Part 9
A. App. 2.
Present: Lieutenant of Reserve KLAUSS, as Officer to the Military Court.
## Acting-Sergeant-Major ROSS, as Secretary to the Court.
OSTEL, _November 3rd, 1914_.
At the inquiry concerning the events of the night of August 19 and 20, 1914, in Aerschot, there appeared as witness the officer commanding the 140th Infantry Regiment, Colonel Jenrich. After he had been acquainted with the subject of the inquiry, and his attention had been drawn to the importance of the oath, he was examined as follows:
My name is Andreas Jenrich. I am 56 years of age; Protestant. On August 19th I came personally with the staff of my regiment to Aerschot, after the 3rd Division had had a fight with Belgian troops in that neighbourhood. I was commander of the place, and had to make preparations for internal administration, as well as for safety. The Staff of the 8th Infantry Brigade were already in Aerschot, and were billeted in the Mayor's house. I at once sent for this gentleman and asked him whether there were any disbanded Belgian soldiers hidden away, or if there were otherwise any Belgian soldiers in civilian clothing in the houses. He denied this. I pointed out the consequence to him, for which he and the town would be held responsible, if anything was undertaken by the populace against the German troops; and especially I left him in no doubt as to the death penalty awaiting him should an attack by the civilians against the German soldiers take place. I felt justified in this threat, as on the day before, in Schaaffen, near Siest, civilians fired at our soldiers, killing several of them. As far as I know, at midday on August 19, 1914, the General commanding the II. Army Corps, Von Linsingen, had likewise warned the Mayor and the population.
I also ordered the civilians to give up all their weapons in front of the town hall in the market-place. After an hour I ascertained that only a small quantity of arms had been given up. I then renewed my commands to the Mayor that he should see to the handing over of all weapons. To my especial astonishment, 36 rifles were then brought forth, which had evidently been intended for the purpose of public shows and for the Garde Civique. Portions of ammunition for these rifles were found packed away in a case. After repeated and serious warning to the Mayor, a larger quantity of weapons was given up. Towards 8 o'clock the troops had just marched in, and still found themselves in the streets. All at once, at 8 o'clock exactly, firing suddenly began from all the houses, and this was naturally returned by our men. I should especially like to point out that before the commencement of the general firing, a particularly loud report was heard, which must have been the alarm signal. I succeeded, with several other officers, amongst whom I may mention Brigade Adjutant Captain Schwarz, in stopping the fire of our soldiers in the market-place. Soon after I heard from Captain Schwarz that the officer commanding the brigade had been found shot dead in his room in the Mayor's house. At about 8.30 in the evening I commanded the evacuation of the town, and we bivouacked outside the place on the way to Wispelaer.
In the meantime the houses had been searched by the troops, and a considerable number of inhabitants taken prisoners, who were proved to have taken part in the attacks on the soldiers. Of the male population taken prisoners the Mayor, with his son as well as his brother, and every third man, were shot the next morning.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: JENRICH.
Hereupon the witness was sworn.
Signed: KLAUSS, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer to the Military Court. Signed: ROSS, Acting-Sergeant-Major and Secretary to the Military Court.
A. App. 3.
Present: President of the Military Court, HOTTENDORFF. Secretary to the Military Court, WESTPHAL.
TOURCOING, _November 15th, 1914_.
At the investigation concerning the events in Aerschot on the night of August 19th to 20th, 1914, there appeared as witness Captain Karge of the cavalry, officer commanding the troops of the Field Cavalry Police of the II. Army Corps, who, after his attention had been drawn to the importance and sanctity of the oath, was examined as follows:
As to Person: My Christian name is Hans. I am 42 years of age; Protestant.
As to Case: The witness was handed the supplement to this Record and declared:
I have given my evidence in writing in the supplement. Witness then further added to the Record, after this supplement had been read through:
I acknowledge the supplement just read as my own. Several German officers told me that, according to report, the Belgian Government, and especially the King of the Belgians, had intimated that it was the duty of every male Belgian to do the German Army as much harm as possible.
An Order of this kind was also supposed to have been found on a captured Belgian soldier. I also heard that Belgian soldiers had been discharged in their native towns, so that they could there fight in plain clothes against the Germans. It is true that a number of Belgian soldiers, who were partly clothed as civilians, were made prisoners. An officer, who was present at the attack in Aerschot, told me that on the belfry tower of a certain place in the neighbourhood of Aerschot he had himself read that Belgians who caught German officers were not allowed to keep them prisoners on parole, but were to shoot them. I cannot exactly repeat this officer's words, but they contained the meaning I have just given.
A college teacher from Aerschot, whom I have already mentioned in the supplement, assured me, as I now positively remember, that the Garde Civique had orders to do the German Army as much harm as possible.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: KARGE.
The witness thereupon took the oath.
Proceedings closed.
Signed: HOTTENDORFF. Signed: WESTPHAL.
Supplement to A. App. 3.
On August 19th, 1914, towards 8 o'clock in the evening, I stood at an open window in the quarters which had been offered me by the Mayor of Aerschot, whose brother's house it was, situated in a street which led to the market-place. It may have been a few minutes to eight when I heard a shot. A column was just marching down the street towards the market-place. I leant out of the window, under the impression that perhaps one of the soldiers had carelessly fired a shot from his rifle; immediately there was a fusillade. I had just looked in the direction from which the single shot had been fired, and I could ascertain that from the ledge of the roof of a red corner-house, situated opposite my billet, towards the right, the smoke and dust were ascending. My certainty that the first shot had been fired from this spot was strengthened, and I now distinctly saw a second volley being fired from the same place, appearing in thin clouds of smoke. The shots may have been fired from about eight or ten rifles, and from the regularity of the volley I had the impression that we had to do with a well-organised and perhaps military operation. Shortly after the second volley a third was heard, and added to that a brisk and rapid firing took place, which did not proceed only from the house mentioned, but also from the other houses in this street.
Apparently this firing did not only come from the windows, but also from the openings in the roof and prepared loopholes in the attics of the houses; it is because of this that one can explain the small harm done to the men and animals. The street was narrow, and the rifles had to be placed in an unnaturally slanting position, if they were to be aimed at the halting columns in the middle of the street. The drivers and soldiers of the supply column had in the meantime left their waggons and horses and sought shelter from the fire in the doorways of the houses. Some of the waggons had collided with each other, and the restless horses, having lost their drivers, had broken loose.
As shots also came my way, I sought shelter against the partition wall between the windows. After a short time, I thought I heard the firing returned by our soldiers in the market-place. Soon after, signals and calls were heard to "cease fire." The firing did then cease for a time, but was apparently renewed on both sides, though not so violently as before.
I had taken the opportunity to leave my billet during the cessation of the firing, and go to the market-place, to inform a Colonel there of the proceedings I had witnessed. At the same time, I asked permission to set fire to the house from which the signal shot--as I took it to be--had been fired, and from which the volley had also come. In my opinion, the ringleaders were assembled there. The Colonel refused my request. I hereupon returned to my street, but was there detained a moment by a rifleman, who, standing in a doorway, called out, "Just now I plainly saw a shot fired from the house opposite." He then pointed out the house, which I recognised as that of the Mayor.
I now took a few soldiers who were standing near by (of the 140th Infantry Regiment), and proceeded with them to the house from which the first shots had been fired, and in the attic of which I guessed the instigators and leaders still to be. In the meantime the regiment arrived, and--giving my commands to the officer and his men--I ordered the doors and windows on the ground floor, which were firmly locked, to be battered in. The house had a front door and a shop door. I then also forced my way into the house, and with the help of a fairly large quantity of turpentine, which was found in a tin can holding about 20 litres, and which I had partly poured on the first floor, I succeeded, after a short time, in setting the house on fire. Further, I gave orders to the men who had so far taken no part in this affair to occupy the entrances to the houses and arrest all men seeking to escape.
As I left the burning house several civilians, amongst them a young priest, were arrested in the neighbouring houses. I had them taken to the market-place, where in the meantime my troop of Field Cavalry Police had assembled. I then ordered the columns to march out of the town, and took over the command of all the prisoners, but released the women, boys, and girls.
I received from a staff officer (divisional commander of Artillery Regiment No. 17) the order to shoot all the captured men. Then I gave orders to a part of my police force to conduct the columns out of the town, whilst the others were told to escort the prisoners and take them away. At the exit of the town a house was burning, and by its light I saw the guilty men, 88 in number, shot, but not before I had taken away three cripples from among them.
Later on I met a second batch of prisoners. I picked out the most intelligent looking, and told him all the prisoners would be shot, but that I would save his life if he told me the truth concerning the organisation of the attack. For I looked upon the whole affair as such. This man, who spoke German and was a teacher at a college in Aerschot, confessed to its having been a great mistake of the people of Aerschot to have sheltered some fugitive Belgian soldiers, and to have hidden them and clothed them in civilian garments. These had joined the Garde Civique, and they had then organised an attack.
If I consider all the circumstances of the strange and remarkable behaviour of the Mayor, his brother, and other citizens with whom I came into contact, then I have no doubt that a great part of the civil population were all agreed in carrying out their hostile intentions.
Signed: KARGE, Captain of Cavalry.
A. App. 4.
Present: President of the Military Court, JÜNGST. Secretary to the Court, APPEL.
GNESEN, _November 29th, 1914_.
At the investigation concerning the events of the night between August 19th and 20th, 1914, at Aerschot, Captain Schleusener of the 49th Infantry Regiment, at present in Gnesen, appeared as witness, and after his attention had been called to the importance of the oath, was examined as follows:
My name is Georg Schleusener, Captain and Company Commander, 6th Pomeranian Infantry Regiment No. 49, machine-gun section. I am 35 years of age, Protestant, and I live in Gnesen.
Late in the afternoon of August 19th, 1914, I arrived with my machine-gun section, on a special mission, in this little town of Aerschot, by the northern exit. About 350 yards from the market-place I heard a few isolated shots, which I took to be exploding ammunition. But I soon found I was mistaken, as I encountered some returning cavalry patrols and their waggons, belonging to the 3rd Infantry Division, trying to beat a hasty retreat. After having succeeded in stopping our own firing, I myself saw shots fired from the houses, whereupon I ordered our machine-guns to be directed on the house fronts to the left. I was told that shots had been fired from a house on the right. As I commanded the guns to be turned round in order to open fire, a medical officer told me that there were wounded in the house. At my instigation a search was made, and five men were found in the house. I did not allow this house to be fired on.
Captain Folz, at present attached to the General Staff in Berlin, is supposed to be able to give more direct information concerning the death of Colonel Stenger.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: SCHLEUSENER.
The witness was hereupon legally sworn.
Signed: JÜNGST, President of the Military Court. Signed: APPEL, Secretary of the Military Court.
A. App. 5.
Present: President of the Military Court, BERNHARDS. Clerk of the Military Court, HOFMANN.
DARMSTADT, _January 12th, 1915_.
There appeared as witness at the inquiry concerning the detailed circumstances of the attack of the civil population in Aerschot, Captain Folz. After he had been acquainted with the subject-matter of the inquiry, and his attention had been drawn to the importance of the oath, he made the following statement:
My name is Hermann Folz. I am 32 years of age; Protestant; Captain, 49th Infantry Regiment, at present with the Reserve Flying Corps, Section 3. On a day in August, the date of which I have forgotten, I arrived in Aerschot, as my regiment's billeting officer, with the Staff of the 8th Infantry Brigade. It was between three and four in the afternoon when we rode into the place. Of German troops, the 3rd Infantry Division had already passed through in batches, and already the narrow and angular little town was full of commissariat, artillery, and ammunition columns. We had been about three hours in the little town, when suddenly violent firing began. The firing seemed to come from the north-west exit of the village.
Immediately afterwards the Medical Corps, I believe it to have been the 2nd (including a certain Dr. Wild) as well as a section of the supplies of the 3rd Division, came towards us, under incessant fire, and informed us they had been fired upon. A Belgian battalion was supposed to be advancing. With difficulty we managed to make headway with our machine-gun company, and by taking a seat on the last waggon, with the company leader, Captain Schleusener, I proceeded in the direction of the alleged advance of the Belgian force. About three kilometres before the town, near a windmill, we discovered that there was no enemy at hand. I thereupon returned on foot to Aerschot. We had already, during our march out of the town, heard continuous firing. Entering Aerschot by a bridge, I noticed that our troops were being fired upon from the houses. Shots came sometimes from the upper floors, sometimes from the cellars, and one could distinctly tell by the sound that both rifles and machine-guns were being used. The situation developed in such a manner that our own men had to seek cover with their backs to the houses, and as soon as a marksman was observed in the opposite house he was fired at. I saw several of our men wounded by these shots, and the bullets also whistled round my head. Near the town hall, which was to have been converted into an artillery depot, stood a captain of the 140th Infantry Regiment, who continuously ordered the bugles to sound the "Cease fire." Evidently the officer first wished to stop the firing of our men in order to be able to settle upon a plan of action. Brigade Adjutant Schwarz, since fallen, met me in the market-place and informed me that the officer commanding the 8th Brigade, Colonel Stenger, had been shot. I immediately hurried to the Mayor's billets, which were situated in the Mayor's house in the market-place, and there found Colonel Stenger dead on his bed. The orderly officer present, Lieutenant Beyersdorff, Dragoon Regiment No. 12, told me he had found the Colonel in the room, about three metres from the window, lying dead on his face. On the spot one distinctly saw two pools of blood, and I also noticed that the wall opposite the window was marked by many bullet-holes, and the window-panes were shot through. I saw a wound on the corpse stretching from the right eye to the right ear, and also a shot through the right breast, but of the latter one saw only the broad hole caused by the bullet. The regimental doctor of the 140th Infantry Regiment, who on the following day opened the corpse in my presence, found in the passage of the breast wound a shapeless lead bullet, which had broken up on coming in contact with a hard substance. The bullet had torn a main artery and caused immediate death. According to the evidence of the doctor, the facial wound was not caused by a shot from an infantry rifle. Owing to the vertical passage of the wound, and the nature of the shot, there can be no doubt that the Colonel was not fired at from the street, but by an inhabitant of the opposite house. To judge by the calibre of the breast bullet, the weapon used must have been a muzzle-loader. The bullet taken from the body I gave into the keeping of the paymaster of the 2nd Battalion, 49th Infantry Regiment. The paymaster's name is Wirowski. The revolt was then systematically suppressed, and the houses searched for francs-tireurs. In this way about forty civilians, amongst whom were several--at least two--priests, were found with weapons in their hands. According to my observations and to the events described, there is no doubt that a systematic plan of attack on the German troops had been adopted by the Belgian civilians. The regimental adjutant, Lieutenant v. Oppen, was also witness to the events, and will be able to make a statement regarding them. The Captain of the II. Corps of Military Police, named Karge, was also present.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: FOLZ.
Legally sworn.
Signed: BERNHARDS. Signed: HOFMANN.
Supplement to the Record of November 15th, 1914.
APPENDIX B.--ANDENNE
App. B.
War Office.
Military Court of Inquiry into the Violation of the Laws of War.
BELGIAN CIVILIAN UPRISING IN ANDENNE ON AUGUST 20TH, 1914.
_Summary Report._
Andenne is a small industrial Belgian town of about 8000 inhabitants, situated on the southern bank of the Meuse, half-way between the fortresses of Huy and Namur, in the province of Namur. During their advance, the German troops had constantly come into contact with Andenne. About the 20th August 1914 two infantry regiments and a Jäger Battalion marched from Coutisse towards Andenne, towards the north, in order to be able to cross the pontoon bridge there over the Meuse. They were commanded by Major-General Freiherr von Langermann and Erlencamp; Major von Polentz was at the head of one of the infantry battalions.
The inhabitants of Andenne received the passing troops in an apparently friendly manner; they gave them water, and the soldiers believed that in the quiet of the evening they would be able to pass peaceably through Andenne and reach the Meuse, flowing northwards. But scarcely had the head of the marching column arrived at the bridge over the Meuse, when the peaceful picture presented by the town suddenly changed, and the inhabitants showed their true character, a thing which unfortunately occurred only too often in Belgium. This time their deeds were truly devilish. Bells pealed from the church tower; as they ceased, the citizens, recently so helpful, suddenly disappeared from the streets, and bolted their doors and let down the shutters. A mad fire from all sides was poured upon the unsuspecting troops. In the town they shot from the cellars and from specially prepared openings in the roofs, and bombs and hand-grenades were hurled down on the defenceless men who happened to be nearest. Machine-guns sent their murderous bullets through the soldiers' ranks. At the same time, hidden francs-tireurs began firing from the heights opposite the end of the bridge over the Meuse. Besides which men and women in wild fury poured boiling water from the half-open windows upon the German troops. Of Major v. Polentz's men alone over one hundred were scalded. Against this inhumanity the troops had to defend themselves energetically. They pressed into the houses and shot down the cowardly aggressors in their hiding-places. The houses which had served them for cover were set on fire. About two hundred inhabitants lost their lives in these fights.
These are the details of the street-fighting in Andenne, which are supplemented by the official report attached, made by Major-General von Langermann and Erlencamp; and also by the evidence on oath of Major von Polentz, as well as of Rifleman Roleff--all eye-witnesses--who gave evidence without prejudice; and by the report of Lieutenant Goetze.
BERLIN, _the 29th of September 1915_.
Military Court of Inquiry into the Violation of the Laws of War.
Signed: Major BAUER. Signed: Dr. WAGNER, Member of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
B. App. 1.
BERLIN, _January 21st, 1915_.
_Official Report._