“=France must be so completely crushed that she can never again come
across our path.=”--_Gen. Von Bernhardi._ (This statement was made
long before war was declared.)
What Our Soldiers Say.
By innumerable acts of treachery and appalling savagery on the
battlefield the German soldiers have forfeited for ever the right to the
courtesies usually extended to an honourable foe. The opening phases of
the war have shown them in the light of cold-blooded barbarians, rather
than honourable soldiers. The well-attested stories of their shocking
brutality have no parallel in the history of the world. And in
practically every case these incredible acts of cruelty have been
committed with the knowledge and approval of their officers. They are
carrying out to the letter the advice of the Kaiser to act like the Huns
of Attila.
British soldiers who have returned wounded from the front are emphatic
in their assertions that the German gunners deliberately fired on the
hospitals and Red Cross men. One man remarked, “They seemed to take a
delight in aiming at hospitals, which had the Red Cross over them. In
fact, anything with the Red Cross acted as a target. A church was being
used as a hospital, and one of our officers, who had a flesh wound, was
taken inside for medical attention. Whilst he was there a shell blew
away the roof of the church, and injured him a second time. Fifty men
went out under the Red Cross to pick up wounded. They were fired on, and
only two of them came back.”
A member of the Red Cross organisation stated that the Germans have
treated with actual brutality the British wounded who fell into their
hands. Twenty-seven British soldiers who were being removed from the
field in an ambulance were dragged away and made to march to the Town
Hall of Mons, two falling unconscious in the streets on their way.
A resident of Ostend, in a letter to this country, put into words the
prevailing opinion in Belgium. “These Germans are not true soldiers,” he
writes, “they are murderers in uniform. They kill the wounded and shoot
the women and children. At one of the charges at Liége the Colonel of
the 9th Regiment of the Line was shot through the head, and when his
body was recovered later in the day it was found that these German
cowards had inflicted at least twenty bayonet stabs on the already dead
body.”
Helpless Soldiers Maimed.
These terrible allegations are borne out by information which has been
received by a British officer from his son at the front, who states that
the enemy, on coming across wounded British soldiers, proceed to stab
them through the right hand with a bayonet, with a view to rendering the
hand useless for holding a rifle again.
A horrible story is told by a wounded British sergeant. Struck down by a
bullet, he lay on his back on the battlefield of Mons, unable to move,
around him many wounded men. The German soldiers advanced over their
bodies, stabbing at them with their bayonets. Realising that his only
chance of saving his life was to feign death, the wounded “Tommy” closed
his eyes and kept perfectly still. As the Germans passed one struck him
on the body a heavy blow with the butt of a rifle, with the result that
one of his ribs was smashed. Clenching his teeth to prevent crying out
he lay rigid, hoping against hope that the barbarous enemy would not see
that he still lived. Then to his relief they passed on, but not before
one of them had plunged his bayonet into his shoulder.
Such stories as these make one’s blood boil, but they are by no means
isolated instances. Many wounded soldiers who have returned have
declared that after the battle of Mons the Germans, especially officers
and non-commissioned officers, passed over the ground and thrust their
swords at the wounded men. One man escaped by hiding for twenty-four
hours under sheaves of corn.
Yet another story is told by a wounded soldier who was also in the
fighting near Mons. He said, “We had had to retire a short distance,
leaving some killed and wounded behind. We saw the Germans come along.
They carried away some of our men who were lying on the ground we had
left. They placed them--and I am positively sure there were wounded as
well as killed among them--on a hayrick. Then the rick was set on fire.
It made us desperately wild, and we long to get at those Germans. If we
only could have charged! As it was, we had to stay where we were, but I
think we got in a good few shots of vengeance which found their billet.”
A lieutenant of an infantry regiment stated that the Germans captured a
party of his men outside Liége, and in order to prevent their escape
crushed their feet with the butts of their rifles. They then took one
man and held him against a tree while their comrades beat him about the
back with rifle butts. An infantryman named Legrande, who was in the
trenches beside his brother at a point where the fighting was furious,
and who is now in hospital at Brussels, told the following story. His
brother was mortally wounded by a German bullet, and died in his arms.
He himself was shot in the thigh, and almost at the same moment some
German Uhlans rode over him, leaving him unconscious. When he recovered
his senses he made an endeavour to crawl back to his own lines, which in
the meantime had been drawn in. He was discovered by some German
infantrymen, who stripped him, taking his water-bottle and everything.
Legrande had to wait in a state of utter nudity until the middle of the
night, and then strip the dead bodies of his comrades in order to clothe
himself. Eventually he regained the ranks of his comrades in an almost
dying condition.
Again the Germans, having despoiled dead Belgian soldiers of their
uniforms, clothed some of their men in them and placed them at the head
of their troops when an attack was made upon the Belgian troops.
The Khaki Uniform Trick.
The treacherous use by the Germans of British uniforms is instanced by
one of the wounded men at present in England. “What made matters worse
for us was the treachery of the enemy,” he stated, in the course of an
account of the fight in which he had sustained his hurt. “We were
compelled to fall back at one point, and left behind us our haversacks
and greatcoats, which we had taken off to allow us to fight the better.
Some time afterwards a body of men came towards us wearing the familiar
khaki-coloured coats, and naturally we took them for friends. But they
were Germans who had seized our coats and put them on in order to
disguise themselves, and no sooner were they near us than they sent a
murderous fire into our ranks. Later, when there was a lull in the
fighting, we found a large number of Germans killed wearing the clothes
of British soldiers, showing that they must either have stripped our
dead or the British prisoners they had captured and used their clothes.”
A number of Belgian soldiers arriving in Folkestone have also described
the behaviour of the enemy as too brutal for any civilised nation, and
most of them had seen Belgian villagers drawn in front of the Germans to
act as a screen for them. A favourite trick of the Germans was to
terrify Belgian villagers by driving them along immediately in front of
their heavy guns, where, owing to the elevation of the guns, they were
really quite safe. Their experience had been that the Germans had no
respect for the Red Cross, and that in fact they waited until the
wounded had been picked up and would then fire. They confirmed the
stories which had been told about the manner in which the Germans had
killed wounded men.
In another case a French soldier, after the engagement at Spincourt,
related that while he was on the ground with a bullet in his foot the
Germans, seeing he was not dead, fired at him with a rifle, twice,
point-blank, hitting him in the hip and shoulder, whereupon he became
unconscious. The Germans, thinking he was dead, left him.
Many of the British wounded affirm that the Germans pay no respect to
the Red Cross flag, but continually fire upon it and upon Red Cross men.
The enemy have also frequently violated the rules of the white flag.
These statements are supported by the Ostend correspondent of the
Central News, who was the eye-witness of the disgraceful incident which
he described in the following message:--“When I was in the neighbourhood
of Malines the forts were under bombardment. From the Willebroek fort
the Belgians were placing shells into a wood four miles distant, with
the object of forcing out a detachment of Uhlans. Presently a party of
Uhlans, exhibiting a white flag, came forward towards the Belgian
trenches with a request for a cessation of fire for the purpose of
collecting wounded. The temporary truce was agreed to. A Red Cross wagon
came forward to collect wounded, and a party from the Belgian trenches
went out for a similar purpose.
“Suddenly the German Red Cross van opened, and from out of it a
mitrailleuse poured its deadly fire with such effect that some ninety of
the Belgians fell dead. The retribution was swift and complete. The
Belgian artillery again opened fire, and with well-directed shells laid
low at least 200 of the treacherous Germans.
“Another incident of like character came beneath my immediate notice. A
party of German cyclists, entering the village of Willebroek, shot down
a child of seven years of age. The Belgian infantry opened fire upon the
cyclists, and an armoured motor-car, carrying a captain and four men,
pursued the marauders. It is with satisfaction that I can record that
eight of the Germans will fight no more.”
France Makes a Formal Protest.
An official _communiqué_ issued by the War Office of Paris contains the
following references to these outrages. It draws to the attention of the
Powers signatory of The Hague Convention the following facts,
constituting on the part of the German military authorities a violation
of the Conventions signed on October 10th, 1907, by the Imperial German
Government:--
“According to a report dated August 10th, 1914, sent by the General
Commanding the Army in the East,” it continues, “the German troops have
finished off a large number of wounded men by shots fired into their
faces at close quarters, as has been demonstrated by the dimensions of
the wounds. Other wounded men were deliberately trampled upon.
“On the 10th August the Bavarian infantry systematically set fire to the
villages which they went through in Barbas, Montigny, Montreux, and
Paruse districts, at a time also when no artillery fire on either side
could have provoked such action. In the same district they compelled the
inhabitants to go in front of their scouts.”
Another report, dated August 11th, 1914, says: “The German troops are
burning villages, massacring inhabitants, and making the women and
children march in front of them when they come out of the villages on to
the battlefields. This was done notably at Billy, in the fighting on the
10th. They are finishing off the wounded and killing prisoners.
“The Government of the Republic, in view of such proceedings, which must
be repudiated by the universal conscience of mankind, leaves it to the
civilised Powers to make complete appreciation of these criminal acts,
which are eternally dishonouring for a belligerent.”