Raemaekers' Cartoon History of the War Volume I Part 2

BELGIAN GOV. COMMISSION'S REPORT.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_THE SHIELDS OF RoSSELAERE_

In a cafe, lower down, near the ca.n.a.l, I saw a number of German soldiers, and was successful in having a chat with the inn-keeper, at the farthest corner of the bar. I asked, of course, what they meant by burning the village, and he told me that the Germans had made a number of successful attacks on Fort Pontisse, until at last they had reduced it to silence. They were now so near that they could open the final a.s.sault. They were afraid, however, of some ambush, or underground mine, and the Friday before they had collected the population, whom they forced to march in front of them. When they had got quite near they dared not enter it yet, and drove the priest and twelve of the princ.i.p.al villagers before them.

"_The German Fury in Belgium_,"

By L. MOKVELD.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"_THEY SHOT HER AS A FRANC-TIREUR_"

We ourselves regret deeply that during these fights the town of Loewen has been destroyed to a great extent. Needless to say that these consequences are not intentional on our part, but cannot be avoided in this infamous franc-tireur war being led against us.

Whoever knows the good-natured character of our troops cannot seriously pretend that they are inclined to needless or frivolous destruction.

GERMAN GENERAL STAFF.

_Berlin, August, 1914._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_AERSCHOT AND AFTERWARDS_

The German troops penetrated into Aerschot, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the morning. No Belgian forces remained behind. No sooner did the Germans enter the town than they shot five or six inhabitants whom they caused to leave their houses. In the evening, pretending that a superior German officer had been killed on the Grand Place by the son of the Burgomaster, or, according to another version of the story, that a conspiracy had been hatched against the superior commandant by the Burgomaster and his family, the Germans took every man who was inside of Aerschot; they led them, fifty at a time, some distance from the town, grouped them in lines of four men, and, making them run ahead of them, shot them and killed them afterward with their bayonets. More than forty men were found thus ma.s.sacred.

BELGIAN GOV. COMMISSION'S REPORT.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_BERNHARDISM_:

"_It's all right. If I hadn't done it someone else might_"

As regards private property, respect among German troops simply does not exist. By the universal testimony of every British officer and soldier I have interrogated the progress of the German troops is like a plague of locusts over the land. What they can not carry off they destroy.

Furniture is thrown into the street, pictures are riddled with bullets and pierced by sword cuts, munic.i.p.al registers burnt, the contents of shops scattered on the floor, drawers rifled, live stock slaughtered and carca.s.ses left to rot in the fields. Cases of petty larceny by German soldiers appear to be innumerable; they take whatever seizes their fancy, and leave the towns they evacuate laden like pedlars. Empty ammunition wagons were drawn up in front of private houses and filled with their contents for despatch to Germany.

I have had the reports of local commissions of police placed before me, and they show that in smaller villages like those of Caestre and Merris, with a population of about 1,500 souls or less, pillaging to the extent of 4,000 and 6,000 was committed by the German troops.

PROFESSOR J. H. MORGAN _in "German Atrocities," an Official Investigation._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_FROM LIEGE TO AIX-LA-CHAPELLE_

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_SPOILS FOR THE VICTORS_

They sang, shouted and waved their arms. Most of them carried bottles full of liquor, which they put into their mouths frequently, smashed them on the ground, or handed them to their comrades, when unable to drink any more themselves. Each of a troop of cavalry had a bottle of pickles, and enjoyed them immensely.

Other soldiers kept on running into the burning houses, carrying out vases, pictures, plate, or small pieces of furniture. They smashed everything on the cobbles and then returned to wreck more things that would have been destroyed by the fire all the same. It was a revelry of drunken vandalism. They seemed mad, and even risking being burned alive at this work of destruction. Most of the officers were also tipsy; not one of them was saluted by the soldiers.

"_The German Fury in Belgium_,"

By L. MOKVELD.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_SEDUCTION_

"_Ain't I a lovable fellow?_"

There is very strong reason to suspect that young girls were carried off to the trenches by licentious German soldiery, and there abused by hordes of savage and licentious men. People in hiding in the cellars of houses have heard the voices of women in the hands of German soldiers crying all night long until death or stupor ended their agonies. One of our officers, a subaltern in the sappers, heard a woman's shrieks in the night coming from the German trenches near Richebourg l'Avoue; when we advanced in the morning and drove the Germans out, a girl was found lying naked on the ground "pegged out" in the form of a crucifix. I need not go on with this chapter of horrors. To the end of time it will be remembered, and from one generation to another, in the plains of Flanders, in the Valleys of the Vosges, and on the rolling fields of the Marne, the oral tradition of men will perpetuate this story of infamy and wrong.

PROFESSOR J. H. MORGAN _in "German Atrocities," an Official Investigation_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]