Front matter (continued 2)

Another detachment advanced towards the thicket in the convent gardens lying close by the convent. Here two elderly men were discovered standing up to their waists in a stream which flowed through the thicket. Both these men had guns which they threw into the water the instant they were caught by the detachment; the pair of them were shot outside the convent precincts.

For protection against the firing from the hospital on the other side of the principal street of the village, the Medical Corps Company went into a narrow court belonging to the convent. While this was in progress, shots were fired also from the roof windows of the houses lying opposite the convent garden and near the hospital. This fire was diverted from the Medical Corps Company by the passage through the village of a munitions column.

The Medical Corps Company quitted Jamoigne and bivouacked outside the village, taking with it the German wounded and the lightly wounded French who might still be able to bear arms. The two priests and the doctor of the village, as well as all the male inhabitants found in the cellar of the convent, were carried off to the bivouac for greater security.

With the exception of the convent and the hospital, the houses from which shots had been fired were burned to the ground. During the conflagration a great many explosions occurred. It may be assumed that in the course of the fire quantities of ammunition exploded, which had been stored in the houses.

Signed: Brettner, Captain and Column Commander.

App. 31.

Report of Captain Larrass, commanding 9th Foot Artillery Munitions Column, and of 1st Lieutenant Reichel, commanding 5th Artillery Munitions Column; also the Military Court Examination of Lieutenant-Colonel Hübner and Sergeant-Major Peschke.

Eastern Camp, Siffone, October 2nd, 1914.

9th Foot Artillery Munitions Column.

Report.

On August 23rd, 1914, the 9th Foot Artillery Munitions Column was bivouacked at Sorrinnes in Belgium at 7.30 p.m. As it was becoming dark the inhabitants of the village, whose behaviour had been extremely quiet the whole afternoon, treacherously and maliciously opened fire on the bivouac. In accordance with my orders, during the afternoon a young man was seized in a house in which an old man of seventy, alleged to be at the point of death, was lying on a bed. This was done because suspicious noises were audible in the house. In the evening the column was fired at, and more particularly from this house. In the course of this attack of the inhabitants upon the column, not only small shot was fired, but also bullets, which exploded on impact.

Signed: Larrass, Captain and Commander of the 9th Foot Artillery Munitions Column.

Siffone, November 1st, 1914.

5th Artillery Munitions Column, XII. Army Corps.

On the afternoon of August 23rd, 1914, the 5th Artillery Munitions Column occupied a bivouac at the western exit from Sorrinnes. Throughout the day no villagers showed themselves; on the contrary, the village appeared to be completely abandoned. At nightfall, about 9 p.m., the entire column, bivouacked near Sorrinnes, was from all sides suddenly fired upon by the inhabitants from the houses or from the roof windows and from hedges.

Signed: Reichel, 1st Lieutenant and Column Commander.

Berrieux, October 5th, 1914.

Present: President of the Court, Schweinitz. Secretary of the Court, Lips.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hübner as witness made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Max Friedrich Hübner. I am 60 years of age; Protestant; Lieutenant-Colonel (Active List) and Commander of the 1st Munitions Column Division, XII. Army Corps.

As to Case: On August 22nd, 1914, in command of the munitions column detachment of the 1st Foot Artillery Regiment No. 9, I arrived with my staff at our quarters at Yschippe in Belgium. We numbered about 18 men and 14 horses. Beside ourselves, Munitions Column No. 5 was bivouacked to the south of the village, while Column No. 6 at the other end had been actually brought inside the village. The staff was quartered apart from the other troops in the neighbourhood of the church in two adjacent buildings. The occupants of these houses, both men and women, met me in a very friendly spirit.

At nine o'clock I lay down to sleep in my room on the first floor. At 11.30 I was awakened by a noise in the house, and my non-commissioned officer informed me that shots had been fired. As I myself had heard nothing, I did not believe the story, and returned to bed. Scarcely had I extinguished the light when a gun was fired, and the shot struck against the window-panes. I then alarmed all the men, and ordered the unharnessed waggon to be pushed crossways over the street, and the Mayor and six inhabitants to be brought to me as hostages, and tied together one pace apart from each other. I informed these persons that they would be placed in a line across the street if a single other shot was fired. The wives of the hostages took care that this statement of mine was made known throughout the place. After this, no more shooting occurred, and next day I left the village without further molestation.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Hübner.

The witness was then sworn.

Siffone, October 5th, 1914.

Present: President of the Court, Schweinitz. Secretary of the Court, Lips.

There appeared as witness Sergeant-Major Peschke, who made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Karl Friedrich August Peschke. I am 33 years old; Protestant; a merchant of table-glass; at present Sergeant-Major of the 6th (Foot) Artillery Munitions Column.

As to Case: From the 22nd-23rd August 1914 we lay at Yschippe; our waggons had been driven to the western exit of the place. I had myself at first found quarters in the village, and found my hosts there apparently friendly. But after I had learnt that already on the preceding day shooting had taken place, I determined to pass the night in bivouac. There we came under fire about 11.45 p.m. from the direction of Corbion, at a distance of some 500-600 metres to the west of us. I at once ordered the watch to seek shelter and reply vigorously to the fire, which then in a short time ceased. After about a quarter of an hour the firing recommenced, and, indeed, more actively than before. When I myself with four men advanced towards our assailants they fled in the direction of Corbion. When we reached the hedge from behind which firing had taken place our assailants were already from 100-200 metres away. I recognised unmistakably that these persons were civilians, and not soldiers.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Peschke.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

App. 32.

Report of Senior Staff-Surgeon Kaiser, Surgeon-in-Chief, Field Hospital No. 2, XII. Army Corps.

Amifontaine, October 3rd, 1914.

Field Hospital No. 2 of the XII. Army Corps, posted at Sorinnes was, on the evening of the following day, between 7 and 8 o'clock, fired upon by armed inhabitants from the park of the castle. The shots came from the thicket immediately behind the castle courtyard. The fire was aimed at the personnel of the hospital, who were engaged in cooking in a large house next to the park. As I myself, with hospital inspector Voigt, entered the park in order to see after the cooking, we were fired at.

Signed: Dr. Kaiser, Senior Staff-Surgeon and Surgeon-in-Chief.

App. 33.

Report of Senior Staff-Surgeon Esche, Field Hospital 7, No. 73, N. Army Corps.

On August 24th, towards 6 p.m., a column on the march was at Biesme fired upon by inhabitants from the houses of the village. A detachment of some 50 men of Infantry Regiment No. 164, which was guarding 216 prisoners in the castle garden in which the Field Hospital No. 7 was posted, moved out in order to restore quiet, while for the time being lightly wounded men undertook the guarding of the prisoners. Sergeant Kortebein and two drivers of Field Hospital No. 7, Schmidt and Dietrich, saw shots fired from two of the houses.

According to the statement of the lady occupying the castle of Gougnies, in which the medical officers and officials of the field hospital were quartered, the Conseiller provinciel at Gougnies, Adelin Piret, had distributed to the inhabitants the weapons stored up at the Mairie. Shots were fired from the village at a column marching through it.

Signed: Esche, Senior Staff-Surgeon and Surgeon-in-Chief.

App. 34.

Report of 1st Lieutenant Balterman, commanding Military Pack Column No. 6, X. Army Corps, 1st Train Division of the X. Army Corps.

On August 23rd, 1914, at Le Roux, Military Park Column No. 6 of the X. Army Corps was fired at several times from a house. The assailants escaped. On August 24th the column was fired upon at Biesme from the flanks and the rear. Moreover, a side street was closed against us by some twelve armed civilians. These armed civilians were shot and several houses burnt down.

On August 24th the column was exposed to a very hot fire at Lanesse and Somzée. A number of civilians were shot and several houses burnt down.

Signed: Battermann, 1st Lieutenant and Column Commander.

App. 35.

Military Court Examination of Lieutenant Henry Müller attached to the Telephone Section of the XII. Army Corps.

Guignicourt, October 9th, 1914.

Present: President of the Court, Schweinitz. Secretary, Lips.

There appeared as witness Lieutenant of Reserve Müller, and was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Johannes Henry Müller. I am a student of physics; 28 years of age; Protestant; Lieutenant of Reserve attached to the Telephone Section of the XII. Army Corps.

As to Case: The following statement, dated October 7th, was read over to the witness:

On August 22nd there was an interruption in the telephone connection to Conneaux. Corporal Lorenze and another cyclist were dispatched on bicycles to remove the cause of this interruption. The two cyclists were fired upon at close quarters in front of a wood. The search of the farm, carried out by Lieutenant Müller (Telephone Section XII.), with a platoon of infantry, proved to be without result. According to the unanimous reports of soldiers, who were met on the way, a number of civilians came out of the wood immediately after the shots had been fired. A further search was set on foot, and the telephone cable was found to be cut right through at the place where the shots had been fired.

The witness thereupon made the following statement:

I am the Lieutenant Müller mentioned above. I was quartered in the castle of Conneaux; the little wood lay about 400 metres away from the castle. After the shots had been fired, the cyclists at once returned to me. Within a few minutes of their arrival the pursuit could already be set on foot, because the platoon of infantry mentioned in my report was ready at hand for employment as an escort. Only for this reason is it possible to furnish a definite statement as to the time and place when the civilians were met in the road lying behind.

The men who fired had only one covered line of retreat, i.e. a road not under our observation, which I afterwards used in my pursuit. All the soldiers whom I met on this road gave a nearly unanimous description of some eight or ten civilians whom they had seen quickly running away. The approach of nightfall prevented their capture.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Johannes Henry Müller, Lieutenant of Reserve.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

App. 36.

Military Court Examination of Sergeant Ebers, 3rd Guard Field Artillery Regiment.

Berlin, November 12th, 1914.

Proceedings held at the barracks of the 3rd Guard Field Artillery Regiment.

There appeared after citation Sergeant of Landwehr II, Georg Ebers, office assistant in the chief office of the Great Berlin Tramways, at this time attached to the 4th Reserve Battery, 3rd Guard Field Artillery Regiment. The witness, being duly sworn on oath, made the following statement:

On August 23rd, 1914, when non-commissioned officer attached to the 5th Battery, 1st Guard Reserve Field Artillery Regiment, I was wounded in the neighbourhood of Namur. On the next day, August 24th, I was brought to the 2nd Field Hospital, XI. Army Corps, which occupied the convent at Champion, near Namur. On the evening of this day, when everything was already quiet, there commenced at 10 o'clock a general fusillade. The window-panes were shot through, and we noticed the flash of the guns from the houses lying opposite. I myself in some ten cases saw civilians firing upon us from windows and skylights in three houses lying opposite to the wings of the convent. When the firing began, the soldiers of the medical corps and the lightly wounded, of whom I was one, assembled round the doctor in the corridor. We next looked for the convent Sisters, who had disappeared, and found them hidden in the cellar. We brought them into our midst and betook ourselves to the main entrance with the intention, of making a sally. Meanwhile a Belgian and a French doctor, both of whom were prisoner-inmates of the hospital, advanced to the door and there addressed the population in the hope of quieting them. The firing thereupon diminished; but as we entered the street in order to search the village with the aid of men belonging to the munitions column encamped in the vicinity, the firing began afresh and continued till about 11 o'clock in the evening. At night, about 10, houses from which shots had come were set on fire. At daybreak we ascertained that the outside walls of the convent showed numerous marks of shot. Further, we found in a house occupied by a priest, lying opposite the chief entrance of the convent, about 40 cases of dynamite and some 30 cases of cartridges. I was present, and saw with my own eyes how our artillerymen ascertained the number and contents of the cases.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Georg Ebers.

Proceedings took place as above.

Signed: Guradze, Lieutenant of Landwehr Artillery II. and Officer of the Court.

App. 37.

Military Court Examination of Acting-Sergeant-Major Schulze, Corporal Spans, and the Grenadiers Wenzel, Kachel, Pfeiffer, Wittstadt, and Wilhelmy, all of Infantry Regiment No. 93.

Proceedings in Berlin, September 18th, 1914.

There appeared as witnesses Acting-Sergeant-Major Schulze, 9th Company, Corporal Spans, 12th Company, the Grenadiers Wenzel, 5th, Kachel, 9th, Pfeiffer and Wittstadt, 12th, and Wilhelmy, 5th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 93, and made the following statements in the official deposition:

On August 24th, 1914, we were wounded inmates, together with Belgian and French wounded, of the Convent of Champion, which was arranged as a hospital. After the withdrawal of our troops, there remained on the evening of August 24th only a Light Munitions Column in the direct neighbourhood of the convent. No sentries were posted.

Towards 10 o'clock in the evening a hot fire was suddenly opened on the main entrance and windows of the convent. I, Acting-Sergeant-Major Schulze, was awaked by the shots, and proceeded to the main door, and there heard the whistle of bullets as they passed. I then returned to fetch my weapons. When I again reached the exit, the Light Munitions Column had already commenced operations. Previous to this, as Grenadiers Wilhelmy and Wenzel had heard, the Belgian doctor, who was also an inmate of the convent, had gone into the courtyard and addressed to the shooters concealed from view a demand that they should cease fire. As the doctor, however, re-entered the convent, the firing continued.

The Light Munitions Column now cleared the courtyard and its surroundings, captured several francs-tireurs, who were proved to have formed the firing-party, carried out a search of the neighbouring houses, made absolutely certain that the shots had come from these, and then, as punishment, set the houses on fire.

We may also observe that on August 25th a search of all the houses in the village was undertaken, in the course of which several cases of dynamite and ammunition were discovered in the house of the priest. The dynamite was rendered harmless by the artillerymen of the Light Munitions Column. The priest was left for two days under guard by the Light Munitions Column, and then once more set at liberty.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Schulze, Spans, Wenzel, Kachel, Pfeiffer, Wittstadt, Wilhelmy.

The proceedings took place as above.

Signed: Hilsmann, Lieutenant and Adjutant, Reserve Battalion, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 93.

Acting-Sergeant-Major Schulze, together with Corporal Spans and the soldiers Kachel and Wittstadt, came before the Court after citation, and were to-day sworn to the preceding declaration.

Berlin, November 11th, 1914.

Officer of the Court:

Signed: Hilsmann, Lieutenant and Adjutant.

Secretary of the Court:

Signed: Jumperts, Non-commissioned Officer of Landwehr.

App. 38.

Statement of Major Heltzer, 18th Reserve Hussar Regiment and Leader of the Heavy Baggage, 32nd Infantry Division.

On the early afternoon of August 25th, 1914, the Heavy Baggage of the staff, 32nd Infantry Division, after a considerable halt at the S.W. exit of the village of Anthée, was in the act of getting ready to move off. Very suddenly a vigorous fire was opened upon it on several sides from houses and from a thicket in the vicinity.

All the men of the divisional baggage were equipped with rifles and sent ahead through the houses, in order to protect the waggons as they moved off. Later on, a detachment of infantry arrived on the scene, which occupied the village and relieved our men.

Of this infantry detachment half a platoon was assigned to act as escort of the Heavy Baggage.

2. When shortly afterwards the head of the baggage column reached the neighbouring village of Rosée, here, too, it was assailed by a vigorous fire from houses and gardens and from a neighbouring copse. I ordered a search to be made of a farm standing on the road from which an extremely hot fire had previously come. Inside were found a man, a woman, and two half-grown boys. The man and the woman were shot while attempting to escape.

No Belgian or French troops of any kind were present either in Anthée or Rosée.

The attacks on our troops were always made from ambush, and gave one the appearance of a general and concerted co-operation; they were usually preceded by a shot, fired as a signal.

Signed: Heltzer.

App. 39.

Statement of 1st Lieutenant Stiemcke, commanding Military Train Column 7, X. Army Corps, attached to Train Section 1, X. Army Corps.

On August 26th, 1914, when the column, in conjunction with the 2nd Echelon, approached the village of Silenrieux, it was immediately fired upon by members of the civilian population from the church tower. It was therefore necessary for our riflemen to advance against the place. When these accordingly replied to the fire, shooting took place from a number of houses in the village.

Signed: Stiemcke, 1st Lieutenant and Column Commander.

App. 40.

Statement of 1st Lieutenant Schumann, commanding Military Train Column No. 4, X. Army Corps, attached to Train Division No. 1, X. Army Corps.

On the night of 21st-22nd August, 1914, the Military Train Columns Nos. 1 and 4 bivouacked in front of Fleurus. A soldier standing at his post was dangerously wounded in his ear by a shot fired by a civilian, who had crept up under cover of a straw stack. The civilian escaped in the darkness.

On August 26th, 1914, the column proceeded on its march to Verguies through the village of Silenrieux. The inhabitants met our troops on the march in a kindly and well-disposed manner. At the exit of the village towards Verguies the column was forced to halt for some time. At this point the officers of the column, which was halting in front of the church, noticed that the church roof was partially uncovered on the side next to the street. The village itself did not show any signs of damage in the case of the houses lying on the other main street. When the advance of the column was resumed, the last section, as it passed the church and the houses lying near it, was suddenly fired upon. To meet this surprise attack the riflemen of the column were deployed and opened fire upon the church and the houses from which the shots had come.

As at least 30 to 40 shots were fired from the church tower, it is impossible that this could have happened without the knowledge of the priest. The surprise attack gave one the impression of having been thoroughly prepared in advance.

Signed: Schumann, Ist Lieutenant and Commander.

App. 41.

Statement of Lieutenant Deule, Telephone Section, X. Army Corps.

On August 22nd I, with my platoon of the Telephone Section, X. Army Corps, was marching from Tongrinne to the Château of Quiltremont via Tamines. Towards 5 p.m. I found myself with my platoon on the street of Vignées at Tamines at the spot where, on the right side of our line of march, a long stretch of the street is skirted by a manufactory. At this point my platoon, which was marching alone, was suddenly assailed by a hot, but badly aimed, fire from the church and from a large building lying off the road to the left, and easily recognised by its Red Cross flags. I at once ordered my platoon to take up a position under cover, and then dispatched flanking patrols on the right and left against the buildings indicated above. In the vicinity of my men we ascertained for certain that a considerable number of armed civilians had retired in hasty flight into a wood behind the buildings, so that it was impossible for us to open an effective fire on those persons. My official duties prevented me from undertaking the pursuit; nevertheless, I had a brief account of these incidents written with chalk on the big gates of a factory in this place to serve as a warning to any detachments of German troops who might follow us.

Signed: Deule, Lieutenant.

App. 42.

Statement of Acting-Sergeant-Major and Officer-Substitute Mackemehl, 4th Battery, Field Artillery Regiment No. 4.

On the afternoon of August 26th we halted with the "heavy baggage" (we had also with us the baggage of Infantry Regiments Nos. 177 and 178 and of Field Artillery Regiment No. 28) at Convin, north of Nocroi. The infantry baggage behind us was fired upon from a house on the right of our line of march. On searching the house, we found that the only inmates were three civilians, who were in possession of weapons and cartridges.

Signed: Mackemehl.

App. 43.

Statement of Lieutenant Huck, commanding Horse Depot No. 2, X. Army Corps (2nd Train Detachment No. 10, X. Army Corps).

On August 24th, 1914, at 8.30 p.m. I entered Acoz with my Horse Depot No. 2. I then with the unmounted men and non-commissioned officers endeavoured to secure stabling for the horses. I came across only a very few people; these were extremely friendly, and offered me milk without payment and water for washing. The only exception was the village priest. The large size of his house and courtyard rendered them in my opinion very suitable as quarters for men and horses. He received me very curtly, showed me the Red Cross brassard on his arm—this had no official stamp—and declared that he had no room for me. His behaviour and manner displeased me, and at once rendered me suspicious. Most of the houses appeared to be abandoned, and were shut up: so I saw it was necessary to break down the doors and find suitable accommodation. When I had brought most of my horses under shelter, and only a few were still standing in the street, a heavy fire was suddenly opened upon us from the windows and houses. I saw the flashes of the rifles coming from the upper windows of almost every house in the street in which I myself was standing. My sergeant-major and I heard quite clearly the whistling of bullets round our heads. I ordered my troops to reply to the fire, which on the side of the assailants died out after about three-quarters of an hour. I directed the especial attention of some of my men to the priest's house. They accordingly forced their way in and found the priest and, further, two other men hidden in the loft. According to the soldiers' statements, these persons had also weapons in their possession. They were handcuffed and handed over to the munitions column, whose men had joined in the fighting and advanced against the house. I was told that the priest and the two other men were shot next day. On more careful search cartridges, both discharged and loaded, were found on their persons.

Signed: Huck, Lieutenant and Commander, Horse Depot 2, X. Army Corps.

App. 44.

Statement of Captain Lüdke, commanding 2nd Train Detachment, X. Army Corps.

On August 24th, 1914, the 2nd Echelon of Trains had assigned to it for quarters the villages of Acoz and Joncret. The staff of the 2nd Train Section, X. Army Corps, and Horse Depot No. 2, occupied quarters in Acoz. On our arrival at Acoz at 8.30 p.m. there was scarcely a villager to be seen in the street. The doors and windows of the houses were shut. After the horses had been brought into a barn opposite the church, the three staff officers took up their quarters in the empty and open house of the doctor, which was also opposite the church, but on the other side of the square. The men of the Horse Depot were still engaged in bringing their horses into the side street. When we officers had been in the house about half an hour, a hot fire was, as if by word of command, opened upon the doctor's house in which we were quartered and on the Horse Depot. The shots came from all the windows of the houses which lay opposite, and from those of the side street, in which a part of the Horse Depot had already taken up their quarters, though some were yet in the street. At this moment an artillery munitions column marched through Acoz past the square near the church. These troops were in the same way assailed by the fire of the inhabitants. In conjunction with the men of the Horse Depot and this munitions column we advanced against the houses from which shots were still being fired. At last the firing ceased. All the front doors were shut, and had to be burst open; all the back doors which led into gardens or the open fields stood open. When the houses were searched there were found in the priest's house the priest himself and two men, whom he had hidden in the loft, with cartridges in their possession. The priest and these two men were taken off by the munitions column, which continued its march. The houses from which shots had come were set on fire. The staff of the 2nd Train Section and Horse Depot No. 2 occupied quarters in Serpinnes. Next day I dispatched Non-commissioned Officer Trapp and Corporal Bölhof from the staff of the 2nd Train Section to Joncret with orders. At Acoz, which they passed on the way, they were informed by several non-commissioned officers and men of the artillery munitions column and by an artillery non-commissioned officer, that in the town hall, which lies near the doctor's house, several cases of dynamite had been discovered and some hundreds of guns and cartridges in packets. Each packet bore a label with the name of the townsman to whom they were assigned. The artillery munitions column took possession of these objects.

Signed: Lüdke, Major and Commander, 2nd Train Section, X. Army Corps.

App. 45.

Military Court Examination of 1st Lieutenant Müller, Lieutenant Schröder, and Gunner Huismann, all of the 5th Artillery Munitions Column, X. Army Corps.

Present: Lieutenant Maack, Officer of the Court. Non-commissioned Officer, Schütte, Secretary.

Avaux, November 20th, 1914.

With respect to the incidents which occurred during the surprise attack at Acoz, the under-mentioned witnesses, after the importance and sanctity of the oath had been pointed out, were examined as follows:

1. 1st Lieutenant Müller.

As to Person: My name is Richard Müller. I am 36 years of age; Protestant; brewery director in Hanover; 1st Lieutenant and Leader of the 5th Artillery Munitions Column, X. Army Corps.

As to Case: Towards 10 p.m. on August 24th, 1914, I was marching with my column through the village of Acoz. I allowed my men to dismount here, because in front of me the 3rd Foot Artillery Munitions Column, X. Army Corps, were watering their horses. At the moment when I gave my men the order to mount again, the column was assailed by a vigorous fire from the houses of the village. In my opinion some 30 to 40 shots were fired at once. They were firing from shot-guns, for I could hear from the sound of these shots that they were using small shot. As a number of horses fell headlong, and various men were also wounded, I endeavoured for the moment to get the column again on the march. Meanwhile, with a detachment of about twenty men, who had come to help from the neighbourhood of the wireless station, I had the village searched.

During the search of the village three persons were seized who had been found in the priest's house, two of them indeed hidden in the loft. In examining these persons I found on one of them called Boucher, or some name like this, four discharged cartridges. According to the reports of the soldiers, the priest, who was found amongst the captured men, strenuously denied that any people were with him in the house; he had also by gestures offered the search-party money and drink to keep them back from searching his house. He had also for the moment refused them entrance into his house by pointing to a red cross which he carried on his arm. None of these three persons denied their participation in the attack. Some hours later there was found on the priest an invoice for the receipt of an English revolver. These men were subsequently shot.

It is altogether out of the question that the surprise attack could have been brought about by uniformed troops. The Belgian-French army had already retired a long way, and the village of Acoz had already been for several days in German occupation.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Müller.

The witness was sworn.

2. Lieutenant Schröder.

As to Person: My name is Georg Schröder. I am 34 years old; Protestant; Lieutenant of Reserve, 5th Artillery Munitions Column, X. Army Corps; farmer in Nordermon, Administrative District of Elsfleth.

As to Case: On August 24th I followed with the supplementary platoon of the 5th Artillery Munitions Column about an hour's distance on the road to Serpinnes. The moment I arrived before the village of Acoz my platoon was fired upon from the houses and from the high ground. At Acoz, which meanwhile had been set on fire, I got into contact with the column. I learnt that they had been fired at, and that the village had been set on fire after the perpetrators of the attack were found to be civilians. Three persons were arrested—the parish priest and two others called Bastin and Boucher. Since the leader of the column, 1st Lieutenant Müller, had been wounded through a fall, I did not know whether he had examined these persons, and so examined them myself for our better security. The three prisoners gave only unintelligible replies to my questions. I accordingly examined the soldiers who had taken part in the affair. I ascertained that Bastin and Boucher had been found hidden in the loft, where weapons and discharged cartridges had also been discovered. As regards the priest, it was reported to me that he had offered wine and money to the soldiers as they were forcing their way in, to deter them from searching his house. On the following morning there was found on the priest a receipt with reference to a revolver and 50 cartridges which had been assigned to a garde champêtre, or, through his agency, to someone else. I had ordered a soldier to search all three men, and personally discovered the paper in question in the purse which was taken from the priest.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Georg Schröder.

The witness was sworn.

Concluded.

Signed: Maack, Lieutenant. Signed: Schütte, Non-commissioned Officer.

App. 46.

Military Court Examination of Captain von Guaita, Uhlan Westphal, and Sergeant Hammermeister, all of Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 2.

Bazancourt, November 22nd, 1914.

Court of the 2nd Guard Reserve Division.

Present: President of the Court, Dr. Bernhold. Secretary, Guntowsky.

There appeared before the Court the under-mentioned witnesses, who, after the importance and sanctity of the oath had been pointed out to them, made the following statement:

1. Captain von Guaita, Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 2.

As to Person: My name is Leon. I am 36 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: On August 22nd, 1914, I rode in company with Lieutenant Feierabend, Dragoon Regiment No. 1, at the head of a troop of cavalry consisting of some twenty-five Uhlans. Our orders were to reconnoitre the bridge at Monceau sur Sambre. In the middle of the town of Monceau sur Sambre, while we were both halted in the Rue Neuve, we were suddenly assailed by a hot fire. Shots were fired at us from all the windows of the houses and from cellar gratings. As our men were falling around me I rode forward and reached a side street. One man had been killed, four wounded, and six horses were dead; Lieutenant Feierabend received a shot through the leg. I was unwounded, but my map, which I held in my left hand, was pierced by two pellets. This is a convincing proof of the fact that a sporting-gun was used to fire at me. I am convinced that fire was opened upon us at a prearranged signal.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: von Guaita.

The witness was sworn.

2. Sergeant Hammermeister, Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 2.

As to Person: My name is Hermann. I am 23 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: On August 22nd of this year I was one of the patrol led by 1st Lieutenant von Guaita. Our orders were to reconnoitre the bridge over the Sambre. When we were in the middle of a street in Monceau sur Sambre we were fired at on our front. My impression was that two volleys were fired from the quarter in front of us. This was clearly the signal for the fire now directed upon us from the houses. Shots came from doors, windows, and cellar openings. I saw a civilian standing in a doorway and firing at us with a revolver. I saw no soldiers.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Hammermeister.

The witness was sworn.

3. Uhlan Westphal, Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 2.

As to Person: My name is Wilhelm Westphal. I am 26 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: When the Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 2 passed through Monceau sur Sambre I was acting as cyclist in front of it. In the main street I immediately came under fire from a house at the moment when I wanted to ride back in order to report to the regiment that the patrol under 1st Lieutenant von Guaita had been assailed by a hot fire. With some men of the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 15 I forced a way into the house from which the shots had come, and there saw on the stairs a civilian with a gun in his hand. We at once shot this man.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Wilh. Westphal.

The witness was sworn.

The above is a true account of the proceedings.

Signed: Dr. Bernhold. Signed: Guntowsky.

App. 47.

Military Court Examination of Captain Caspari, Infantry Regiment No. 75.

Present: President of the Court, Lieutenant Stürenberg-Jung. Secretary, Acting-Sergeant-Major Bannehr.

There appeared as witness Captain Caspari, who was examined as follows:

When the head of the 3rd Company, Infantry Regiment No. 75, to which I belonged, approached Hougaerde, it was met by a person from the small town in priest's clothing. He greeted me and declared that there were no more Belgian troops in the place, and that the feelings of the inhabitants were quite friendly towards us; further, that we had no reason to fear any surprise attack from them. My request that he should act as our guide through Hougaerde was obviously distasteful to this person; nevertheless, he undertook to lead us.

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. At the bend we saw ourselves confronted by a street barricade at a distance of some 30 to 40 metres, and were at once met by simultaneous volleys of fire from the houses on all sides, and even from the rear. The priest was one of the first who was mortally wounded by shots from the houses. As I subsequently ascertained, the village had been systematically arranged for defence. Houses and walls were furnished with concealed and barely visible loopholes, prepared beforehand by the population for a surprise attack by fire at a fixed spot. That civilians took part in this fighting I can personally guarantee, for I saw such persons escaping through the gardens with weapons in their hands. Moreover, several men were wounded by small shot.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Caspari.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Stürenberg-Jung. Signed: Bannehr, Lieutenant and President of the Court, Secretary.

App. 48.

Report of Captain Strauss, Grenadier Regiment No. 12 (3rd Infantry Division).

Condé, September 25th, 1914.

On August 18th, after the retirement of the enemy, I rode through the village of Capellen with my company and heard shots being fired at my riflemen from a house behind me—from the house itself and from the garden. While the garden was being searched, the firing was renewed, and was replied to by my men. A woman, whose dead body was subsequently found in the garden, was a victim of this firing. The firing from the house continued, though from what part I could not determine. We found two men and some nine women and children, all unarmed. There were no soldiers in the house. I had the house set on fire, and, during the conflagration, cartridges exploded four or five times in the burning house.

After the decision of the regiment had been secured next morning the inhabitants in question were set at liberty, because they had not been found with weapons in their hands, nor had any such persons been discovered in searching the house.

The firing from the house and garden undoubtedly occurred.

Signed: Strauss, Captain and Company Leader.

App. 49.

Military Court Examination of Musketeer Peter Behle, Infantry Regiment No. 16, Non-commissioned Officer Otto Biernirth, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 213, War Volunteer Willi Kandt, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 201, War Volunteer Fritz Blum, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 233, and War Volunteer Franz Breidbach, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 235.

Lennep, November 17th, 1914.

Königliches Amtsgericht.

Present: Amtsgerichtsrat Landsberg, Judge. Referendar Weltman, Secretary.

At the Red Cross hospital at Lennep the under-mentioned witnesses were met, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to them, were examined as follows:

1. Peter Behle, 20 years of age, Catholic, foreman builder from Lennep, musketeer of the 6th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 16, after taking the oath, made the following statement:

In the middle of August, in a Belgian village called, I think, Tirlemont, a controlled fire was opened upon us in the dark by the civil population. No Belgian troops had been there for a long time. Shots were fired from, amongst other places, a fruit garden. My comrade, Franz Gockel from Wiesdorf, was fatally shot through the back of his head. The order was then given to collect the weapons in the houses, to secure the men, and bring the women and children into the church. In doing this we discovered unfinished revolvers, the wooden handles of which were still lacking. The houses, from which shots had come, were set on fire.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Peter Behle.

2. Otto Biernirth, 34 years of age, Protestant, certificated business instructor of Bremenhaven, non-commissioned officer, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 213, after taking the oath, made the following statement:

On October 20th we were in front of the village of Staden (Flanders). The whole night through we were fighting exclusively with francs-tireurs, who fired from the houses. In the morning we had to capture the town. However, some 400 to 500 metres from the town, a flanking fire came from a single house on the left, whereby our comrade Fröse was struck by a ricochet bullet. From this house, which was seized, four francs-tireurs emerged.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Otto Biernirth.

3. Willi Kandt, 31 years of age, Evangelical, merchant from Berlin, war volunteer, 2nd Company Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 201, after taking the oath, made the following statement:

On the march to Lessen we came under fire from two farms lying opposite. A reconnoitring company ascertained that the shots came from a barn. This was set on fire, and one could hear the continuous explosion of the cartridges stored up in the barn.

On Tuesday, October 20th, 1914, we caught a civilian, who was shot because he had cartridges in his pocket.

Towards the evening of this day the first four companies of Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 201 were to go forward on outpost duty, followed by the remaining companies. When the last companies had passed through the town of Lessen and the baggage had already arrived on the scene, it was fired upon on all sides from the houses and the church tower. Four of our men were wounded. When our artillery received the order to bombard the church tower, the church was set on fire, and in this way, probably, a non-commissioned officer and eight men who had been sent to search the tower were burnt to death. The enemy troops had already left the place; the only persons still there were civilians.

On the following day we were fired at from a farm, but could find nobody in the house. After the house had been burnt down, we found inside the body of a franc-tireur.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Willi Kandt.

Continued in the Königliches Amtsgericht at Lennep on November 20th, 1914.

4. Fritz Blum, 17 years of age, Evangelical, a compositor from Meiningen, war volunteer, 4th Company, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 233, after taking the oath, made the following declaration:

On October 18th we occupied quarters at Westroosebeek (between Thielt and Roulers). We there ascertained that both the millers had set the wings of their windmills in a particular direction, and so furnished a signal which betrayed our entry. Both the millers were seized, but in the course of a subsequent fight we lost sight of them.

On October 19th we took Roulers by storm. When we marched in we came under a hot fire from the houses. In searching the houses I found on the roof of a house a civilian who had fired with a shot-gun. He was just trying to escape through the skylight. So, as he paid no attention to my call, I shot him. He wore wooden shoes, and was otherwise dressed altogether as a townsman, and differed in no respects from a civilian. On the stairs we found bullets; they were partly of French origin, partly "dum-dum" leaden bullets, apparently made at home. The gun that was found was an old sporting-gun.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Fritz Bluhm.

5. Franz Breidbach, 19 years of age, Catholic, Abiturient from Luttinghausen, war volunteer, 6th Company, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 235, after taking the oath, made the following statement:

On October 19th we marched through Roulers, which had previously been captured by Infantry Regiment No. 233. Our company formed the head of the column; the entire town was badly injured by artillery fire, and there was only one street which was fairly intact. From the houses of this street shots were fired at us, coming more especially from the cellar windows. My comrade, Kremst of Coblenz, fell in front of me, and two other comrades were slightly wounded. When we searched the houses we found six to eight francs-tireurs and a number of revolvers. A large quantity of ammunition was indubitably stored in the houses, for when the houses were set on fire a continuous series of explosions occurred.

On October 22nd I arrived at a field hospital in Roulers. There I heard four or five shots strike the hospital; a wounded Jäger, who was lying on a stretcher in front of the hospital, was shot dead by francs-tireurs.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Franz Breidbach. Signed: Landsberg. Signed: Veltman.

App. 50.

Military Court Examination of Ersatzreservist Gottfried Hilberath, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 236.

Proceedings at Werne in the hospital, October 31st, 1914.

Königliches Amtsgericht, Langendreer.

Present: Magistrate Hidding, as Judge. District Court Assistant, Harries, Secretary.

On the suggestion of the authorities of the hospital at Werne, the above-mentioned Court Commission visited the hospital in order to examine a sick soldier.

There was brought before them Gottfried Hilberath, of 60 Moselstrasse, Cologne, who, after being warned against the giving of a false oath, was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Gottfried Hilberath; hotel waiter; born at Neuenahr, August 12th, 1893; Catholic; Ersatzreservist, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 236, 3rd Battalion, 12th Company.

As to Case: Our regiment marched off on September 13th, 1914. We were conveyed by rail from our manœuvre ground. In the middle of October 1914 our detachment lay in the neighbourhood of the Belgian village of Deynze, near which we had to throw up trenches. During the night we occupied quarters in the town. At dawn we again entered the trenches. On the evening of October 25th we brought the wounded into the field hospital established in a village. At Deynze, with ten to fifteen comrades, we entered a house which was lighted, and found a number of our men already there, sitting in the room and drinking coffee. The housewife made coffee for the party of soldiers, as well as for ourselves, who came in afterwards. The husband was busily occupied with his grocery shop. All the soldiers spent the night in the house. That same evening about eight of our men filled their field flasks with coffee made by the woman. In the evening some bought themselves sugar in the shop for 10 centimes. I did this myself, and put it into my field flask, like the others. The sugar was ready for use in little packets. It struck me that a sticky mass adhered to the paper, which looked like gum-arabic. The sugar was made up in twisted pieces of paper, which were not stuck together and were apparently filled by the shopkeeper.

On the following day, some ten minutes after partaking of the coffee in the trenches, I became unconscious, and must have remained in this condition about five hours. Two cyclists brought me through the village of Deynze to the field hospital at West-Roosebeck. Here I heard that the other comrades too had been poisoned, and also that some of them were already dead. What happened to the grocer and his wife in consequence of this, I do not know.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Gottfried Hilberath.

The examined witness, after once more being warned against the giving of false evidence, thereupon took the oath.

Proceedings concluded.

Signed: Hidding. Signed: Harries.

App. 51.

Court of the Belgian Government-General.

Brussels, December 14th, 1915.

Present: President of the Court, Säger. Military Court Assistant, Dunve, as Secretary. Interpreter Fulles of the Military Court of the Province of Brabant, once for all put on oath.

There appeared as witness the merchant, Heinrich Bloch, of 35 Rue du Marché, Brussels, who made the following statements:

As to Person: My name is as given above. I am 68 years old, of the Jewish faith; a citizen of Baden.

As to Case: Up to 6 a.m. on August 20th, 1914, I was in Brussels. In the Brussels newspaper there was published a demand that weapons should be given up. On August 19th, 1914, I sent my man-servant to the Commissariat, Rue Croisate, with a revolver which he was to hand in. After a brief interval he returned and used these exact words, "One must not believe everything one reads in the newspapers" ("Il ne faut pas croire tout qu'on lit dans les journeaux").

The proclamations were officially issued by the Burgomeister. That the Commissaire took us to be Belgians, I have no reason to believe. The Commissaire who had refrained from taking the revolver from my man-servant fell in Belgium, when and where I cannot say.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: H. Bloch.

There appeared further as witness, the man-servant Jules Brontine, 38 years of age, Catholic, a Belgian citizen, who made the following statement:

I can only state what Herr Bloch has already made known. He sent me on August 19th to the police station, in order to surrender his revolver. The Commissaire of Police, to whom I handed the weapon, sent me off with the words, "One must not believe everything one reads in the newspapers." Thereupon, I returned home again with the revolver. I said that the weapon belonged to Herr Bloch, who, as a German, was personally known to the Commissaire of Police. I assumed that the demand in the newspapers only referred to guns and swords.

Read over in French, approved, signed.

Signed: J. Brontine.

The witnesses Brontine and Bloch were sworn according to regulations.

Proceedings concluded.

Signed: Säger. Signed: Dunve.

App. 52.

Report of Lieutenant von Manstein, commanding 1st Squadron, Dragoon Regiment No. 4.

August 27th, 1914.

On August 9th the patrol, while evading two French squadrons in the direction of Behême, was fired upon by inhabitants of this village.

A communication dated August 8th was seized, in which the Chief of the Gardes Forestiers writes to the Burgomeister that Gendarmes and Verderers were instructed to organise the inhabitants for armed resistance. An inhabitant of Chiny informed me on August 10th, in answer to my questions—he took me for a Frenchman or an Englishman—that on the previous day the Garde Civile had been in the village and carefully instructed the inhabitants in the handling of weapons and the defence of the village.

On August 24th the inhabitants of Peissant had placed strong barricades across all the entrances to the village, shut the doors and window-shutters of every house, and furnished them with loopholes. They refused to open me a passage through, because they knew I wanted to avoid a company of English infantry, which was quite close to the village, and had with me only a single dispatch rider. During the night they then divulged to the English artillery the names of the farms occupied by the 1st Squadron, Uhlan Regiment No. 1, and the 1st Squadron, Dragoon Regiment No. 4, and also the houses in which our valuable goods had been stored, so that the next morning the English artillery brought these farms and houses under shell-fire.

Signed: von Manstein, Lieutenant, Uhlan Regiment No. 10, commanding 1st Squadron, Dragoon Regiment No. 4.

App. 53.

Military Court Examination of Lieutenant of Reserve Bohme, Infantry Regiment No. 165.

Court of the 7th Infantry Division, Cherisy.

Present: President of the Court, Dr. Welt. Secretary, Lorenz, as Recorder of the Court.

November 25th, 1914.

There appeared as witness Lieutenant of Reserve Bohme, Infantry Regiment No. 165, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, was examined as follows:

When I was quartered at Retinne, an officer of the Rhine Regiment came to me, and showed to myself and other officers a Bond, which, according to his account, had been found in the Burgomeister's office, in a neighbouring village. The Bond was typewritten, and contained the demand issued by the Belgian Government to the populace, that they should carry on armed resistance for payment. A fixed sum of money was mentioned in the Bond. The Bond was stamped with an official seal. The Bond was seen at the time by my comrades Pusch and Kurt Wagner, as well as by Lieutenant of Research Bloch, Infantry Regiment No. 27, and Lieutenant Brohm, Jäger Battalion No. 4.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Bohme.

Proceedings concluded.

Signed: Dr. Welt. Signed: Lorenz.

App. 54.

Military Court Examination of Reservist Richard Weise, Fusilier Regiment No. 36.

Blankenburg (Harz), November 13th, 1914.

Herzogliches Amtsgericht.

Present: Oberamtsrichter Dr. Schilling, Judge. Gerichtsobersecretär Hornig, Secretary.

There appeared as witness the reservist Richard Weise, 6th Company, Fusilier Regiment No. 36, born March 29th, 1890, at Hohenmölsen, District of Weissenfels, at present in the hospital of this place.

There were read over to him the following statements made by 1st Lieutenant Reyner on October 31st, 1914:

"In the early days of August, it may have been the middle of the month, I was on officer-patrol duty near the Belgian frontier, with orders to occupy a bridge. A brief engagement took place, and after an hour and a half the patrol retired. I, with some fusiliers, received some special orders, and for that reason left the patrol.

"During our retirement over a meadow we noticed in a street-trench, near a group of houses, several civilians who remained there. When we approached nearer, we saw lying in the trench a German soldier whose eyes had both been cut out. Thereupon we attacked the civilians, who ran off into the adjacent houses, and from these opened fire upon us. What became of the cruelly treated soldier I cannot say."

The witness thereupon declared: This statement is correct. I adopt it also as my own statement to-day, and make the following addition to it. I did not see the three or four civilians (who, in fear of us, ran away from the wounded German soldier into the adjacent houses) put out the eyes of the soldier. That these men, however, were guilty is clear from the fact that our wounded German comrade implored us, "Take me with you; they have just put out my eyes."

The attention of the witness was then called to the importance of the oath, and he accordingly gave his sworn testimony.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Richard Weise. Signed: Dr. Schilling. Signed: R. Hornig.

App. 55.

Military Court Examination of the Reservists, Gustav Voigt, Fritz Marks, and Heinrich Hartmann, Infantry Regiment No. 165.

Proceedings at Quedlinburg, in the Reserve Hospital.

Present: President of the Court, Keil. Secretary, Fahlberg.

Schilling, November 11th, 1914.

In the Reserve Hospital at Schilling, to which the above-mentioned Court officials had proceeded, the following examinations took place after the witnesses had been individually warned as to the importance of the oath:

1. Reservist Gustav Voigt.

As to Person: My name is Gustav Voigt. I am 24 years old; Protestant; Reservist of the 6th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165.

As to Case: On the morning of August 6th found myself with seven comrades separated from my detachment. In order to get cover we had to creep through the gardens of a village lying just beyond Herve in Belgium. We suddenly saw five Belgian soldiers, who held up their arms and offered to surrender. They called to us, and when we reached them we noticed that they had with them two German soldiers of the 10th Hussars in handcuffs. One of them brought to our notice that a third hussar was hanging dead in the tree. We observed that the ears and nose of the corpse had been cut off. The two hussars told us also that the five Belgians, who were there, had hung and mutilated their comrade. The Belgians were just on the point of slaughtering or mutilating these two also, had we not arrived on the scene. We disarmed the Belgians, took them prisoners, and handed them over to a party of five Uhlans, who were already taking several Belgian prisoners away with them. We, too, then joined the Uhlans in order to regain our company, and, while passing through the village, were fired at from the cellars and windows. The name of the village I do not know, but it lies between Herve and a large coalpit shaft in the direction of Liège. I myself was wounded in the street-fighting at Liège. On the day before this occurrence our company had an outpost fight to the right of Herve, in the course of which an Einjähriger of the 5th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165, was wounded and left behind. When we passed this spot again on the following morning we found the body of the Einjähriger lying under a garden fence; both his eyes had been gouged out. We were all convinced that this had been done by villagers.

On about August 7th, as we were advancing towards Liège, we saw a German infantry-man; I believe he belonged to Infantry Regiment No. 27. He showed no marks of any shot wound, but was dead, and all his private parts had been cut away.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Gustav Voigt.

2. Reservist Fritz Marks.

As to Person: My name is Fritz Marks. I am 23 years old; Protestant; by calling a factory worker; Reservist of the 2nd Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165.

As to Case: On August 5th our battalion marched through a village near Herve in Belgium. A man of the 5th Company came to meet us with the words, "What brutality! Now they have gouged out the eyes of one of our Einjähriger." He pointed to the place where the Einjähriger lay. We all had to go to the place, and saw the Einjähriger lying dead by a garden fence, with his eyes put out. We were convinced that this was the work of the villagers. Next day, when we again passed through the village, we were fired at from cellar gratings and windows, so that orders were received to disarm the villagers and make them prisoners. We forced our way into the houses and carried out the order. As, in spite of this, the firing did not cease, six guilty Belgian peasants were shot by order of an officer.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Fritz Marks.

3. Reservist Heinrich Hartmann.

As to Person: My name is Heinrich Hartmann. I am 24 years old; Protestant; Reservist in the 2nd Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165.

As to Case: I saw lying on the ground the Einjähriger of the 5th Company, with his eyes gouged out. Our company leader, Hauptmann Burkholz, ordered us to search the houses in the place. Inside the house, by the garden fence of which the Einjähriger was found, we came across a big strong man of middle age, who was lying on his bed and pretending to be asleep. We brought him before the officer, who cross-examined him. The man was then shot by a musketeer of the 4th Company.

On the advance towards Liège we came across a German infantry-man who had been thrust into a swampy pool with his head and half his body under water; the man was dead.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Heinrich Hartmann.

The witnesses were thereupon sworn.

Proceedings end.

Signed: Keil. Signed: Fahlberg.

App. 56.

Military Court Examination of Musketeer Paul Blankenburg, Infantry Regiment No. 165.

Blankenburg (Hartz), November 14th, 1914.

Herzogliches Amtsgericht.

Present: Oberamtsgerichter Dr. Schilling, Judge. Gerichtsobersecretär Hornig, Secretary.

There appears as witness Musketeer Paul Blankenburg, 7th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 165, at the present time in the Reserve Hospital of this place. The witness, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Paul Blankenburg. I was born in Magdeburg, September 4th, 1893; Protestant.

As to Case: The following statement, which he had made on October 31st of this year before 1st Lieutenant Reyner in this place, was read over to the witness:

"We were on the march in close column, and in the course of it passed through a Belgian village, lying west of Herve. In the village German wounded were lying, and indeed I recognised some Jäger troops from Jäger Battalion No. 4. The column in marching through suddenly came under fire from the houses, and the order was therefore given to remove all the civilians from the houses, and to get them together into one place. While this was going on I noticed that some girls of eight or ten years of age, armed with sharp instruments, were busying themselves with the German wounded. I subsequently ascertained that, from the most severely wounded, the lobes and the upper parts of their ears had been cut off. On continuing our march, an ambulance soldier, belonging, as far as I remember, to the 27th Regiment, was shot dead from a house by Belgian civilians while he was occupied in a school-yard in rendering assistance to a wounded man."

The witness therefore declared: "The statement just read over to me corresponds to the truth. I again emphasise the fact that I myself saw girls of some eight or ten years of age busying themselves with severely wounded men in the Belgian village. The girls had steel instruments in their hands—but they were not knives or scissors—and with these instruments, which were sharp on one side, they busied themselves among the wounded. We took the instruments from them. The wounded had fresh wounds on their ears, from which the lobes and upper portions had evidently been just cut off. One of the wounded told me in reply to a question that he had been mutilated by the girls in the way here described."

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Paul Blankenburg.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Dr. Schilling. Signed: Hornig.

App. 57.

Statement and Military Court Examination of Dragoon Funke, 2nd Hanoverian Dragoon Regiment No. 16.

Caisnes, November 7th, 1914.

Dragoon Funke states: At Herve men of the Magdeburg Field Artillery Regiment, which was marching through the place, drew my attention to the fact that a dead hussar was lying near a straw stack. I went towards the body and saw that the ears and nose of the hussar had been cut off, and also that the whole of his face had been mangled.

Signed: Heinichen, Lieutenant.

Caisnes, November 7th, 1914.

Present: Deputy-President of the Court, Dr. Stahl (Gerichtsassessor). Secretary, Fredersdorf.

There appeared as witness Corporal Funke. The witness Funke made the same statement as that previously made by Lieutenant Heinichen. After this had been read over he declared, "This is so correct that I have nothing to add to it."

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Funke.

The witness Funke was thereupon sworn. Proceedings took place as above.

Signed: Stahl. Signed: Fredersdorf.

App. 58.

Military Court Examination of Reservist Ernst Baldeweg, Infantry Regiment No. 35.

Magdeburg, November 1st, 1914.

Gericht der immobilen Etappen-Kommandantur No. 1.

Present: Military Assistant-Judge Dr. Pauls, Judge. Gladrow, Secretary.

At the request of the Deputy-General in Command of the IV. Army Corps, the Reservist Ernst Baldeweg, dairy assistant in Berlin, 37 Rathenower Street, 11th Company, Infantry Regiment 35, 28 years of age, Reformed Church of Germany, after the sanctity of the oath had been pointed out to him, was examined as follows:

About the 8th of August 1914, in a village close to Verriers, I saw with my own eyes that in one stable one horse, and in another stable four horses, had had their tongues cut off. In the first case I noticed that the tongue had not been completely severed, but hung from the mouth on the jaws by a small fragment of flesh. I am of opinion that Belgian civilians had mutilated the animals in order to prevent their being taken on farther by the Germans.

Either on Sunday, August 9th, 1914, or on Monday, August 10th, 1914, I saw at a village quite close to Herve in Belgium a German hussar bound to a tree by his hands and feet. Two large, long nails had been driven through his eyes and his head, so that he was fixed to the tree by the two nails. The hussar had ceased to live. In the same village there was lying by a wooden fence in front of a farm an infantry-man of the 52nd Infantry Regiment. His eyes had been put out, his ears, nose, and fingers cut off, and his stomach slashed about so that the intestines were visible. The breast of the dead soldier had also been so badly stabbed that it was completely mangled. For both these cases of gross cruelty the Belgian civilians alone can be held responsible.

I again assert that I have reported only what I personally observed, and have refrained from any exaggeration.

Read over, approved, and signed.

Signed: Ernst Baldeweg.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Dr. Pauls. Signed: Glasdrow.

App. 59.

Military Court Examination of Musketeer Lagershausen, Ersatz Regiment No. 230.

Hanover, November 21st, 1914.

President of the Court, Lindenburg. Secretary, Non-commissioned Officer of Reserve Koepf.

There appears as witness Musketeer Lagershausen, 1st Ersatz Company, Reserve Regiment No. 230, who, after the importance of the oath has been pointed out to him, made the following declaration:

As to Person: My name is Hugo Lagershausen. I am 19 years of age; Protestant.

As to Case: I was attached to the 8th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 73, which had pushed forward from Spa towards Liège. We, i.e. a corporal of Regiment No. 74, several musketeers of Regiments Nos. 82 and 83, and I myself, forthwith got the order to act as a reconnoitring patrol on the right. This was on the night of August 5th-6th. As the darkness had set in, and we had to proceed very quietly, I suddenly found myself separated from all the rest of the patrol. Towards midday on August 6th I reached a dressing-station which had been arranged in some farm buildings near the village of Chênée. I found in the house some fifteen severely wounded German soldiers, four or five of whom had been shockingly mutilated. Both eyes had been put out, and some of the victims had several finger joints cut off. Their wounds were still comparatively fresh, though the blood was already somewhat coagulated. These soldiers were still alive and groaning. It was impossible for me to give them any help. There was no doctor in the place, as I had already ascertained by questioning other wounded men lying in the house. At the same time I came across in the house six or seven Belgian civilians; four of these were women, who gave the wounded water. The men remained quite inactive. I saw no weapons in their possession; further, whether their hands were bloodstained I cannot say, because they kept them concealed in their pockets. As regards the point whether it was these persons who had perpetrated these cruelties on the wounded soldiers, I can make no definite pronouncement. I could take no action against these persons, because I was absolutely alone.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Musketeer Lagershausen.

The witness was sworn in accordance with regulations.

Signed: Lindenberg. Signed: Koepf.

App. 60.

Military Court Examination of the soldier Koch, Infantry Regiment No. 25.

Staden, November 27th, 1914.

Divisional Headquarters.

Present: President of the Court, Jäger. Secretary, Brehmer.

There appeared as witness the soldier Koch, 4th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 25. After he had been made aware of the object of the inquiry, and the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, he was examined as follows:

As to Person: My Christian name is Mathias. I am 32 years of age; Catholic; smelter by trade; living in Eschweiter-Röhe.

As to Case: Up to August 16th of this year I belonged to the 1st Company of the Ersatz Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 25. We were assigned as escort to guard the motor ambulances. The motor ambulances had been provided by the Voluntary Aid Society, and ran between Liège and Aix-la-Chapelle. One day in the period from 10th-16th August I was ordered to accompany one of these motors. We drove towards the battlefield in the vicinity of the town of Visé. In front of us the men of the Voluntary Aid Society deployed, and we followed slowly after them. From some rising ground I could easily survey the land lying in front of me. At a distance of about 500 metres I saw near a wounded German soldier two women sitting in a crouching position. I at first assumed that the women were praying beside the soldier. Hard by, three or four men were standing. One of these suddenly fired at me. I replied to the shot, whereupon the men and both the women ran away. I then went up to the wounded soldier, who was bleeding from a wound in the chest. His trousers were open in front and partly drawn back. On nearer inspection I ascertained that the sexual organ of the soldier had been completely severed and placed in his mouth. The soldier showed no longer any signs of life, but his body was still warm. The sight appeared to me so terrible that tears came into my eyes. I removed what had been put in the mouth, and buried it in the ground. I left the soldier lying there, as he was unquestionably dead.

On the same day I also found the body of a German, whose ring finger had been cut off. When I told this to the men of the Voluntary Aid Society, they gave me to understand that this was no news to them, as they had often seen the same thing before.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Mathias Koch.

The witness was sworn.

Proceedings end.

Signed: Jäger. Signed: Brehmer.

App. 61.

Report of Medical Corps Company 2, VI. Army Corps.

Beine, October 15th, 1914.

On August 23rd I went to the French field hospital through Rossignol, where the company had established its chief dressing-station. On the way a musketeer reported to me that a dead German was lying in a house. I at once inspected the corpse and ascertained that, in addition to a wound, which was not mortal, the head of the soldier had been burnt. A few metres away stood a half-filled bottle of petroleum, and another half-filled with benzin. One could clearly see from this that the inhabitants had dragged the wounded soldier into the house, saturated his head with petroleum and benzin, and then set it alight.

On the night of 24th-25th of August I drove in an automobile from Rossignol to Florenville, where a number of inhabitants were standing by a house engaged in a lively conversation. When, about 100 metres farther on from this point, I stopped my automobile in order to ascertain the direction from a signpost, I was suddenly exposed to a vigorous fire from these people behind me, so that it was only by driving off very quickly that I was able to save my life.

Signed: Sternberg, Captain and Commander of Medical Corps Company 2, VI. Army Corps.

App. 62.

Statement of Senior Staff-Surgeon Dr. Kiefmann, Medical Corps, VIII. Army Corps.

Proceedings at Field Hospital No. 3, VIII. Army Corps.

St. Morel, October 15th, 1914.

There appears as witness Dr. Beyer, who states that Lieutenant Erich Koch, 8th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 160, who had received a severe wound in the perinæum, with laceration of the rectum, informed him after receiving his wound he had been stripped naked by the civilians, robbed, and thrown into a cesspool.

Lieutenant Koch was in fact naked, and only wrapped in a blanket when brought into the hospital.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Dr. Beyer, Staff-Surgeon.

There appears as witness Acting-Sergeant-Major (Medical Service) Joseph Steffen, who states in reference to the case in hand:

I can only confirm the statement of Staff-Surgeon Beyer. Lieutenant Koch gave me the same information, and added the fact that the women also had taken part in this outrage. Koch was wounded near Porcheresse.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Steffen, Acting-Sergeant-Major, Medical Service.

Proceedings took place as above.

Signed: Dr. Kiefmann, Senior Surgeon and Chief Staff-Surgeon.

App. 63.

Military Court Examination of Landwehr soldier Alwin Chaton, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 78.

Braunschweid, October 31st, 1914. (The Hospital "Konzerthaus.")

Gericht der stellvertretenden XL. Brigade.

Present: President of the Court, Dr. Behme. Secretary, de Boer.

There appeared to-day as witness the Landwehr soldier Alwin Chaton, 5th Company, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 78, who made the following statement:

My name is Alwin Chaton. I am 32 years old; Protestant; book-keeper at Emmerstadt, near Helmstadt.

During the street-fighting in Charleroi, in the course of the fight we passed the main street and reached a side-street leading from the main street. When I had come to the street corner and fired down the side-street, I saw some 50 to 60 paces in front of me a German dragoon lying in the street. Three civilians were near him, one of whom was bending over the soldier, who was still kicking with his legs. I fired among them and hit the last of the three civilians; the others ran away. On coming nearer I saw that the civilian I had shot had a long bloodstained knife in his hand. The right eye of the German dragoon had been cut out, and the left one as well, though this was still hanging from the side of his head. From the nature of the wounds there could be no doubt that the eyes had been cut out, not in the fighting, but by sheer malice. A great deal of smoke came from the body of the dragoon. He had no doubt been soaked in inflammable liquid and set alight.

Later on I saw other bodies burning, though there was no sort of fire in the vicinity; these also must have been set alight.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Alwin Chaton.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Behme. Signed: de Boer.

App. 64.

Military Court Examination of Acting-Sergeant-Major Weinreich, Infantry Regiment No. 20.

Court of the 6th Infantry Division.

Present: Deputy-President of the Court, Schmetzer. Secretary, Hänse.

Ursel, November 10th, 1914.

There appears as witness Acting-Sergeant-Major Weinreich, Machine-gun Company, Infantry Regiment No. 20, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Adolf Weinreich. I am 32 years of age; Protestant.

As to Case: One day in the middle of August this year, I proceeded with the Company Transport, behind the company, which was taking part in the fight. At the entrance of Neer-Linter I saw a German hussar lying in the house covered with a sack. I dismounted from my horse, lifted the sack, and noticed that the hussar was dead. His face was covered all over with blood, the eye cavities were bored out, the eyeballs themselves had been completely cut away and had disappeared. The coat was torn open, the breast exposed, and showed marks of some twenty stabs. I covered the corpse again with the sack.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Adolf Weinreich.

The witness was hereupon sworn.

Signed: Schmetzer. Signed: Hänse.

App. 65.

Herzogliches Amtsgericht.

Present: Oberamtsrichter Dr. Schilling, Judge. Hornig, Secretary.

Blankenburg (Hartz), November 14th, 1914.

There appeared as witness Fusilier Paul Rohr, 8th Company, Fusilier Regiment No. 36, at present in the Reserve Hospital at this place; he was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Paul Rohr; born on August 28th, 1892, at Galbitz, near Cönnern; Protestant.

As to Case: The following deposition, which he had made before Lieutenant Reyner on October 31st, 1914, was read over to witness:

"Whilst taking some straw for camp purposes from a barn near Brussels we found two otherwise unwounded German Uhlans hidden under the straw. Both had their eyes poked out. The case, as I know, has already been reported to my battalion commander, Kirchner."

He thereupon declared: I affirm this deposition to-day, and add the following detail: The occurrence took place in a village near Brussels at about the end of August this year. The two German Uhlans I found lying dead under the straw in the barn were absolutely unwounded, with the exception of their torn-out eyes, and there exists no doubt in my mind that the wounds inflicted, when their eyes were destroyed, were the sole cause of their death.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Paul Rohr.

After the witness had been admonished as to the importance of the oath, he was duly sworn.

Signed: Dr. Schilling. Signed: Hornig.

App. 66.

Military Examination of Captain Troeger, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 204.

Ministry of War.

Military place of examination concerning violations of the Laws of War.

Present: Kriegsgerichtzrat, Dr. Linde, Judge. Pfitzner, Secretary.

Berlin, November 24th, 1914.

There appeared as witness Captain Troeger, Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 204, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Hans Troeger; 45 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: On the march from Ghent to Thourout, two volunteers of Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 203, who had collapsed from exhaustion, were mutilated by Belgian villagers, their ears and noses were cut off, their stomachs slit open, and one of them had his skull fractured by the heel of a boot. This fact was made known to us amongst others by the commanding officer of the company, Captain zur Nieden, to whose company the two volunteers belonged.

The following is another case, which took place at Cessen-Kappel:

Non-commissioned Officer Schnitzer, 5th Company, Reserve Regiment No. 204, reported to me on October 26th or 27th that he had found a mutilated Prussian dragoon at Cessen-Kappel whose ears and nose had been cut off, and his stomach slit open by villagers. The said non-commissioned officer thereupon searched the farms in question with a detachment of his men, and found a few armed inhabitants, who were shot at once.

On our march through Belgium from Ghent onwards we were constantly fired on by the inhabitants from houses and church towers.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Troeger.

The witness was sworn.

Proceedings concluded.

Signed: Dr. Linde. Signed: Pfitzner.

APPENDIX A.—AERSCHOT

App. A.

War Office.

Military Court of Inquiry into the Violation of the Laws of War.

Belgian Civilian Uprising in Aerschot on August 19th and 20th, 1914.

Comprehensive Report.

The officially summoned Belgian Commission of Inquiry, together with the foreign Press, have included the case of Aerschot in their innumerable calumnies against the German method of waging war in Belgium. Neither could find enough to say in their descriptions of the "barbarous" attitude adopted by the German troops and their officers towards the "harmless" inhabitants, nor against the utter lack of ground for the Court of Punishment held in the "peaceful" town. The true facts of the matter, which have been established by a number of carefully sworn testimonies given by unprejudiced witnesses, reveal quite a different picture.

On August 19, 1914, German troops of the 8th Infantry Brigade were housed in Aerschot. The town quietly watched the Brigade Staff enter on the same day. Colonel Stenger, in command of the brigade, sent his adjutant, Captain Schwarz, in advance, in order to procure billets for the members of the staff. Captain Schwarz was received in a friendly manner by the Mayor and his wife. The Mayor suggested that his own house, situated in the market-place, would provide the best accommodation. The Colonel and his orderly officer, Lieutenant Beyersdorff (App. 1), went there in the afternoon between four and five. The relations between the officer staying in those quarters and his host were from the very first amiable and polite (App. 1).

Colonel Jenrich, officer commanding Infantry Regiment No. 140, attached to the Brigade, was made Governor of the town, and summoned the Mayor in order to ask him whether any dispersed Belgian soldiers were hidden in the place, or disguised as civilians in the houses. The Mayor replied to both questions in the negative. Colonel Jenrich warned him expressly against attacks by the civil population, for which the Mayor, on penalty of death, would be held responsible. Further, he desired him to see that the inhabitants delivered up all weapons. This demand Colonel Jenrich had to repeat twice, as it turned out that great quantities of weapons were kept back by the population (App. 2).

At 8 o'clock in the evening a particularly loud report was heard in the town, which proved to be the signal for a general firing on the German troops gathered together in the streets and the market-place. The fire—evidently at the given signal—opened from the roof windows of a corner house near the market-place, situated opposite that of the Mayor (App. 3). Three volleys were fired from this house, then the shooting ceased for a short time, after which brisk and rapid firing began again from many of the houses. The shots came chiefly from the roof window. All the doors and windows of the house from which the first shot had been fired were firmly locked, and had to be broken open by the soldiers. The house was set on fire. Several civilians, who attempted to flee, were seized, many with weapons in their hands (App. 5). Eighty-eight men amongst them were shot as francs-tireurs (App. 3).

Colonel Stenger had remained alone in his room in the Mayor's house. By a notice on the door the house was easily recognisable as being the quarters of the Brigade Staff. Colonel Stenger, trusting to the assumed friendliness of the inhabitants, had spent the afternoon on the balcony adjoining his room, where he was clearly visible to all. Towards the evening he retired to his brightly lit room, leaving the balcony doors wide open (App. 1). When Captain Schwarz and Lieutenant Beyersdorff went to call on him in the evening about 8 o'clock, in order to receive instructions with reference to the uprising, they found Colonel Stenger lying mortally wounded in the middle of the lighted room, with the balcony doors still wide open. The doctor, who was immediately summoned, could only testify to the death that had already overtaken him (App. 1). The shots fired at the Colonel occurred then at the same time as those of the first lively volleys fired from the house opposite his room. It was the case of a systematic attack upon the German troops, who, robbed of their leader, were to fall into disorder and confusion. Hence the cessation of the firing after the first volleys, when the criminals saw they had succeeded in murdering the Colonel, and its immediate hostile renewal against the apparently leaderless troops. The sequence of events is so obvious that it is only confirmed by the previous pretence of friendliness on the part of the inhabitants, and not weakened by this fact, as the Belgian representation of events would have it.

An immediate search of the Mayor's house showed that the family were not only cognizant of the hostilities, but also participated in them. Shots were fired into the street from the locked cellar, the key of which the family declared to have been lost, and it had to be forcibly opened; a stand had even been moved to the cellar window, in order to make their position easier for the marksmen (App. 1), and a musketeer was positively certain that he had noticed a shot fired from the house (App. 1). The Mayor's son alone could be held responsible for the actual deed; hidden away by his family, he was fetched out of a dark room (App. 1). But since the whole family were guilty of the Colonel's murder after having received him with such "hospitality," according to Belgian reports, both father and son were shot on the following day, August 20 (App. 2).

At the town Governor's instigation, Captain Karge, officer commanding the Military Mounted Police, was lodged in the house of the Mayor's brother, and thus he too shared the same fate (Apps. 2, 3).

According to the nature of the firing, no doubt remains of its being a case of a systematic and murderous attack on the German garrison. This was also admitted to Captain Karge by a civilian prisoner of the educated classes (App. 3). The participation of the Mayor's whole family proves that the Belgian authorities supported such treacherous deeds against the German troops—deeds that were, unhappily, only too frequent. In Aerschot this mischievous official authority led to the ruthless murder of the commanding officer.

Berlin, January 17th, 1915.

Military Court of Inquiry into the Violation of Military Law.

Signed: Major Bauer. Signed: Dr. Wagner, Member of the Supreme Court of Judicature.

A. App. 1.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Klauss, Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Ross, Clerk of the Court.

Roubaix, November 6th, 1914.

At the inquiry concerning the events in Aerschot, on the night of August 19-20, 1914, there appeared as witnesses:

1. The Adjutant of the 8th Infantry Brigade, Captain Schwarz.

2. The Orderly Officer of the 8th Infantry Brigade, Lieutenant of Reserve Beyersdorff. After they had been acquainted with the nature of the inquiry, and their attention had been called to the importance of the oath, they were separately examined, as follows:

1. Captain Schwarz.

As to Person: My name is Carl Schwarz. I am 34 years of age, of the Protestant faith.

As to Case: On the 19th of August I was sent in advance of Colonel Stenger, who later was shot, and was commanding the 8th Infantry Brigade, to Aerschot, to find quarters for the staff. The Mayor of Aerschot suggested to me that his own house, situated in the market-place, would provide the best accommodation. I entered this house, and was received in the most friendly manner by the Mayor's wife. Between four and five in the afternoon, Colonel Stenger and the Orderly Officer, Lieutenant of Reserve Beyersdorff, arrived.

Shortly before eight in the evening, soon after I had had a short interview with the Colonel in his room, there suddenly arose a brisk rifle-fire in the town; it was directed on the troops, who were partly passing through and partly halting in the market-place. The first shots, which, according to the sound, seemed to come from a northerly direction, I thought came from the enemy's fire, who had been reported as advancing from the north. But I was soon convinced by the shots directed on our house that they were intended for us. The shots did not emanate from our troops. After a short pause, the firing was renewed with equal violence. In the meantime, the Mayor was brought to me by the men of the 140th Infantry Regiment. I had to protect him from the fury of the men. I now went through the streets with the Mayor, and through him tried to bring the citizens to reason. After the firing had died down, I handed the Mayor over to the commandant of the town, Major Jenrich.

As I now returned to the Mayor's house to receive orders from Colonel Stenger, I found him lying seriously wounded on the floor of his room. Owing to the many shots fired at our adjoining rooms, and to the fact that the townsfolk obviously knew that the commander was billeted in the Mayor's house (indicated on the door), and further, that Colonel Stenger could be seen through the wide-open doors of the balcony, I was under the impression that the fire was specially directed against the Colonel.

After Colonel Jenrich had given the command that the troops should leave Aerschot, I personally, accompanied by a few men of the 140th Infantry Regiment, made a thorough search of the Mayor's house, from which shots were supposed to have been fired. On this occasion, by my orders, the locked cellar doors, of which the keys were alleged to have been lost, were broken in with axes. In the cellar, in front of the window which opened on to the street, I found a conspicuous stand from which shots must have been fired. The window-panes were completely shattered. Whilst we were searching the living-rooms, the Mayor's son came towards us from a darkened room. I, personally, handed him over to the sentry in the market-place. Those calumnies about our doings in the Mayor's house, published in a foreign newspaper, are untrue.

The negotiations concerning the housing and catering were conducted on both sides in a friendly fashion, mostly with the Mayor's wife, as the Mayor was occupied at the town hall. It was natural that, after the shooting of Colonel Stenger, the friendly tone which had reigned should have been changed to a strictly official one, and I did not omit to show my horror at the sad event.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Schwarz.

Hereupon the witness took the oath.

2. Reserve Lieutenant Beyersdorff of the 12th Dragoon Regiment.

As to Person: I am called Bruno Beyersdorff. I am 31 years of age, and a Protestant.

As to Case: At the hearing of the witness it turned out that his evidence agreed with the evidence of Captain Schwarz. Therefore Captain Schwrarz's deposition was read to him, whereupon he declared this evidence to be correct, and confirmed it and added a few more details.

With the exception of a few short intervals, I was at the time in question in the same room with Captain Schwarz. The negotiations concerning the housing and catering, which we both had with the Mayor and his wife, were conducted in an entirely friendly fashion.

I am, for similar reasons, of the same opinion as Captain Schwarz, that the fire which was directed on our quarters was especially intended for Colonel Stenger. In referring to this, I want to add that Colonel Stenger, especially noticeable by his decorations, sat for some time on his balcony, and could be clearly seen from the whole market-place. I also, with Captain Schwarz, left the room after the first sounds of firing, and proceeded to the market-place to restore order there amongst the troops, who had become disorganised through the firing. When the shooting began soon after, for the second time, I went alone to Colonel Stenger's room, to ask him for orders. As no one opened the door after repeated knocking, I entered, and found him stretched on the floor in the middle of the room, with his face on his bended arm, in his death-agony. As I could observe wounds, and there was copious bleeding, I immediately fetched a doctor, who certified that the Colonel had since died. I cannot give the name of the doctor. I was not present at the searching of the rooms, which took place later. There is no question of our having behaved in a rough manner in the Mayor's house, as is supposed to have been stated in a foreign newspaper. After the Colonel's body had been found, we did adopt a strictly official tone towards the Mayor's wife. On leaving the house, Captain Schwarz said to the Mayor's wife, "Your husband had been frequently warned, and you will have to bear the consequences." I also wish to add to this, that, after the firing had ceased, Captain Karge, as far as I know, gave command for at least three houses to be set on fire, from which shots were supposed to have been fired. I myself ascertained that during the burning of the house belonging to the Mayor's neighbour, exploding munition was distinctly heard. It was noticeable from the separate detonations.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Beyersdorff.

The witness thereupon took the oath.

Signed: Klauss, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Ross, Acting-Sergeant-Major, as Clerk to the Military Court.

A. App. 2.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Klauss, as Officer to the Military Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Ross, as Secretary to the Court.

Ostel, November 3rd, 1914.

At the inquiry concerning the events of the night of August 19 and 20, 1914, in Aerschot, there appeared as witness the officer commanding the 140th Infantry Regiment, Colonel Jenrich. After he had been acquainted with the subject of the inquiry, and his attention had been drawn to the importance of the oath, he was examined as follows:

My name is Andreas Jenrich. I am 56 years of age; Protestant. On August 19th I came personally with the staff of my regiment to Aerschot, after the 3rd Division had had a fight with Belgian troops in that neighbourhood. I was commander of the place, and had to make preparations for internal administration, as well as for safety. The Staff of the 8th Infantry Brigade were already in Aerschot, and were billeted in the Mayor's house. I at once sent for this gentleman and asked him whether there were any disbanded Belgian soldiers hidden away, or if there were otherwise any Belgian soldiers in civilian clothing in the houses. He denied this. I pointed out the consequence to him, for which he and the town would be held responsible, if anything was undertaken by the populace against the German troops; and especially I left him in no doubt as to the death penalty awaiting him should an attack by the civilians against the German soldiers take place. I felt justified in this threat, as on the day before, in Schaaffen, near Siest, civilians fired at our soldiers, killing several of them. As far as I know, at midday on August 19, 1914, the General commanding the II. Army Corps, Von Linsingen, had likewise warned the Mayor and the population.

I also ordered the civilians to give up all their weapons in front of the town hall in the market-place. After an hour I ascertained that only a small quantity of arms had been given up. I then renewed my commands to the Mayor that he should see to the handing over of all weapons. To my especial astonishment, 36 rifles were then brought forth, which had evidently been intended for the purpose of public shows and for the Garde Civique. Portions of ammunition for these rifles were found packed away in a case. After repeated and serious warning to the Mayor, a larger quantity of weapons was given up. Towards 8 o'clock the troops had just marched in, and still found themselves in the streets. All at once, at 8 o'clock exactly, firing suddenly began from all the houses, and this was naturally returned by our men. I should especially like to point out that before the commencement of the general firing, a particularly loud report was heard, which must have been the alarm signal. I succeeded, with several other officers, amongst whom I may mention Brigade Adjutant Captain Schwarz, in stopping the fire of our soldiers in the market-place. Soon after I heard from Captain Schwarz that the officer commanding the brigade had been found shot dead in his room in the Mayor's house. At about 8.30 in the evening I commanded the evacuation of the town, and we bivouacked outside the place on the way to Wispelaer.

In the meantime the houses had been searched by the troops, and a considerable number of inhabitants taken prisoners, who were proved to have taken part in the attacks on the soldiers. Of the male population taken prisoners the Mayor, with his son as well as his brother, and every third man, were shot the next morning.