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.