BOMBARDMENT OF UNDEFENDED TOWNS. CRIMES COMMITTED DURING BOMBARDMENT.
DEFINITION OF BOMBARDMENT
The bombardment of towns, villages, and dwelling-houses is forbidden
when these places have no military defence. If they have, bombardment is
permitted, but under certain conditions. The commander who carries it on
is bound to give notice beforehand to the enemy authorities, or at least
to do everything he can to warn them. In the second place, bombardment
must spare buildings dedicated to religion, science, and philanthropy,
and also hospitals and centres for the sick and wounded, provided, of
course—
(1) that these buildings have not been used for military
purposes;
(2) that they are distinguished by some mark besiegers can see.
Consequently, the crimes which an army may commit, so far as bombardment
is concerned, are as follows—
(1) bombardment of an undefended town or village.
(2) bombardment of a town or village without previous notice.
(3) bombardment of churches, monuments, scientific and
charitable institutions, hospitals, ambulances.
UNDEFENDED TOWNS BOMBARDED BY THE GERMANS
The Germans committed all these crimes simultaneously, but the least
excusable and most cruel of all was the bombardment of towns which the
enemy had evacuated, and to which, therefore, he could render no further
aid.
Three French towns and districts, Pont-à-Mousson, Douai, and Lille, met
with this fate from artillery and aeroplanes.
BOMBARDMENT OF PONT-À-MOUSSON
This began on the 11th August, continued the following day, then on the
14th August and finally became intermittent. The firing on the town was
resumed more than a hundred times. It was an open town, however, and the
French army were not defending it, further than that the bridge over the
Moselle had been put in a state of defence at the outbreak of hostilities
by the 26th light infantry battalion.
Moreover, the bombardment of Pont-à-Mousson took place without previous
warning, and was not preceded by any notice, nor any occupation by the
German troops, who did not even show themselves (on the 11th, 12th and
14th August) before the town. The operation was carried out by means of
guns placed in concealment on the other side of the frontier. The firing
was directed by an airship flying over the batteries.
Acts of this kind are the proof of a deliberate and premeditated desire
to destroy and to terrorise. In this case destruction is here not the
inevitable sequence to attack and defence, but an end pursued for its
own sake in contravention and defiance of established laws. Thanks to
the signals given by the airship, the German batteries were able to
damage the St. Martin quarter, on the right bank of the Moselle, and the
site of the new hospital and the college. The hospital was flying the
Red Cross flag, but was struck precisely for that very reason: a shell
burst near the bed in which a wounded Saxon officer was under treatment.
Fortunately, no one in the hospital was wounded, though not less than
seventy shells struck the building during the 14th August. In the rest of
the town forty people were killed and as many wounded. They were women
and children.
BOMBARDMENT OF DOUAI
Towards the end of the month of August the town of Douai served as a
storehouse for numerous German troops. It was formerly occupied on the
1st October. The outrages which it suffered from the Germans on the 8th
and 12th October were committed against a town which it was, in fact,
impossible for the French to defend. On the 8th October a Taube bombarded
Douai, throwing two bombs, which did little damage. On the 12th October a
second Taube threw another bomb, which burst behind M. Mathieu’s house,
in the Rue d’Hesdin, and killed a little girl named Briois, aged five
years, who was closing the windows of a house.
BOMBARDMENT OF LILLE
On the 10th October, when the French were coming up to Lille, the Germans
forcibly carried off M. Delesalle, mayor of the town; M. Ducastel,
municipal councillor, and several other municipal officials. Then,
when they had almost evacuated the town, they directed against it a
furious bombardment, which began on the evening of the 10th October and
continued, with a short interval, until the 12th October at 9 o’clock in
the morning. The Rue Faidherbe was completely demolished and the end of
the Rue de l’Hôpital Militaire was terribly damaged. Many fires broke
out in the Rues de Paris, du Mélinel and de Béthune. The town hall, the
prefecture, the post office, the Palais des Beaux Arts were injured. The
Kulmann and Wallaert works were burnt down. The _Times_ correspondent
stated that a bomb thrown by a Taube, near the prefecture, wounded a
woman who was walking along, and killed by her side her little son, aged
twelve years.
Let us repeat that this bombardment of Lille took place when the
French were only coming up to the town and that the latter had not
been completely evacuated by the Germans, who were, therefore, guilty
of violation of the laws of war. It was the same with the bombardment
carried on upon the 11th and 12th November. On this occasion also the
allied troops were only coming up. More than 7000 shells fell on the town
during the time the Germans remained there. The presence of the Germans
is proved by one abominable detail. It is a fact that they had cut the
water-pipes in order that the fires kindled by the bombardment could not
be put out. A little later they were compelled to blow up houses with
melinite to stop the fire which was spreading in all directions.
At the beginning of the month of December Lille had a total of 998 burnt
houses. During the bombardment the College Saint-Joseph, which was flying
a white flag as a signal that it should be spared, was struck by two
shells.
BOMBARDMENT OF BELGRADE
On account of its geographical situation the capital of Serbia was
evacuated by Serbian troops. Only civilians remained and the Red Cross
flag was hoisted. Consequently the town was entitled to think itself
immune from outrage and bombardment. Nothing of the kind was the case.
Belgrade was bombarded on the 28th and 30th July, then from the 16th to
the 18th August, and finally on the 14th and 15th September. Several
quarters of the town were burnt; many of the inhabitants were killed,
amongst others two mental patients in a private asylum.
As soon as a fire broke out, the places round the burning building were
riddled with bullets, so that the residents could neither put out the
fire nor localise it.
In the midst of all the turmoil the Serbian Government took care to lodge
its complaint with the Powers, through their representatives.
BOMBARDMENTS WITHOUT NOTICE
We should not forget that the notice of bombardment required by the laws
of war was impossible in more cases than one. Moreover, it is admitted
that attacking troops are absolved from the charge of breach of these
laws, when they do all they can to give warning. Besides, warning of
bombardment is not always required to make an attacked town expect it. We
could not, therefore, regard as a contravention of law all bombardments,
without exception, which the Germans had made without giving notice.
But, this said, can we allow to pass the circumstance that, of all these
bombardments, only two, those of Antwerp and Reims, were preceded by the
necessary warning? German callousness and cruelty stand self-condemned
by the fact that the proportion is so small. Add that the bombardment of
Reims, started on the pretext that two German bearers of a flag of truce,
who had lost their way in the French lines, were not brought back quickly
enough, was in itself a sheer outrage.
TOWNS BOMBARDED BEHIND THE LINES
One kind of bombardment for which there is no excuse is that in which
German aircraft engaged over towns and villages behind the enemy lines,
out of the reach of German guns and sometimes even outside the theatre
of war. It is certain that the intention to give oneself up to such acts
absolutely precludes respect for open towns and for preliminary warnings.
It is the proof of an absolute contempt for the laws of war, and of a
fixed determination to act contrary to ordinary good sense.
The bombing of Paris, Antwerp (25th August to 2nd Sept.), Dunkirk,
Warsaw—towns all of which were situated, when the attack took place,
out of the range of German cannon, is an outrage of a special kind. No
military object was in view, but merely a desire to terrorise the civil
population. At Paris six people were killed and about thirty wounded:
at Antwerp there were twelve people killed and twenty-five wounded; at
Dunkirk about fifteen were killed and more than twenty wounded; at Warsaw
106 people were injured. All these victims—except at Warsaw, where among
the people struck were nine soldiers—were civilians, for the most part
women, children and old men. Hence we understand the indignation aroused
among neutrals by these bombardments, and the care which several nations
took to protest against them.
The American Committee, founded by the United States ambassador in Paris,
and consisting of the most influential Americans resident in Paris, was
entrusted with the duty of keeping an eye upon the conduct of Germans on
the outskirts of the French capital and above it. They were indignant
at the deadly acts of the German aeroplanes in Paris, and dispatched
a report on the subject. As for the throwing of bombs on Antwerp, the
American newspapers denounced it and emphatically assigned it to its
category. The _World_ described this kind of attack as “murder, pure
and simple”; “dynamite for children,” said the _New York Herald_; the
_New York Times_ spoke of “crime against humanity”; and the _Tribune_
energetically protested against the repetition of murder so blind, so
purposeless and so unpardonable.
BOMBARDMENT OF MALINES AND LIERRE
When the Belgians took Malines again, on the 25th August, the Germans
began to bombard it. This act can only be put down to a thirst for
vengeance. They made violent efforts to demolish it quarter by quarter
by bursting shells. One shell struck a bakehouse and killed two workmen
in it. The cathedral, the museum, the town hall, St. Peter’s Church, the
magistrates’ court, and all the buildings round about the “Grand Place”
were badly damaged, and the ministers of State of the Triple Entente,
who visited Malines on the 13th September, saw shells smashing in before
their eyes the pro-cathedral of Saint-Rombaud, full of miracles of art,
where Van Dyck’s “Christ upon the Cross” towered high above the tombs of
the archbishops; they witnessed also the destruction of the famous old
carillon of the pro-cathedral, and the belfries of churches, convents
and seminaries buried beneath the ruins (_vide_ the photograph of one of
the chapels of “Our Lady of Malines” after the Germans had passed by, in
_L’Illustration_ for the 3rd October).
What is left of Malines? A German journalist, war-correspondent of
the _Berliner Tageblatt_, undertook to reply to this question, in a
description, entitled _Malines the Dead_, of the town in the condition in
which the German bombardment left it.
“Life has become extinct. The town is dead. The sixty thousand
inhabitants have fled. The melancholy houses stand open. The streets
are empty. German soldiers go up and down. In the Grand Place, the
wool-market, the Place d’Egmont, at the railway station, soldiers are
working in larger groups, but the ordinary residents are wanting.
“The emptiness and the havoc in these venerable-looking streets are so
awful and so overwhelming that one’s breath is stopped and one recalls
with terror the legend of towns that bore a curse upon them. What no one
has ever seen, what Hoffmann and Edgar Poe have never dreamed of in their
morbid visions, has here become a reality.
“In the midst of the town rises the cathedral, a Gothic building of
gigantic size. The tower, 100 metres high, bounds the horizon on the
west. At the top, at a height which makes the brain reel, four dials,
fourteen metres in diameter, are twisted and riddled with bullets. Shells
have hollowed out seven holes in the wall.”
Lierre, a town of 26,000 inhabitants, was, like Malines, pitilessly
bombarded towards the end of September.
When the cannonade began the inhabitants concealed themselves in
cellars, but shortly afterwards they fled. Several among them took refuge
in Antwerp. Many houses in the town were destroyed and a certain number
of people were wounded. A shell even struck a hospital and killed nine
persons.
BOMBARDMENT OF MARS-LA-TOUR
The village of Mars-la-Tour, in Lorraine, was bombarded by the Germans on
the 16th August, the anniversary of the battle which took place in 1870.
They cannonaded the memorial church, Abbé Faller’s _Musée patriotique_,
and the monument to commemorate the battle of 1870. The bombardment
lasted a full hour, and took place with mathematical regularity. Only one
house was damaged, which proves that the buildings mentioned were the
carefully chosen target of the German guns; two persons, an old mechanic
and a woman, were fatally injured. The other inhabitants took refuge in
the cellars.
BOMBARDMENT OF ÉTAIN
On the 24th August, at one o’clock in the afternoon, the bombardment of
Étain began. Suspended for some hours, it began again at nearly eleven
p.m. and lasted until two a.m. The results were frightful. The next
morning half the town was in ashes; the other half was falling into
ruins. The Red Cross hospital in particular was aimed at. The first
shell struck down the white flag, while Dr. Proust was operating on the
wounded: the latter had to be hidden away in the cellars, whence they
were driven to Verdun (Report of Mme. Paul, President of the Committee of
the Association des Dames Françaises at Étain).
BOMBARDMENT OF ALBERT
The bombardment of Albert took place on the 30th August. We may judge
how violent it was from a photograph of the ruins which appeared in
_L’Illustration_ for the 10th October. Whole streets disappeared, and the
whole Place d’Armes was demolished: the Germans made a target of Notre
Dame de Brébières, the basilica which the inhabitants call the Lourdes
of the North, and to which so many pilgrimages make their way each year.
This church was completely ruined by the sacrilegious fire expressly
aimed at it, and the Statue of the Miraculous Virgin which crowned it is
to-day thrown down and lies upon the ground. All around there is nothing
but building material that has fallen in, half-burnt beams, charred
walls, houses without roofs, broken tiles, doors broken in, cut up by
grapeshot.
BOMBARDMENT OF NANCY
The French Commission of Inquiry, in its report, published in the
_Journal Officiel_ of the 8th January, 1914, states that the capital of
Lorraine was bombarded “without previous warning during the night of the
9th to 10th September. About sixty shells (continues this report) fell
on the central and southern-cemetery districts—that is to say, on places
where there is no military defence. Three men, a young woman, and a
little girl were killed, thirty people were wounded, and serious damage
was done.”
“Enemy airmen flew over the town twice. On the 4th September one of them
threw two bombs, one of which killed a man and a little girl, and wounded
six people on the ‘Place de la Cathédrale.’ On the 13th October three
bombs were thrown on the goods station. Four employees of the Eastern
Railway Company were wounded.”
FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF REIMS
The story of the first bombardment of Reims was told in the _Temps_ of
the 26th October by M. Henriot, who had the opportunity of interviewing
an influential resident in the town.
On the 4th September, whilst Zimmer, head of the German Stores
Department, was negotiating the terms of a levy to be paid by the
village, a shell, says M. Henriot, burst hard by.
“What was that explosion?” cried the German. “You know you have no
right to destroy anything.” He thought that the French were blowing up
some outwork. Another shell disabused him. Then he thought the French
had begun to fire on the town in order to drive the Germans. The local
people undeceived him. One of them ran out to the Place and brought back
a fragment of shell, which the commissary was compelled to admit was a
German missile. Then he was seen to grow pale, nor could he understand
how his own troops should engage in such an attack. The white flag
was hoisted on one of the belfries of the cathedral: at the same time
Zimmer sent a motor to give the order to cease firing. In the space of
three-quarters of an hour there fell upon the town 200 shells, which
struck Saint-Remi and Saint-André churches, broke down houses, and killed
sixty people. That was the first bombardment of Reims, due, as was then
believed, to a misunderstanding. Zimmer expressed his regrets for it, and
cried in tones of wonder, “What a fine cathedral you have!”
SECOND BOMBARDMENT OF REIMS (18th to 20th September)
The bombardment of the 4th September took place by order of General
Bülow, as a reprisal for the disappearance of two bearers of a flag of
truce, MM. Armim and Kimmer, who had been sent by him on the evening
before to Reims. On account of these two worthies, who, without
fulfilling their mission, had lost their way in the French lines, the
town found that it was threatened with the execution of ten hostages,
with bombardment, and with a levy of 100 million francs. The second
bombardment took place some days afterwards under circumstances of
barbarism which will hold it up to the execration of the ages. In the
past history of Europe there is nothing to compare with the destruction
of the Cathedral of Reims, save that of the Acropolis of Athens by the
Venetians. This cathedral was pitilessly bombarded for two days (18th
to 20th September): the masterpiece of Gothic art, honoured by the
coronation of the kings of France, where Jeanne d’Arc put the crown upon
Charles VII in 1429, became the target of destructive shells, hurled by
the Vandals.
The following is a faithful account of this event, telegraphed to the
_Daily Mail_ by the special correspondent of that paper—
“By artillery fire deliberately aimed at the Cathedral of Reims, the
Germans set fire to and burnt the magnificent building, which was not
merely the pride of the town, but an historic monument known and admired
by the entire world. Of this jewel of architecture there remains only an
empty shell, burnt and charred walls. The impression left by this act of
hideous vandalism will never leave the memory of those who have had an
opportunity of seeing these ruins.
“The sight of flames devouring a wonder which took not less than 150
years to build, and which was respected throughout numberless wars
which took place in this part of France, was one which both alarms and
haunts the mind. It seemed as if one were present at an attack by some
supernatural power, outside humanity: it was like the vision of a work of
hell.
“The fire began between four and five o’clock on Saturday afternoon (19th
September). All day shells fell in the town. A whole district of the
town, 100 metres in extent, was devoured by the fire, and in the majority
of streets only blazing houses and buildings were to be seen.
“Even on the evening before (18th September) some shells had accidentally
struck the cathedral. On Saturday morning the German batteries of Nogent
l’Abbesse, eight kilometres to the east of Reims, started aiming at the
cathedral. Shells discharged regularly and without intermission made a
breach in it. These huge blocks of stone, which had resisted the storms
of several centuries, and might still have braved the assaults of time,
sank with a fearful crash like the roll of thunder.
“At 4.30 the scaffolding on a part of the cathedral where repairs were
going on took fire. In a moment this mass of woodwork and scaffolding
began to blaze like straw. Sparks falling on the roof carried the fire
to the old oak beams which support this part of the building. Soon the
roofs of the naves and the transepts were nothing but a blazing brazier,
and the flames darted out and licked the towers. One of the burning beams
fell on a bed of straw which the Germans, as soon as they occupied the
town, had spread inside the cathedral to lay their wounded on. At once
the confessionals, the chairs, and everything which happened to be inside
the building took fire.
“I had left Paris at midday and I had made a detour round Meaux. I did
not get as far as Reims until sundown. It was too late to enter the town,
but from the hills which surround it, it was possible to get a still more
impressive view of the town than what I should have been able to see in
the streets themselves.
“From the gaping roof rose red fire and black smoke, and the reflection
of the flames glanced upon the glasswork. At last the dead of night came
on, but it was not undisturbed for long. At two o’clock in the morning
the German batteries reopened fire. By day it is the smoke of the shell
which calls attention to the explosion. By night the swift red flashes
make a still more terrible spectacle.
“The dawn came, grey and gloomy with a cold rain, and when the shadows
were dispelled and light at length glimmered through the dismal
leaden-coloured clouds, which rose and brought the plain into view again,
the sight of the ravaged city with its ruined cathedral, the walls of
which smouldered among houses still in flames, was a spectacle so dismal
that the sun in his course can have seen none more wretched in any
quarter of the world.”
DAMAGE TO THE CATHEDRAL OF REIMS
According to the report of the Commission of Inquiry, which had as
President the French Under-Secretary for Fine Arts, and whose task was to
prepare official accounts of the damage done to the Reims Cathedral, the
following were the results of the bombardment—
“The cathedral was struck by about thirty projectiles which, by actually
striking the building or by explosion, pulverised the stonework, smashed
the glass, and set fire to everything inflammable.
“Projectiles, fragments of which struck the whole building, for the most
part hit the upper part of the north tower, smashing the corner of a
turret, scraping the face of the tower, and pressing so hard upon the
adjoining masonry as nearly to displace it; one of them carried away the
upper support of a flying buttress; another smashed the stonework of some
bays sloping up to the tower; another broke up a staircase the steps of
which had been cut; still another knocked down part of the balustrade of
the principal façade under the rose-window.
“The fire kindled by the shells caused the most serious damage; no
vestige of roof is to be seen over the nave, the transepts, the choir,
the apse, the aisles: only some chapels kept their covering; but
everything else was reduced to ashes, the woodwork, the slates consumed;
everywhere lead melted and iron twisted.
“All this debris settled down beneath the vaulted roofs, which, although
they evidently suffered by contact with the fire, were not broken in.
“On the other hand, the stonework close to the great gallery at the top
of the walls, and of the circular galleries underneath the great glass
work, was shattered and charred.
“The belfry was devoured by the flames. The bells, which fell on the
lower roof without breaking it in, were partly melted; the louvre-boards
were untouched. The flames started by the conflagration, driven over the
surfaces by the wind, completely defaced the stonework, throwing down not
only some of the statues which decorated the open entrance underneath
this particular tower, but also the copings of the arches which rise
above the door, crowned by a gable containing a representation of the
Crucifixion. The damage extends to the pinnacles that rise above the
buttresses as high as the gallery of kings.
“The right side of this portal was less damaged; the other portals were
struck by fragments of shells.
“In the interior, where German wounded had been laid out on couches of
straw, the fire splintered off the moulding at the bases of the pillars
in the nave, setting fire to the tympana of the gates and even to the
gates themselves. This fire destroyed the statues placed in the niches
of the inner front, right and left of the door of the south entrance.
Finally, all the glasswork was damaged by the explosion of projectiles
and of splinters which passed through them; half of the upper rose-window
and the open-work parts above the north and south entrances were denuded
of their stained glass; the rose-window above the central entrance was
only riddled.
“To sum up, the cathedral was disfigured in its outlines and in the
details of its decoration; if its powerful construction has partly
sustained the shock of the projectiles, its wonderful sculptures can
never be replaced, and it will bear for ever the imprint of a vandalism
beyond all imagination.”
“See also photographs of the burning cathedral in _L’Illustration_ (10th
October, 1914. These photographs are genuine historic documents. See also
M. P. Gsell’s account in the _Liberté_ of the 24th September and Mr.
Bartlett’s in the _Daily Telegraph_, in _L’Illustration_ of the 26th).”
OTHER RESULTS OF THE SECOND BOMBARDMENT OF REIMS (18th to 20th September)
The cathedral was not the only objective of the second bombardment.
Not only were several houses also destroyed and several people killed,
amongst others Dr. Jacquin, who lived next door to the mayor, but the
Spanish consulate was bombarded, with the result that several neutral
subjects met their death, a fact which was noted in a preceding chapter.
The town hall, the musée, the sub-prefecture (historic monuments all of
them) were almost wholly demolished. An auxiliary hospital of the Société
des Sœurs de l’Enfant-Jesus was also cannonaded, and five Red Cross
nurses were killed and two others wounded at the bedside of the wounded
whom they had under their care.
FRESH BOMBARDMENTS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF REIMS (20th to 27th November)
After the 20th September, and in spite of the universal indignation
aroused by the outrage which they had committed, the Germans continued
the bombardment of Reims without intermission. But it was not until the
last days of the month of November that the cathedral suffered fresh
damage.
On the 23rd November a shell struck and went right through a bell-turret
in the south tower at the top; on the 27th another shell, falling between
the south buttresses, burst on the vault of the aisle. A third shell
which fell on the vaults above the south apse, brought down a great deal
of plaster in the church. A huge shell, which fell to the right of the
cathedral, a little in front of the façade, damaged three statues over
the small entrance to the right which until then had escaped. It was
but one of many other calamities and one which completed the ruin of
an historic monument. After the 20th November other shells destroyed a
pinnacle, a part of the upper gallery in the apse and a part of this
gallery beside the Salle des Rois.
Of the archbishop’s palace and the musées there remain, in a word, only
the walls.
As for the statues in the cathedral which appear unharmed, they are burnt
right through and crumble away at the touch. The crime of the barbarians
is complete.
THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE CATHEDRAL OF REIMS IS INEXCUSABLE
In the words of M. Delcassé, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
in the protest addressed by him to the governments of neutral states
on the morning after the first bombardment, the Germans committed this
crime “without being able to appeal even to the appearance of military
necessity and for the mere lust of destruction.”
Nevertheless the Germans tried to justify it by alleging—
(1) That by means of strong entrenchments the French had made
Reims the chief corner-stone of their defence, and thus forced
Germans to attack the town by every means.
(2) That by the order of the German higher command, the
cathedral was to be spared as long as the enemy did not utilise
it to his own advantage; but in spite of the white flag which
had been hoisted upon it from the 20th September, the Germans
declared that there was on the cathedral towers an observation
post which assisted the operations of the French artillery.
(3) That as soon as this post was destroyed the German field
artillery ceased firing.
(4) That only the roof of the cathedral was burnt, while the
towers and the framework of the building were uninjured. (This
statement goes back to the 21st September and emanates from the
German chief headquarters.)
(5) Finally, that the fire was due to the scaffolding erected
in front of the cathedral to carry out some repairs, and that
when beams which had caught fire had fallen on the roof, the
French had done nothing to put out the fire.
These several excuses are worthless—
(1) General Joffre has formally declared that “at no time did
the military commandant of Reims place any observation post on
the towers of the cathedral.”
(2) It was not on the 20th, but on the 4th September, on the
day of the first bombardment of Reims by the Germans, that the
white flag was hoisted on the cathedral.
(3) One wants to know to what moment the Germans assign the
destruction of the alleged observation post on the cathedral.
According to them, if this observation post had been destroyed
they would have stopped the bombardment. Now, although for a
long time every observation post had been made impossible, the
fire still continued.
(4) The report, quoted above, of the Commission des Beaux Arts,
refutes the German assertion about the seriousness of the
damage caused up to the evening of the 21st September.
(5) Do not let us forget to recall the fact that, ten days
before the bombardment, the German censorship permitted the
_Frankfurter Zeitung_ (of the 8th September) to recommend
respect for French cathedrals, “especially that of Reims,
which is one of the finest in the world, which, since the
Middle Ages, has been especially dear to Germans, since the
master of Bamberg was inspired by the statues on its portals
to design several of his figures, and which, like the other
magnificent churches of France, must be respected and treated
with veneration by the Germans, as was the case with their
fathers in 1870.” However, the censorship did not prevent the
appearance of the sinister warning, three days previously, in
the _Berliner Tageblatt_, in these words: “The western group
of the Imperial Armies has already passed the second line of
forts, except Reims, _whose royal splendour, dating from the
time of the white lily, will surely and soon crumble in the
dust under the strokes of our 420 howitzers_.”
The criminal responsibility of the commandant of the German forces has,
therefore, been proved in this matter.
PUBLIC OPINION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD ROUSED TO INDIGNATION BY THE
BOMBARDMENT OF THE CATHEDRAL OF REIMS
It is difficult to describe the indignation roused throughout all
countries of the civilised world by the bombardment of the cathedral of
Reims. The newspapers of the whole planet were its living mouthpieces.
In Italy a number of learned institutions sent protests, either to the
French Embassy at Rome or directly to the German authorities.
The Association of Artists, especially, held a reunion, at which the most
distinguished critics and artists of Italy were present, and which passed
unanimously a resolution of protest.
The _Giornale d’Italia_, echoing the indignation of its country, declared
that “this act destroyed all the ingenious and fertile excuses for
Germany’s methods of war,” and that “no act of reparation could wipe out
this act of purposeless barbarism, a crazy exhibition of wounded vanity
and ruffled pride.”
In Greece the newspapers were unanimous in stigmatising German vandalism.
_Nea Hellas_ wrote: “In the name of art, in the name of the Parthenon
half destroyed by the fire of the Venetian Morosini, Greece, the mother
of civilised nations, appeals to belligerents to respect treasures of
art, and asks the Germans to cease to dishonour their country.”
In Spain the destruction of the cathedral of Reims partly destroyed the
long preparation of Spanish opinion which had been carried on in favour
of Germany. The indignation of Spaniards was faithfully expressed by an
article in the _Libéral_, in which the following words occur: “It seemed
that the universal anathema heaped upon the Germans after the destruction
of Louvain would have restrained their acts of unjustifiable destruction.
The Emperor appeared to feel sorry in his letter of apologies addressed
to the President of the United States; but his soldiers surpassed
themselves, and the appalling barbarism of their achievement is
unexampled in history.”
Finally, in America not only the general public but the Government were
profoundly moved by the news of the bombardment of one of the finest
cathedrals in the world. The American Consul at Lausanne was instructed
by his Government, on the day after the crime, to go to Reims and make
an inquiry on the spot. As for American newspapers, the following are
extracts from them—
The _Tribune_ said: “The destruction of the fine monument of the Middle
Ages is an act of vandalism which puts German military methods on a
level with those of the Goths and the Huns. The crime of destroying this
venerable pile was committed by a nation which claims that its mission
is to impose its civilisation on the rest of the world. By violating the
laws of war, Germany is encouraging other nations to do the same.”
The _World_ said: “Prussian militarism has outdone everything previously
seen in the category of vandalism. Throughout the centuries, since the
destruction of the Parthenon, the world has known no such act.”
The _Sun_ said: “In spite of the regrets which Germany pretends to
express, we cannot fail to draw the conclusion that the cathedral of
Reims was the target of a deliberate attempt to destroy.”
BOMBARDMENT OF GERBEVILLER
The following are other examples of bombardments at this period, which
were carried out at places less known, but in which the aim to destroy
at any cost, by any means, and in violation of every law stands no
less emphatically self-condemned. Of the picturesque little village of
Gerbeviller there remains only a heap of stones, dust and ashes. The
Germans bombarded it mercilessly in the month of August. Possibly this
bombardment was due to necessity, but the precise aim of the German guns,
posted in the outskirts of the village, reveals the criminal design at
work. The village church was the chief object aimed at: it was burnt down
by shell fire, the pretty palatine chapel demolished, and the château
completely wiped out.
BOMBARDMENT OF DOMPIERRE-AUX-BOIS
On the 22nd September the Germans forced a way into Dompierre-aux-Bois.
They entered each house with fixed bayonets, made all the men come out,
and then shut them up in the church. On the following day it was the
women’s and children’s turn, and so these poor people found they were
compelled to face the fire of the German artillery which was let loose in
the village. Men, women, children and old folk were, for five long days
without ceasing, exposed to a rain of bombs and shells.
On the 27th September the Germans lay in ambush in the country behind
Troyon so as to be able to fire on the fort from which the French were
bombarding them. During the artillery duel which followed, the Germans
thought it well not to forget the wretched people of Dompierre-aux-Bois,
who were still shut up in the church. About five p.m. they fired at the
church and a shell fell upon it. Forty persons were killed or wounded by
the hand of the same people who forced them to stay in this spot, and
who, from being their gaolers, made themselves their executioners.
BOMBARDMENT OF RECQUIGNIES
According to the evidence of Dr. Barbey (_Echo de Paris_ of the 20th
January), the first German shells fired at Recquignies, in the beginning
of the month of September, were aimed at the brewery, which the Red
Cross flag upon it plainly marked as _a refuge for the wounded_. Four
inhabitants were killed and two others were wounded.
BOMBARDMENT OF SOISSONS
The town of Soissons was bombarded from the 13th to the 17th September
almost without intermission. The post office and the Grand Seminaire are
in ruins. The cemetery quarter of the town was set on fire. Happily the
cathedral suffered little. But the Germans deliberately and with precise
aim fired at the hospital. This bombardment was without any reason
that could be admitted, for the town ought to have been protected from
artillery, as the Germans occupied the hills to the north of the town
when the French troops had taken a position to the south-east and did not
discharge a single shell at it.
From the month of September the bombardment of Soissons was interrupted:
it began again in the month of January. The Germans aimed their fire
on the hospitals, the ambulances, and especially on all places where
the wounded were gathered. During the bombardment, which was carried on
almost every day in the month of January, the cathedral suffered a great
deal; it was reckoned that in eight hours seventy-five shells of large
calibre were fired at the building. The entrance, the pulpit, and one of
the columns of the spire were ruined, and one of the bells broken. On the
15th January a young girl was killed in the Rue de la Barde, and many
children fell victims to German barbarism.
BOMBARDMENT OF SAMPIGNY
On the 15th September and the 8th October the Germans, with the desire
to wreak revenge, bombarded the private residence of M. Poincaré, the
President of the French Republic. The second bombardment, in the course
of which forty-eight shells were discharged at this residence, brought
about its complete destruction.
It is well to note that this destruction was nevertheless denied by the
Wolff agency, which declared that the story was a myth, and added that if
the site upon which this residence stood had been burned, it could only
have been done by the French artillery itself.
BOMBARDMENT OF ARRAS
The town of Arras was included, during the month of October, in the
theatre of military operations. The Germans found a pretext for
destroying it by two bombardments, one on the 6th, the other on the 20th
and 21st October, which sowed destruction and death in this town.
The first bombardment of Arras, which may be compared to that at Reims,
was meant to destroy the town hall, a miracle of Flemish art, built at
the beginning of the seventeenth century, one of the finest ornaments of
northern France.
“On the 6th October, at six a.m.,” said the _Liberté_ of the 16th
October, “the first shells fell near the railway station. A little
afterwards a bomb fell on the roof of the town hall. All day long the
guns belched forth death, destruction and terror. The inhabitants took
refuge in the cellars, and even the wretched wounded also had to be
brought down into them, for, disregarding the Red Cross, the Germans
plied with machine-guns all the streets round the town hall, in which
there were several hospitals and ambulances.
“The Hôpital St. Jean was the scene of a frightful accident. A whole
storey collapsed under the shells. A nun and some wounded happened to be
in the storey below, and were buried underneath the ruins. It was not
possible to recover their bodies until the evening, when the assassins of
the Kaiser had ceased bombardment.
“The musée, the cathedral, the Church of St. John the Baptiste, the old
Convent of the Holy Sacrament, with its seventeenth-century campanile,
and the Ursuline belfry (a reproduction of the old reliquary of the Holy
Candle) were damaged. The shells fired at the cathedral pierced its roof
in two places and laid bare the vault.”
The town hall alone was struck by nine-tenths of the explosive shells
thrown at Arras. Finally, the two old towers, so stately and so peculiar
in appearance, which were all that was left of the old abbey founded by
Saint Eloi, in the village of that name near Arras, were demolished by
the Germans, who bombarded them without any excuse, for the mere pleasure
of destruction.
The Germans cannot pretend that they did not know the site of all these
monuments, nor that of the hospitals of Arras, for they had occupied the
town one day in the beginning of September. No more can they allege that
the French had made use of the quarter destroyed by them for attack or
for self-defence, for this part of the town is in a hollow, which an army
would never try to utilise.
As for the second bombardment of Arras (20th to 21st October), it was
aimed at the belfry, the incomparable monument of the town which alone
remained standing above the centre of the town hall. The building fell on
the 21st, at eleven a.m., having been cut off close from the ancient roof
of the structure round about it.
THE OUTRAGE ON NOTRE-DAME OF PARIS
German aeroplanes made frequent moves towards Paris, of which we have
already spoken. The outrage of the 11th October, 1914, deserves special
mention, for this time the machine aimed at the cathedral. An incendiary
bomb was dropped on Notre-Dame. This bomb set fire to one of the inner
beams of the roof, smashed six of the stays of the north transept, and
riddled with grapeshot the glass frame of the clock in the same transept.
This outrage, coming after that at Reims, roused fresh protests from
neutral countries. The _Messagero_ of Rome (13th October) declared, and
with reason, that “the murder of peaceful citizens and the crime of
throwing bombs on Notre-Dame need no comment.” These acts, the paper
added, are a fresh crime against humanity and against art for which the
civilised world will demand an account from the German people.
BOMBARDMENT OF HAZEBROUCK
About the middle of November Hazebrouck suffered bombardment by a German
aeroplane: a bomb killed a railway worker named Georges Demonvaux,
and wounded two other people. The aviator came a second time, an hour
afterwards, and threw three more bombs, aiming at the English and French
Red Cross hospitals, which, fortunately, were only slightly injured.
Finally, to bring to an end the list of cruel bombardments, let us put
on record that of Houplines (15th December), where fifty civilians were
killed and St. Paul’s Church was destroyed; those of Dunkirk (24th
December and 22nd January), where, besides the murder of many civilians,
the United States Consul was wounded, and the consulates of the United
States, Norway and Uruguay were damaged. The hospital was also struck by
bombs. Finally, let us note the bombardment of Béthune, which was carried
on almost without intermission, which caused the death of ten people, and
which was aimed at the hospital, in the court of which a shell had fallen
and burst.
The bombardment of Libau (in Courlande) is to be added to the foregoing.
On the 28th March a German aeroplane caused the death of several persons
and wounded a little girl. Let us add also that of Calais, where,
quite recently, a Zeppelin damaged Notre-Dame Church. A chapel of the
latter, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, had its vault broken in and its
stained-glass windows shattered. These were of great artistic merit and
represented scenes of the Crucifixion.