Germany. Auswärtiges Amt

“ In any civilised society, even the vilest criminal is allowed to defend himself. What is the use of "defying Germany" to prove a single case of franc-tireur action and at the same time depriving the public of all access to the German White Book with its long list of specific outrages supported by sworn evidence?
Here then is presented for the first time in Great Britain Germany's official reply to the charges formulated against her troops during their passage through Belgium. The reader can judge of the evidence for himself. ”

“ He said, "Yes, for weeks I have been preaching this from the pulpit, and my flock listens to me. I have told them that if they wished to fight, they should go to Antwerp, put on uniform, and obtain a rifle. The enemy is only doing his duty; his soldiers are children of the same heavenly Father." ”

“ A mad fire from all sides was poured upon the unsuspecting troops. In the town they shot from the cellars and from specially prepared openings in the roofs, and bombs and hand-grenades were hurled down on the defenceless men who happened to be nearest. Machine-guns sent their murderous bullets through the soldiers' ranks. At the same time, hidden francs-tireurs began firing from the heights opposite the end of the bridge over the Meuse. Besides which men and women in wild fury poured boiling water from the half-open windows upon the German troops. ”

“ Our men pressed into the houses from which the firing proceeded, and shot down the armed inhabitants. By my order the houses, from which firing had proceeded, were set alight. These measures were helpful; the rifle-fire gradually decreased and finally ceased altogether, but was renewed later against the troops that followed my brigade. Marvellous to relate, our losses were insignificant; the francs-tireurs had aimed badly. I saw no single French or Belgian soldier in the town or in the surrounding neighbourhood. The fire directed on us came solely from the civil population. ”

“ Nieuwe Gazet, August 8th:—"After the German artillery had set some houses on fire, the infantry marched to the attack. This was not only directed against the soldiers, but also against the civilian population who took part in the combat. People shoot from the houses, small boys and women bombard the assailants with stones, and even some old men from behind the doors fire on the advancing soldiers." ”

“ Without doubt it is deeply regrettable that, in consequence of the events of August 23rd and 24th, the flourishing town of Dinant with its suburbs was burnt and laid in ruins and a great number of human lives were destroyed. The responsibility for this lies not on the German Army, but only on the population. The inhabitants collectively engaged in conflict with the German troops contrary to international law and in a fanatical and treacherous manner, and forced our troops to take those counter-measures required for the purposes of war. ”

“ This struggle of a populace governed by the rudest passions raged during the entire forward march of the German Army through Belgium. When the Belgian Army had retired before the German troops, after obstinate combats, the Belgian civil population in the unoccupied parts of the country endeavoured to hinder the German advance by every possible means; moreover, even in the places which had been in possession of German troops for a long time, the inhabitants had no hesitation in trying to damage and weaken the German forces by cowardly and treacherous attacks. ”

“ That the German troops were confronted with a wide-spread and determined opposition on the part of armed civilians in flagrant violation of the Laws of War must be accepted as a fact established by evidence varied, cumulative and irresistible. On the other hand it is clear that no final verdict can be passed on the vexed question of the Belgian atrocities in general, until the unsworn evidence accumulated against the Kaiser's troops has been met to a much fuller extent. ”

“ In view of all these facts, there can be no doubt that the uprising in Belgium was not undertaken by isolated civilians, but by large masses of the population.
The methods of fighting employed by the civilian population were absolutely incompatible with the universally recognised rules of international law, as laid down in Articles 1 and 2 of the Hague Convention (Laws and Customs of War on Land) , which had also been accepted by Belgium. These rules differentiate between organised and unorganised civilian warfare. ”

“ The shots came from the windows and roofs; the bullets struck the street. It was clear from the sound of the shots that they did not come from German weapons. We entered the houses from which the shots had come and brought out five to six civilians, all of whom still held revolvers in their hands. These persons were later on shot at the railway station. I did not notice any previous signal lights; riderless horses galloped past us, as well as baggage-carts and horses, without drivers. ”

“ On August 23rd, as we were proceeding to Dinant, my attention was drawn by Major von der Pforte, a short distance from Dinant, to the body of a German soldier, who had been fastened with wire by the hands and feet to pegs which had been driven into the ground. The body was almost completely carbonised, and to all appearances some highly inflammable liquid had been poured over it. According to the state of the existing lines of demarcation, the man must have been burnt alive. By the remains of the uniform, particularly the buttons, he was plainly to be recognised as a German soldier. ”

“ At the beginning of the valley, which stretches away to Leffe, there stood a factory; the battalion was fired at from here and from the heights behind. The factory was at once stormed; only a few civilians were found in it, but no French or Belgian soldiers; any escape of the people who had fired from the factory was impossible as we had surrounded the place. The guilty civilians, provided they were men, were shot by order of the Commander of the regiment, Colonel von Reyter, while some women arrested in the factory were handed over later to the abbot of the monastery. ”

“ During our march into the village the street was quite empty, the window-shutters and doors closed, and the window-apertures of a new house on the right were covered with sacking. Just before we reached a bend in the street, some 100 to 200 metres behind the railway crossing, the priest sprang into a doorway. A man at the head of the company, Musketeer Ernst Block, just managed to seize him by his coat-tails and dragged him back. ”

“ During the night-fighting of August 21st to 22nd, I was in Dinant. I did not see any cruelties committed by our troops against the inhabitants, who fired with shot-guns and buck-shot from their windows. In the further fighting round Dinant also, at the close of which we moved into Dinant, I saw no misusage whatever of the civilian population.
That the bodies of inhabitants, who had been shot for taking part in fighting, were mutilated, is untrue. I saw, however, in a side-valley a German cavalryman, who had apparently been shot down, lying charred upon a grating and fastened with wire. ”

“ We were obliged to fight for each individual house, to kill the male population in them who, as far as I saw, carried rifles and fired, and to shut up the women and children in order in this way to advance gradually. Only some quite old men were found without arms. They were not killed, but locked up with the women. In the afternoon, towards 3 o'clock, the house-fighting still fluctuated, and we had not yet penetrated as far as the village square when I received the order to go back with about half a platoon and occupy the heights of the Meuse from which francs-tireurs were still firing. ”

“ The Garde Civique formed the nucleus of these bands of francs-tireurs, at the head of which was evidently the Commandant of Louvain, whose baggage was taken as booty to the Hôtel Métropole. It is obvious how easy it is for bodies like the Garde Civique, who usually wear civilian clothing, to continue to wear it or put it on again, as best suits their purpose. Louvain was obviously the centre of this organisation, which was most effectively made use of here because the Commandant was on the spot.
The sortie from Antwerp on August 25th was evidently the signal for the commencement of activities. ”

“ The situation developed in such a manner that our own men had to seek cover with their backs to the houses, and as soon as a marksman was observed in the opposite house he was fired at. I saw several of our men wounded by these shots, and the bullets also whistled round my head. Near the town hall, which was to have been converted into an artillery depot, stood a captain of the 140th Infantry Regiment, who continuously ordered the bugles to sound the "Cease fire." Evidently the officer first wished to stop the firing of our men in order to be able to settle upon a plan of action. ”

“ During the descent towards Dinant all three companies of the 1st Battalion received losses through the fire of civilians—portions of the populace, amongst whom were women and children—and presumably also from Belgian soldiers in civilian clothing, who obstinately defended themselves with every possible kind of weapon. In the streets the companies encountered a murderous fire. In parts every single house had to be fought for with the use of hand-grenades. The civilians wore no military badge or uniform; if they were caught with weapons in their hands, they were shot. ”

“ In the evening, when most were already abed, it may have been 9 or 9.30, we heard suddenly violent firing. All who could jumped from their beds and endeavoured to get rifles to defend themselves.
The senior soldier present in the field hospital was a battalion drummer (sergeant-major) from Regiment No. 27, who was lying in bed severely wounded. He tried to quiet us by saying that we were under the protection of the Red Cross; no one could hurt us. Those of us who had been able to get rifles crowded to the entrance of the field hospital in order to defend ourselves. ”

“ Fighting hotly for every house, our men pressed forward in the direction of the market, all the time expecting to be fired at by invisible foes from cellars, caves, and hill-sides. It was here that, among others, Major Lommatzsch of Infantry Regiment No. 182 was fatally wounded by the bullets of two civilians from the windows of a house. They even fired down from the cathedral (Apps. 12, 14, 18) . Already in the course of the forenoon the Commanding Officer of the 46th Brigade recognised that it was impossible, without artillery bombardment, to gain the mastery over the fanatical population. ”

“ Nevertheless we had dead and wounded; among these was a Lieutenant of Reserve of a hussar regiment, whom we placed in an inn belonging to a German. I myself took part with my men in storming a number of houses. During this process persons who actually opposed us in the houses with weapons in their hands were shot down. Where we found arms and munitions in the houses, we brought the occupants into the market-place. I can affirm with absolute certainty that all those who resisted us or were brought to the market-place wore no uniforms; on the contrary, they were, without exception, civilians. ”

“ The shots which fell upon the hospital could only have proceeded from civilians, as there were no longer any enemy troops in the place. As I could not for the time being secure any troops for the protection of the ambulance station, I armed the lightly wounded and allowed them to return the fire—for the moment, however, with little success, as we could not see our well-concealed adversaries. When in the evening some detachments of troops arrived at Retinne and were also fired at, the houses were systematically searched. From some houses dozens of men were dragged out. ”

“ In my opinion it is quite out of the question that any innocent person lost his life; particularly Captain Albrecht did under the circumstances all that was possible to exhort the soldiers to speak the truth; if no arms or identification discs were found, he himself questioned the witnesses as to whether they could make their assertions with certitude, and he pointed out to them that the life and death of a man depended upon their word. And only when the soldiers maintained their assertions after this admonition, the command for the shooting of the condemned was given. ”

“ I also heard that Belgian soldiers had been discharged in their native towns, so that they could there fight in plain clothes against the Germans. It is true that a number of Belgian soldiers, who were partly clothed as civilians, were made prisoners. An officer, who was present at the attack in Aerschot, told me that on the belfry tower of a certain place in the neighbourhood of Aerschot he had himself read that Belgians who caught German officers were not allowed to keep them prisoners on parole, but were to shoot them. ”

“ The civilised world was invited to condemn the German reprisals of 1914 in Belgium. What verdict will it record with reference to British reprisals in Ireland six years later?
The analogies inevitably suggested between the two cases are not as clear as they might at first sight appear to be.
(1) The civilians who fired on the invaders in Belgium were irregular combatants wholly distinct from the recognised Belgian Army. They were in fact francs-tireurs and nothing else. The men who are fighting against the troops of the Crown in Ireland constitute the only hostile force we have to meet. ”