EXTRACT from the Reports of the Staff of the 46th Infantry Brigade and
of Regiments Nos. 108 and 182 on the fighting at Dinant, August 23rd,
1914.
Staff of the 46th Infantry Brigade.
Towards 9 o'clock in the forenoon Regiments Nos. 108 and 182 reached
the eastern slopes of the Meuse.
There now ensued a hot fight for the town of Dinant, which was defended
by francs-tireurs, and which resulted in serious loss, especially of
officers. As the Brigade Commander was of opinion that Dinant could not
be taken without previously bombarding it with artillery, he gave the
order at 10 a.m. to again evacuate Dinant if possible. At the time this
was no longer practicable, since the regiments were already too much
involved in the house-to-house fighting and were pressing forward in
the direction of the market-place.
Whilst every individual house was being hotly fought for, the troops
were being heavily fired on from the opposite bank of the Meuse by
artillery and machine-guns.
The commanders of the two regiments met in the market-place. Since no
decisive result was possible without artillery against the enemy who
were concealed in houses, cellars, and caves, and who were even firing
from the cathedral, they resolved to gradually evacuate the town.
This was begun at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Rifle-Fusilier Regiment No. 108.
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.