World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
walking around with a tag hung round her neck reading "Do not murder
this little girl by bayonet."
That military hierarchy which extends from the sergeant to the Emperor,
controlling every male in Germany, came down upon Belgium and France,
prepared to crush, not alone the military power, but every spiritual
resource of those nations. I have a bag of German incendiary pastilles
given me by Jules Gaxotte, Mayor of Revigny. On one side is inked
6
----
0.25.
On the other side
6. 10.10.111.
------------
R.12/1,
indicating the company and the regiment and the division. The pellets
are square, the size of a fingernail. They burn with intensity, like
a Fourth of July torch. That little bag has enough bits of lively
flame in it, to burn an ancient church and destroy a village of homes.
Packets like it have seared the northern provinces of France. Not
one of those millions of pellets that came down from Germany was used
against a soldier. Not one was used against a military defense. All
were used against public buildings and homes. All were used against
non-combatants, old men, women and children. The clever chemist had
coöperated with the General Staff in perfecting a novel warfare. The
admirable organization had equipped its men for the new task of a
soldier. In their haste the Germans left these pellets everywhere along
the route. The Mayor of Revigny has a collection. So has the Mayor of
Clermont. Monsieur Georges Payelle, premier president de la Cour des
Comptes, and head of the French Government Inquiry, has a still larger
collection. These three gentlemen have not told me, but have shown me
this evidence. The purpose of the German military can be reconstructed
from that one little bag which I hold.
But not only have the Germans dropped their scraps of evidence as they
went along, as if they were playing hare-and-hounds. They have put into
words what they mean. The German War Book, issued to officers, outlines
their new enlarged warfare.
Madame Dehan of Gerbéviller said to me:
"A high officer arrived this same day (when she was prisoner) and said:
"'It is necessary to put to death the people here. They must be shot.
This nation must disappear.'"
Monsieur Guilley of Nomeny told me how Charles Michel, a boy of
seventeen, was killed. He said: "A patrol of scouts, composed of six
Bavarians, said: 'We are going down there to kill, yes, kill all the
people of Nomeny.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account