Germany's Dishonoured Army: Additional records of German atrocities in FranceMorgan, J. H. (John Hartman)
History
Germany's Dishonoured Army: Additional records of German atrocities in France
Morgan, J. H. (John Hartman)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
_=Damning Brigade Order.=_--So far I have only dealt with the acts
of small German units--_i.e._, companies of infantry. I now come to
the most damning proofs of a policy of cold-blooded murder of wounded
and prisoners, initiated and carried out by a whole brigade under the
orders of a Brigadier-General. This particular investigation took
me a long time, but the results are, I think, conclusive. It may
be remembered that some months ago the French military authorities
published in the French newspapers what purported to be the text of an
order issued by a German Brigadier-General, named Stenger, commanding
the 58th Brigade, in which he ordered his troops to take no prisoners
and to put to death without mercy every one who fell into their
hands, whether wounded and defenceless or not. The German Government
immediately denounced the alleged order as a forgery. I determined to
see whether I could establish its authenticity, and in February last
I obtained a copy of the original from M. Mollard, of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, who is a member of the Commission appointed by the
French Government to inquire into the alleged German atrocities. The
text of that order was as follows:--
Army Order of 26 Aug., 1914, about 4 p.m., such as was given to his
troops as a Brigade or Army Order by the leader of the 7th Company of
the 112th Regiment of Infantry at Thionville, at the entrance of the
wood of Saint Barbe.
To date from this day no prisoners will be made any longer. All the
prisoners will be executed. The wounded, whether armed or defenceless,
will be executed. Prisoners, even in large and compact formations,
will be executed. Not a man will be left alive behind us.
Taking this alleged order as my starting-point, I began to make
inquiries at British Headquarters as to the existence of any
information about the doings of the 112th Regiment. I soon found that
there was good reason to suspect it. Our Intelligence Department placed
in my hands the records of the examination of two men of this regiment
who had been captured by us. One of them volunteered a statement to
one of our Intelligence Officers on the 23rd of November to the effect
that his regiment had orders to treat Indians well, but were allowed to
treat British prisoners as they pleased. This man's testimony appeared
to be reliable, as statements he made on other points, _i.e._, as to
the German formations, were subsequently found to be true, and his
information as to discrimination in the treatment of Indians entirely
bore out the conclusions I had already arrived at on that particular
point. The German witness in question further stated that 65 out of 150
British prisoners were killed in cold blood by their escort on or about
the 23rd of October on the road to Lille, and that the escort were
praised for their conduct. Other German prisoners have, I may add, also
made statements that they had orders to kill all the English who fell
into their hands....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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