Front matter (continued 4)

I remember distinctly that eight men were brought out of a house from which there had been firing, amongst them the pastor with a Red Cross band on his arm.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Karl Hermann Einax.

Witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Naumann. Signed: Schwarzbach.

C. App. 19.

Extract from Reports of Field Artillery Regiment No. 12.

August 23rd, 1914.

Regimental Staff.

As our infantry was hindered in the advance into Dinant by franc-tireur fighting, the town was bombarded and set on fire by the regiment.

1st Detachment.

Since we had not gained possession of that part of Dinant situated west of the Meuse, and, according to reports coming from the front, our troops had been fired on from the houses by civilians, General Lucius gave the order to bombard this part of the town. Two companies of the 1st Battery were posted on the western border of Herbuchenne, and set on fire some large houses with about thirty shrapnel shells.

As our infantry had again evacuated Dinant in the afternoon, our detachment received orders to bombard and burn the town. After a short time the order came to cease fire.

At 6 o'clock in the evening the opposite heights of the Meuse were in the possession of our infantry.

2nd Detachment.

The commander of the detachment asked for companies from Captain Pechwell, 3rd Company, Infantry Regiment No. 182, and proceeded with these to the position ordered; as all the houses and the quarries on the way had to be searched for francs-tireurs, the position was only reached at 8.30 p.m. At 11 o'clock two farms situated on the right flank suddenly burst into flames; at 11.30 lamp-signals were observed from the quarries north-east of the position.

C. App. 20.

Extract from Report of Field Artillery Regiment No. 48.

As our infantry in Dinant, from the houses of which there was heavy firing, were also still being fired on by the fort, the 3rd Battery received the order to bombard the fort from a more advanced position. In Leffe also, our infantry made no headway; the 5th Battery therefore received the order at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to bombard and set on fire the farm Roud Chêne and the neighbourhood of Leffe. Dinant was evacuated by our infantry from 3 o'clock in the afternoon onwards, and from 5 o'clock onwards was bombarded by our Foot Artillery.

C. App. 21.

Extract from Report of Foot Artillery Regiment No. 19, 1st Battalion.

August 23rd, 1914.

At midday, by order of Major-General Schramm, the Eichler Battery was moved forward on the road north of Dinant to an advanced position south-west of Leffe, later on to the Convent Place of Dinant, and from there bombarded Dinant itself.

August 24th, 1914.

The reconnaissance showed that the roads in the Meuse Valley of Dinant-Leffe were impassable on account of the débris of fallen houses, conflagrations, and the shots fired from the houses by the inhabitants.

C. App. 22.

Extract from Report of the Staff, 64th Infantry Brigade.

The Infantry Regiment No. 178 had not only opposed to it a strong force of the enemy, but was also being heavily fired on by francs-tireurs from the houses of the village of Leffe. A company of the 2nd Battalion as well as a detachment of the Machine-Gun Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178, were, as the Brigade Staff itself saw, fired on in the same way from all the houses as they were entering the village of Leffe. This could only have come from the inhabitants; some of them were seized with weapons in their hands and shot. Toward 1.45 in the afternoon a detachment of heavy artillery opened fire on the houses of Bouvignes which were occupied by the enemy, with obvious results. As shots were being fired from the woods and cliffs north and south of Leffe on our troops passing through the village street, the Kurhessian Jäger Battalion No. 11 received the order to clear the woods. Here also civilians, without any military badge or uniform, were seized with weapons in their hands and shot.

64th Infantry Brigade.

Leffe, August 23rd, 1914, 11.50 a.m.

To Field Artillery Regiment No. 64.

The 3rd Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178, is suffering especially through infantry fire from the houses with the pointed towers and from the ruins to the right of them in Bouvignes. The 64th Brigade asks you to kindly bring these houses under fire.

64th Infantry Brigade.

C. App. 23.

Extract from Report of Infantry Regiment No. 178.

August 23rd, 1914.

When the leading company (9th Company) of Infantry Regiment No. 178 had almost reached the Meuse in its march through Leffe it received a brisk fire from the front and on the right and left flanks, chiefly from the houses. The 9th Company thereupon received orders to clear the village. The battalion had a severe struggle and suffered considerable losses, as it was under a violent infantry and machine-gun fire from the opposite bank of the Meuse, and, above all, because the battalion was being fired on by the inhabitants from practically all the houses. Various civilians who had fired at our troops were shot. At 8.30 about twenty inhabitants were still firing at us to the south of the barracks of the 13th Belgian Infantry Regiment. They were fetched out and shot.

C. App. 24.

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

Quarters of Infantry Regiment No. 178 at Variscourt, March 3rd, 1915.

In the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness Lieutenant Koch, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Friedrich Bruno Koch. I am 47 years old; Protestant; Lieutenant-Colonel, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: I led the 2nd Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 178, on August 23, 1914. First of all, in the morning, I had to deal with the franc-tireur firing in the Leffe valley at "La Papeterie." As the battalion was continually being fired on there from the houses, I gave the order, on higher authority, to clear the houses. I was then detailed to take over the leadership in the fighting at Leffe. There I saw very many dead civilians lying all along the road and also especially in an open space in Leffe itself. At nightfall after the occupation of the place I had to secure the section towards the Meuse—it was reported to me that my left-wing post was being attacked by francs-tireurs. I snatched together a number of men, led them personally to the scene of the fighting, and instituted measures for clearing the place. By my orders reinforcements arrived, and I gave over to 1st Lieutenant Wilke the further work of clearing the place. During this work we were continuously and heavily fired on by civilians without any military badge or uniform. Consequently, in this affair also, very many men who were caught with weapons in their hands were shot.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Koch.

Witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 25.

Short Report to the Regiment of the 2nd Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 178, on the fighting at Leffe.

February 14th, 1915, 5 p.m.

In the advance on Leffe the battalion came across a mill or factory. The advance guard, in which was the Regimental Staff as well as the Staff of the 3rd Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 178, were received by a heavy fire from the factory. In the same way the battalion was fired on from the surrounding heights. The foremost (9th) company stormed the factory; here were found, despite a close search, only about twenty men in civilian clothes without any military badge or uniform, and some women, but no Belgian or French soldiers. The patrols sent out on the heights also reported that they had seen only single fugitive civilians, but no soldiers. The civilians captured in the factory were shot by order of the Regimental Commander because they had been firing. The battalion thereupon continued its advance towards the Meuse unmolested. When the head of the battalion reached the Meuse fire was opened on it from the opposite bank. The battalion deployed in the town. The locked-up houses had to be opened by force by the companies in order to bring the enemy under fire from the gardens in the rear on the Meuse bank. For this moment the population seems to have waited, for they suddenly opened fire on us from all sides with rifles and pistols. The companies were now obliged to contend against two fronts, on the one side against the enemy on the opposite bank of the Meuse, on the other against the population. One of the first victims was Captain Franz of the 11th Company of the regiment, who was shot through the leg from a cellar window. The civilian was fetched out of the cellar by Captain Lücke of the 9th Company of the regiment, single-handed, and, as he was caught with a weapon in his hand, was immediately shot. In the course of further operations six men of the battalion were killed and a larger number were wounded in the interior of the town, in places, in fact, where the fire of the troops on the other side of the Meuse could not have reached them. The losses were to be ascribed solely to the attack of the inhabitants. From the circumstance that Belgian military rifles were found with the greater number of the prisoners and Belgian infantry cartridges in their pockets, it may be concluded that Belgian soldiers, after discarding their uniforms, had also taken part in the attack. Hunting-rifles, obsolete and modern pistols were found in the possession of the others. Whether women or children participated in the fighting is beyond my knowledge; at any rate, none were intentionally shot. I had given the order to hand over all women and children to the abbot of the monastery in Leffe; this was also done. How many civilians were shot in the street-fighting, I am unable to state.

The correctness of the foregoing statements can be testified to by numerous persons belonging to the battalion who have taken part in the fighting.

Quarters of Infantry Regiment No. 178, March 3rd, 1915.

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

In the inquiry concerning occurrences in Dinant there appeared as witness Major Fränzel, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Georg Friedrich Artur Fränzel. I am 45 years of age; Protestant; Major and Battalion Commander, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: On the reading over of the report of the 14th February 1915 on the fighting at Leffe:

This report originated from me. I still hold to-day to its contents. I still emphasise expressly that only men were shot, no women and children.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Fränzel.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 26.

6th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

February 14th, 1915.

Report.

On the night of the 22nd August 1914, after its assembly at Thynes-les-Dinant, the 32nd Infantry Division marched by the so-called Leffe lower road to the northern suburb of Dinant.

On the 23rd August, towards 5 o'clock in the forenoon, a halt was made about 1500 metres east of the spot where this way enters the Meuse Valley road; the cartridge waggons were emptied and the colours were unfurled for the first time in the campaign. There the first command to attack was given. The 64th Infantry Brigade deployed on the heights to the north of the lower road.

The 2nd Battalion of the Infantry Regiment held itself at the disposal of the Brigade Commander on this road close to the first houses in Leffe. Shortly after the front battalions had fallen in, I received the order from the Battalion Commander, Major Koch, to report myself to the Brigade Commander for a reconnaissance patrol. There I received the instruction to reconnoitre a pathway which leads by La Papeterie to the heights north of the lower road; a group of about ten houses on the left of the road, clustering round a large paper factory, is called La Papeterie.

In carrying out this order I rode first by the lower road to La Papeterie in order then to turn off towards the heights. On my approaching the factory some shots were fired, evidently pistol-shots; I then rode farther, because I thought the firing was not meant for me; but as it became more brisk and I saw that the shots struck the steep-rising wall of the rocks, as high as houses, on the right of the road, and that I could not carry out the reconnaissance in this very broken, rocky district on horseback, I turned back. Only the sharpest pace saved me from the shots which, thick as hail, struck the face of the cliff beside me. I reported this affair to my Battalion Commander and took the foremost section of the leading company in order to execute my errand on foot without delay, not without having first asked to have the factory cleared. On my second advance I was again fired at, so that I found myself obliged to turn off before the steep cliff in order to get forward under cover of gardens and hedges. I succeeded in this without any losses, although on this occasion I was still briskly fired at.

When I had returned from this patrol I learned that the company had penetrated into the factory and had cleared the place. I heard and saw shots still being fired from this direction. I thereupon received the order to clear the houses without regard to anything, but to spare old men, women, and children. Having reached the houses of the factory workpeople, I was heavily fired on from all sides. Of the marksmen there was no trace to be discovered, despite the keenest search. The houses were consequently surrounded, and separate individuals forced their way into the buildings. It turned out that these were strongly barricaded. The doors were barred, the entrances to cellars and basements were blocked up with boxes, mattresses, and all kinds of domestic utensils; windows and skylights were covered with boards. I, personally, penetrated into two or three houses, and am witness to the fact that it required an extraordinary amount of strength and skill to gain an entry to the forty-five buildings. In one house I found a number of discharged Browning-pistol cartridge cases. This house I had set on fire, as nobody was found in it. In this district of Leffe we had to deal in the main, according to my opinion, with Browning marksmen, who did not seem to be properly acquainted with the weapon. The discharged ammunition found proves this in the first place; also, on the other hand, the quick succession of shots, then a long pause, because the marksmen were not properly acquainted with the loading mechanism of the pistol. Some non-commissioned officers reported to me that they had fought in the house with armed civilians, had overpowered, killed, or shot them.

After the houses had been cleared and searched I assembled my company and moved back by the road to the original position of the battalion.

In the meantime the Marburg Jägers had marched up, and had again searched the factory and the adjacent buildings. I saw how a number of men in civilian clothing, about twenty, were shot by this unit in the yard of the factory.

Meanwhile my company lay on the lower road and was further fired on from the steep slopes of the valley, which were covered with wood and thickets, through which the road passed. On the right flank I sent out in advance Lieutenant Schreyer of the Reserve in order to search the thickets, whilst the Marburg Jägers advanced on the left. With glasses I was able to plainly see several civilians on the left slope who were firing at us. I believe I can remember that they were equipped with pistols.

Suddenly I heard firing on the right above me from the detachment of Schreyer, and saw at the same time how one man collapsed on the left slope and rolled a few paces, another crawled back apparently wounded, and a third took to flight into the adjacent wood. The Marburg Jägers, who soon after came to this spot, and with whom I spoke later, had ascertained with certainty that in this case we were dealing with civilians.

Soon after this, Lieutenant Schreyer came back and reported to me that he had observed on the opposite slope some suspicious rascals on whom he had fired. Shortly after we were fired at from a detached house on the right slope. This was somewhere about 10 o'clock in the morning.

I once more sent out a strong patrol on the right bank to clear out this house. The patrol soon returned and brought a big, strong man about forty years old, in labourer's clothes, and a lad of about sixteen years, as well as a number of wailing women and children. The men had been armed, according to the statement of the leader of the patrol, with sporting-rifles which the patrol themselves in the house had rendered unserviceable. I can no longer remember the name of the patrol leader. The men were taken to the factory, the women and children bundled off to the monastery in Leffe.

Towards midday the 2nd Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 178 was moved forward towards Leffe direct to the Meuse. In the village street itself there lay a great number of dead men in civilian clothing. On questioning different soldiers I learnt that the troops marching through before us had been fired on from almost every house; hence the great number of civilians shot. Dead women and children I did not see.

I had my company halted at the monastery at Leffe, and went forward myself to the Meuse. Parts of the 3rd and 1st Battalions of the 178th Regiment were still there, fighting the enemy on the opposite bank. I also saw there bodies of troops, in particular, of Regiments Nos. 102 and 103, of Rifle Regiment No. 108, of the Marburg Jägers, and of the artillery.

In the compact rows of houses at Leffe, the reports of firing were continuous, and one could not always tell from whence they came. Without doubt they were pistol-shots discharged from cellars and attics. I can also remember that a large number of brown sporting-shot cartridge cases lay in front of a house in the principal street of Leffe.

In the course of the afternoon I received the order to occupy the bank of the Meuse with my company, and was allotted for this purpose the school and the houses near it. Behind the school was a gasometer, and close to the gasometer coals had been piled up and set on fire—manifestly by the civilian population. I therefore sent Acting-Sergeant-Major Bauer, officer's deputy, with his men, in order either to extinguish the fire or otherwise to prevent in some way the threatened explosion. He reported to me, however, that the pioneers who had already arrived before us, correctly judging the danger of the gasometer, had emptied it.

After the enemy had evacuated the opposite bank in the late afternoon, and the crossing of single detachments of troops had already begun, I withdrew my company from the school and from the bank of the Meuse and assembled them in the street enclosed by two rows of houses. Towards 5 o'clock in the afternoon we were again fired on from these houses, and, consequently, I got the order from the Battalion Commander to search all the houses and to have all armed persons shot without compunction. On this occasion, the soldiers Hautschick and Altermann found in a house on the floor a soldier of the 9th Company of the 178th Regiment who had been shot. He lay with his face over a kneading-trough, and had obviously been shot from behind. In the adjoining room the soldiers found two sporting-rifles which plainly bore the traces of having been discharged quite recently.

In a vineyard just above this house two men were caught with rifles by two other soldiers, whose names can no longer be ascertained, and shot.

At about the same time Acting-Sergeant-Major Paatsch (who fell at Saunois), together with Private Kaspar, broke into a house close by the castle. Kaspar depicts the occurrence in the following way. On entering the house a man on the ground floor threatened him with a long-barrelled pistol. He struck this man down with a spade which he had at hand. He then mounted with Paatsch to the first floor. Six men were there with sporting-rifles, whom they shot or felled with rifle-butts.

On the floor there stood a chair close to an attic window beside which lay a number of cartridges, a proof that the people had fired from this window.

When they wanted to leave the house, five men armed with rifles again opposed them. They were only able to overcome these because their comrades came to their aid from outside. In executing the order given by the Battalion Commander to search all the houses, I met the Brigade Commander, who again enjoined me to proceed without any compunction, and to fire the houses in case the people could not be got hold of. On this occasion I reported that one company seemed too weak for such a task, especially as the searching of the houses, with darkness approaching, would take a lot of time. A second company was consequently given to me. During the searching of the houses we were continually being fired on by invisible marksmen. The orders given to me by my Battalion and Brigade Commanders I have carried out. Men caught in the act were shot; where the marksmen could not be seized, the houses were set on fire; women and children were taken to the convent.

This order which, by reason of the high risk run by our troops, had proved to be absolutely necessary, I regarded as executed after about fifty men had been shot and the main street of Leffe had been rendered impassable as a result of the burning houses.

Despite this, my company was again alarmed towards 11 o'clock at night because a dismounted squadron of hussars on the quay had been fired on from a single house. Once more I moved with my company through burning Leffe in order to find the culprits. On the way I met Division Commander Edler von der Planitz, who once again impressed upon me the duty of proceeding against the fanatical francs-tireurs without any compunction whatever, and by the most energetic methods. I had the house, pointed out to me by the hussars, surrounded and searched, but found nobody there. After I had set fire to the house, I returned with my company to the place where the regiment was assembled.

Signed: Wilke, Captain and Company Leader, 6th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

Quarters of Infantry Regiment No. 178, March 3rd, 1915.

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

At the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant, the witness named below appeared and stated:

As to Person: My name is Manfred Horst Wilke. I am 30 years old; Protestant; Captain and Company Leader, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: On the reading of his report:

This report is in full conformity with the truth. In addition to those statements which, as may be recognised from the report, are based on the statements of others, I mention that I pointed out to the individuals whom I questioned to tell me the whole truth, so that their statements could also be maintained on oath.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Wilke.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 27.

Sender: 7th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

Date: February 15th, 1915. Time: 11 a.m.

To the 2nd Battalion.

On August 23rd, 1914, towards 9.45 a.m., the 7th Company—placed at the disposal of the 3rd Battalion, which was fighting in Leffe—marched into this place. While I rode on to report the arrival of my company to the Commander of the 3rd Battalion, 178th Regiment, the company halted on the lower road leading to the Meuse, under cover from the opposite heights of the Meuse, which were occupied by the enemy.

During this brief halt the company was assailed by a murderous rifle-fire which came from a house with closed windows and bolted door. One man (Private Uhlemann) was badly wounded in the right instep, another (Private Neumann) was slightly wounded by three shots in the arm and hand; all the wounds came from small shot; the firing could only have been done by civilians.

The company then occupied the heights south of Leffe on the east bank of the Meuse. From here could be plainly seen how, from the windows of various houses, and stealing about round the houses and in the gardens and yards, civilians quickly popped up and fired on the German soldiers. The company had lain on the heights by the Meuse about 4 hours, and had made these observations chiefly during the first 1½ hours (10.30 to 12 midday). The last facts I can bear witness to myself.

Signed: John, Captain and Chief Company.

1st Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

February 19th, 1915.

Deposition.

Captain John, questioned, made the following statements, additional to his preceding report:

Before the 7th Company was placed at the disposal of the 3rd Battalion in Leffe on the morning of August 23rd, the company received the order from the Battalion Commander, Major Koch, to send out, from the halting-place of the battalion, about 500 metres east of Leffe, a detachment to La Papeterie, in order to clear this group of houses of armed civilians who had fired on marching troops and mounted officers (Captain Wilke), and to shoot the guilty civilians. For this purpose the detachment of Lieutenant of Reserve Wendt (who fell later) was detailed to me. When the detachment rejoined the company later on the heights south of Leffe, Lieutenant of Reserve Wendt reported to me that, in accordance with the order received, he had had some men shot whom he had caught in the act; they were armed with Browning pistols.

I was wounded myself on August 23rd towards 2.30 by a French rifle bullet which came from the west bank of the Meuse.

I did not observe any shooting or ill-treatment of women and children.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Johannes John. Signed: Kaiser, Lieutenant and Legal Officer.

Deposition.

Present: Lieutenant Thomas, as Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Lange, as Clerk of the Court.

There appeared as witness Captain John, who, being advised of his previous statement, deposed:

As to Person: My name is Wilhelm Johannes John. I am 36 years old; Protestant; Captain and Company Chief, 7th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: I maintain my statements.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Johannes John. Signed: Thomas. Signed: Lange.

C. App. 28.

7th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

February 15th, 1915.

Report.

1. On the events in Dinant I am able, as leader at that time of the first platoon of the 5th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178, to make from personal observation the following statements:

The 5th Company, in conjunction with the 2nd Battalion, had halted in the morning hours of August 23rd in a valley before Leffe. During this halt I heard shots from sporting-rifles and revolvers (pistols) on the wooded heights which stretch on both sides towards Leffe, without being able to discern any of our assailants. No one in the company was hit. This firing, intermingled with infantry fire, was audible during the whole course of the day. Towards 8 o'clock the company marched into Leffe, where, in consequence of the incessant firing, a frightful tumult prevailed. Only a few civilians were to be seen in the streets. These all showed signs of their peaceable intention by holding up their hands. Almost all the windows of the houses were closed with blinds, shutters, etc.; and the majority of these, as well as the doors, walls, and roofs, were marked with apertures like loopholes.

Shortly after our entry Major Frenzel brought to the Company Chief the order of the Brigade Commander to shoot all the men found with arms. He pointed out a long row of houses which were to be searched for men, and added in explanation that the inhabitants had shot at our firing-line from the rear. Captain Gause gave me the order to take over the searching of the houses with my detachment. I did this with one party. We found the houses all shut up. Since our summons to open was regularly ignored, we were everywhere obliged to gain entry by force. Three men were shot; their wives and children I had taken to the convent, which had previously been pointed out to me as intended for that purpose. I also noticed during the course of the day that women and children were taken there by our men quietly, some by persuasion. In searching the houses it was seen that the apertures, everywhere visible from the outside, were doubtless intended for firearms. According to my observations, no women or children were fired upon anywhere by us. That some incidentally came to grief in the mêlée was not to be avoided. I saw one woman who had received a glancing bullet in the foot. According to the statement of the men, she had been wounded in a house which had been fired into because it would not open voluntarily.

2. Further observations have been made by men of the 5th Company and by the 7th Company, at that time led by myself, which seem to be absolutely authentic. The men in question, previous to their interrogation, had all been warned of the probability of having to swear to their statement.

Thus, eight men of the 5th Company were witnesses to the fact that six civilians, among them one of very youthful age, had fired on the company. These were all shot. Reservist Kluge, with some other comrades, in searching a house, found on the floor a German soldier who had been shot, and close by him a civilian busy with his rifle and ammunition, whom they shot. The observations of the non-commissioned officers and men of the 7th Company are of a similar character to those made by me. Here Privates Uhlmann and Neumann were wounded by small shot fired from the houses. Acting-Sergeant-Major Schaefer and several men noticed that civilians (men) had fired on German soldiers. German cartridges were also found here on the civilians.

Signed: Kipping, Lieutenant and Company Leader.

Deposition.

Present: Lieutenant Thomas, Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Lange, Clerk of the Court.

There appeared as witness Lieutenant Kipping, who, after the reading of his report of February 15th, 1915, stated:

As to Person: My name is Martin Friedrich Franz Kipping. I am 29 years old; Protestant; Lieutenant of Reserve.

As to Case: I maintain my statements.

Witness was thereupon sworn.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Martin Kipping. Signed: Thomas. Signed: Lange.

C. App. 29.

8th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

February 14th, 1915.

Report.

With reference to the fighting round Dinant on August 21st and 23rd, Non-commissioned Officer Macher, 8th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178, states:

Towards 7 a.m. on the 23rd August 1914 the order came for the attack on Leffe, a suburb of Dinant. The 6th and 7th Companies, Infantry Regiment No. 178, occupied a height in front of the place. The 3rd Battalion of the regiment had already advanced; the 5th and 8th Companies followed in the valley in the second line.

When we came near the place we heard in front a muffled sound of firing.

The 3rd Detachment of the 8th Company of the regiment was sent in advance to take cartridges to the 3rd Battalion. The battalion, lying on the height, was engaged with the enemy's infantry on the opposite bank of the Meuse. To get there we were obliged to pass through Dinant. At the entry to the town there already lay dead civilians, and some soldiers warned us against passing through the place in close order as there was firing from the houses. After this, we went through the street on the right and left along by the houses, rifle in hand, ready to fire. The houses were shut up, the cellar windows barricaded and provided with loopholes. On the march back to the Company I saw that the 5th Company of the regiment and the Marburg Jägers were searching the houses; there were also lying in the street some dead civilians and a wounded German. Some men and a number of women were handed over to the platoon by a strange officer to be taken to the mill. Several civilians had already been assembled there; some dead also lay there.

After we had again reached the company we heard, coming from a farm on the right, firing which was apparently meant for us. Riflemen of the Guards fetched the people out of the farm; they were only civilians, about six men and a number of women and children.

When the company had been advanced to the open space near the convent, firing came from a house standing opposite. From this quarter also men were brought out. In the searching of the house, under the leadership of Sergeant Schuster of the 8th Company, a cellar which was occupied by civilians was not opened. Sergeant Schuster therefore fired through the door, and thereby wounded in the chest a woman who was in the cellar. As Private Jentsch also deposes, after the opening of the cellar, he immediately provided for the transport of the wounded woman to the hospital in the convent by men of the Medical Corps. According to the statement of Private Jentsch, the woman died and lay for two days on a bier in the convent.

Finally the company arranged the frontage of the houses along the Meuse for defence, and other companies undertook to clear the inhabitants out of the houses. The women and children were principally taken to the convent. Towards 10 p.m., when the baggage entered the place, the firing from the houses began again. We were given the alarm. The buildings behind us on the slopes afforded a special difficulty on account of the numerous exits. We here came in contact with a company of Infantry Regiment No. 177. The leader of the company ordered the houses to be set alight because there was still firing from other windows. He himself smashed a lamp and fired the first house. We then marched off and returned to the company. The nocturnal firing, in my opinion, was done by civilians, for our troops had already occupied the opposite bank. In one house a dead soldier was lying on the floor, as was reported to me by men of the company.

In one street the company was fired on from the rear; many of the men said at once that the assailant was a woman; this, however, could not be established with certainty. Among the men seized I saw one of youthful age; all the rest were older; grey-haired men were also among them.

Signed: Lucius, 1st Lieutenant and Company Leader.

Deposition.

Present: Lieutenant Thomas, as Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Lange, as Clerk of the Court.

There appeared as witness Non-commissioned Officer Macher, who, having been advised of the statement read, deposed as follows:

As to Person: My name is Paul Otto Macher. I am 23 years old; Protestant; non-commissioned officer, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: I maintain my statement.

Signed: Macher, Non-commissioned Officer. Signed: Thomas. Signed: Lange.

C. App. 30.

Having been apprised of the significance of the oath, and advised as to the object of the examination, Major Fränzel made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Georg Friedrich Artur Fränzel. I am 45 years old; Protestant; Major and Battalion Commander, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: On August 23rd the 2nd Battalion, as 1st, received the order to place itself in possession of Leffe. The whole of the Regimental Staff rode with the leading company. At the beginning of the valley, which stretches away to Leffe, there stood a factory; the battalion was fired at from here and from the heights behind. The factory was at once stormed; only a few civilians were found in it, but no French or Belgian soldiers; any escape of the people who had fired from the factory was impossible as we had surrounded the place. The guilty civilians, provided they were men, were shot by order of the Commander of the regiment, Colonel von Reyter, while some women arrested in the factory were handed over later to the abbot of the monastery.

On a further advance the battalion, in order to get into the gardens on this side of the Meuse which were under the fire of the enemy's infantry, was obliged to open forcibly several locked-up houses. The inhabitants seemed to have only been waiting for this, as we were now fired on from the houses all round, especially from the cellars, apparently with revolvers and pistols, for we found these later in clearing the houses, some still loaded. One of the first who was wounded by a shot from a cellar was Captain Franz, who stood quite close to me. In all, my battalion had at that time in the place itself—not by the Meuse—six killed; the number of wounded I am not able to state. The battalion was forced by the treacherous attack to proceed against the population; all the houses, from which there had been firing, were cleared by our troops. How many of the inhabitants were shot on this day, I am unable to state definitely; at any rate, all the women and children were led off to the monastery in Leffe and given over to the abbot. I have further to remark that again late in the afternoon, as our artillery was entering Leffe, the artillery-men were fired on by inhabitants of the market-place, although several francs-tireurs who had been shot were lying there. The battalion was unable to finish the clearing of the place alone, and was obliged to ask for support from the regiment, which was granted in the shape of the 6th and 7th Companies. In searching the houses, not one enemy soldier was found. Consequently, the shots could only have been discharged at us by civilians.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Fränzel.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Starke, Magistrate.

C. App. 31.

Court of the (Deputy) 64th Infantry Brigade.

Present: Military Magistrate Dr. Uhlig. Non-commissioned Officer of Reserve Görner, as Military Clerk of the Court.

There appeared as witness Acting-Sergeant-Major Stiebing, 3rd Reserve Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178, who, having been made acquainted with the object of the inquiry, and advised as to the significance of the oath, declared:

As to Person: My name is Friedrich Franz Paul Stiebing. I am 34 years old; Protestant; Acting-Sergeant-Major, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, Infantry Regiment No. 177 and my regiment took part in the fighting on the heights on the right bank of the Meuse. The 2nd Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 178, remained in reserve behind the left wing, just at the entry into Leffe. The battalion had halted for a rest, and arms were piled. The men lay and sat in the ditches of the road; otherwise the order of march was kept, the 8th Company leading just at the entrance into Leffe. The 6th Company, to which I belonged, followed. It was about 9 o'clock in the morning when the battalion was suddenly overwhelmed by a heavy fire. The shots came from the thickets which covered the hills quite close to Leffe. The district is such that Leffe stretches along the road in a side-valley of the Meuse and at right angles to the latter. No uniforms were to be seen on the heights; the firing came first from one thicket and then from another. In the meantime a Captain of the battalion had advanced into the village to reconnoitre, and came galloping back shouting that he had been fired on in the place by francs-tireurs. Thereupon two detachments of the leading company sallied out from the village to the left and right, in order to capture the sharpshooters on the hills. They succeeded after a considerable time in capturing a number of civilians (peasants), part of them in their shirt-sleeves. These had fired on us with sporting-rifles and were caught with the weapons in their hands. The range, from which they shot at us, amounted to about 100 metres. They fired down from the heights into the hollow in which we lay.

In the meantime the last detachment of the foremost company had pushed forward into the village itself. The men proceeded in quite detached formation. They were at once received by francs-tireurs firing from the various visible houses on both sides of the street. The detachment was obliged first to clear each individual house of francs-tireurs before they could again advance a little. The street door had to be smashed in and each separate room had to be captured from the francs-tireurs. About 10 a.m. two platoons of our company, one of them the 2nd Platoon under Lieutenant Schreyer, to which I belonged, came to the help of our comrades. We were obliged to fight for each individual house, to kill the male population in them who, as far as I saw, carried rifles and fired, and to shut up the women and children in order in this way to advance gradually. Only some quite old men were found without arms. They were not killed, but locked up with the women. In the afternoon, towards 3 o'clock, the house-fighting still fluctuated, and we had not yet penetrated as far as the village square when I received the order to go back with about half a platoon and occupy the heights of the Meuse from which francs-tireurs were still firing. In executing this order, I passed a wood-sawing factory before which lay about thirty francs-tireurs who had been shot. This house had been stormed by men of my 1st Platoon. They told me in the evening that each separate room in the house had been occupied by civilians engaged in firing. The francs-tireurs had been shot according to the usages of war.

Up on the heights I did not succeed in catching a franc-tireur. Up there they were by this time very much scattered. Right under the heights lay the village. I could look straight down from above into the village street. The street-fighting was still in progress, but became less since the village in the meantime had begun to burn. On the opposite heights I saw German Jägers—I believe Marburgers—subduing armed civilians. These francs-tireurs had previously also fired on my platoon. When I returned, towards 7 o'clock in the evening, from the heights, the whole place, as far as the village square which lies on the Meuse, was in the hands of the Germans. About the whole village, also on the village square, there lay corpses of francs-tireurs. I took part in the storming of eight or ten houses. They all afforded the same picture: shots from the windows, street doors barred so that they had to be forced open, all male persons, without any military badge or uniform, armed with sporting-guns. As soon as we got into the room they dropped their weapons and held up their hands. During the street-fighting and on the heights where the civilians were firing I did not see any uniform. The civilians did not give me the impression of being soldiers in civilian clothes. They were mostly older people, 40 years old and upwards, or young fellows of 17 to 18 years; persons of 20 to 30 years I practically did not see at all.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Stiebing, Acting-Sergeant-Major.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Dr. Uhlig. Signed: Görner.

C. App. 32.

Present: Lieutenant Francke, Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Lange, Military Clerk of the Court.

Acting-Sergeant-Major (Deputy Officer) Bauer states:

My name is Kurt Bauer. I am 24 years old; Protestant; now Acting-Sergeant-Major of Reserve, attached to 6th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178; in civil life Cand. Arch.

As my company leader had been fired at from a factory in Leffe my platoon received the order to clear the factory and the houses standing in the rear. I advanced with my detachment and plainly saw that we were heavily fired on from roof windows and skylights in the roofs of the factory and the houses, as well as from bushes on the heights, by civilians armed with pistols. We stormed the houses and set them on fire. I was also witness to the fact that we were even fired on from the monastery, although the Geneva flag was hoisted above it.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Kurt Bauer.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Francke. Signed: Lange.

C. App. 33.

Extract from the Report of Operations, Infantry Regiment No. 103.

August 23rd, 1914.

At 4.30 in the afternoon the regiment received the order from the 32nd Infantry Brigade to move off to Leffe. The regiment halted in the ravine east of Leffe behind the pontoon column of the division. As the firing from the slopes of the ravine down into the valley was continuous, the 9th Company received the order to clear the southern slopes. One man of the regiment was severely wounded by a shot fired from a house by an inhabitant; the house was set on fire; the men, who were inside with weapons in their hands were shot; in other ways, too, the place was cleared of francs-tireurs.

C. App. 34.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court. Sergeant Richter, as Military Clerk of the Court.

Orainville, March 17th, 1915.

Summoned as witness, there appeared Major Langheld, who, after being advised as to the significance of the oath, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Karl Anton Emil Langheld. I am 43 years old; Protestant; Major, Infantry Regiment No. 143.

As to Case: On the afternoon of August 23rd I marched with my battalion at the head of the regiment from Lisogue to Leffe. The march from the beginning of the Leffe Valley was somewhat interrupted. During the advance the report came from the rear that a man of the 1st Company had been shot at from a house. By command of Captain Wuttig the house was set on fire by soldiers of the 1st Company, and the men who were seized in it, with weapons in their hands, were shot. During the whole of the afternoon one heard continual firing among the houses in Leffe and on the heights encircling the right and left of the Leffe Valley. A company of the Jäger Battalion, No. 11, was engaged in clearing the slopes on which there were armed inhabitants. The 9th Company of my regiment received a similar commission on the southern slope. I myself marched on with the 10th and 11th Companies to the bank of the Meuse in order to cross over there. Here I saw several times that guilty male inhabitants were shot.

On the night of the 24th, from time to time, fugitives turned up at our outposts—principally women and children—amongst them a number of nuns led by a priest. I sheltered them in a farm near which the 11th Company was in bivouac. Our men gave some of their provisions to the people, although they had only a little themselves. I pacified the fugitives myself, and as I was obliged that same night to march farther, I handed over to the priest a note to say that these people had incurred no blame. I was unable to take further trouble about them. However, I asked the Catholic Divisional Chaplain Kaiser, whom I met next morning, to see that the people got away safely.

Read over, approved.

Witness was sworn according to regulations.

Signed: Kleberger, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Richter, Sergeant, as Clerk to the Military Court.

C. App. 35.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court. Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Military Court.

Orainville, March 17th, 1915.

Summoned as witness, there appeared Lieutenant Richter, who, being advised as to the significance of the oath, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Martin Richter. I am 31 years old; Protestant; Lieutenant of 1st Company, Infantry Regiment No. 103.

As to Case: On the advance of the 1st Battalion of 4th Infantry Regiment No. 103 on the 23rd August 1914 to the crossing-place over the Meuse at Leffe, there came a single shot from a farm. A soldier of the 1st Company of the regiment was wounded.

By order of Captain Wuttig the farm was searched. About fourteen male civilians were arrested who had with them weapons and ammunition for sporting-rifles, pistols, etc.

A thirteen to fifteen year-old lad was released on account of his age; the other thirteen persons were shot.

Read over, approved.

Witness was sworn as usual.

Signed: Kleberger, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Richter, Sergeant, as Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 36.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court. Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Military Court.

Orainville, March 17th, 1915.

On summons there appeared as witness Lieutenant of Reserve Martin, who, being instructed as to the significance of the oath, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Kurt Martin. I am 24 years old; Protestant; Lieutenant of Reserve, 2nd Company, Infantry Regiment No. 103.

As to Case: I have seen how a German soldier was wounded by small shot, and know that he died of the effect of the injury in the castle before Leffe. The doctor who treated him was Dr. Schneider, now in Infantry Regiment No. 102.

The inhabitants of Leffe arrested in a house near the factory were well treated. After their provisions were exhausted, they were provided for from the field kitchen of the 5th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 103. They were later on released by a general order. At one time I was detailed as guard of the hospital which was located in the Château de Chession, near Leffe. The proprietress, a Madame Chiehe, and her people we also provided with food; she expressed her warm appreciation of the kind treatment.

Read over, approved.

The witness was duly sworn.

Signed: Kleberger, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Richter, Sergeant, as Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 37.

Report of the 8th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178. on the fighting round Dinant on August 21st and 23rd, 1914.

February 14th, 1915.

Private Jentsch states in general the same as the witness, Non-commissioned Officer Macher,[2] except that he actually only saw a great pool of blood on a floor; the dead German soldier, of whom he had heard, had already been concealed. He does not now know to which company he belonged. On the same day, according to his statement, a further batch of four civilians were shot because they had attacked a sentry of Infantry Regiment No. 182. These people were fetched out of an underground passage. The order was given by Lieutenant Tränker.

In the military school about 400 men in civilian clothes were guarded. These were well looked after, and were also later on allowed to receive their relations. On the fourth day we were relieved by Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 106.

Signed: Lucius, 1st Lieutenant and Company Leader.

Deposition.

Present: Lieutenant Thomas, as Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Lange, as Clerk of the Military Court.

There appeared as witness Private Jentsch, who, after the reading over of the preceding report, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Karl Albin Richard Jentsch. I am 22 years old; Protestant; private, 8th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 178.

As to Case: I maintain the correctness of my statements.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Jentsch. Signed: Thomas. Signed: Lange.

C. App. 38.

Present: Military Magistrate, Hunersdorf. Military Court Secretary, Müller, Clerk of the Military Court.

Corbeny, December 12th, 1914.

In the investigation concerning the violations of International Law committed against German troops, there appeared as witness Captain Nitze, who, after reference to the significance of the oath, was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Otto Hermann Oswald Nitze. I am 34 years old; Protestant; Company Leader, Machine-Gun Company, Infantry Regiment No. 177.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, as we were marching into Leffe, I found myself several hundred metres in front of the company, and was all at once fired at from the surrounding houses.

I first rode back to the company and confirmed the order already given to bring the houses under fire. I then rode to the Detachment Leader, Lieutenant-Colonel von Zeschau, reported the attack, and received the order to have the houses searched and, in case any male persons were found in them with arms, to set the houses on fire.

In the search there were discovered by Lieutenant-Colonel Reichel in my presence two persons of forty years of age who had hidden themselves in a room and were armed with a Belgian pistol and a rifle of an ancient pattern.

As I heard, a third man had also been found in the house. The first two men were immediately shot. While Lieutenant-Colonel Reichel went on farther to search other houses I saw how at least eight rifles were discharging on the search-parties a brisk fire from the first floors of at least two houses. The marksmen stood behind windows barricaded with mattresses. I saw the flash of the shots and heard the bullets whistle; as far as I could judge from the reports, they were using partly bullets, partly small shot. Only the horse of Assistant Doctor Sippel was wounded.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Nitze.

The witness was sworn.

Signed: Hunersdorf. Signed: Müller.

C. App. 39.

Extract from the Report of the 3rd Field Pioneer Company.

August 23rd, 1914.

The patrols were heavily fired on from the houses and from the other bank.

The company advanced with the pontoon waggons on the steep, narrow road into Dinant behind Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108 and Infantry Regiment No. 182.

There was firing from the houses, although one could see little of the enemy. The company took part in searching the houses for civilians; some were arrested with arms in their hands and subsequently shot. The infantry had considerable losses here.

The order came to evacuate the town as it was to be first bombarded by our artillery.

The company, with Grenadier Regiment No. 101, reached the Meuse at Les Rivages. The village appeared to be quite peaceful; nevertheless, a number of inhabitants were arrested by the Grenadiers for security. The rifle-fire of the enemy on the left bank was only very weak. The houses over there burst into flames, one after another, as a result of our artillery fire. The crossing began at once with a half-column corps, Pontoon train, Train Battalion No. 12, which had been assigned to the company; the building of the bridge was at once begun, and at first proceeded rapidly.

Suddenly we received heavy rifle-fire from the houses on the right bank. The firing was briskly answered by the Grenadiers who were waiting in dense masses to cross. The houses were set on fire. On the afternoon of August 24th the bridge was finished. In the meantime, it frequently happened that firing came from the heights, and even from the cellar of a burnt-out house. In such cases, civilians caught with arms in their hands were shot.

C. App. 40.

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

Invincourt, March 1st, 1915.

In the matter for inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness Major von Zeschau, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Arnd Maximilian Ernst von Zeschau. I am 41 years old; Protestant; Major and Battalion Commander, Grenadier Regiment No. 101.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, towards 6 o'clock in the afternoon, I, with my 11th Company, reached the Meuse at Les Rivages, and was at once taken across. I had the order to gain the heights on the other bank, to the right of the 2nd Company, which had already been put across. Opposite Les Rivages were connected rows of houses. We first went downstream as far as the church, and then turned off to the right. I passed with a detachment through a very narrow lane; the shop windows and house doors were closed. Suddenly four to five shots came from behind me. My men at once broke open the house from which the shots were fired. The house was empty; at the back was a small yard with a washhouse. In the yard lay a discharged sporting-gun.

Going farther, we came to a railway embankment through which ran a culvert. Before it lay a dead civilian with a weapon like a carbine. On the other side of the embankment was Lieutenant von Oer, who shouted to me that he had been fired at from the culvert. In the culvert I noticed some people; a few paces in front of the culvert crouched some of my men with rifles at the ready, and, on my question, reported that there had been firing from the culvert. I shouted into the culvert, "Sortez, on ne vous fera rien." As the people did not come out, I caused about five to six men to fire some shots, ten to twelve in all, into the culvert. As there arose a great outcry in the culvert, I left a non-commissioned officer behind to clear it. This officer reported to me next morning that he had fetched out about thirty-five to forty civilians, men, half-grown lads, women, and children, and with them a number of weapons—he told me there were about eight to ten carbine-shaped weapons. The captured civilians were handed over at the bridge-head. About 200 metres behind the railway embankment I came into fighting contact with the French infantry.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: von Zeschau.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 41.

Present: President of the Court, Oertel. Secretary, Acting-Sergeant-Major Sommerburg.

Proviseux, March 2nd, 1915.

There appeared as witness for examination Non-commissioned Officer Faber, who, after reference to the significance and sanctity of the oath, was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Kurt Friedrich Faber, non-commissioned officer, 10th Company, Grenadier Regiment No. 101. I am 22 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: According to my war-diary, I crossed the Meuse at Dinant on Sunday, August 23rd, 1914, at 6.5 p.m. in company with Major von Zeschau and about three detachments of Grenadiers. We were bound for the ridge of hills lying opposite, as these were said to be occupied by the enemy. On my way thither I noticed in a side-street that a woman discharged shots at us from a revolver from a half-opened door. I thereupon fired at the woman, who quickly banged the door to. I do not know whether I hit her.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Kurt Friedrich Faber.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Oertel, Lieutenant and Officer of the Court. Signed: Sommerburg, Acting-Sergeant-Major and Clerk of the Court.

C. App. 42.

Present: President of the Court, Lieutenant of Landwehr Oertel. Secretary, Acting-Sergeant-Major Sommerburg.

Proviseux, March 2nd, 1915.

There appeared as witness for examination Grenadier Schlosser, who, after reference to the significance and sanctity of the oath, was examined as follows:

As to Person: My name is Franz Otto Schlosser, Grenadier, 10th Company, Grenadier Regiment No. 101; 22 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: On the afternoon of August 23rd, 1914, I crossed the Meuse at Dinant in a boat with Captain Graisewsky, Lieutenant von der Decken, and men of the 10th Company, Grenadier Regiment No. 101. When we were about the middle of the river, there began a heavy fire on us from various directions. On the other bank we occupied, by order of the Captain, a trench, and there received a heavy fire from the houses which were on the right and left of us. I saw with my own eyes that several women stood at the window of a house and discharged shots at us. We then received the order from the Captain to fetch the occupants from the houses, and brought about twenty persons out, I believe, only women and children. These were brought down as prisoners to the Meuse. We then set fire to the houses.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Franz Otto Schlosser.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Oertel, Lieutenant and Officer of the Court. Signed: Sommerburg, Acting-Sergeant-Major and Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 43.

Extract from the Report of Grenadier Regiment No. 101, 22nd to the 30th August 1914.

August 23rd, 1914.

The Mayor of Les Rivages appears and protests that none of the inhabitants are in possession of weapons, and that no attack would take place on the troops.

After the Divisional Bridge (Pontoon) Train had arrived, the Pioneers begin the construction of a bridge over the Meuse, but a heavy enemy fire, partly from infantry, partly from the inhabitants on the opposite bank, perforates the pontoons and makes any further construction impossible.

At first the 11th Company is put across the Meuse and proceeds on a broad front through Leffe, where they are fired on from the houses and from the railway embankment. Several civilians, who fired on the company from places of concealment, are shot; the houses are set on fire.

Following the 2nd Company the remaining companies of the 1st Battalion have also reached Les Rivages. Whilst the battalion is standing by the Meuse to cross over, it is attacked from the houses by the inhabitants of the place. From all the windows, from the hedges of the gardens, from the slopes of the hills, bullets and shot from the rifles of the inhabitants rattle down on the companies.

The battalion at once received the order to take up the fight against the fanatical inhabitants of the place. With fixed bayonets, the Grenadiers rush through the narrow streets; with pickaxes and axes the closed doors and windows are burst open. In groups the Grenadiers force their way into the houses in order to seize the occupants who are still firing on us. Not only men and youths take part in the fighting, but also old men, women, and children.

The francs-tireurs have well chosen their hiding-places. Already twilight is falling, but still the fire of the enemy does not abate.

Our object is to reach the other bank of the Meuse, but, on the other hand, the troops and columns which follow us must be able to pass through the place without being attacked anew. Thus there only remains one remedy, to set the place on fire, and soon it is a sea of flames.

C. App. 44.

Report on the Street-fighting in Les Rivages (Dinant) on August 23rd, 1914.

The companies of the 1st Battalion of Grenadier Regiment No. 101 had reached Les Rivages in the afternoon of August 23rd, 1914, but had to be retired for about 600 to 800 metres on the road from Pont de Pierre on account of our own artillery having opened a heavy fire on this locality. The Mayor of the place, who was fetched up by me, protested that there were no weapons at hand, and that the inhabitants entertained no plot against our troops. He was commissioned to have ready, within a fixed time, bread and butter for the companies at the outlet of the place, where later the bridge was thrown over the Meuse. The companies did not get there to enjoy these, since, in the meantime, the 2nd Company had crossed over and the remaining companies were involved in the street-fighting.

When the companies, after the cessation of our artillery fire, had again been led out to Les Rivages and had been divided into commandos to receive the victuals asked for, the inhabitants began a murderous fire on the companies from all the houses and gardens and also from the hill-slopes. Inside and outside the houses, men of all ages were firing, also innumerable women and even girls of ten years of age. Here a woman was severely wounded in the breast by the inhabitants, and was bandaged by us.

The battalion received the order to take up the fight against the inhabitants of the place, who were firing as if demented; for this purpose the 3rd and 4th Companies pushed forward to the street-and house-fighting, whilst portions of the 1st Company remained on the river-bank. A part of the inhabitants who were acting in a particularly mean fashion and were firing madly with all kinds of firearms, without let or hindrance, upon our troops, were shot down to the number of about twenty; amongst these were some women who, with special cunning, fired again and again into the companies from the rear. This shooting was done to defend ourselves and to scare the inhabitants from any further atrocities. About 100 to 150 men and women, also children, were seized and taken over the Meuse to the opposite bank by the first rope-ferries, partly to prevent further outrages, partly to remove them, as far as they appeared innocent, from the terrible fighting.

The fighting of the 3rd and 4th Companies in the streets lasted until far into the darkness, until finally the burning of the whole place put a stop to the general activity of the population.

The order to take up the street-fighting by direction of the regiment came through me and was detailed by me to the 3rd and 4th Companies. I, for my part, can only protest that the inhabitants of the place—men of every age women and girls—fired madly on us at a given signal, and that the remedy taken only constituted an act of self-defence. The situation in which the troops found themselves, especially at the spot where the bridge was later thrown across, deserves, in every true sense, the name of a witches' cauldron, for a worse situation, brought about by a raging force of men and women, cannot be imagined. Despite all the dreadful impressions of such fighting, I have since always admired the calmness our men maintained in the presence of such brutes, far removed from any thought of cruelty, even though they themselves were exposed to the worst.

Signed: Schlick, Major and Commander, 1st Battalion, Grenadier Regiment No. 101.

C. App. 45.

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

Neufchâtel, March 2nd, 1915.

In the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness Major von Zeschau, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Karl Adolf Heinrich von Zeschau. I am 46 years old; Protestant; Major and Adjutant, General Command, XII. Army Corps.

As to Case: On the 23rd of August 1914 I arrived at the Meuse in Les Rivages at 6 p.m. All the houses were closed; none of the inhabitants were to be seen. The Grenadiers stood in column of route on the by-road which enters Les Rivages, the head of the column at the valley road. I inquired whether the houses had been searched. Thereupon a patrol was dispatched to search the houses, and an acting-sergeant-major reported to me that the houses were empty. I stayed there about a quarter of an hour and watched the effect of our artillery on the houses on the left bank of the Meuse. At this time there came along by the valley road from Dinant a number of inhabitants—men, women, and children—who were held up by the Grenadiers.

As the bridge was half finished and some pontoons with Grenadiers were at the opposite bank, my task was finished and I returned to the Commanding General. When I again returned to the bridge-head at Les Rivages there lay there a heap of corpses. I learned that shortly after my departure there had been firing from the seemingly empty houses. In the night several hundred inhabitants who had come from Dinant arrived at the crossing-place. These were well treated; many women and children were also provided with provisions by the soldiers.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: von Zeschau.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 46.

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

Neufchâtel, February 19th, 1915.

In the matter for inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness Captain Reserve Ermisch, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Karl Traugott Hubert Ludwig Ermisch. I am 37 years old; Protestant; engineer (with diploma), director of mines, now Captain of Reserve, 1st Field Pioneer Company.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, I was with the 3rd Company of the Pioneer Battalion No. 12, and present when the pontoons of the Corps Bridging Train, at first brought down to Dinant, were obliged to turn back. We then made a detour into the valley road which leads to Les Rivages; from there I was sent out to reconnoitre the place for the bridge. In Les Rivages all was peaceful. Neither French nor German soldiers were to be seen. When I had been there about one hour, my company arrived with the bridging waggons and other German soldiers. These rounded up the civilian population standing near as hostages. In the meantime, I commenced with the construction of the bridge. Somewhere about 4 or 5 o'clock we suddenly received a tolerably heavy fire, which was directed straight towards us at the bridge-head. We were forced to conceal ourselves under the cover of the bridge. I noticed plainly that the firing came from the slopes to the right and left of the flanking valley, and particularly from a red house not far from the Bayard Rock, which stands near the north of Les Rivages. In consequence, the hostages were shot by direction of a senior Grenadier officer.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Ermisch.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 47.

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

Neufchâtel, March 2nd, 1915.

In the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness, 1st Lieutenant of Reserve Freiherr von Rochow, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Heinrich Bernhard Wichart Freiherr von Rochow. I am 30 years old; Protestant; 1st Lieutenant of Reserve Uhlan Regiment No. 17, now Commander of the Cavalry Staff Escort of the General Command, XII. Army Corps.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, I reached Les Rivages at nightfall, and saw at the crossing-place a great heap of corpses. In the course of the evening, when the crossing was in progress and things had become quieter, we saw that some wounded were among them. These were brought away. I myself saw a girl of about eight years with an injured face, and an older woman with a shot in the upper part of the thigh taken to the women prisoners and handed over to the doctor. I remained until the bridge was finished the next day. Up till then shots were being fired again and again, obviously by the inhabitants. The houses were searched by field-police. The people who were in them were examined, and in the course of this I also acted as interpreter. Two men, from whose house there had been firing, and in whose pockets ammunition was found, were shot. A woman was not shot, although a loaded revolver was found on her, because her guilt was not fully established.

The guilt of every single person was dispassionately considered by the officers present.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Freiherr von Rochow.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 48.

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

Neufchâtel, March 2nd, 1915.

In the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness Major Steinhoff, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Fritz Eugen Steinhoff. I am 48 years old; Protestant; Major and Commander of Pioneers, XII. Army Corps.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, I came to the crossing-place at Les Rivages, where there was no one except an officer's patrol of the Pioneers. I went as far as the bank, and then on about 100 metres towards Anseremme. Various soldiers pointed out to me that there was firing from the bridge, and from the houses near the bridge. Wounded soldiers lay in the street. I was also fired at, and other soldiers warned me against proceeding farther.

I went back to the crossing-place, and there met Colonel Meister, to whom I reported my observations. He had the district cleared by a detachment, which brought in a large number of men and women. Of these, the men were placed by a wall at the crossing-place, the women and children somewhat farther downstream. The crossing and building of the bridge was now in progress. When the bridge had been pushed out about 40 metres, a heavy rifle-fire was delivered from the houses of Les Rivages and from the rocks above on the waiting Grenadiers and the Pioneers at work. I myself heard the whistle, on a rough estimate, of 100 bullets. A great confusion ensued. Everybody sought cover, and work was interrupted. Even the Grenadiers, who stood there in a mass, were in great agitation. I went again through a garden-plot to the Meuse in order to look after the Pioneers. At this moment the fire of the enemy flared up, and simultaneously I heard a couple of rapid volleys in the immediate vicinity.

I thereupon went back and saw at the spot, where previously the captured men had stood, a heap of corpses. From that moment onwards the francs-tireurs' firing ceased completely, and the bridging work proceeded undisturbed.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Steinhoff.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 49.

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

Neufchâtel, February 18th, 1915.

In the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness the Divisional Chaplain, Dr. Kaiser, who stated:

As to Person: My name is Dr. Paul Kaiser. I am 52 years old; Roman Catholic Divisional Chaplain of the 32nd Infantry Division.

As to Case: I lay in Leffe from the evening of the 23rd until the morning of the 25th August. On the afternoon of the 24th August, a Captain of my acquaintance invited me to eat a plate of soup with him. This took place in a courtyard where, besides ourselves, were the Captain's servant, who was cooking the soup there, and two or three units who were pottering about round a freight-automobile. All at once some shots were heard and missiles flew quite close over us. Everyone was naturally excited. In the direction from which the shots presumably came, stood a fairly new brick-built house, distant about 100 metres. Between the first floor and the attic was a white ledge in which one could see several holes, and from which arose smoke, evidently from a shot which had just been discharged. As I learned, the house was then searched. Shortly afterwards, a whole procession of civilians, men and women, were led off by us; these persons, as I was told, had all been arrested in the house. They were then handed over to the Cadet School, which was used as a prison.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Dr. Kaiser.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 51.

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

Neufchâtel, February 18th, 1915.

In the matter for inquiry concerning the events in Dinant, there appeared as witness Staff-Surgeon Dr. Petrenz who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, was examined as follows:

My name is Max Georg Hand Petrenz. I am 36 years old; Roman Catholic; by profession Dr. med., Staff-Surgeon with the Commander of the Train, XIIth Army Corps.

Questioned on the subject of his examination, he stated the following:

On August 21st and 22nd, 1914, I was in Taviet; on August 23rd the mounted echelon of the General Command started off and reached the Meuse at Les Rivages towards 10 o'clock in the evening. As I learned, the village of Sorinnes had been cleared on August 22nd of all the men and suspicious characters by our troops. When I came to Sorinnes early on the 23rd August I saw a burning house surrounded by our troops. I learned that passing hussars had been fired on from the house, that the house had been searched for the marksmen without result, and that in order to smoke them out of their hiding-places the house had been set on fire. I related this when I had ridden back again to Taviet, to my billet-landlady, a woman of the middle class. She gave it as her opinion that they were certainly, some of them, once more from Dinant. She related further, that suspicious characters had been sent out from Dinant to the surrounding districts; if these did anything to the German troops, the blame was put upon the inhabitants. I gathered from her words that the resistance to the German troops was directly organised in Dinant.

Our mounted escort set out from Taviet at three in the afternoon, made a halt for some time to the south of the Sorinnes-Dinant road, and carried out the descent to the Meuse in the ravine which leads to Les Rivages. We reached this point when it was already dark. In the night there came here a large number of women and children who really wanted to go still farther south. As this was attended with great danger, because everything on the way was burning, we detained them there and sheltered them in a large empty house, just opposite the pontoon bridge, where they were safe from the danger of fire. Besides myself, a number of Grenadier officers of the (Guards) Grenadier Regiment No. 100 also looked after the sheltering of the women and children. The next morning, at my request, all the women and children were provided with warm coffee by Captain von Criegern.

On the bank of the Meuse, between the river and a garden wall, there lay close to the left of the pontoon bridge a heap of civilians who had been shot; how many I do not know—I estimate the number at from thirty to forty. I do not know who had shot them. I have heard that the Grenadier Regiment No. 101 had carried out an execution there. Among those who had been shot were also some women; by far the majority were young lads. Under the pile I discovered a girl of about five years old, alive and quite uninjured. I took her out and brought her to the house where the women were. She accepted some chocolate, was quite pleased and evidently quite unconscious of the gravity of the situation. I thereupon examined the pile of corpses to see if any more children were among them. I only found further a girl of about ten years with a wound in the leg. I had her bandaged and lodged her with the women also. The next morning she was almost without pain. It turned out that the mother of the girl was among the women who had come from Dinant. The mother and daughter were very grateful to me.

The pile of corpses was so situated that it could not be seen from the house in which the women and children were lodged. When I was getting ready at 9 o'clock the next morning for marching off, Pioneers were about to dig a common grave for the bodies behind the garden wall, before which they lay. It was in an orchard. I convinced myself personally and by daylight that only the dead lay there. Any mistake of burying alive is precluded.

Further, I will cite the following:

In the course of the night I was requested by a Grenadier officer to take a wounded civilian from a house in danger of fire into a safe place. The man had a bullet wound in the upper thigh; he belonged to the better class. He told the Grenadier officers that he had been shot by Belgian francs-tireurs because he would not grant them a hiding-place in his house. He had been bandaged by our people, and was now carried into the house to the women.

The next morning, after crossing the Meuse, we rode along the left bank in order to gain the road to Onhaye. The bank lying opposite, as well as the houses of Dinant, seemed deserted. Only in the doorway of some hotel stood a civilian who aimed a rifle at us and fired, without making a hit. When we replied with revolver shots he disappeared.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Dr. Petrenz.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Schweinitz. Signed: Lips.

C. App. 52.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court. Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Military Court.

Orainville, March 17th, 1915.

Summoned as witness there appeared Private Steglich, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Willy Steglich. I am 22 years old; Protestant; by calling bricklayer in Mügeln, now private in the Machine-Gun Company, Infantry Regiment No. 103.

As to Case: With Acting-Sergeant-Major and some other men—there were also present some Marburg Jäger—I fetched the occupants out of a house in Dinant which had been wrecked by the impact of a shell, and set them at liberty. There were men, women, and children. They were then brought to a house where, at the instigation of an officer of the Marburg Jäger, they were protected and looked after by two Red Cross nurses.

In various houses in Dinant we found a quantity of small-shot ammunition lying piled up by the windows; everywhere the lowest pane was broken, evidently to allow a rifle to be pushed through the opening.

Read over, approved.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Kleberger, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Court.

C. App. 53.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court. Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Court.

Orainville, March 17th, 1915.

Summoned as witness there appeared Acting-Sergeant-Major Bartsch, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Erich Bartsch. I am 25 years old; Protestant; Acting-Sergeant-Major in the Machine-Gun Company, Infantry Regiment No. 103.

As to Case: As patrol leader I found in a series of houses in Dinant sporting ammunition lying all ready, from which it may with certainty be assumed that it had been used by the francs-tireurs before their expulsion, as ammunition for firing on the German troops.

From the streets I saw inhabitants in the cellars of burning houses, chiefly women and children, who were no longer able to save themselves from their perilous position. Through the men of my patrol, in company with the Marburg Jäger, their rescue was made possible, and the persons saved were lodged in houses which were guarded by German troops. At times the work of rescue could only be carried out with great danger to life on the part of the patrol.

I myself was witness to the fact that Sisters of Mercy, in company with German soldiers, fetched along provisions for the inhabitants who had been given protection.

I was also present when Colonel Hoch sent all non-interested persons to their homes, with the strict injunction not to let themselves be seen in the streets.

For the other inhabitants whose houses had been completely burned down, lodging was procured in the houses of the railway signalmen.

Close to Dinant a bullet was found by a hussar in the leaden centre of which a spear-shaped steel blade had been inserted. This missile was passed round in my platoon.

Read over, approved.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Kleberger, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 54.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court. Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Military Court.

Orainville, March 17th, 1915.

Summoned as witness there appeared Reservist Hentschel, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Alfred Hentschel. I am 25 years old; Protestant; by trade a butcher in Dresden, now Reservist, 9th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 103.

As to Case: In a house in Dinant which stood at the right of the bridge I found a severely wounded civilian, an old man with white hair, who still had his sporting rifle with him. I also came across civilians farther on in Belgium who had fired on the German troops with sporting rifles. In a village beyond Dinant, which cannot be very far from Dinant, I had my right hand injured by shot-wounds. The shot are probably still in the fingers.

On this side of the Meuse, where a convent stood, we distributed bread and what else we still had (cold meat, etc.) to the population, women and children, also men.

Read over, approved.

The witness was thereupon duly sworn.

Signed: Kleberger, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Sergeant Richter, as Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 55.

Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108, Officer of the Court I.

La Ville-aux-Bois, January 20th, 1915.

There appeared Assistant Surgeon of Reserve, Dr. Sorge, 1st Battalion, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108, who, being warned to speak the truth, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Kurt Hermann Georg Sorge. I am 27 years old; Protestant; 1st Assistant Surgeon of the Ear Department of the town Infirmary of Friedrichstadt, Dresden.

As to Case: During the fighting of the 1st Battalion, Rifle Regiment No. 108, near and in Dinant, I was always in the immediate neighbourhood of the troops engaged. I have repeatedly bandaged riflemen whose injuries were to be ascribed to non-military rifles (shot-wounds).

Women, children, and old men were always spared. The burial of the inhabitants who had been shot, as far as my sphere of work extended, never took place on the same day. I have, moreover, repeatedly seen that bread and drink were handed to various inhabitants by the riflemen.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Dr. K. Sorge, Assistant Surgeon of Reserve, 1st Battalion, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Glaser, Lieutenant of Reserve, Adjutant, 1st Battalion, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108, as Officer of the Military Court.

C. App. 56.

Wood south-west of La Ville-aux-Bois, February 5th, 1915.

By order of Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prinz Georg" there appeared as witness Non-commissioned Officer Lauterbach, who, being warned to speak the whole truth, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Paul Rudolf Lauterbach. I am 27 years old; Protestant; by trade mechanician, now non-commissioned officer, 10th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108.

As to Case: When, on our advance with the company, from the fort we had reached the Sorinnes-Dinant road in Dinant, I distinctly saw how a woman, standing at full height at a window, fired on the German soldiers with a rifle. The woman was immediately shot by a German soldier, and fell with the upper part of her body on the window-sill.

Volleys of rifle-fire were discharged from a remarkably large house on the west bank of the Meuse which was flying the Red Cross flag.

South of the Dinant-Sorinnes road by the Meuse, at a place which I am no longer able to fix, I saw lying there the charred body of a German Jäger whose feet were bound together with wire.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Paul Rudolf Lauterbach.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Lossow, Lieutenant and Officer of the Court. Signed: Schubert, Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 57.

(Guards) Grenadier Regiment No. 100, 2nd Battalion.

Willmsbaracken, January 31st, 1915.

Deposition concerning the wounding by the discharge of (small) shot in Dinant.

There appeared as witness Grenadier Bischoff, who, being warned to speak the truth, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Karl Bischoff. I was born on January 18th, 1893, at Dürschau, near Zittau; Protestant; by trade butcher.

As to Case: When the 7th Company was marching through Dinant at about 7 o'clock p.m. on August 23rd we were fired on from two houses. I was struck in the left arm and the left leg. An examination of the wounds in the leg showed that they resulted from a discharge of small shot.

In the Carolahaus in Dresden a small round bullet was removed in an operation by Dr. Kretzschmar from the left foot; besides this a pellet was located in the left upper thigh, and is still there. On December 10th I returned again to the 7th Company.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Karl Bischoff.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: V. Loeben, Lieutenant and Officer of the Court. Signed: Baier, Non-commissioned Officer and Clerk of the Court.

C. App. 58.

Present: Lieutenant of Landwehr Oertel, as Officer of the Court. Acting-Sergeant-Major Sommerburg, as Clerk of the Court.

Proviseux, March 2nd, 1915.

There appeared for examination as witness Deputy-Officer Ebert, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Eduard Kurt Ebert, Deputy-Officer, Acting-Sergeant-Major, 11th Company, Grenadier Regiment No. 101; 33 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: On August 23rd, 1914, I came back early, towards 9 o'clock, from a patrol which I had undertaken on the previous evening from before Château Reux to Dinant in company with Lieutenant Schurig and some men of the 9th and 12th Companies of my regiment, which lay in readiness about half an hour's distance from Dinant. On the way back from Dinant to the regiment we found at the end of the town a non-commissioned officer and six men of Rifle Regiment No. 108 lying dead in the road. Some of the dead showed wounds on the face and chest, which Lieutenant Schurig, as well as myself, recognised without doubt as having been caused by small shot.

On the evening of the same day, probably about 5 p.m., I stood with the 12th Company of Grenadier Regiment No. 101 in the street on the bank of the Meuse below the place where the bridge was being built. All at once a heavy fire was opened on us from all sides, especially from above. A man of the 12th Company, who stood beside me, received a shot in the stock of the rifle. I removed the missile myself from the wood; it was a small round bullet. The firing then died down, and I was put across the Meuse. After I had crossed over, I received the order from Lieutenant and Adjutant Stark to guard the civilian prisoners who had been rounded up there, and later the military prisoners also. I then saw how men of my guard handed water to the captive women and children and gave them chocolate. I myself bandaged a wounded French sergeant.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Eduard Kurt Ebert.

The witness Ebert was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Oertel, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court. Signed: Sommerburg, Acting-Sergeant-Major and Clerk of the Military Court.

C. App. 59.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Dachsel, as Officer of the Court. Non-commissioned Officer of Reserve Steiger, as Clerk of the Court.

La Ville-aux-Bois près Pontavert, March 6th, 1915.

At the request of the Imperial German Court of Justice of the General Government in Belgium there appeared by order, as witness, Medical-Corps Non-commissioned Officer Rost, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, and he had been warned to speak the truth, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Paul Richard Rost, Medical-Corps Non-commissioned Officer, 6th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108; 25 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: When I was attending the wounded in Dinant on the night of August 21st and 22nd, I noticed that behind the men, some in their shirt-sleeves, who were firing from the windows, the heads of women were also visible.

The next day I saw in the courtyard of the Château of Sorinnes, among the dead lying there on biers, Corporal Kirchhof of my company. He had an injury to the skull which could only have originated from a blunt instrument. The brain-pan was quite smashed in.

On August 23rd I found on a detached estate near Dinant, close by the road which leads from Sorinnes to Dinant, a German soldier almost completely carbonised, lying under a burnt heap of straw. He appeared to be a Jäger, judging from portions of his equipment which lay near. I was told by comrades that a second Jäger had been found in a field in the vicinity of Dinant, with his face burnt. The estate, where I found the Jäger, had been organised as a dressing-station for wounds.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Paul Richard Rost.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Dachsel. Signed: Steiger.

C. App. 60.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Dachsel, as Officer of the Court. Non-commissioned Officer Steiger, as Clerk of the Court.

La Ville-aux-Bois près Pontavert, March 6th, 1915.

At the request of the Imperial German Court of Justice of the General Government in Belgium, there appeared by order, as witness, Rifleman Lange, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, and he had been warned to speak the truth, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Emil Bruno Lange, Rifleman of Reserve, 7th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108; 25 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: In the night-fighting at Dinant on August 21st I saw an elderly woman firing at us from a house which was brightly lighted up by a lamp burning in the street. After some time she fell backwards; apparently she had been hit by us.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: Emil Bruno Lange.

The witness was thereupon sworn.

Signed: Dachsel. Signed: Steiger.

C. App. 61.

Present: Lieutenant of Reserve Dachsel, as Officer of the Court. Non-commissioned Officer of Reserve Steiger, as Clerk of the Court.

La Ville-aux-Bois près Pontavert, March 6th, 1915.

By request of the Imperial German Court of Justice of the General Government in Belgium, there appeared by order, as witness, Rifleman Vorwieger, who, after the importance of the oath had been pointed out to him, and he had been warned to speak the truth, made the following statement:

As to Person: My name is Paul Vorwieder, Rifleman, 6th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108; 20 years old; Protestant.

As to Case: In the street-fighting in Dinant on August 21st I saw in a house, which I was just about to enter, a woman about thirty years of age standing with a revolver in her hand, ready to fire.

On August 23rd I found in an open field, about 600 metres from Dinant, a dead Saxon Jäger—I recognised him as such by his uniform—with face completely carbonised. He lay on his back, his arms widely extended.