All parties agree that it broke out in answer to signals. A Belgian witness,[179] living near the _Tirlemont Gate_, saw a German military motor-car dash up from the _Boulevard de Tirlemont_, make luminous signals at the Gate, and then dash off again. A fusillade immediately followed. The German troops bivouacked in the _Place de la Station_ saw two rockets, the first green and the second red, rise in quick succession from the centre of the town.[180] They found themselves under fire immediately afterwards. A similar rocket was seen later in the night to rise above the conflagration.[181] It is natural to suppose that the rockets, as well as the lights on the car, were German military signals of the kind commonly used in European armies for signalling in the dark. There had been two false alarms already that afternoon and evening; there is nothing incredible in a third. The German troops in the _Place de la Station_ assumed that the signals were of Belgian origin (and therefore of civilian origin, as the Belgian troops did not after all reach the town), because these signals were followed by firing directed against themselves. They could not believe that the shots were fired in error by their own comrades, yet there is convincing evidence that this was the case. It is certain that German troops fired on each other in at least two places--in the _Rue de la Station_ and in the _Rue de Bruxelles_, which leads into the _Grand’ Place_ from the opposite direction. “We were at supper,” states a Belgian witness,[182] whose house was in the _Rue de la Station_, “when about 8.15, shots were suddenly fired in the street by German cavalry coming from the _Station_. The troops who were bivouacked in the square replied, and an automobile on its way to the _Station_ had to stop abruptly opposite my house and reverse, while its occupants fired. Within a few seconds the din of revolver and rifle shots had become terrific. The fusillade was sustained, and spread (north-eastward) towards the _Boulevard de Diest_. It became so furious that there was even gun-fire. The encounter between the German troops continued as far as the _Grand’ Place_, where on at least two occasions there was machine-gun fire. The fight lasted for from fifteen to twenty minutes with desperation; it persisted an hour longer after that, but with less violence.” [Illustration: 19. CAPELLE-AU-BOIS] [Illustration: 20. CAPELLE-AU-BOIS] “At the stroke of eight,” states another witness,[183] “shots were heard by us, coming from the direction of the _Place du Peuple_, where the German cavalry was concentrated. Part of the baggage-train, which was stationed in the _Rue Léopold_, turned right about and went off at a gallop towards the _Station_. I was at my front door and heard the bullets whistling as they came from the _Place du Peuple_. At this moment a sustained fusillade broke out, and there was a succession of cavalry-charges in the direction of the _Station_.”