“In the dark they turned on searchlights. We could see them hunting
about for some one to pot at. Uncanny, that was, to see a blooming big
lane of light working round and round until it came to something. Then
we heard the shells whistle, and when it came round to us and lit us up
so that we could see each other’s faces, it made my blood run cold, just
like I used to feel when I was a nipper and woke up and saw the light
and thought it was a ghost, and we lay there wondering what would happen
next.”
WOMAN SAW ZEPPELIN WORK
In the crowd of refugees arriving in London from Ostend were a dozen
Americans, who made their way out of Antwerp with hand baggage only.
Among them was Mrs. George Sparrow of New York, who had left Liége soon
before that city was besieged by the Germans. She said:
“In Antwerp I was aroused one night by a loud boom, which I imagined was
caused by a cannon firing in the fort, but, looking out of a window, I
saw a Zeppelin airship, apparently quite near. I could plainly hear the
buzz of its motor. A bomb from it fell only a few blocks away, the
explosion of which was followed by an outbreak of fire.
“Many persons ran from the houses panic-stricken. Some of the women were
hysterical. It was a fearful night. I got out of the city next morning
with several other Americans and went to Ostend, where I spent last
night.”
SAW WOMEN SHOT
A woman refugee from Framerie, near Mons, told the following story to
the relief committee in Paris:
“My husband is with the Belgian army and I was left with my three babies
in our cottage. All was quiet until Monday, when the Germans came. They
sacked and destroyed everything in the house. There remains of our poor
village nothing but ruins. I saw one of the soldiers strike one of my
neighbors in the breast with his sword. Then he flourished the bloody
blade as though proud of the feat. Some women who had hidden in their
cellars were shot.
“A woman from Peronne le Bincher started out with one of her neighbors
who carried a young baby at her breast. Suddenly the mother perceived
that the little one was dead. She could not bear this new shock and lost
her reason. When she was helped out of the train on reaching Paris she
still held and was crooning over the body of her child.”
FOUGHT SINGING MARSEILLAISE
A correspondent of the London _Times_ at Ostend says:
“I have obtained the following details of the siege of Namur from two
Belgian soldiers. They informed me that the Germans attacked the town
during a dense fog, and for two days the bombardment never ceased. The
open town was reduced to ruins and the carnage among the inhabitants
was appalling. The forts of Cognelee and Marchovelette were silenced by
heavy German siege guns of 11-inch caliber.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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