties and appeals
to their pity, a man who was the father of five
children. This declaration carries all the more
conviction, since the remains of a burnt human
body have been found in the barn belonging to
Poinsard.

" Side by side with this carnage, innumerable
acts of violence were committed. The wife of a
soldier, Mme. X., was raped by a German soldier
in the passage of her parents' house, whilst her
mother was obliged to flee at the bayonet's point.

" On Aug. 29th Sister Julie, Mother Superior
of the Hospital, whose devotion has been admir-
able, went to the parish church with a mobilised
priest to examine the state of the interior of the
building, and found that an attempt had been

[Map 5]
G.T. N

178 ACROSS THE MEURTHE

made to break through the steel door of the
tabernacle. The Germans had fired shots round
the lock in order to get possession of the ciborium.
The door was broken through in several places,
and the bullets had produced almost symmetrical
holes, which proved that the shots had been fired
point-blank. When Sister Julie opened the taber-
nacle she found the ciborium pierced with bullet
holes."

Beyond Gerbeviller, at Moyen^ they carried
away captive to Qermany the cure and the mayor.
At Magnieres^^ too, the mayor was carried away,
a number of houses were burnt, and a Bavarian
soldier violated a girl of twelve. At Xaffevillers}^
in the Department of the Vosges, civilians were
used as a screen. The place was pillaged, and a
woman of seventy-five was violated. Doncieres ^^
was pillaged, and here a man of seventy-four was
shot and 27 houses burnt. At Nossoncourt^^ 20
houses were burnt and 16 inhabitants carried
away to Germany, of whom 3 died in exile. At
Menil-sur-Belvitte^^ 52 houses were burnt, an old
man of sixty-one was used as a screen, and 3

^ One 361-2.
10 One 343-5.
" Five 228-9.
^'^ Five 216-8.
^^ Five 208-9.
^* Five 219-227.

[Map 5!

XAFFEVILLERS, MENIL, ST. BARBE 179

others were shot. At St. -Bar be ^* 104 houses were
burnt, after being pillaged, out of about 150, and
in one of them a woman of eighty-three was burnt
alive. The schoolmaster protested to the Bavarian
commandant that civilians had not been firing,
but the commandant would not listen, and the
burning went on — " a horrible sight," as a private
of the 170th Regiment wrote in his diary on
Aug. 26th.

(v) In the V osges.

These places lay between the Meurthe and the
Mortagne, but other columns ravaged the district
between the Meurthe and the Vezouse, and
pressed up the Meurthe into the Vosges to join
hands, if they could, with German forces operating
from Alsace.

At Baccarat^^ in the Department of the Meurthe
and Moselle, the Bavarians conducted systematic
pillage under the direction of their officers, and
burned over 100 houses — 112 were destroyed
altogether, and only 4 or 5 of them by shells.
" These pigs of Bavarians again," said the
Badeners who followed the Bavarians into the
town. " We are not the same race." Yet it was
a Badener General of Artillery who remarked to

13 Five 210-5 ; Rland pp. 136-7, 335.
1^ One 301-3.

[Map 5]

N '»

180 IN THE VOSGE

an inhabitant : " I never thought you had so much
fine wine at Baccarat; we have taken more than
100,000 bottles."

At Domevre^'^ 136 houses were burnt, a boy of
seventeen was shot at and died of his wounds,
and two other inhabitants were shot, one of them
being seventy-five years old. At Blamont}'^ when
the Germans marched in on Aug. 8th, they shot
a girl working in the fields. On Aug. 12th they
shot an ex-mayor eighty-two years old. On Aug.
13th they dragged off the mayor and a cafe pro-
prietor to execution, on the ground that there
had been firing by civilians; they kept their vic-
tims waiting in agony for a quarter of an hour;
then the cafe proprietor was shot and the mayor
set free.

" Parux'' writes a Bavarian diarist ^^ on Aug.
loth, "was the first village burnt; then we let
go, and one village after another went up in
flames. We cycled across country till we came
to some road-ditches, where we ate cherries."

" During the night of Aug. iSth-igth," another
diarist writes,^° " the village of St.-Maurice was
burnt to the ground by the 12th and 17th Land-
wehr as a punishment for having fired on German

1' One 366.

^^ Five 185-9.

^^ Bland p. i95 = Bedier p. 22.

20 Bland pp. 183-5.

[Map 5]

DOMEVRE, ST. -MAURICE, BADONVILLER 181

troops. The village was surrounded — one man
to every yard — so that no one could get out.
Then the Uhlans set fire to it, house by house.
Neither man, woman, nor child was to escape,
only most of the live stock was carried off, as that
could be used. Anyone who ventured out was
shot down. All the inhabitants left in the village
were burnt with their houses."

The conduct of the Bavarians at B adonviller^^
is summarised by the French Commission in their
Fifth Report : —

"On Aug. i2th, 1914, the 2nd, 5th, 12th, and
1 6th Infantry Regiments entered Badonviller,
after hard fighting in the outskirts. Their first
act was to kill an inoffensive landowner, M.
Marchal, aged sixty-six, who was sitting quietly
in front of his door.

"Soon afterwards an action which began out
side the town was carried into the streets, where
a handful of French riflemen were making a
stand; and the latter, being forced to retreat,
fired, while still within range, on columns which
were coming up to reinforce the enemy. In-
furiated by this firing, the Germans alleged, as
usual, that civilians had taken part in it, and the
order was given to ravage Badonviller with fire

21 Five 148-161 ; Morgan p. 99.

[Map 5]

182 IN THE VOSGES

and sword. Captain Baumanh, of the i6th Regi-
ment, showed himself particularly dangerous. In
order to quiet him, M. Benoit, the mayor, par-
leyed with him as best he could, assuring him that
none of his fellow-townsmen had opened fire.
The officer then ordered him to follow him through
the streets and have all doors and windows thrown
open. To make sure that, in so far as his own
house was concerned, the order should be carried
out, the mayor sent home his wife, who was with
her parents. Then he went to interview the enemy
general, to plead the cause of his townspeople,
and to ask that a stop should be put to the acts of
violence and arson that were already beginning.
The general's only reply was to allow a respite
of twenty minutes, before the expiration of which
all the French soldiers who had taken refuge n
Badonviller were to be handed over, and all the
men to assemble in front of the town-hall. M.
Benoit hastened to take the necessary steps for
collecting his fellow-citizens. While thus em-
ployed he was passing his house, when an officer
pointed at it, saying that there had been firing
from it. After uttering strong protests, the mayor
entered his house with four soldiers to make an
inspection. A tragic sight awaited him there.
On reaching a room on the first floor, the window
of which was open, he found his wife stretched

[Map 5]

BADONVILLER—THE MAYOR'S HOUSE 183

lifeless, with a wound in her breast. The un-
happy husband, beside himself with grief, was
on the point of flinging himself on her dead body,
but the Germans dragged him off and compelled
him to go with them and search his neighbours'
houses, while the body of Mme. Benoit was
burning in his house, which had just been set on
fire.

" In the same district the Bavarians also burned
a workmen's quarter and other buildings, besides
killing a boy of sixteen, Georges Odinot, in his
parents' house. The boy was coming up from
the cellar with a bottle of wine and a small loaf of
bread for the family meal when, on entering the
kitchen, he found himself confronted by two
soldiers, who aimed their rifles at him. ' Spare
me, gentlemen,' he cried, but one of the two men
shot him in the throat. The Germans then dragged
the body out by the legs and flung it into a blazing
shed.

" Meanwhile, other murders were being com-
mitted at the other end of the town, which had
also been set on fire. M. and Mme. George, their
daughter, their son-in-law, M. Gruber, and two
young children of the latter's, were caught by
the flames in the cellar where they had bidden
themselves, and were fired at as they fled. M.
and Mme. George were killed in front of their

[Map 5]

184 IN THE VOSGES

house; M. Gruber, while holding one of his
children in his arms, was badly wounded, and
dragged himself into a meadow close by, where
he died five hours later. His wife witnessed his
agony from a house that commanded the meadow,
but she was not allowed to go and give him any
help at all. Finally, M. Spatz, an old man of
eighty-one, M. Emile Boulay, and his fifteen-
year-old son were murdered in their homes.

" During this terrible day a certain number of
people were driven brutally from their houses,
and then collected in the high-street and sub-
jected to the grossest maltreatment. A man of
seventy-five, M. Batoz, though helpless and ill,
was plucked from his bed and dragged naked into
the road. He died a fortnight later. About a
dozen young people had to lie flat on the ground
with their arms crossed, and soldiers passing near
them amused themselves by kicking them, strik-
ing them with the butt-end of their rifles and
treading on their hands. During a scene of this
kind young Massel, aged eighteen, who had been
wounded by a bullet, fell into the river and was
drowned. His mother and sister, who witnessed
the accident, were not allowed to go to his help.

" While this massacre was in progress the enemy
gave themselves up to an orgy of incendiarism
and pillage. Eighty-five houses were destroyed

[Map 5]

BADONVILLER—THE BOMBARDMENT 185

and the chnrch was bombarded by a battery placed
on a height commanding the town. This bom-
bardment, which served no military end — for fight-
ing had ceased — was carried out in the presence
of some hostages from Fenneviller, who — to quote
several witnesses — were obliged to take off their
hats and shout ' Hurrah ! ' with the gunners at
every discharge. It is only fair, however, to men-
tion that, upon representations from M. Berson,
a professor at the Condorcet School, who was
spending his holidays at Badonviller and had
been arrested there. Captain Baumann consented,
while the cannonade was going on, to send soldiers
to form a chain and extinguish in its early stages
a conflagration which had broken out in a block
of houses close to the church."

" During the fight at ' Batonville,' " wrote a
Bavarian soldier ^^ in a letter to a girl at home, " I
bayoneted 7 women and 4 young girls in five
minutes. We fought from house to house, and
these women fired on us with revolvers ; they also
fired on the captain too, and then he told me to
shoot them all, but I bayoneted them and did not
shoot them — this set of sows, they are worse than
men."

The French Commission give the following

^- Morgan p. 99,

[Map 5]

186 IN THE VOSGES

summary of Bavarian outrages at Raon-

"The Germans entered Raon-l'Etape on Aug.
24th. As soon as they arrived they first of all
burned four houses in the Rue Carnot, under the
usual pretext that they had been fired upon. Next
day they placed machine-guns on the steps of the
hospital and dug trenches in the garden. When
the Sisters protested against this violation of hos-
pital premises, they admitted that they had
selected the position deliberately to shelter them-
selves from the French artillery. Until the 28th
they went on burning down the town, using torches,
grenades, and an inflammable liquid which they
squirted with hand-pumps. Besides this, they
ordered the inhabitants to bring them all the petrol
they possessed. The Corn Exchange, the girls'
school, several other public buildings, and one
hundred and two private houses were destroyed.
Some soldiers, when asked by Dr. Wendling why
they were burning everything, replied : ' Your
town is badly lighted ; we must brighten up the
night a bit.'

" In addition, we have to deplore the deaths of
several absolutely unoffending people. An old
man of seventy-five, M. Richard, was killed by a
bullet while watching some of the enemy's troops

-^ Five 190-206, summarised on pp. 30-2,

RAON-rETAPE 187

go by from an upper window of his house. M.
Huck was murdered on the night of the 24th or
25th, while leavnig his cellar. Four days later
his body, with a wound in the head, was recovered
from the river, into which the murderers had
thrown it. A certain M. Poirel was wounded
mortally under circumstances which are not quite
clear. M. Perisse was forced to walk in front of
the soldiers and struck down in the Rue Chanzy.
In the same street the widow Grandemange re-
ceived a wound in her leg, from which she died
some days afterwards.

" During the whole of the occupation there were
many acts of pillage, and some officers and several
German women took part in them. Every third
day motor-cars laden with booty went off in the
direction of Cirey and returned empty. The pil-
lagers spread a Red Cross flag over a waggon
filled with casks of wine stolen from M. Mar-
celoff's establishment.

" In the first week Mile. X., a domestic servant,
thirty-four years of age, was surprised by four
soldiers in her master's house. Three of them
held her down while the fourth outraged her.
Mme Y. was the victim of a similar outrage. A
German violated her in a neighbour's house, after
driving out the other people there, revolver in
hand.

[Map 5]

188 IN THE VOSGES

"After all this had happened, the town was
occupied by the 15th Army Corps, and particu-
larly by the 99th Infantry Regiment. General von
Deimling had his quarters in the premises belong-
ing to the Sadoul family. For a long time after-
wards his name could be seen chalked on the door.

" The Raon-1'Etape hospital has been occupied
by three successive German field hospitals, the
staff of which turned out a great number of our
wounded and gave no attention to the rest. Their
doctors behaved scandalously in the place, getting
drunk every night and rifling the quarters of
wounded or dead French officers. About a dozen
mattresses, many blankets, and more than a
hundred sheets were stolen. The doctor in com-
mand of the last field hospital distinguished him-
self by his extraordinary brutality and coarseness.
One day he insulted shamefully the nun who was
at work in the kitchen, and threw several knives
at her head, complaining that she did not treat
him with all the respect due to his rank. Towards
the end of his stay he introduced from Germany a
female whom he represented to be his lawful wife.
This German woman was of very loose manners,
and smoked and drank with the military surgeons.
She was seen, in the company of officers, pillaging
the house of a notary and loading on to a motor-
car the articles she had stolen from it.

[Map 5]

NEUVEVILLE-LES-RAON, LA VOIVRE 189

"On Aug. 25th, when the enemy entered the
hospital, an unarmed French infantry sergeant
tried to escape. Owing to his wound — the dress-
ing on which was very evident — they could easily
have captured him ; yet the Germans made not the
slightest attempt to take him alive, but fired at him
and killed him. The same day a hospital orderly
wearing an armlet and an overall was fired at and
had his clothes pierced by a bullet while going
into the garden to pick up a waterproof cloth which
had fallen out of the window."

At N euveville-les-Raon ^* the pillage was
especially systematic ; officers' wives chose what
they wanted and removed it in motor-cars to Ger-
many; then 45 houses were burnt with the usual
incendiary apparatus. The houses left standing
were found in an indescribable state of filth, for
the Bavarians had been continuously drunk during
the nineteen days they occupied the village. On
the day of their arrival they made a French civilian
carry a wounded French soldier on his back, and
then shot both from behind.

At la Voivre^^ a few miles higher up the
Meurthe, they shot the cure for possessing a large-
scale map. They also shot another inhabitant,
aged seventy-four, and burned down 6 houses. At

2* Five 207.
25 piyg 230-1.

[Map 5]

190 IN THE VOSGES

St. Michel-sur-M eurthe '^^ they burned three, and
murdered two old men — respectively seventy-one
and seventy-five years old — in the hamlet of
Saulceray of the same commune. In the hamlet
of Bo2irmont^'' of the commune of N omfatelize,
they seized three men, dragged them to the rail-
way station at St. Michel, lined them up for half
an hour against a stack of timber, then shot one
and compelled the other two to dig his grave.
The murdered man's wife died the day after of
the shock.

Pressing up the Meurthe, the Bavarians arrived
on Aug. 27th at St. -Die }^

"When they entered the town," the French
Commission state in their report, " an officer
stopped the accountant Visser as he was leav-
ing a cellar in the Blech factory, clapped his
revolver to his chin, saying : ' Now, then,
show us the way,' and had him led off by
his men. Quite close to the factory M. Visser
met, surrounded by Prussians, M. Chotel, who
had just been arrested in the road; and a few
moments later the soldiers, who were forcing their
way into all the houses, seized a young deaf-mute

2^ Five 232-5.

^J' Five 236-9.

-^ Five 249-273 ; Bland pp. 321-3 (an account of the civilian
screen by one of the German officers responsible for it) ; German
Proclamations : "Scraps of Paper " pp. 16-7, 18-9.

rMap <\

ST.-MICHEL, ST. DIE 191

named Louzy and a workman named (Leon)
Georges. Suddenly a German who was crossing
the Rue de Breuil got a bullet in his face, and
the officer, beside himself with rage, shouted :
' There they are, your dirty Frenchmen ! They
are killing our men at the street-corners.' He then
gave an order to his men, and said abruptly to his
prisoners : ' Now then, to the front ! Forward ! '
The four hostages were now placed in front of the
troops, and soon came to a barricade, from behind
which a body of Chasseurs Alpins were firing.
They therefore found themselves caught between
two fires. Chotel sank down on to his knees,
turned towards the Germans, crying ' Cowardly
murderers ! ' and fell dead. Soon afterwards
Georges also was killed; Louzy was shot through
the right wrist ; and Visser received in his stomach
a bullet which glanced off two five-franc pieces
in a waistcoat-pocket and inflicted a dangerous,
but not mortal, wound.

" In the hospital where he was treated M. Visser
found himself with two lads, both badly wounded.
One of them, Charles Perrin, aged fourteen, had
been hit twice by the Germans when running to
execute a commission. He died on Sept. 20th,
19 14. Our inquiries have not resulted in identify-
ing the other for certain ; but news has reached us
that somebody named Paul Luquer, aged nineteen.

[Map ^1

192 IN THE VOSGES

died in one of the hospitals at Saint-Die on
Sept. 1 6th. He had been hit full in the face by
a projectile in one of the streets while trying to
give help to a wounded Frenchman.

" About 1.30 p.m. a German soldier caught sight
of an individual named Lafoucriere, aged
eighteen, at the angle between the Rue de la
Prairie and the Rue Dixieme-Bataillon ; he aimed
at him and shot him down, although the young
fellow had not said a single word nor made the
slightest gesture of provocation. An old man
named de Tihay was also killed in the street while
surrounded by enemy soldiers; but it is possible
that the bullet which struck him was not meant for
him, and that he was a victim of the fight that
was then raging.

" The next day — the 28th — young Bleicher,
aged twenty-one, who had been invalided out of
the army, was surprised by three non-commis-
sioned officers at Saint-Roch, in the commune of
Saint-Die, in the house of a friend of his mother's,
Mme. Ziegler, on whom he was calling. One of
the soldiers shouted as he came in : ' Clear out ! '
Bleicher took a step forward and tried to explain
why he was there. ' I am . . .' — but he never
finished the sentence, being immediately shot dead
with a revolver. . . .

" During their stay at Saint-Die the enemy gave
[Map 5]

ST.-DIE, MANDRAY 193

free rein to their customary activities of pillage
and destruction. They were seen to bring a safe
to the colonnade at the town hall and break it
open there. They ransacked cellars and shops.
M. Badier, a wine merchant, from whom they took
goods to the value of 35,000 francs, was given
some requisition vouchers, signed by officers
of the 26th Reserve Division and of the 71st Prus-
sian Landwehr Regiment. On Aug. 29th they
set fire to the district round the Rue de la BoUe,
and, to make it impossible to bring help, had the
bridges which connect the district with the rest of
the town closely guarded while the conflagration
was proceeding. Forty-five houses and five fac-
tories were burnt. The same day two French
infantrymen and two Chasseurs Alpins were found
in a cellar by the Germans, led to where the Rue
de la Bolle and the Rue des Cites meet, and shot.
Their bodies lay for four days m the public
street."

The invaders penetrated to Mandray,^ between
the sources of the Meurthe and the Alsatian
frontier, and murdered five civilians in this com-
mune during the course of their occupation. One
of them was a man sixty-four years old, another
a woman of seventy-five. Most of them were

29 Five 240-8.

[Map 5]
G.T. O

194 IN THE VOSGES

murdered treacherously after being com-
mandeered as guides.

But Mandray marks the extreme south-eastern
limit of the German invasion of Belgium and
France, and from this point southwards the
French frontier has remained inviolate. For from
the first days after the German declaration of war
the French Army took the offensive in Upper
Alsace, and has stood since then — not on enemy
soil, but on soil once French and now French

again after the passage of forty-four years.

[Map 5]

VII. FROM MALINES TO THE YSER

(i) Termonde and Alosi.

The Battle of the Marne stemmed the wave of
German invasion on a front extending from the
Oise to the Vosges. The country beyond this
battle-line was saved from the passage of the
invader, districts behind it were recovered as the
German armies ebbed towards the Aisne, and then
the stationary war of trenches superseded the war
of manoeuvres. This change took place during
the first half of September, 19 14, but the
invasion had not entirely spent its force. Surging
back from the dam which the Allies had set across
its original channel, it broke out again towards the
north and west, in an attempt to submerge the
remnant of Belgium, pass round the flank of the
Franco-British rampart, and sweep for#ard by a
fresh channel into France. This second inunda-
tion was not so gigantic as the first, yet it brought
massacre and devastation to regions that had
previously escaped, and was only stopped along
the line of the Yser and Ypres in the last days of
October, more than six weeks after the Battle of
the Marne had been fought and won by the Allies.

[Frontispiece]

'^' O 2

196 TERMONDE AND ALOST

This last German advance was made in three
stages : the capture of Term.onde and Alost, the
capture of Antwerp, and the march from the
Scheldt to the Yser. The last stage rivalled in
speed, and in the extent of territory overrun, the
movements of von Kluck and von Biilow in the
month that followed the declaration of war, and
all three stages brought destruction upon the
civilian population.

Termonde and Alost were the principal points
on the line of the Dender, which the Belgian Army
had held against the Germans since Aug. 19 th,
19 1 4. They were a rampart thrust out southward
from the fortress of Antwerp, screening its com-
munications with tiie French and British positions
on the Channel coast. It was a precarious screen,
but the Germans could not strike at Antwerp freely
till they had brushed it away.

The treatment of Termonde ^° is described
in the Ninth Report of the Belgian Commis-
sion : — *

" The Communes of Lebbeke and of St. Gilles-
lez-Termonde contain, with the town of Termonde
itself, a total of over 26,000 inhabitants. These
places, together with the village of Appels (with

^° f l~li ; g 9, 24, 30; ix ; vi p. 40 {Get man Procia/uafion) ;
xv p. 23 (civilian screen).

[Frontispiece]

TERMONDE, ST.-GILLES, LEBBEKE 197

2,100 in habitants, lying west of Termonde) have
endured terrible sufferings.

"On Sept. 2nd a German patrol came as far as
Lebbeke. Under the pretext that they were
avenging six German soldiers, shot by the Belgian
troops in the district of Lebbeke, they set fire to
three farms in the hamlet of Hijzide.

" On Sept. 4th, at four in the morning, the
people of Lebbeke were roused by the sound of
lively firing. The German Army was attacking
the place, which was defended by some Belgian
outposts, who soon drew back to the Scheldt. At
seven the Germans entered the village, breaking
windov^^s, smashing in doors, and hunting away
women and children. The men were dragged
from their homes, to serve as a living shield for
the advancing troops.

" Soon after the village was bombarded. The
church v/as taken as a special target, and was hit
by several shells which caused grave damage.
About ten houses were seriously injured. Then
pillage and arson commenced. Twenty farms or
dwelling houses were set on fire, and all the houses
in the centre of the place were plundered. Only
the appeals which the burgomaster addressed to
General Gronen saved the village from complete
destruction. A great part of the Commune of St.
Gilles-lez-Termonde was also devastated.
[Frontispiece]

198 TERMONDE AND ALOST

"x^t 9.15 a.m. the German Army began to shell
Termonde, and soon afterwards it entered the
town by the Rue de I'Eglise, the Rue de Malines,
and the Rue de Bruxelles. German troops ad-
vanced to the Civil Hospital, and there arrested as
hostages Dr. Van Winckel, President of the Red
Cross Association, who was attending to the
wounded, and also the Rev. M. Van Poucke, the
Chaplain, and M. Cesar Schellekens, the Secre-
tary of the United Civil Hospitals. They were
taken to the centre of the town, accompanied by
various townsmen, who were arrested on the way
thither.

" Meanwhile the soldiery were pillaging cellars
and the shops of confectioners, bakers, grocers,
and wine and spirit merchants. The window-
frames gave way under the accumulated mass of
bottles.

" One company, under a captain, burst into the
offices of the ' Dender Central Bank,' a private
company, and searched them from end to end.
Soon after, a special squad entered the bank and
blew open the safe in the manager's room, from
which 2,400 francs were taken. They then
forced the wrought-iron door of the bank cellar,
which contained the boxes deposited by private
customers. But there was a second door to the
cellar which resisted their burglarious efforts. It

[Frontispiece]

TERMONDE-^SEPT. Uh 199

was only tlie great solidity of this structure which
preserved the private safes below.

" Meanv/hile General Von Boehn was posing
for his photograph on the stairs of the Town
Hall!

" At about 3 p.m. some pioneers (of the 9th Bat-
talion) set fire to the building-yards of Termonde,
and to four groups of five dwelling houses in the
centre of the town. After this the German officers
began to direct those inhabitants who still re-
mained in the place to take their departure, as the
town was to be completely destroyed. About 5
p.m. the German commander ordered all the
criminals in the gaol, to the number of over 135,
to be set at liberty. They spread over the
neighbourhood.

" Next day (Sept. 5th) began the complete
destruction of the town by fire, under the direction
of a Major von Sommerfeld. The hospital was
not spared ; it was drenched with petroleum and set
alight. The sick, wounded, and old people were
carried out, but one epileptic man perished in the
blaze. The chapel of the Alms-house (Beguin-
age), a building of the late XVIth century, was
set on fire the same day.

"Meanwhile the German soldiery were engaged
all day in completing the work of pillage begun
on the previous evening. The jew^eller's shop

[Frontispiece]

200 TERMONDE AND ALOST

belonging to M. Van den Durnel-Goedetier and
many private mansions were thoroughly sacked.

" On Sunday, Sept. 6th, the commandant,
Major von Sommerfeld, ordered that the destruc-
tion should proceed. As at Louvain and Andenne,
all the better quarters of the town, where the
soldiers would find the most plunder, were set on
fire.

" It was only on Sept. 7th that the con-
flagration ceased, the pioneers — so a German said
—having to go off to destroy railways. Most of
the surviving houses were found to bear the in-
scription ' Nicht anziinden ' (Not to be burnt).
This day a German sentry was killed, in front of
Vertongen's factory, by a Belgian soldier firing
from the dyke on the further side of the Scheldt.
Major von Forstner observed to a notable of Ter-
monde : ' There are still the factories round the
town ; if your soldiers hit another of our men, they
shall be destroyed, as the town has been.'

" On Sept. 4th the Germans had also shelled
for more than an hour die little village of
Appels, though no Belgian force was posted there.
A child was killed by a fragment of shrapnel.
Some minutes after the bombardment stopped the
Germans entered the place, and set fire to the
house of Casimir Laureys, who had been wounded
by a splinter from a shell; the wretched man was

[Frontispiece]

TERMONDE— INCENDIARISM 201

left to perish in the flames. They burned eight
more houses, and sacked most of the others. They
shut up the parish priest and most of the inhabi-
tants in the church for about an hour and a half,
and only allowed them to depart after compelling
them to shake hands with their guards. They
burned the house of the rural policeman, because
they found his military cap there. They also
destroyed the house of Adolphe Veldermann,
where they had found an old regimental tunic
belonging to his son, then a soldier in the Belgian
Army. Four neighbouring houses were burnt,
and all the rest of the village was plundered.

" Many inhabitants of Lebbeke, St. Gilles, and
Termonde were arrested by the German troops
and sent off to Germany. The parish priest of
Lebbeke, his curate, the communal secretary, the
notary, and about 450 other people from the
above-named places, were interned, partly at the
camp at Soltau, partly at the camp at Miinster.
During the whole of their journey, and for the
first part of their imprisonment, they were treated
in a most odious fashion. While on the march
three of them, exhausted by hunger, tried to turn
off from the road ; they were at once put to death
— two were bayoneted, the third was thrown down
on the ground and clubbed.

" Twenty-five people of Lebbeke and St. Gilles

[Frontispiece]
G.T. O*

202 TERMONDE AND ALOST

were murdered by the Germans on their own
lands. Excepting four men (names given), all
were killed by blows from bayonets, picks, or
hatchets. Most of them were so disfigured that
it was only possible to identify their bodies by
the objects found on them. Twelve men, all of
Lebbeke (names given), had taken refuge in
the farm of Octave Verhulst; they were tied to-
gether and led to the back of the farm, where they
were murdered. Their bodies were all thrown
into the same trench. Six men of St, Gilles
(names given) were tied arm to arm and conducted
to Lebbeke. The Germans put out their eyes
and then killed them with their bayonets. Three
others (names given) were killed by sabre cuts
on the head, in the presence of their wives and
children.

" Two inhabitants of Termonde were killed at
the time of the entry of the Germans. One in-
habitant of Appels, named Theophile Van den
Bossche, was brought down by a revolver shot;
another named Wauters was wounded by a rifle
bullet.

"On Sept. 4th, the day of the attack on
Termonde, six German infantrymen fired twice,
from a distance of five yards only, on Dr. F.
Hemereyk and on his porter, though both were
wearing the armlet with the Red Cross. The

[Frontispiece]

TERMONDE—SEPT. 16th 203

porter died five days later — his wound was made
by an explosive bullet, which struck him in the
upper thigh. The wound was two and a half
inches broad where the ball entered, and three
inches at its exit. The examination of this wound
was made by three surgeons, at the ambulance set
up in Vertongen's factory. A third volley was
fired at Dr. Hemereyk after his porter had fallen.

" When Termonde was reoccupied by the
Belgians new atrocities took place. During the
fighting some German soldiers, under an officer,
compelled fifteen civilians to march in front of
them on the road to St. Gilles ; of this party three
were ladies and two young girls ! At St. Gilles,
a man who had received five bayonet thrusts in
the abdomen was tied up (as if crucified) to a
door — his right hand bound to the door handle,
his left to the bell-pull.

" Camille de Rijken, a stoker of Termonde,
was bayoneted in the presence of his wife.

"On Sept. 1 6th, about 5.30 p.m., the Germans
began once more to bombard Termonde. The
majority of the inhabitants, who had returned
to the town after Sept. loth, retired to the
left bank of the Scheldt, as did the small Belgian
garrison of 250 men. A dozen shells struck the
church of Notre Dame, which had been recently
restored.

[Frontispiece]

204 TERMONDE AND ALOST

"At 7.30 p.m. the enemy entered the town.
When the Belgian troops continued to fire from
the further bank of the Scheldt, some German
soldiers compelled Dr. Van Winckel to accom-
pany them to the river; the man who was on his
right hand was killed, the man on his left severely
wounded.

" That evening the Germans pillaged the cellars
of three houses which had escaped the devasta-
tions of Sept. 4th, 5th, and 6th. All the night
the officers kept up a drinking bout in the square
before the Linen Market where they had lighted
two large fires.

"Next day (Sept. 17th) the town vv^as shelled
again from 4 to 4.45 p.m. One shell struck the
tower of the Town Hall, which caught fire. The
communal library and the archives fell a prey to
the flames, but the pictures were saved with three
exceptions.

" After the fall of Antwerp the Germans occu-
pied Termonde in force. They drove out the few
inhabitants who remained, and proceeded to
plunder all that was left in the town, the factories
were robbed of all finished products and of certain
raw materials. The Law Courts, the Arsenal, and
almost all the few private houses that still stood
intact were set on fire.

" It is clear from the statement that is herein

[Frontispiece]

ALOSTSEPT. 11th 205

set forth, that the town of Termonde was syste-
matically destroyed, though certain German news-
papers deny it. It was destroyed by methodical
arson, accompanied by pillage. Even allowing
that there was a military necessity for the
bombardment, that bombardment only completed
the devastating work of the German pioneer-
troops."

Alost,^^ like Termonde, changed hands more
than once during the month of September, and
though the fighting was not so continuous nor so
intense, the fate of the civil population was hardly
less terrible.

During the engagement on Sept. nth, a man
crossing a street in Alost with a pail of water from
the well was bayoneted by lo German soldiers.
Another man was shot in his doorway. Others,
again, were driven through the streets as a screen.
One of the latter saw the corpses of 14 murdered
civilians lying in the road. In hospital, a few
days later, a witness saw several more victims who
were dying of their wounds— a girl of eleven with
17 bayonet-stabs in her back; a man mangled by
bayonet-stabs and blows from rifle-butts; an old
woman of eighty with a bayonet-stab through her
body; and a man who had been thrown, with his

f 12-27 ; g 25, 28, 33 ; vii p. 55 ; xv p. 2:
[Frontispiece]

206 TERMONDE AND ALOST

son, out of the window of his house. This house
had been set on fire, and there were several other
cases of incendiarism.

On Sept. 26th the Germans returned to the
attack and forced the passage of the river. In
this engagement they treated Alost as they had
treated the towns on the Meuse and the Sambre.
They covered their advance by systematic incen-
diarism in several quarters, especially along the
eastern bank of the river; and when they came
under the fire of the Belgian infantry and machine-
guns on the further side, they shot or bayoneted
at sight any civilians who showed themselves in
the part of the town that was already in their
hands. One witness ^^ saw 9 corpses of civilians;
another ^^ 7; another T,y, including boys of twelve
and sixteen, and a girl.^* One^^ knew personally
of 21 civilians who were bayoneted or clubbed to
death or shot; another of 17.^" "The men were
shot as they came out of their burning houses,"
states a witness ^^ ; " no resistance was made." —
" I saw a young man — twenty-three years old, about
— jump from the roof of a burning house," states

32 f 15.

33 f 18.
^ f 20.

35 f22.

36 f 15.
3Tfl7.

[Frontispiece]

ALOST—SEPT. 2Qth, EBPE 207

a second ; ^^ "I saw German soldiers strike him
with the butts of their guns after he had come to
the ground. He was lying just near the foot-
path."— " I saw a number of dead bodies outside
a cafe in the road," states a Belgian soldier ;"''''
"they were about 9 in number; one about seven-
teen years of age had 1 1 bayonet wounds in his left
breast; an old man had his throat cut, and his
head was nearly cut off." — " I crossed the canal by
means of barges when the Germans were forced
to retreat," states a British journalist with the
Belgian troops ; ^° " I went to the place where the
dead bodies of the civilians were lying and saw
them myself. There were about 8 or 9 altogether.
Some had been shot from behind, others
bayoneted. One man had been bayoneted in the
chest. This m.an was a butcher. . . . He was
hatless and bootless, and appeared to have been
brought straight from his house. The bayonet
wounds had evidently been made with saw-edged
bayonets, judging from the character of the
wounds which I saw."

After they had taken Alost, the Germans ad-
vanced on Erpe*^ driving 25 inhabitants of Alost
in front of them as a screen. At Erpe the Belgian

38 f 18.

39 f 24.

■*i £26-7 ; vii p. 55.

[Frontispiece]

208 TERMONDE AND ALOST

Army made a stand; a number of the men in the
screen were killed; and the Germans set fire to
houses in Erpe itself, and shot the male inmates
as they ran out into the street.

(ii) Across the Scheldt.

Thus bv the beg-inning- of October the Germans
had made ready for the assault on Antwerp, which
they delivered during the first two weeks of that
month. No exact figures are yet available of the
enormous loss of property and destruction of life
which accompanied the siege, whether through
deliberate murder and incendiarism or as a result
of the bombardment. But it is established *^ that,
in the Arrondissement of Antwerp as a whole,
without counting the city, 344 houses were wan-
tonly burnt down, and there is evidence that
women and children were murdered and used as
screens at a number of places between the lines
from which the German advanced and the zone of
the Antwerp forts. ^^

Similar outrages were committed in the regions
of Belgian and French Flanders across the
Scheldt, which the Germans overran in the latter
half of October, when the fall of Antwerp had
opened the way.

^- Ann. 2.

'^■' Breendonck : k 14. Willebroeck : k 13 = 0-26. Duffel: k 12.
Lierre : g 27. Place unspecified : k 7.

[Frontispiece]

ANTWERP, LOKEBEN, MELLE, STADEN 209

Near Lokeren^^ the German troops drove 20
civilians in front of them as a screen — there were
women with babies in their arms among the num-
ber. They used civilian screens again at Quai-
recht^^ and Melle}^ At Melle a German broke
into a room where a woman of eighty was lying ill
in bed, and struck her on the chest with his rifle-
butt; others surrounded a woman and stabbed a
child in her arms. Near Hmiebeke^'' they shot a
boy and a young man near a lonely farm-house,
and burned the house to the ground. They used
civilians as a screen at Nazareth *® and Thielt *^
and Rozders.^^ They massacred 28 civilians at
StadenP- At Dadizeele^^ they burned houses
and shot civilians as franc-tireurs. At Zonne-
beke^^ during the fighting east of Ypres, British
soldiers found a corpse lying in the pig-stye of a
farm with 8 bayonet wounds in the stomach, and
in a room upstairs the corpses of two little girls —
about six and eight years old — both shot through
the head.

" R 31.

*° XV p. 23.

*'^ k 32-3 ; XV p. 22 ; d 4.

■*' k 42.

** g 29-

°° g 35 ; k 27 ; Bland pp. 318-9 : German White Book, Ayp. 49,
Nos. 4 and 5.
*i R. pp. 136-7 ; German White Book, App. 49, No. i.
^- Bryce p. 179.

[Frontispiece]

210 ACROSS THE SCHELDT

There were outrages of this kind throughout the
Ypres district, for the Germans, when they encoun-
tered military resistance, invariably took their re-
venge on the civilian population. In one place
the corpses were found of three boys and a girl,
between seven and twelve years old^*; in another
the corpses of a woman and a twelve-months-old
baby — both their throats were cut, and the bed on
which they were lying was soaked in blood. ^^

The bloodshed was varied by sexual bestiality.
At Wytschaete, ^° for example, where there is no
evidence of massacre, most of the women in the
village were raped by Uhlan patrols. At Locre ^^
a woman was raped when she was on the point of
giving birth to a child. At Bailleul^^ on the
French side of the Franco- Belgian frontier, there
is sworn evidence for the violation of at least 30
women and girls during the eight days of the Ger-
man occupation.

"At least five officers were guilty of such
offences," Professor Morgan states in his summary
of the depositions, " and where the officers set the
example the men followed. The circumstances
were often of a peculiarly revolting character;

55 k 22.

56 k 26.

" M. pp. 68, 71.

^* M pp. 57-8, 67, 86-94 ; Bryce pp. 195-6.

[Frontispiece]

WYTSCHAETE, BAILLEUL, DOULIEU 211

daughters were outraged in the presence of their
mothers, and mothers in the presence or the hear-
ing of their little children. In one case, the facts
of which are proved by evidence which would
satisfy any court of law, a young girl of nineteen
was violated by one officer while the other held
her mother by the throat and pointed a revolver,
after which the two officers exchanged their re-
spective roles. The officers and soldiers usually
hunted in couples, either entering the houses under
pretence of seeking billets or forcing the doors by
open violence. Frequently the victims were
beaten and kicked, and invariably threatened with
a loaded revolver if they resisted. ... In several
cases little children heard the cries and struggles
of their mother in the adjoining room, to which
she had been carried by a brutal exercise of force.
No attempt was made to keep discipline, and the
officers, when appealed to, simply shrugged their
shoulders."

Many women were violated at Nieffe; '"'^ one
woman there had her daughter violated by 13 Ger-
mans, and her husband shot before her eyes. At
Doulieu ^° the Germans shot 1 1 civilians after
making them dig their own graves. At Armen-
iieres ^^ they violated two women, one of whom they

■^^ M. pp. 67, 70.

^^ M. pp. 95-7.

^^ Bryce p. 190; M. p. 7-^.

[Frontispiece]

212 ACROSS THE SCHELDT

mutilated and killed. They violated women at
Laventie ®^ and Estaires ^^ — at Laventie one of
their victims was found dead in her room with a
bayonet-stab through her body. In a farm near
Lorgies, ^* too, a woman was found dead — she had
been shot through the stomach — and a girl out of
her mind — she had been violated by a number of
Germans in succession. But on the line of the
Yser and Ypres and La Bassee the invasion of
Flanders was brought to a stand. The last few
miles of Belgian territory were never overrun, nor
the French frontier crossed by German armies
between Bailleul and the sea.

"- Bryce p. 193 ; M. p. 74.
<^3 M. p. 74.
«* 16.

[Frontispiece]

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD.,

PRUMP\\-rCK PTTiKKT, STA'NrFORD STREFT S.E. 1. AND BUNGAY, SUPPOLK-

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212 ACROSS THE SCHELDT

mutilated and killed. They violated women at
Laventie'' and Estaires''~^t Laventie one ot
their victims was found dead in her room with a
bayonet-stab through her body. In a farm near
Lorgies, '' too, a woman was found dead— she had
been shot through the stomach-and a girl out of
her mind— she had been violated by a number ot
Germans in succession. But on the line of the
Yser and Ypres and La Bassee the mvasion of
Flanders was brought to a stand. The last few
miles of Belgian territory were never overrun, nor
the French frontier crossed by German armies
between Bailleul and the^sea.

•'■^ Bryce p. i93 ; ^'I- P- 74-
»^ M. p. 74-
«* 16.

[Frontispiece]

BRUNPWTCK SiTRKET, STAMFOKD MBEFT .-..h. 1. AND J^L r.>-

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Full text of "The German terror in France /by Arnold J. Toynbee."

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