German Barbarism: A Neutral's IndictmentMaccas, Léon
History
German Barbarism: A Neutral's Indictment
Maccas, Léon
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
The village of Mars-la-Tour, in Lorraine, was bombarded by the Germans on
the 16th August, the anniversary of the battle which took place in 1870.
They cannonaded the memorial church, Abbé Faller’s _Musée patriotique_,
and the monument to commemorate the battle of 1870. The bombardment
lasted a full hour, and took place with mathematical regularity. Only one
house was damaged, which proves that the buildings mentioned were the
carefully chosen target of the German guns; two persons, an old mechanic
and a woman, were fatally injured. The other inhabitants took refuge in
the cellars.
BOMBARDMENT OF ÉTAIN
On the 24th August, at one o’clock in the afternoon, the bombardment of
Étain began. Suspended for some hours, it began again at nearly eleven
p.m. and lasted until two a.m. The results were frightful. The next
morning half the town was in ashes; the other half was falling into
ruins. The Red Cross hospital in particular was aimed at. The first
shell struck down the white flag, while Dr. Proust was operating on the
wounded: the latter had to be hidden away in the cellars, whence they
were driven to Verdun (Report of Mme. Paul, President of the Committee of
the Association des Dames Françaises at Étain).
BOMBARDMENT OF ALBERT
The bombardment of Albert took place on the 30th August. We may judge
how violent it was from a photograph of the ruins which appeared in
_L’Illustration_ for the 10th October. Whole streets disappeared, and the
whole Place d’Armes was demolished: the Germans made a target of Notre
Dame de Brébières, the basilica which the inhabitants call the Lourdes
of the North, and to which so many pilgrimages make their way each year.
This church was completely ruined by the sacrilegious fire expressly
aimed at it, and the Statue of the Miraculous Virgin which crowned it is
to-day thrown down and lies upon the ground. All around there is nothing
but building material that has fallen in, half-burnt beams, charred
walls, houses without roofs, broken tiles, doors broken in, cut up by
grapeshot.
BOMBARDMENT OF NANCY
The French Commission of Inquiry, in its report, published in the
_Journal Officiel_ of the 8th January, 1914, states that the capital of
Lorraine was bombarded “without previous warning during the night of the
9th to 10th September. About sixty shells (continues this report) fell
on the central and southern-cemetery districts—that is to say, on places
where there is no military defence. Three men, a young woman, and a
little girl were killed, thirty people were wounded, and serious damage
was done.”
“Enemy airmen flew over the town twice. On the 4th September one of them
threw two bombs, one of which killed a man and a little girl, and wounded
six people on the ‘Place de la Cathédrale.’ On the 13th October three
bombs were thrown on the goods station. Four employees of the Eastern
Railway Company were wounded.”
FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF REIMS
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