As to Person: My name is Max Robert Theodor Hoehne, aged 28;
Protestant; art dealer; at present corporal, 4th Reserve Company,
Reserve Battalion No. 162.
As to Case: On the evening of August 25th, at about 9 o'clock, our
regiment marched into Louvain in column of route. At the head marched
the 1st Company. Then followed the 2nd, to which I belonged. It was
already dark. The gas-lamps were alight. Outside in the suburb a few
windows showed light. People in civilian dress put water in the street
for us. But we did not drink of it because an officer warned us not to
do so. The civilians behaved in a quiet and not unfriendly manner.
We marched over the railway bridge into the town straight on. At a
point where there was a square occupied by automobiles, the road made
a sharp bend. We marched past this bend straight on again. Up till
then nothing happened, except that we saw no civilians at all in the
town. The windows of the ground floors in this part of the street were
closed by shutters. The windows of the upper floors were open. But this
fact only struck me when we were fired at. Shortly after my company
passed the bend of the road, a shot rang out, and this was immediately
followed by brisk firing. I saw many such shots flash from the upper
windows, and also noticed how sparks flew about as the bullets fell
into the street. Immediately at the beginning of the firing two men
behind me fell; one of them was Corporal Wiessner. Wiessner sat down
at the roadside; the other soldier remained lying in the street, face
down. We now dispersed on both sides and fired into the upper windows.
During the firing I saw yet another soldier fall. In the meantime we
had destroyed the lamps by our fire, so that nothing could be seen. I
cannot say how long the firing continued. After some time the order
was passed along to cease firing. When we were about to reassemble we
were fired at from the windows of the ground floors. I was hit by small
shot that had been fired directly through a window-pane on the ground
floor; the shot remained in the haversack and coat. A comrade who
turned towards the window fell at once owing to, so I assume, a shot in
the head.
We now fired also into the ground-floor windows, removing in part the
shutters. I, with a few others who had burst open the door, entered
the house from which came the small shot. We could find no one in
the house, but in the room from which the small shot had come, an
overturned paraffin-lamp, still smouldering, was on the table.
When the firing ceased, the order to "rally" was sounded, and I only
heard the call of our company. We rallied outside a restaurant at the
corner of a street, and were suddenly fired at from a window near us,
with revolvers, as I could tell by the sound. After having rallied,
we wanted to return in close order, but were again fired at from the
houses. The greater part of us continued the retreat. I and four
others, however, turned about and marched on in the old direction. We
joined some few other soldiers going in the same direction. On our way
we saw more than half a dozen wounded soldiers lying in the street. Two
men lay beneath and beside a shot horse. One of them pulled himself
from beneath it. I pulled away the other from the horse, but left him
lying because he was dead. In doing this I was kicked on the knee by
the horse. Later on we joined the main body of our battalion near the
station bridge in that road which one reaches when entering Louvain
straight from the railway bridge. The troops were here drawn up and
ordered to search the houses. Shortly before, a woman, with a child
upon her arm and with two children beside her, passed right through
the troops. No harm befell her. She was allowed to pass into the town
unchecked.
Read over, approved, and signed.
Signed: MAX HOEHNE.
The witness was sworn.
Signed: DUBEL. Signed: GIESE.