Chapter X: Appendix: C.--Dinant (2)

The 3rd Battalion in its advance on Dinant had at once been fired at from the eastern houses. Nothing was to be seen of the enemy, although continuous firing came from the northern border of the Dinant-Gemechenne road valley. The farm of Malais was stormed by the 1st Battalion. The whole of the francs-tireurs who had resisted there were killed. According to its instructions, the battalion reached Leffe and Dinant under fire from the inhabitants. In the house of Dinant there were no longer any of the enemy forces either in uniform or provided with any military badges, but it was the fanatical population, even women, who fired on the troops. In the market-place there developed a brisk house-to-house fight. There was firing even from the tower of the cathedral. Almost all the houses were systematically defended. Both regimental commanders (of the 108th and 182nd Regiments) came to the conclusion that the Meuse could not be reached without the support of our artillery, and therefore ordered the return of the regiments at 3.30 in the afternoon. At 5 o'clock the bombardment of Dinant by our artillery began. On the following morning the brigade crossed the Meuse on the pontoon bridge at Leffe which was built by the 32nd Infantry Division, since it was impossible to march through burning Dinant.

Infantry Regiment No. 182.

During the advance of the regiment along the edge of a valley it received a continuous shrapnel fire from the western bank of the Meuse and infantry fire from the buildings and copses on the edge of the valley, causing losses. Captain Klotz, the leader of the machine-gun company, fell through a shot from above, apparently from one of the fortress-like watch-towers which stand there. Two battalions penetrated into Dinant and on towards the bridge, and received a detached fire from the houses and from the cliffs of the east bank, in numerous rocky caves of which francs-tireurs were hidden. At 5.30 in the evening the regiment stood again on the heights above Dinant while our artillery from the north furiously bombarded the town on both sides of the river.

In the evening and during the night enemy sharpshooters still continued to fire from the woods and buildings on the edge of the valley, which they had reached by passages in the rocks unknown to us, and into which they again disappeared.

C. App. 13.

WOOD SOUTH-WEST OF LA VILLE AUX BOIS, _February 5th, 1915_.

_Deposition._

By order of the Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prince George" No. 108 there appeared as witness Corporal Schmieder of the 10th Company.

Warned to speak the whole truth, he made the following deposition:

As to Person: My name is Hermann Walter Schmieder. I am 20 years of age; of the Evangelical-Lutheran faith; gardener by calling; now corporal in the 10th Company.

As to Case: On the Sorinnes-Dinant road the following occurrence took place in the part of the town of Dinant which lies on both sides of the road. I witnessed how two male civilians discharged pistol-shots at Major Lommatsch, Battalion Commander, 16th Infantry Regiment No. 182, from the first storey of a house standing directly on the road. Major Lommatsch immediately collapsed.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: SCHMIEDER.

The witness was sworn in accordance with regulations.

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

C. App. 14.

WOOD SOUTH-WEST OF LA VILLE AUX BOIS, _February 5th, 1915_.

_Deposition._

By order of the Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prince George" No. 108 there appeared:

1. Corporal Horn.

2. Corporal Matthes.

Warned to speak the whole truth, they made the following deposition:

1. Horn.

As to Person: My name is Max Bruno Horn. I am 22 years old; of the Evangelical-Lutheran faith; machinery smith by trade; now corporal, 12th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prince George" No. 108.

As to Case: On the afternoon of the 23rd August a platoon of artillerymen was standing in the vicinity of the water-tower at the fort of Dinant. All at once the artillerymen sent for the infantry to help them. The group in which I was moved up. The artillerymen were firing with their pistols at about eight civilians who were armed with rifles. When the civilians saw us coming they ran down the slope towards Dinant. I did not see German soldiers in Dinant commit any cruelties on the inhabitants.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: HORN.

The witness was duly sworn.

2. Matthes.

As to Person: My name is Johannes Walter Matthes. I am 28 years old; of the Evangelical-Lutheran faith; butcher by trade; now rifleman, 12th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prince George" No. 108.

As to Case: I concur to the fullest extent in the statement of Corporal Horn, and have nothing further to add.

Read over, approved, signed.

Signed: MATTHES.

Witness was duly sworn.

Signed: LOSSOW, Lieutenant and Officer of the Court.
Signed: SCHUBERT, Acting-Sergeant-Major and Clerk of the Court.

C. App. 15.

WOOD SOUTH-WEST OF LA VILLE AUX BOIS, _February 5th, 1915_.

_Deposition._

By order of the Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prince George" No. 108 there appeared as witness Rifleman Körner. Warned to speak the whole truth, he made the following deposition:

As to Person: My name is Artur Hugo Körner. I am 21 years old; of the Evangelical-Lutheran faith; glass-cutter by trade; now rifleman, 11th Company, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment "Prince George" No. 108.

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.

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.