ANOTHER SCENE OF BOCHE BRUTALITY.
The accompanying sketch is of the Market Square of Armentières, the
building shown in the centre being the Town Hall. The cobble stones of
the roadway and the lattice-shuttered windows are of the style which has
lasted for generations. This quaint and picturesque town was devastated
and almost totally destroyed; in fact, the bit of it I show was the only
portion the enemy left uninjured. We captured the place, taking four
machine guns, several horses, a quantity of equipment and ammunition.
Two of the machine guns were mounted in the clock tower, a position
commanding the range of the street. It is revolting to recall the
stories we were told here, and carefully verified, of the shameless
atrocities of the Huns. The populace were still in occupation of the
buildings when we were driving the Germans back from the barricades. Of
course they were greatly terrified, and we did our best to pacify them
and soothe their nerves as we came in contact with them. How different
was the treatment they received from the enemy. Take the house on the
left of the picture. Here Germans walked their horses through the door
shown, along the passage into the yard in the rear, as a mere piece of
bravado--an incident scarcely worth mentioning in view of the crimes
they proceeded to commit. The householder, with his wife and two
daughters, was sitting eating his dinner when the party arrived.
The cowardly brutes shot this man on sight--in full view of his
family--carried his body out and later on buried it in the chicken run.
Meanwhile, they came back and ate the dinner. The various members of the
family were tied up to beds and subjected to the grossest of infamies
and greatest of cruelties.
[Illustration: WHERE GERMANS RAPED AND MURDERED.]
I repeat that we verified the stories of these horrors, as we had
verified elsewhere other such stories before, and as we verified
elsewhere other such stories afterwards.
Naturally, our men fought their hardest, and by four o'clock in the
afternoon of the day we advanced we drove the Boches at the point of the
bayonet.