Part 13
As to Case: I belonged to a patrol of twelve men led by Lieutenant Gauser and Berger with orders to arrest civilians in Dinant who might take up arms against the Germans. From a building in course of erection we observed that civilians were firing on us from a house. We surrounded the house, forced an entrance, and arrested about six male civilians. All had firearms, but no military badge or uniform. Two of them were young people about eighteen years old, another an older man with white hair. I know nothing of cruelties having been perpetrated by German soldiers on the inhabitants.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: KÖRNER.
The witness was duly sworn.
Signed: LOSSOW, Lieutenant and Officer of the Court. Signed: SCHUBERT, Acting-Sergeant-Major and Clerk of the Military Court.
C. App. 16.
Present: 1st Lieutenant GRAU, as Officer of the Court.
## Acting-Sergeant-Major LIMBÄCKER, as Clerk of the Court.
"THE FRONT," _February 28th, 1915_.
There appeared as witness Major-General Francke, who, after reference to the significance of the oath, was examined as follows:
As to Person: My name is Franz Samuel Ludwig Francke. I am 51 years old; Protestant; Major-General and Regimental Commander, Infantry Regiment No. 182.
As to Case: I confirm that in Dinant a civilian who wore a white band with the Geneva Cross was brought to me by a corporal and two men of the 12th Company. The party assured me that they had seen an arm with a Geneva brassard project from between the shutters of a window on the first floor of a house distant about thirty paces from where I was, and that it had discharged a pistol into the street which was thronged with soldiers. Several dead and wounded soldiers were lying in the street who could only have been hit from the houses or straight through from the houses on the riverside. The soldiers stated that they had broken into the house and had fetched out the occupants, among whom was this man.
The civilian explained to me, without being asked, at first in hardly intelligible German, and then in French when I addressed him in French, that he was a doctor, and that he had protected the women who were in the houses, and had not fired on the soldiers. I thereupon ordered him to immediately bandage one of the wounded lying there. On his assertion that he had no bandages, I told him to fetch some bandages from the pharmacy which was situated directly behind me. I had already wondered that he had not taken this simple step if he was really a doctor. As I was very much occupied I could not watch him further myself, but ordered a corporal and one man to accompany and keep watch on the supposed doctor. Some time after, the corporal came to me and reported that, as they entered the ground floor of the pharmacy, the doctor had suddenly run into the rear part of the house and not into the room used for the pharmacy on the street front, whereupon they had brought him out and shot him.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: FRANZ FRANCKE.
The witness was thereupon sworn.
Signed: GRAU, 1st Lieutenant and Officer of the Court. Signed: LIMBÄCKER, Acting-Sergeant-Major, as Clerk of the Military Court.
C. App. 17.
Present: President of the Military Court, NAUMANN. Secretary of the Military Court, SCHWARZBACH.
LA MALMAISON, _December 1914_.
In the investigation concerning the violation of international law committed against the German troops, there appeared as witness Corporal Saring, who, after reference to the significance of the oath, was examined as follows:
My name is Johann Georg Saring. I am 22 years of age; Protestant; locksmith by trade; corporal, 12th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 182.
On the afternoon of Sunday the 23rd August, 1914, I saw in Dinant the arm of a man thrust itself out from the first storey of the pharmacy. The hand held a pistol. The pistol was fired at us soldiers. The arm was wearing, as I plainly saw, the Red Cross band. I burst the door in with a pickaxe; there came out children, women, and an elderly man, and, last of all, the man with the Red Cross band. This man was taken to Colonel Francke, whilst the other civilians were detained in the corner of a house. We then rushed towards the church in which the inhabitants had been brought together. As I know for certain, we were fired on from the tower of the church. This could only have been done by the inhabitants; enemy troops were not to be seen the whole of the day.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: JOHANN GEORG SARING.
The witness was thereupon sworn.
Signed: NAUMANN. Signed: SCHWARZBACH.
C. App. 18.
Present: President of the Court, NAUMANN. Secretary to the Court, SCHWARZBACH.
LA MALMAISON, _December 9th, 1914_.
In the investigation of the violation of the international law committed against the German troops, there appeared as witness Corporal of the Reserve Einax, 11th Company, Infantry Regiment No. 182, who, after reference to the significance of the oath, was examined as follows:
My name is Karl Hermann Einax. I am 28 years old; Protestant; cooper by trade; corporal since November 21st, 1914. On Sunday, August 23rd, 1914, during the second hour of the afternoon, as we advanced into Dinant, we were fired on. It turned out that the fire came from the other bank of the Meuse. We forced our way into the houses and searched them. I saw how an elderly man with grey bristly hair stepped out of a house, into which our comrades had forced an entrance, and fired at us. Major Lommatsch, who was severely wounded, died in the afternoon in consequence of the wound.
On interrogation:
I then plainly saw that eight gun-barrels projected from the attic windows of a house in the main street and were directed at us. From the tower of the church and from cellars we were also fired on. All this was done by the inhabitants only.
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.