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.