REPORT on the Street-fighting in Les Rivages (Dinant) on August 23rd,
1914.
The companies of the 1st Battalion of Grenadier Regiment No. 101 had
reached Les Rivages in the afternoon of August 23rd, 1914, but had
to be retired for about 600 to 800 metres on the road from Pont de
Pierre on account of our own artillery having opened a heavy fire
on this locality. The Mayor of the place, who was fetched up by me,
protested that there were no weapons at hand, and that the inhabitants
entertained no plot against our troops. He was commissioned to have
ready, within a fixed time, bread and butter for the companies at the
outlet of the place, where later the bridge was thrown over the Meuse.
The companies did not get there to enjoy these, since, in the meantime,
the 2nd Company had crossed over and the remaining companies were
involved in the street-fighting.
When the companies, after the cessation of our artillery fire, had
again been led out to Les Rivages and had been divided into commandos
to receive the victuals asked for, the inhabitants began a murderous
fire on the companies from all the houses and gardens and also from
the hill-slopes. Inside and outside the houses, men of all ages were
firing, also innumerable women and even girls of ten years of age. Here
a woman was severely wounded in the breast by the inhabitants, and was
bandaged by us.
The battalion received the order to take up the fight against the
inhabitants of the place, who were firing as if demented; for this
purpose the 3rd and 4th Companies pushed forward to the street-and
house-fighting, whilst portions of the 1st Company remained on the
river-bank. A part of the inhabitants who were acting in a particularly
mean fashion and were firing madly with all kinds of firearms, without
let or hindrance, upon our troops, were shot down to the number of
about twenty; amongst these were some women who, with special cunning,
fired again and again into the companies from the rear. This shooting
was done to defend ourselves and to scare the inhabitants from any
further atrocities. About 100 to 150 men and women, also children,
were seized and taken over the Meuse to the opposite bank by the first
rope-ferries, partly to prevent further outrages, partly to remove
them, as far as they appeared innocent, from the terrible fighting.
The fighting of the 3rd and 4th Companies in the streets lasted until
far into the darkness, until finally the burning of the whole place put
a stop to the general activity of the population.
The order to take up the street-fighting by direction of the regiment
came through me and was detailed by me to the 3rd and 4th Companies. I,
for my part, can only protest that the inhabitants of the place--men
of every age women and girls--fired madly on us at a given signal,
and that the remedy taken only constituted an act of self-defence.
The situation in which the troops found themselves, especially at the
spot where the bridge was later thrown across, deserves, in every true
sense, the name of a witches' cauldron, for a worse situation, brought
about by a raging force of men and women, cannot be imagined. Despite
all the dreadful impressions of such fighting, I have since always
admired the calmness our men maintained in the presence of such brutes,
far removed from any thought of cruelty, even though they themselves
were exposed to the worst.
Signed: SCHLICK, Major and Commander, 1st Battalion,
Grenadier Regiment No. 101.