Present:
President of the Court, SCHWEINITZ.
Secretary, LIPS.
NEUFCHÂTEL, _February 20th, 1915_.
In the examination concerning the events in Dinant the under-mentioned
witness appeared and stated:
As to Person: My name is Herbert Max Reinhard Brink. I am 22 years old;
Protestant; Lieutenant in the 1st Field Company, Pioneer Battalion No.
12, XII. Army Corps.
As to Case: I was leader of the platoon of the 1st Field Pioneer
Company which took part in the reconnaissance in force on the night of
the 21st-22nd August 1914. In Dinant, on that occasion, we were briskly
fired at from the houses. I did not see the marksmen; certainly they
were not soldiers. I conclude this from the numerous injuries from
small shot which our wounded had. During the street-fighting a little
old cylinder-revolver, from which one shot had been discharged, fell on
my head. No officer and, still more, no soldier would have been likely
to use such an antiquated weapon.
On August 23rd, 1914, I marched into Dinant with a part of the 1st
Field Pioneer Company, and joined up with the detachment of Count
Kielmannsegg. We were fired at very vigorously from the houses, among
others also from those on the bank of the Meuse, but not at all from
the opposite bank. The marksmen were civilians without any military
badge. I myself saw several civilians with weapons in their hands. A
woman also fired down at us from the stairs as we were forcing our way
into a house. She was immediately shot down from below.
I was witness how four men and a woman were shot by grenadiers because
they came out, armed, from the houses from which we had been fired
at. I was further witness how a larger number of guilty inhabitants
were shot by order of Count Kielmannsegg; the women and children were
first separated from the men. I saw, at the moment when the volley was
delivered, one of the men draw a revolver from his pocket and fire at
the soldiers. I was astonished, too, that the weapon had not been taken
away from him. In any case, he had only just been brought up at the
last moment before the execution.
As far as I have seen, our soldiers did not in any way behave cruelly
towards the inhabitants. On the contrary, from the houses out of which
the inhabitants had been driven, our men brought out on mattresses four
women, who were unable to walk on account of recent confinement, and
laid them in the street in a place sheltered from the firing, close to
our own wounded.
In the evening towards 7 o'clock I marched with my detachment from
Dinant to Les Rivages. On the way, at the last houses in Dinant we
again received a brisk fire from the houses. We had no time to stop
and clear these houses, as we had strict orders to evacuate Dinant
immediately on account of the impending bombardment of the place. As we
entered Les Rivages the bridge-building was in progress.
We remained at this place a further two days. After the completion of
the bridge, we noticed repeatedly on August 24th that our columns,
which had crossed the bridge and were marching downstream on the west
bank of the Meuse, were fired at from Dinant.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: BRINK, Lieutenant.
The witness was hereupon sworn.
Signed: SCHWEINITZ. Signed: LIPS.