There are _great numbers_ of wounded who, on their solemn oath, have
related how, when lying on the field of battle, they saw their wounded
comrades "finished off" by rifle or revolver shots, or by blows from
butt-ends, or by bayonet stabs, or kicked to death by German soldiers,
non-commissioned officers, and even by officers.[13]
We cannot pause to analyse these innumerable depositions. There is other
evidence. How often, when a counter-attack has put us in possession of
ground lost the day before, have we found poor fellows "finished
off"--with their throats cuts, as in the case of the two sergeants of
the 31st Chasseurs at the Pass of Sainte-Marie, or "with their own
bayonets driven into their mouths," like the poor little fellow of the
17th. The enemy often runs amok like this:--"On August 23rd, the Curé of
Réméréville tended Lieutenant Toussaint (who passed out first at the
Forestry School in July). When he fell in battle, this young officer was
bayoneted by all the Germans who passed near him, and his body was a
mass of wounds from head to feet." At Oudrigny "a German officer met a
French vehicle showing the Red Cross flag, and loaded with ten wounded.
He deployed his company, and fired two volleys at it." At Bonviller, an
officer murdered nine French wounded, stretched helpless in a barn, by
shooting them through the ear. On 23rd August at Montigny-le-Tilleul, M.
Vital was caught in the act of tending a French soldier, L. Sohier by
name, wounded in the head and side. Such a crime deserved punishment,
and the wretches first shot the orderly and then the patient.
At Ethe they set a shed on fire and roasted more than twenty wounded who
were lying there.
We all know the celebrated order of General Stenger in the region of
Thiaville (Meurthe-et-Moselle):--"No prisoners are to be taken. All
prisoners, whether wounded or not, must be slaughtered."
It was not only in Lorraine that such orders were given. Listen to the
depositions of a German soldier: "The same day we saw eighteen other
Frenchmen. Lieutenant N. told us to shoot them as he did not know what
else to do with them."
Read this letter found at L'Éçouvillon in a German trench which we
recaptured: "Every day we take many prisoners, but they are shot at once
as we no longer know where to put them."
Think of the diary in which a German soldier near Peronne recorded his
impressions of the day: "They lay in heaps of ten or twelve, some dead
and some still living. Those who could still walk were marched off.
Those who were wounded in the head or lungs, and could not lift
themselves up, were finished off with a bullet. That is the order which
we got."
A German soldier, while being nursed in a hospital at Nancy, confided to
Dr. Roemer that the wound in his stomach "had been inflicted on him by a
German N.C.O. because he refused to finish off a wounded Frenchman."
Wounded were not only massacred on the field of battle, but field
hospitals were also the scene of atrocities. At Gomery, in a casualty
clearing station, under Dr. Sédillot, there were numerous wounded
remaining in the German lines. A German officer with twenty-five men
visited the place and inspected it and retired, saying that all was in
order. But a N.C.O. and a party of soldiers remained in the street
outside. They were excited and kept shouting, "It is war to the death,"
and making signs of cutting throats. They rushed in and with their
revolvers shot down Dr. Sédillot (who happily survived, with others, to
give evidence), and set fire to the place. Maddened by the flames, the
wounded (many of whom had had amputations performed on them that very
morning) leapt from the windows on the first floor and fell into the
garden, where the executioners picked them up, gathering them in a
bunch, and shot them. In this way Lieutenant Jeannin and Dr. Charette
were murdered, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty officers
and soldiers--whose wounds should have made them sacred--perished from
shot or fire after terrible sufferings.
When all is said, however, it is better to kill wounded soldiers by fire
or sword than by starvation, as the following incident shows: One
hundred wounded Frenchmen, together with Dr. Bender, were brought to the
Stenay barracks, and one hundred and eighty more came in shortly
afterwards; the latter, having been left out unattended on the
battle-field for five days, were in a terrible condition. Dr. Bender in
vain begged the Germans for help in getting the wounded men out of the
ambulances into the hospital. The Boches refused, and simply went on
sucking their pipes. Though wounded himself, the doctor, with the aid of
two male nurses (Frenchmen both), had to do the whole thing himself.
For several days the Boches gave them no food at all. "Our poor fellows
screamed with hunger,"[14] says the doctor, on oath, and adds, "I had
sixty badly wounded with me, and begged the German army doctor to
operate, but he said he had no time. I then asked his leave to operate
myself, but his reply was, "You are in the German lines, and must
conform to our rules." The doctor ends his pathetic evidence with the
words, "Nearly all these unhappy men died of neglect."
We have seen doctors, like Professor Vulpius, actually steal money; but
of all the types of Boche doctors, the most hideous is the hero of the
following tale, taken from the deposition of Dr. Bender. "A French
soldier, at Stenay, was under my treatment. He had a wound in his
foot--not very severe, which did not need an operation at all. What was
my astonishment to find that a German army surgeon had amputated his
thigh? I could not help expressing my indignation, and the surgeon's
only reply was, "He will be a man the less against us in the next
war."[15] They will deny these crimes to-morrow, but in 1914 they
gloried in them.
On the 18th of October a Silesian newspaper published an article sent
from the front by a N.C.O., in which he says, "Men who are particularly
tender-hearted give the French wounded the 'coup de grace' with a
bullet, but the others cut and thrust as much as possible. Our enemies
fought bravely ... whether they are slightly or badly wounded our brave
Fusiliers spare the Fatherland as far as possible the expensive trouble
of looking after numerous enemies. In the evening, with prayers of
thanksgiving on our lips, we go to sleep." Are these mere boastings of
crimes? No. The article was submitted to the Captain of the Company who
certified it as correct and counter-signed it. The N.C.O., the Captain,
the Silesian public, the whole German nation were delighted to see this
abominable story of murder and shame appear in the paper under the
heading, "A Day of Honour for our Regiment."[16]