“=The wrong--I speak openly--that we are committing I will endeavour
to make good as soon as our military goal is achieved.=”
From a speech by _The German Chancellor_.
The Antwerp Outrage.
Next to the tragic and infamous destruction of Louvain, and the
attendant atrocities committed in that beautiful old town, nothing has
called forth more passionate denunciation than the cowardly attempt made
by Zeppelin airships to drop bombs at Antwerp in the dead of night on
its sleeping inhabitants. For the first time in history a death-dealing
airship has attacked a city in this way. As a weapon the Zeppelin
dropping bombs may be as destructive as great shells fired from siege
howitzers. The horror of aircraft is, however, more terrorizing than
that of any siege gun, because bombs can be thrown down from the sky on
defenceless and sleeping cities. The civilized world has greeted with
execration this inhuman method of prosecuting war.
Before even a fortified town can be bombarded, the rules of war provide
for twenty-four hours’ notice before the commencement of actual
bombardment. Here we have a great airship sailing high over a sleeping
city. Without warning her crew drop death-dealing bombs from the sky in
the dead of night. Surely the killing of unsuspecting men, innocent
women, and sleeping children in this way is the most ruthless outrage
ever attempted in war.
Piloted by a German who knew the city well--one of the many to whom the
city opened wide its doors in the days before the war--the huge airship
had for its objective the Palais du Roi, where the Queen of Belgium, the
little Princes, and Princess Marie-José lay sleeping. Aided by the
darkness, the crew of the Zeppelin felt confident of their ability to
carry out their murderous programme. They had mapped out a career of
terrifying destruction. In a track of devastation they meant to leave in
ruins the Palais du Roi (which would also have involved the death of the
Royal Family), the Bourse, the Palais de Justice, the Banque, and the
Minerva Motor Works. But in no case was the treacherous aim attained.
The cowardly raid proved a complete and utter failure, the only
consolation provided the Kaiser being the slaughter of seven innocent
persons and the wounding of some twenty others.
Girls Horribly Mutilated.
The bombs which were to have killed the Queen and her family and to have
shattered the Bourse fell into an adjoining street, wrecked a house, and
injured two women. That destined for the destruction of the Banque
struck the attic of a house near by, killed a servant as she slept, and
injured two others. Of the other bombs one fell into a shrubbery, dug a
deep, funnel-shaped hole, uprooted shrubs, and plucked from their frames
windows of the St. Elizabeth Hospital, where the wounded lay.
Another--and the most successful bomb--struck a private house inhabited
by poor people, murdered a woman, and horribly mutilated three girls,
killed two Civic Guards, and seriously injured another. It was at a
private house just off the Place de Meir that a bomb wrought much
destruction to life and property. It tore off the top storey and split
up the front.
Screams of Dying Women.
“As I arrived on the scene,” says a _Daily Telegraph_ correspondent, “a
woman tottered out covered with lime dust, crying out, ‘Docteur,
docteur!’ Beneath the ruins of the house two Civic Guards were dead.
Within the house pitiful screams came from three girls who had been
roused from sleep by receiving dreadful wounds on the face and body. One
girl had half her face blown away; the two others were seriously wounded
on the face. Evidently their bodies had been somewhat protected by the
bed-clothes.”
The Zeppelin at the time of this appalling incident was almost
stationary in the sky, some seven hundred feet from the ground. Needless
to say, a panic at once ensued, and thousands of people took refuge in
their cellars, while others dashed out into the streets in their night
attire. Time after time the earth trembled as the terrible bombs fell,
causing devastation everywhere, the spots being signalled, it is said,
from the roofs of houses occupied by prominent Germans, of whom there
was a large colony in Antwerp. Truly it was a night of terror, for the
populace through the hours of tension did not know from one moment to
another that they might not be blown to atoms. Ten bombs struck ten
different streets. One which fell in the Rue des Navets made a hole six
feet six inches in diameter and twenty-two inches deep. It was probably
filled with shot, for all the houses in the vicinity were riddled by
bullets, and presented the appearance of having been fired upon, all the
doors and windows being broken and the ceilings having fallen in.
“=The best protection of undefended cities against German Zeppelins
is that a repetition of the Antwerp occurrence will be greeted with
execration by the whole civilized world.=”--_Times._
Enormous Damage to Property.
It was calculated that about nine hundred houses were more or less
damaged and about sixty houses destroyed. In a single house four persons
were found dead. Indeed, in one room two people had been blown to atoms.
Three men were walking in the Rue de la Corne, when one of the bombs
fell. One was killed and the other two mortally wounded, while another
passer-by had his leg blown off. All the bombs, which created a terrific
explosion, were found to have been in a steel cover one and a half
inches thick and about a foot in diameter. The Zeppelin was, of course,
fired upon from the forts with guns and rifles, but having launched its
deadly missiles it moved off into the darkness.
A subsequent examination of the projectiles thrown showed that they had
a double covering, the two covers being joined together by
mushroom-shaped rivets, which act the part of bullets, and must cause
horrible injuries, as the two covers or envelopes are torn to fragments
by the explosive.
“=If Germany had fought fairly we should have retained the respect
for her which we had in the past; but her barbarous method of
conducting war by sea and land has made all the nations of the Old
World and the New regard her as the enemy of the human race.=”
--MILITARY CORRESPONDENT of _The Times_.
A Miraculous Escape.
The story of that terrible night would not, however, be complete without
a reference to the miraculous escape of M. Vamberg, a cigarette-maker.
Had he slept in the bed he usually occupied, he would now be a dead man.
But for some reason he chose another bed in another room, his wife being
absent in the country, and so saved his life. The bed which Mme. Vamberg
occupies when at home was crushed by the falling roof. More than that,
having been aroused by the sound of the cannon, and having jumped out of
bed and rushed down to the first floor, M. Vamberg found himself
suddenly hanging from the window, the house having fallen about his
ears. He was rescued from this position by the firemen.
More Cowardly Raids.
But, as though not satisfied with the success of the first attempt, the
Germans determined upon another dastardly raid. A few nights after the
first outrage a Zeppelin again appeared over the city in the dead of
night. Ten bombs were discharged, and damaged a number of houses. No
lives were lost, however. A boy of fifteen had his right arm injured by
a flying splinter, while his father and sister and one or two others
were slightly injured. A graphic description of the raid is given by the
_Daily Telegraph_ correspondent. “I was awakened,” he relates, “by the
rattle of rifle-fire from neighbouring roofs and the hideous crash of
exploding bombs. Hurriedly descending into the Place Verte, I was just
in time to see an airship disappearing southward. She was at a
tremendous height, but could be clearly seen in the rays of the
searchlight. There was an incessant rattle of shots from rifles and
machine guns from the darkened town, and shrapnel could be seen
exploding like meteorites in the trail of the flying marauder. All round
the Place Verte from the roadway, and from points of vantage on the high
buildings, spurts of flame indicated the efforts of the firers to bring
down the hated ship. Immediately the searchlights fixed upon her the
Zeppelin made off at great speed.”
Worse than the Boxers.
Surgeon-Major Seaman, of the United States Army Reserve Corps, who
helped to tend the wounded, was so indignant with these cowardly tactics
on the part of the Germans that he communicated with his Government,
asking it to join at once in exacting reparation from Germany for such
infamies. He declared that in all his eight campaigns, of which one was
against the Boxers in China, he had never seen an act of war so
ruthless, so horrible, as the sight of three young girls mutilated and
defaced, and of the dead young mother, all attacked in their beds at
night. And with him the civilized world will agree.
Other airship and aeroplane raids were made on Antwerp and also upon
Paris, but fortunately none has been attended with either great loss of
life or destruction of property. But that such should be the case
affords no excuse for crimes which rank among the greatest committed by
the ruthless German army.
“=At this moment the words ‘German culture’ are synonymous for
rapine, murder, and hideous cruelty. This is a state of things
which ought to be grasped by the people of Germany.=”
--From the _Morning Post_.