Part 14
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 1-1/2 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.