This struggle of a populace governed by the rudest passions raged during the entire forward march of the German Army through Belgium. When the Belgian Army had retired before the German troops, after obstinate combats, the Belgian civil population in the unoccupied parts of the country endeavoured to hinder the German advance by every possible means; moreover, even in the places which had been in possession of German troops for a long time, the inhabitants had no hesitation in trying to damage and weaken the German forces by cowardly and treacherous attacks. The full extent of this armed popular resistance can be gauged from the accompanying sketch-map (App. 1), wherein the German lines of advance and the Belgian places in which the civilian fighting took place are marked. That along these routes and at these places the Belgian civil population of every grade, age, and sex took part with the greatest bitterness and fury in the fights against the German troops can be proved from existing and weighty material, supported by official documents containing the results secured by examinations on oath and official reports. A selection from this material is given in the various Appendices, which, however, only deal with the most important events, and can be supplemented at any time by further extracts. According to the accompanying material the Belgian civil population fought against the German troops in many places in the provinces of Liège (Apps. 2-10), Luxembourg (Apps. 11-30), Namur (Apps. 12, 17, 31-42), Hainault (Apps. 3, 7, 10, 40, 43-46, 49), Brabant (Apps. 47-49), East and West Flanders (Apps. 49, 50). The fights were of a particularly dreadful character in Aerschot, Andenne, Dinant, and Louvain, and about these places special reports were delivered by the Military Court of Examinations, instituted by the Ministry of War for the purpose of inquiring into the violations of the laws of war (Apps. A, B, C, D). According to these reports, men in all stations of life--workmen, factory owners, doctors, teachers, even priests, not to speak of women and children--were arrested with weapons in their hands (Apps. 18, 20, 25, 27, 43, 47; A5; C18, 26, 29, 31, 41, 45, 48); in districts from which the Belgian regular troops had long since retired the Germans were fired on from houses and gardens, roofs and cellars, fields and woods. In the fighting, methods were employed to which regular troops would certainly not have resorted, and large quantities of sporting-guns and ammunition, out-of-date revolvers and pistols were also found (Apps. 6, 11, 13, 26, 36, 37, 44, 48, 49; A2; C52, 81; D1, 2, 6, 20, 37); in consequence, there were numerous cases of wounds caused by small-shot, and also by scalding with hot tar and boiling water (Apps. 3, 10; B2; C5, 11, 28, 57; D25, 29). In view of all these facts, there can be no doubt that the uprising in Belgium was not undertaken by isolated civilians, but by large masses of the population.