LOUVAIN, _November 16th, 1914_.
STATIONSSTRASSE, 118.
Court of the General Belgian Government.
Present:
President, STEMPEL.
Secretary, STEMPER.
On citation there appears as witness Corporal Willi Kröber, who is
examined as follows:
As to Person: My name is Willi Kröber, aged 24; corporal, 8th
Leib-Grenadier Regiment, at present in Louvain at the Commandant's
office.
As to Case: I have been here since the 21st of August, in the infantry
barracks, Rue de Tirlemont, with bad feet. On August 25th, at about
9 o'clock in the evening, we here heard shots which, according to
the sound, came from revolvers, but not German ones. We had to form
up in the court. A sergeant-major distributed cartridges among us,
whereupon I marched off with about twenty men. In the Rue de Tirlemont
we were vigorously fired at from houses to the right of the barracks
and from houses near the military hospital, the shots being fired
from small rifles. We entered a restaurant, from which shots had
been fired on us, and we found that the owner had about 100 Browning
cartridges. He was taken prisoner and shot. In the public square I
saw in the above-mentioned night two dead baggage horses and several
German soldiers lying dead in the street. By the light of the shots it
could be clearly seen that we were being shot at from the houses of
the Rue Tirlemont. We also heard the bullets from these shots strike
the street. On our return to barracks I still heard many shots in the
distance. On August 26th I did not go out. On August 27th, in the
afternoon about 5 o'clock, I went with five men under the command of
a non-commissioned officer from the town hall to the market-place. In
this square we were shot at with revolvers from the roofs of several
houses; the bullets fell near us.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: WILLI KRÖBER.
After the importance of the oath had been pointed out to the witness,
he was duly sworn.
Signed: STEMPEL. Signed: STEMPER.