The German Army in Belgium, the White Book of May 1915Germany. Auswärtiges Amt
History
The German Army in Belgium, the White Book of May 1915
Germany. Auswärtiges Amt
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Belgium
As to Case: About August 20th of this year I was quartered with
the Staff of my regiment at Thibesart, and was summoned to act as
interpreter in the examination of a woodman called Bienveler, on whom
concealed cartridges were discovered, although he had denied his
possession of any. The soldiers who had fetched him brought some of the
cartridges with them, and I ascertained that a portion of them had been
opened and then again closed, a common practice amongst foresters.
From one of the cartridges which I opened the small shot had been drawn
and pieces of lead, cut up small, loaded in their place. This loading
had evidently taken place quite recently, because the rough edges of
the bits of lead still looked bright and silvery. As I was informed,
several of our patrols were on this and the preceding day fired at from
the wood at Thibesart, amongst them that of Captain von Richthosen,
Mounted Jäger Regiment No. 11, despite the fact that no enemy soldiers
were in the neighbourhood.
In the fight at Rossignole Tintigny on the 22nd August I rode with
Colonel von Zglinicki into the village of Tintigny. Near us marched a
portion of Grenadier Regiment No. 11, and field-kitchens were standing
on the road. From one of the first houses on the left of our line of
march a woman, standing in the doorway, called out to me some words
like these, "Est-ce que nous sommes sûrs, ici, Monsieur?" As I was
just going to answer her, from this very same direction two shots
passed just in front of and behind my body. At the same instant I saw
on the first storey of this same house two men in civilian clothes who
opened on the German troops a vigorous fire and had apparently fired
the shots at me. My horse made a spring forward where, on the right, a
side street joined the main one. From all the windows of this street I
myself, like all the rest of our German soldiers who were blocked at
this spot, came under a vigorous fire. None of the enemy troops were
to be seen, but, on the other hand, civilians, firing from a number of
windows. I am also convinced that I noticed a machine-gun served by
civilians at the first-floor window of a house some twenty paces from
myself. I observed with my own eyes that a considerable number of our
soldiers were wounded by this fire. We were obviously dealing here
with a concerted co-operation of the inhabitants, for it was after the
two first shots that a simultaneous fusillade broke out throughout the
village.
I was then sent back, and on the way came again under fire from the
houses of the next village which lay beside the road, running from
north to south. This village, Ansart or Marinsart, lay to the north. I
got some men of the Light Munitions Column (Field Artillery Regiment
No. 42) to break down the fastened doors, and discovered in the house
from which the shots had come six or eight civilians, none of whom were
soldiers or women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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