German Atrocities. A Record of Shameless Deeds

XIV

“It is not a fair fight. Germany is fighting foully; she is defying not only the rules of war, but the rules of humanity.” —Mr. Richard Harding Davis, the great American author.

Treatment of English Travellers

The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even British, French, and Russian Consuls were treated like criminals. In regard to the latter, a mock formality of presenting the Consuls with passports was gone through before their departure, but, provided with these so-called guarantees of safe conduct, they were subjected to the grossest insults on the way, the women being the chief object of the mob’s fury. Insulting inscriptions were scribbled on the walls of their compartments, and they were the objects of very hostile demonstrations. At every station brave soldiers of the Kaiser presented their revolvers at the heads of the travellers, came up to the carriage windows, jeered at the occupants, and often threw rubbish into the compartments.

Mr. Drummond Hay, the British Consul at Dantzig, the French Consul, M. Michel, and the Russian Consul were, with their families, turned out from their consulates at an hour’s notice. They were told that they would be taken to the Russian frontier, but in reality they were conveyed to Bentheim, near the Dutch frontier, via Stettin, a journey which occupied three days. During the journey they were not given nor allowed to buy any food, and when the train reached Bentheim the travellers were curtly told to get out, and the Consuls were immediately separated from their families. The women and children were housed in a mean tavern under strict military guard, and the men, together with Mr. Drummond Hay’s sixteen-year-old son, were taken to the local prison. They were all put into one small cell, which they found already tenanted by M. Vassel, an attaché of the French Consulate at Bentheim, who had been imprisoned some days previously. M. Vassel had been arrested when looking after the luggage of the French Consul at Bentheim, who had just left for Holland.

In prison the Consuls were treated as though they belonged to the worst class of criminals. They were obliged to sleep on the floor, without covering of any kind, and with only a few wisps of straw between them and the cold stones, and their only food was the black bread which is served out to the ordinary convicts.

Having fallen ill on the journey, M. Michel asked to be allowed to see a doctor, but, in lieu of medical advice, he was given a very strong dose of castor oil, which made him very much worse. The conditions under which these four men and a boy lived cannot be described. The gaolers would not allow them nor anyone else to clean out the cell. Night and day the unfortunate prisoners were herded together. Their only recreation, a daily walk of half an hour’s duration, was taken in company with the convicts.

Ten days after leaving Dantzig Mr. Drummond Hay was set free, but the others were detained amid the awful surroundings which have been described.

It was ascertained that there were forty-eight other foreigners – among them fifteen Frenchmen – who are being kept in the town of Bentheim under the strictest military observation.

The state of affairs in Dantzig when the Consuls left was terrible; many people were being shot daily, often upon the very scantiest suspicion.

If the Germans treated responsible Government officials in the manner described above, how much worse was the case of unfortunate girls and women stranded alone in Germany. In many cases English governesses in German families were cast adrift, to starve and endure the insults of the savage enemy. Hundreds of English men and women, many of them tourists, were thrown into prison without any trial, and suffered the same indignities as did our Consul at Dantzig.

Englishwoman’s Experience.

A well-authenticated story was related by the headmistress of a London elementary school, who was in Switzerland when the war broke out and who returned to England prostrate with shock at the horror of scenes she witnessed while passing through Germany. The train, she said, was packed; all windows were closed, and the blinds drawn, and the passengers were forbidden on peril of their lives to raise them. Glimpses of troop trains were caught at intervals, and to allow these to pass frequent stops were made. The pace was slow, and the crowded, unventilated carriages became unendurably close. In the same compartment as the lady in question were two English women, whom she learned to be teachers in the provinces. One of these became ill, and at last, when the train came to a stop at a countryside place between stations – there was no means of locating it – her friend helped the sick girl to alight in order to breathe some fresh air. Instantly bullets hailed upon them, and both were shot dead. Their travelling companions dared make no attempt to recover the bodies, and when the train passed on they were left beside the line.

Two teachers of another London girls’ school state that a woman travelling with them through Germany was shot for failing to show her passport, and her body thrown out upon the line. Other ladies in the same train stated that they had been stripped by German officers on the pretence of searching them.

XV

“France must be so completely crushed that she can never again come across our path.” —Gen. Von Bernhardi. (This statement was made long before war was declared.)

What Our Soldiers Say

By innumerable acts of treachery and appalling savagery on the battlefield the German soldiers have forfeited for ever the right to the courtesies usually extended to an honourable foe. The opening phases of the war have shown them in the light of cold-blooded barbarians, rather than honourable soldiers. The well-attested stories of their shocking brutality have no parallel in the history of the world. And in practically every case these incredible acts of cruelty have been committed with the knowledge and approval of their officers. They are carrying out to the letter the advice of the Kaiser to act like the Huns of Attila.

British soldiers who have returned wounded from the front are emphatic in their assertions that the German gunners deliberately fired on the hospitals and Red Cross men. One man remarked, “They seemed to take a delight in aiming at hospitals, which had the Red Cross over them. In fact, anything with the Red Cross acted as a target. A church was being used as a hospital, and one of our officers, who had a flesh wound, was taken inside for medical attention. Whilst he was there a shell blew away the roof of the church, and injured him a second time. Fifty men went out under the Red Cross to pick up wounded. They were fired on, and only two of them came back.”

A member of the Red Cross organisation stated that the Germans have treated with actual brutality the British wounded who fell into their hands. Twenty-seven British soldiers who were being removed from the field in an ambulance were dragged away and made to march to the Town Hall of Mons, two falling unconscious in the streets on their way.

A resident of Ostend, in a letter to this country, put into words the prevailing opinion in Belgium. “These Germans are not true soldiers,” he writes, “they are murderers in uniform. They kill the wounded and shoot the women and children. At one of the charges at Liége the Colonel of the 9th Regiment of the Line was shot through the head, and when his body was recovered later in the day it was found that these German cowards had inflicted at least twenty bayonet stabs on the already dead body.”

Helpless Soldiers Maimed.

These terrible allegations are borne out by information which has been received by a British officer from his son at the front, who states that the enemy, on coming across wounded British soldiers, proceed to stab them through the right hand with a bayonet, with a view to rendering the hand useless for holding a rifle again.

A horrible story is told by a wounded British sergeant. Struck down by a bullet, he lay on his back on the battlefield of Mons, unable to move, around him many wounded men. The German soldiers advanced over their bodies, stabbing at them with their bayonets. Realising that his only chance of saving his life was to feign death, the wounded “Tommy” closed his eyes and kept perfectly still. As the Germans passed one struck him on the body a heavy blow with the butt of a rifle, with the result that one of his ribs was smashed. Clenching his teeth to prevent crying out he lay rigid, hoping against hope that the barbarous enemy would not see that he still lived. Then to his relief they passed on, but not before one of them had plunged his bayonet into his shoulder.

Such stories as these make one’s blood boil, but they are by no means isolated instances. Many wounded soldiers who have returned have declared that after the battle of Mons the Germans, especially officers and non-commissioned officers, passed over the ground and thrust their swords at the wounded men. One man escaped by hiding for twenty-four hours under sheaves of corn.

Yet another story is told by a wounded soldier who was also in the fighting near Mons. He said, “We had had to retire a short distance, leaving some killed and wounded behind. We saw the Germans come along. They carried away some of our men who were lying on the ground we had left. They placed them – and I am positively sure there were wounded as well as killed among them – on a hayrick. Then the rick was set on fire. It made us desperately wild, and we long to get at those Germans. If we only could have charged! As it was, we had to stay where we were, but I think we got in a good few shots of vengeance which found their billet.”

A lieutenant of an infantry regiment stated that the Germans captured a party of his men outside Liége, and in order to prevent their escape crushed their feet with the butts of their rifles. They then took one man and held him against a tree while their comrades beat him about the back with rifle butts. An infantryman named Legrande, who was in the trenches beside his brother at a point where the fighting was furious, and who is now in hospital at Brussels, told the following story. His brother was mortally wounded by a German bullet, and died in his arms. He himself was shot in the thigh, and almost at the same moment some German Uhlans rode over him, leaving him unconscious. When he recovered his senses he made an endeavour to crawl back to his own lines, which in the meantime had been drawn in. He was discovered by some German infantrymen, who stripped him, taking his water-bottle and everything. Legrande had to wait in a state of utter nudity until the middle of the night, and then strip the dead bodies of his comrades in order to clothe himself. Eventually he regained the ranks of his comrades in an almost dying condition.

Again the Germans, having despoiled dead Belgian soldiers of their uniforms, clothed some of their men in them and placed them at the head of their troops when an attack was made upon the Belgian troops.

The Khaki Uniform Trick.

The treacherous use by the Germans of British uniforms is instanced by one of the wounded men at present in England. “What made matters worse for us was the treachery of the enemy,” he stated, in the course of an account of the fight in which he had sustained his hurt. “We were compelled to fall back at one point, and left behind us our haversacks and greatcoats, which we had taken off to allow us to fight the better. Some time afterwards a body of men came towards us wearing the familiar khaki-coloured coats, and naturally we took them for friends. But they were Germans who had seized our coats and put them on in order to disguise themselves, and no sooner were they near us than they sent a murderous fire into our ranks. Later, when there was a lull in the fighting, we found a large number of Germans killed wearing the clothes of British soldiers, showing that they must either have stripped our dead or the British prisoners they had captured and used their clothes.”

A number of Belgian soldiers arriving in Folkestone have also described the behaviour of the enemy as too brutal for any civilised nation, and most of them had seen Belgian villagers drawn in front of the Germans to act as a screen for them. A favourite trick of the Germans was to terrify Belgian villagers by driving them along immediately in front of their heavy guns, where, owing to the elevation of the guns, they were really quite safe. Their experience had been that the Germans had no respect for the Red Cross, and that in fact they waited until the wounded had been picked up and would then fire. They confirmed the stories which had been told about the manner in which the Germans had killed wounded men.

In another case a French soldier, after the engagement at Spincourt, related that while he was on the ground with a bullet in his foot the Germans, seeing he was not dead, fired at him with a rifle, twice, point-blank, hitting him in the hip and shoulder, whereupon he became unconscious. The Germans, thinking he was dead, left him.

Many of the British wounded affirm that the Germans pay no respect to the Red Cross flag, but continually fire upon it and upon Red Cross men. The enemy have also frequently violated the rules of the white flag. These statements are supported by the Ostend correspondent of the Central News, who was the eye-witness of the disgraceful incident which he described in the following message: – “When I was in the neighbourhood of Malines the forts were under bombardment. From the Willebroek fort the Belgians were placing shells into a wood four miles distant, with the object of forcing out a detachment of Uhlans. Presently a party of Uhlans, exhibiting a white flag, came forward towards the Belgian trenches with a request for a cessation of fire for the purpose of collecting wounded. The temporary truce was agreed to. A Red Cross wagon came forward to collect wounded, and a party from the Belgian trenches went out for a similar purpose.

“Suddenly the German Red Cross van opened, and from out of it a mitrailleuse poured its deadly fire with such effect that some ninety of the Belgians fell dead. The retribution was swift and complete. The Belgian artillery again opened fire, and with well-directed shells laid low at least 200 of the treacherous Germans.

“Another incident of like character came beneath my immediate notice. A party of German cyclists, entering the village of Willebroek, shot down a child of seven years of age. The Belgian infantry opened fire upon the cyclists, and an armoured motor-car, carrying a captain and four men, pursued the marauders. It is with satisfaction that I can record that eight of the Germans will fight no more.”

France Makes a Formal Protest.

An official communiqué issued by the War Office of Paris contains the following references to these outrages. It draws to the attention of the Powers signatory of The Hague Convention the following facts, constituting on the part of the German military authorities a violation of the Conventions signed on October 10th, 1907, by the Imperial German Government: —

“According to a report dated August 10th, 1914, sent by the General Commanding the Army in the East,” it continues, “the German troops have finished off a large number of wounded men by shots fired into their faces at close quarters, as has been demonstrated by the dimensions of the wounds. Other wounded men were deliberately trampled upon.

“On the 10th August the Bavarian infantry systematically set fire to the villages which they went through in Barbas, Montigny, Montreux, and Paruse districts, at a time also when no artillery fire on either side could have provoked such action. In the same district they compelled the inhabitants to go in front of their scouts.”

Another report, dated August 11th, 1914, says: “The German troops are burning villages, massacring inhabitants, and making the women and children march in front of them when they come out of the villages on to the battlefields. This was done notably at Billy, in the fighting on the 10th. They are finishing off the wounded and killing prisoners.

“The Government of the Republic, in view of such proceedings, which must be repudiated by the universal conscience of mankind, leaves it to the civilised Powers to make complete appreciation of these criminal acts, which are eternally dishonouring for a belligerent.”

XVI

“The wrong – I speak openly – that we are committing I will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal is achieved.”

From a speech by The German Chancellor.

The Antwerp Outrage

Next to the tragic and infamous destruction of Louvain, and the attendant atrocities committed in that beautiful old town, nothing has called forth more passionate denunciation than the cowardly attempt made by Zeppelin airships to drop bombs at Antwerp in the dead of night on its sleeping inhabitants. For the first time in history a death-dealing airship has attacked a city in this way. As a weapon the Zeppelin dropping bombs may be as destructive as great shells fired from siege howitzers. The horror of aircraft is, however, more terrorizing than that of any siege gun, because bombs can be thrown down from the sky on defenceless and sleeping cities. The civilized world has greeted with execration this inhuman method of prosecuting war.

Before even a fortified town can be bombarded, the rules of war provide for twenty-four hours’ notice before the commencement of actual bombardment. Here we have a great airship sailing high over a sleeping city. Without warning her crew drop death-dealing bombs from the sky in the dead of night. Surely the killing of unsuspecting men, innocent women, and sleeping children in this way is the most ruthless outrage ever attempted in war.

Piloted by a German who knew the city well – one of the many to whom the city opened wide its doors in the days before the war – the huge airship had for its objective the Palais du Roi, where the Queen of Belgium, the little Princes, and Princess Marie-José lay sleeping. Aided by the darkness, the crew of the Zeppelin felt confident of their ability to carry out their murderous programme. They had mapped out a career of terrifying destruction. In a track of devastation they meant to leave in ruins the Palais du Roi (which would also have involved the death of the Royal Family), the Bourse, the Palais de Justice, the Banque, and the Minerva Motor Works. But in no case was the treacherous aim attained. The cowardly raid proved a complete and utter failure, the only consolation provided the Kaiser being the slaughter of seven innocent persons and the wounding of some twenty others.

Girls Horribly Mutilated.

The bombs which were to have killed the Queen and her family and to have shattered the Bourse fell into an adjoining street, wrecked a house, and injured two women. That destined for the destruction of the Banque struck the attic of a house near by, killed a servant as she slept, and injured two others. Of the other bombs one fell into a shrubbery, dug a deep, funnel-shaped hole, uprooted shrubs, and plucked from their frames windows of the St. Elizabeth Hospital, where the wounded lay. Another – and the most successful bomb – struck a private house inhabited by poor people, murdered a woman, and horribly mutilated three girls, killed two Civic Guards, and seriously injured another. It was at a private house just off the Place de Meir that a bomb wrought much destruction to life and property. It tore off the top storey and split up the front.

Screams of Dying Women.

“As I arrived on the scene,” says a Daily Telegraph correspondent, “a woman tottered out covered with lime dust, crying out, ‘Docteur, docteur!’ Beneath the ruins of the house two Civic Guards were dead. Within the house pitiful screams came from three girls who had been roused from sleep by receiving dreadful wounds on the face and body. One girl had half her face blown away; the two others were seriously wounded on the face. Evidently their bodies had been somewhat protected by the bed-clothes.”

The Zeppelin at the time of this appalling incident was almost stationary in the sky, some seven hundred feet from the ground. Needless to say, a panic at once ensued, and thousands of people took refuge in their cellars, while others dashed out into the streets in their night attire. Time after time the earth trembled as the terrible bombs fell, causing devastation everywhere, the spots being signalled, it is said, from the roofs of houses occupied by prominent Germans, of whom there was a large colony in Antwerp. Truly it was a night of terror, for the populace through the hours of tension did not know from one moment to another that they might not be blown to atoms. Ten bombs struck ten different streets. One which fell in the Rue des Navets made a hole six feet six inches in diameter and twenty-two inches deep. It was probably filled with shot, for all the houses in the vicinity were riddled by bullets, and presented the appearance of having been fired upon, all the doors and windows being broken and the ceilings having fallen in.

“The best protection of undefended cities against German Zeppelins is that a repetition of the Antwerp occurrence will be greeted with execration by the whole civilized world.” —Times.

Enormous Damage to Property.

It was calculated that about nine hundred houses were more or less damaged and about sixty houses destroyed. In a single house four persons were found dead. Indeed, in one room two people had been blown to atoms. Three men were walking in the Rue de la Corne, when one of the bombs fell. One was killed and the other two mortally wounded, while another passer-by had his leg blown off. All the bombs, which created a terrific explosion, were found to have been in a steel cover one and a half inches thick and about a foot in diameter. The Zeppelin was, of course, fired upon from the forts with guns and rifles, but having launched its deadly missiles it moved off into the darkness.

A subsequent examination of the projectiles thrown showed that they had a double covering, the two covers being joined together by mushroom-shaped rivets, which act the part of bullets, and must cause horrible injuries, as the two covers or envelopes are torn to fragments by the explosive.

“If Germany had fought fairly we should have retained the respect for her which we had in the past; but her barbarous method of conducting war by sea and land has made all the nations of the Old World and the New regard her as the enemy of the human race.”

– Military Correspondent of The Times.

A Miraculous Escape.

The story of that terrible night would not, however, be complete without a reference to the miraculous escape of M. Vamberg, a cigarette-maker. Had he slept in the bed he usually occupied, he would now be a dead man. But for some reason he chose another bed in another room, his wife being absent in the country, and so saved his life. The bed which Mme. Vamberg occupies when at home was crushed by the falling roof. More than that, having been aroused by the sound of the cannon, and having jumped out of bed and rushed down to the first floor, M. Vamberg found himself suddenly hanging from the window, the house having fallen about his ears. He was rescued from this position by the firemen.

More Cowardly Raids.

But, as though not satisfied with the success of the first attempt, the Germans determined upon another dastardly raid. A few nights after the first outrage a Zeppelin again appeared over the city in the dead of night. Ten bombs were discharged, and damaged a number of houses. No lives were lost, however. A boy of fifteen had his right arm injured by a flying splinter, while his father and sister and one or two others were slightly injured. A graphic description of the raid is given by the Daily Telegraph correspondent. “I was awakened,” he relates, “by the rattle of rifle-fire from neighbouring roofs and the hideous crash of exploding bombs. Hurriedly descending into the Place Verte, I was just in time to see an airship disappearing southward. She was at a tremendous height, but could be clearly seen in the rays of the searchlight. There was an incessant rattle of shots from rifles and machine guns from the darkened town, and shrapnel could be seen exploding like meteorites in the trail of the flying marauder. All round the Place Verte from the roadway, and from points of vantage on the high buildings, spurts of flame indicated the efforts of the firers to bring down the hated ship. Immediately the searchlights fixed upon her the Zeppelin made off at great speed.”

Worse than the Boxers.

Surgeon-Major Seaman, of the United States Army Reserve Corps, who helped to tend the wounded, was so indignant with these cowardly tactics on the part of the Germans that he communicated with his Government, asking it to join at once in exacting reparation from Germany for such infamies. He declared that in all his eight campaigns, of which one was against the Boxers in China, he had never seen an act of war so ruthless, so horrible, as the sight of three young girls mutilated and defaced, and of the dead young mother, all attacked in their beds at night. And with him the civilized world will agree.

Other airship and aeroplane raids were made on Antwerp and also upon Paris, but fortunately none has been attended with either great loss of life or destruction of property. But that such should be the case affords no excuse for crimes which rank among the greatest committed by the ruthless German army.

“At this moment the words ‘German culture’ are synonymous for rapine, murder, and hideous cruelty. This is a state of things which ought to be grasped by the people of Germany.”

– From the Morning Post.