Present:
Lieutenant of Reserve KLEBERGER, as Officer of the Court.
Sergeant RICHTER, as Military Clerk of the Court.
ORAINVILLE, _March 17th, 1915_.
Summoned as witness, there appeared Major Langheld, who, after being
advised as to the significance of the oath, made the following
statement:
As to Person: My name is Karl Anton Emil Langheld. I am 43 years old;
Protestant; Major, Infantry Regiment No. 143.
As to Case: On the afternoon of August 23rd I marched with my battalion
at the head of the regiment from Lisogue to Leffe. The march from the
beginning of the Leffe Valley was somewhat interrupted. During the
advance the report came from the rear that a man of the 1st Company
had been shot at from a house. By command of Captain Wuttig the house
was set on fire by soldiers of the 1st Company, and the men who were
seized in it, with weapons in their hands, were shot. During the whole
of the afternoon one heard continual firing among the houses in Leffe
and on the heights encircling the right and left of the Leffe Valley.
A company of the Jäger Battalion, No. 11, was engaged in clearing the
slopes on which there were armed inhabitants. The 9th Company of my
regiment received a similar commission on the southern slope. I myself
marched on with the 10th and 11th Companies to the bank of the Meuse in
order to cross over there. Here I saw several times that guilty male
inhabitants were shot.
On the night of the 24th, from time to time, fugitives turned up at
our outposts--principally women and children--amongst them a number
of nuns led by a priest. I sheltered them in a farm near which the
11th Company was in bivouac. Our men gave some of their provisions to
the people, although they had only a little themselves. I pacified
the fugitives myself, and as I was obliged that same night to march
farther, I handed over to the priest a note to say that these people
had incurred no blame. I was unable to take further trouble about them.
However, I asked the Catholic Divisional Chaplain Kaiser, whom I met
next morning, to see that the people got away safely.
Read over, approved.
Witness was sworn according to regulations.
Signed: KLEBERGER, Lieutenant of Reserve and Officer of the Court.
Signed: RICHTER, Sergeant, as Clerk to the Military Court.