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.
In the meantime the last detachment of the foremost company had pushed
forward into the village itself. The men proceeded in quite detached
formation. They were at once received by francs-tireurs firing from the
various visible houses on both sides of the street. The detachment was
obliged first to clear each individual house of francs-tireurs before
they could again advance a little. The street door had to be smashed
in and each separate room had to be captured from the francs-tireurs.
About 10 a.m. two platoons of our company, one of them the 2nd Platoon
under Lieutenant Schreyer, to which I belonged, came to the help of
our comrades. We were obliged to fight for each individual house, to
kill the male population in them who, as far as I saw, carried rifles
and fired, and to shut up the women and children in order in this way
to advance gradually. Only some quite old men were found without arms.
They were not killed, but locked up with the women. In the afternoon,
towards 3 o'clock, the house-fighting still fluctuated, and we had not
yet penetrated as far as the village square when I received the order
to go back with about half a platoon and occupy the heights of the
Meuse from which francs-tireurs were still firing. In executing this
order, I passed a wood-sawing factory before which lay about thirty
francs-tireurs who had been shot. This house had been stormed by men
of my 1st Platoon. They told me in the evening that each separate room
in the house had been occupied by civilians engaged in firing. The
francs-tireurs had been shot according to the usages of war.
Up on the heights I did not succeed in catching a franc-tireur. Up
there they were by this time very much scattered. Right under the
heights lay the village. I could look straight down from above into
the village street. The street-fighting was still in progress, but
became less since the village in the meantime had begun to burn. On the
opposite heights I saw German Jägers--I believe Marburgers--subduing
armed civilians. These francs-tireurs had previously also fired on my
platoon. When I returned, towards 7 o'clock in the evening, from the
heights, the whole place, as far as the village square which lies on
the Meuse, was in the hands of the Germans. About the whole village,
also on the village square, there lay corpses of francs-tireurs. I
took part in the storming of eight or ten houses. They all afforded
the same picture: shots from the windows, street doors barred so that
they had to be forced open, all male persons, without any military
badge or uniform, armed with sporting-guns. As soon as we got into the
room they dropped their weapons and held up their hands. During the
street-fighting and on the heights where the civilians were firing I
did not see any uniform. The civilians did not give me the impression
of being soldiers in civilian clothes. They were mostly older people,
40 years old and upwards, or young fellows of 17 to 18 years; persons
of 20 to 30 years I practically did not see at all.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: STIEBING, Acting-Sergeant-Major.
The witness was sworn.
Signed: Dr. UHLIG. Signed: GÖRNER.