Best Stories of the 1914 European War — John Shaqi
Best Stories of the 1914 European WarVarious
History
Best Stories of the 1914 European War
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Georges Terpen, an 18-year-old Boy Scout of Liége, has just been
decorated by the King of the Belgians and has received a commission in
the army for the brilliant work which he has accomplished since the
beginning of hostilities. Young Terpen captured eleven spies, all of
whom have been shot. Near Malines he killed one Uhlan and captured
another, although he was suffering from a broken arm.
Two fellow Boy Scouts, 16 and 17 years old, were executed by the Germans
on the same day. Terpen declares that the only weapon he used against
the German soldiers was a long knife.
THOUGHT FOES WERE FRIENDS
A corporal in a convoy of wounded at Champigny is quoted as saying that
in the fighting at Guise a regiment firing on the line heard the signal
to cease shooting. Immediately in front of them the men of the regiment
saw soldiers wearing caps like the English.
They advanced, cheering the English, and were met by a deadly discharge
of rifle fire. The Germans, he asserted, had used this subterfuge to
draw the French on.
“COURAGE; DELIVERANCE SOON!”
The correspondent in Antwerp of an Amsterdam newspaper says that a
French biplane appeared over Brussels Saturday and in a hail of German
bullets twice circled the town, dropping hundreds of pamphlets
containing the message:
“Take courage; deliverance soon.”
The aviator then made off, after giving the spectators a daring
performance of loop the loop.
GERMANS TRICKED TO DEATH
Wounded men in the hospitals of Boulogne related to the London _Express_
correspondent these incidents of the fighting between the British and
Germans. One of the men, he says, told of a trick which the British
learned in the Boer war which was carried out with deadly effect against
the Germans. The story of the incident follows:
“The enemy before sending their infantry against our positions opened a
hot artillery fire. Our artillery replied at first warmly, and then gun
after gun of the British batteries went silent.
“What’s up now?” I asked a comrade. There were a few minutes more of
artillery firing from the Germans, and then their infantry came on in
solid formation. We received them with rifle fire. Still they came on
and still we mowed them down. They were getting closer and we could
plainly see the dense masses moving. Then suddenly the whole of our
artillery opened fire.
“You see, the cannon had not been silenced at all, and it was a trick to
draw the Germans on. They went down in whole fields, for our guns got
them in open ground and, of course, they soon had enough. It was
impossible for those behind to come on past the dead.”
SIGNAL DREW FATAL VOLLEY
The Hanover _Courier_ prints this account by an eyewitness of the death
of Prince Wilhelm of Lippe, who fell in the assault on Liége on Aug. 6:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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