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About The Alliance herald. (Alliance, Box Butte County, Neb.) 1902-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1918)
THE ALLIANCE HERALD, MAT 2, 1918 The nfessi of a GcrrmK Written by a Prussian Officer??- Who Participated in the Ravag ing and Pillaging of Belgium CepwH h DitroU Fm hat left them. In contrast to the fugitives, whom we hud met before, these were extremely frightened, appearing to be in mortal terror of their enemy. When ever they looked upon one of us Ger man soldiers they cringed in terror. How different these were from the Inhabitants of the village where we bad first stopped, who had met us in friendly, even polite manner. We tried to learn the cause of this fright ind discovered that the fugitives had witnessed In their village bitter street fighting. They had become acquainted with war had seen their bouses bnrning. hod seen their little property destroyed and could not forget the sight of their streets filled with corpses ind wounded. It dawned upon us that not merely fear gave these people the appearance of hunted animals ; there was also hatred toward the invaders Who hud fallen upon them and driven then) from their homes by night. In the evening we departed and tried to reach our own regiment. The Belgians had concentrated somewhere to the rear under cover of darkness. We were quite near the neighborhood of the fortified city of Liege. Many settlements through which we passed stood in flames; the inhabitants driven out. passed us in droves. Women, children and old men were buffeted about and seemed to be everywhere in the way. Without alms or plans, with out a place on which to lay their heads these poor people dragged themselves by. Again we reached a village, which to all appearances had been Inhabited by contented people. Now indeed nothing but ruins could be seen Wrecked houses and farms dead sol diers, German and Belgian, and among them many civilians, who had beer shot by military order. Toward midnight we reached the German lines. The Germans hue tried to take a TtHnge which lay with in the fortified belt of Liege and WU defended tenach usly by the Belgians Here all forces bad to be -used In or der to drive the enemy out, house by house and street by street. It was noi very dark yet, so that we had to wit riess with all of our senses the terrible tights which developed here. It was B man-to-man fight. With the butts ol our guns, knives, fists, teeth we wen' ogainst the enemy. One of my best friends fought witl a giant Belgian. The guns of both hut fallen to the ground. They hammerer one another with fists. I had just closed an uccount with a twenty-two j ear-old Belgian and was going to as sist my friend because his antagonist was of superior strength. My frlenc succeeded suddenly in biting the Bel glan on the chin so deeply that he tori ! a piece of flesh out with his teeth. The Belgian's pain must have been terrl hie. He released my comrade und rar , away with an iuane cry of pain. Everything developed by second The blood of the Belgian ran out o: i my friend's month; a terrible nuuse: . and Indescribable loathing seized him The laste of warm human blooc i brought him almost to the verge of In j sanity. In the course of this night battle I came in contact for the tits time with the butt of a Belgian gun During u hand-to-hand fight with t Belglun, a second em my soldi ei truck me on the back of the hea( with the butt of his gun so hard that my helmet was forced down over m ears. The pain was fearful and fainted. When I revived, I was lying In i barn, with my head bandaged, anion? other wounded men, My wound wai j not severe. I only had a feeling a- I my head wus twice its normal size ! The other wounded soldiers and .th ambulance men mid the Belgians hat I been forced back within the forts unc that hard tight ing was still in prog ress. Wounded men were brought in con tbraoueiy and they told us that tin ; Germane had already stormed severe fort! and had taken u number of mail und auxiliary defenses, but could no j bold them because they hud not beet ; sufficiently supported by artillery. Tin defenses Inside the forts and their gar : rlsoas were still intact. The aituatloi res not ripe for si storming attack, s i the Germans had to retire with enof '' metis losses. The reports we receivet were contradictory, it wee Impoaalhli I to get a clear picture. In the mt an time the artillery bombardment hue he CPU so intense that It horrltie Ten the German soldiers. The heuvi aei artillery was brought into aetlbi against the steel and concrete de I rinses. No soldier so far knew anything o be existence of the Ut centimeter mor tare. Long after Liege was In tier man hands these soldiers could noi i understand how it was possible tha the defenses, which consisted of dou hie six-meter walls of steel and coo crete. were feoaceu utter oauy u ie hour"' bombardment. 1 myottf could not take part In these operations, being wounded, but OaJ comrades told me later how the cup rare of the several forts came about Artillery of all cnlihoreVas trained or the forts, but it was the 21-centimetei mortars and the 42s which performed the real work. Prom a distance the 42-centimetet projectiles were heard to arrive, to the accompaniment Of u fearful hisslns that sounded like a long drawn-out screech which filled the whole ut mosphere. Wherever it fell, every thing was destroyed within n radius of several hundred meters. The all pressure which the bursting of the pro jectile produced was so terrible that It made breathing difficult for those ol os who were holding the advanced po sitions. To make this witches' holiday com plete, the Zeppelins appeared during the night to participate In the work of destruction. The soldiers BUddenl) heard above their heads the whirling of propellers and the noise of the mo tors. The Zeppelins came nearer. They were not discovered by the ene my until they were close to the forts, which Immediately played all the Played the Searchlight on Them. egrchllghta ut their disposal on them, hunting the firmament for the flying foe. The whirling of the propellers of the airships stopped suddenly. In stead, high in the air a brilliant light appeared, tin- searchlight of the Zep pelin, which, for a moment, illumluat ed the entliv landscape. Suddenly all became dark again. A few moments later powerful detona tions revealed the fact that the Sep pelin had thrown off "ballast." That wen on u long while. Bxploelon Col- lowed explosion. These were followed by clouds of fire. In the air, exploding shrapnel which the Belgian artillery fired at the airships could be observed. The whirling of the propellers started up again, directly above our beads. It became quieter and quieter, until the powerful ships of the air disappeared from our vicinity. Thus the forts were leveled. Thou sands of Belgians lay behind the walla and under the fort i Ileal ions, dead and buried. A general storming attack followed. Liege was In the hands of the QermeUS. who had paid. In dead alone iu this battle, 28.000 men. CHAPTER II. I went to AiX-la-Cbappelle to a bos pital. I met many more wounded men who bad fought iu Belgium. All were of the opinion that the Belgian deed numbered as many civilians us sol dJers. Bven if tiie German soldiers wiio fought In Belgium do not admit the cruelties committed against the Belgians, it cannot lie denied that ut least 60 per cent of the cruelties known to the world to have been com mitted In Belgium were only too true. A young soldier who lay next to me in the hospital told me thai his com pany, during u street fight in Liege, was given orders to kill everybody without discrimination. Systematical ly, one house after another wus set on fire. The inhabitants either fell iu tin flames or became the victims in the streets to the gun barrels of the Ger man kuU ur-hearers. At the time I doubted the words ol my neighbor, evn though I had seeu what German warfare meant. After a few days I was released from th hospital and aguin restored to my de tacbment. Partly tut auto, tun-fir b i. n. neii my ortHcnmpnt nv iri o'clock In the evening, our tnmsnrt moved this tlme.over Trier to luxem burg. The little grand duchy of Lux emhurg whs overrun entirely by tier man soldiers. The Germans who had made their homes in Luxemburg had everything taken away from them, es pecially the farmers, all food, without thought of payment, so that In Luxem burg at this lime there was a shortage of fooif: The people here as well a In Belgium were verj friendly, yet th'j harbored a terrible bitterness against the German government, which hud loosed Its trOOpS like u band of robbers and murderers over their peaceful country. Belgium ami Luxemburg, the two first unhappy lctlin of the damnable German politics und Its drunkenness with power! That the Luxemburg citizens detest ed Germany an Incident showed me which happened in the village of Mar moth. We were In a friendly conver sation with a Luxemburg farmer. Two officers approached and listened. One officer, a captain, asked the Luxem burger, "What do you think of the War, and of the quickness of GermnnyV There Is only one Germany, Isn't there t" "Yes," replied the farmer. "ThHnk the Lord." For those four words the formei was arrested at once and transported to Germany as u court prisoner. I could never learn what became of him. The same evening we were trans ported In automobiles and on the eve ning 'of August HOj 1914, We reached our detachment, which was about 8.ri miles from the Belgian city of Neuvo Chateau, The regiment to which I be longed did not take part in any opera tions after the full of Liege, but was transported to this part of Belgium. Now I learn for the first time how heuvy was the loss iu my company In the Liege fighting. We loaf 1R7 men tn dead ami wounded. This night we .slept in an open field. At five o'clock the next morning we marched again until four o'clock in the afternoon, when we were given it rest. It was about ten o'clock in the eve ning w hen WO received orders to ad vance. We were all ready to proceed when another order came for us to re maln at our bivouac overnight. Dur ing the night we heard thundering of cannon which became more violent. The buttle of Neuve Chnteau, which hud continued from August 22 to Au gust 24, 1SU4, had begun. At four o'clock on the morning of August 22 we resumed our march. At Neuve Chuteuu the French army bad encountered the Fourth German army. First there wus, as nlwuys, minor out post and patrol lighting. By and by larger masses of troops participated, and us we took our purt in the battle OH the evening of August 22, the tight had develop, ij Into one of the most sanguinary of the world war. When we arrived the French occu pied almost three-quarters of the town. The artillery had set the main part of Neuve Chateau on tire and only the beautiful residence section in the west ern part of the city escaped ut thai time. All night long the house-to-house lighting continued, but when ut noon of August 88 the city was in Qer man hands the enormous cost to the Germans could finally be determined. Residences, cellars, streets and side walks were heaped with dead and wounded. The houses were in ruins empty shells, in which Uirdly anything remained undamaged that was of any real value. Thousands became heg gars in one terrible night. Women and children, soldiers and citizens were ly ing where the pitiless shells ami hul lets had hurled them from life intc death's dark void. True Impartial! t) reigned lu the killing. There was a Belgian woman lying next to a Belgian baby which she had borne from bousi to street. Close l. lay a man of un certain years before an empty house Both his legs were burned to tin knees. His wife lay on his breast and BObbed so pitifully that her grief coui'' not be endured. Most of the dead were entirely or partly burned. Tie crle ui agony ol the animals flghtini incineration were mixed with tie groans and sobbing of the wounded. But no one had time to bother with them. The French were making an other stand outside the city In an open held. As the enemy vacated the town the Germans made an error which cost them hundreds of lives. They bad DC CUpled the entire town so quickly thai the Herman artillery which shelled a part of the rltj did not know of lie change in the situation and threw shells Into the lanks of the Infaiitr.v Finally our soldiers were compelled ti give up some of their gains by tin pn SSUre of our own as well us tin French tire, but regained this ground afterwards. Strangely enough, tin residence section previously mentioned bad not suffered seriously. All the houses flew the Bed Cross and Well used as temporary hospitals. Here It was reported that Belgians mutilated German soldiers. Whctber tills were true, or only a rumor, slmllai to others being constantly started bj German soldiers, I cannot say, but I do know that on August 24, after tht French hud retired. It was made known through an army order that German soldiers had been murdered there, and that the German army could not leave the scene of these outrages without first avenging the victims. It was ordered by the commander of the army to level the remainder ol the city and to show no mercy. As we took a short rest from our pursuit of the enemy and looked backward clouds of smoke to the eastward showed that the order had beeu executed. A re maining battery of artillery had re (To be coo tinned) Hemingford News Items Mrs Izetta LetSpeICa was looking after business matters heie the first of the week, returning to her home In Alliance Monday. o William Cory made a business trip to aJlMJUM the first of the we. k Mr. and Mrs. John Sampy came in from Sioux county last Friday and spent a few duvs at the Shepherd home. ume three and going strong. F. M Broome, proprietor of the Ant loch NOWUi and receiver of the United States land office at Valentine, was in the city last Wednesday on business. lied Cross headquarters will be (dosed on Saturday except for one hour from 5 to 6 o'clock In the aft ernoon Mrs S. W. IT. on M.n chairman. Mr. and Mrs Mellck, from Hop kins, Mo., came Friday morning on 41 to visit their children living here. o William Rider left Saturday Bight for a few days visit with friends and relatives at Anselmo, Nebr. Miss Belva Q el ger and Mrs. Bus sell Miller were shopping In Alliance Thursday between trains. Word was received from Mrs. A. G. Dan torn, who in in the hospital at Omaha, that she Ib getting along nicely. o Mrs. C. H BurleW was Shopping in Alliance Monday between trains. Mrs. B. 0 Shepherd entertained the Solo club last Friday at a birth day supper in honor of Mr. Shepherd, i o- Mrs. Vaughan and little daughter from Alliance came up the first of the week for a few days' visit at the I'ot- meall home. It. id to Happiness He amiable, cheerful and good nn tured and you are much more likely to be happy. You will find this dif ficult if not Impossible, however, you are constantly trouble I oi tstlputlon. fa v Cliumh.-r lahh f and get rid of Hi. it and easy. These tablets not the hovels, but improve when with lute, s it will he only DlOV4 (tn. ,. ...... 4 1 ..r.,1 . . ..n,..l.... , l. n ! . ... ..,''.-...v .noi r. i eum ii. -ii in.- ni cest ion. For sale by druggists. Wion (oJars -rimmr iinrpnm -w- trammel In the NEWEST SHAPES at the Keep-U-Neat Miis Helen Green was a passenger to Alliance Monday on 44, returning on 43. Miss Hattle Crimes closed a very successful term of school in the Kenthe district, Friday, April 26. Bmil Herncall, an old-time resident of this place, is visiting friends and relatives here at this writing. A very large crowd attended the Red Cross dance at the opera house Saturday night. The dunce wus given by the Peltz orchestra. Mrs. Shady was a west bound pas senger Saturday on 43 for Crawford for an over-Sunday visit. The March edition of The Nebras ka Printer has just reached our desk. This little printer's mag. Is getting potter with every issue and Brother A. D. Scott, publisher, is filling with it a long felt want. It is now in vol Beautiful Sanitary- Low-priced A The beautiful coloring and dainty designs found in Con goleum Art-Rugs will be a revelation to you. And when you see for yourself that they are washable, waterproof and sanitary, you will under stand why they have made such a sensation throughout the country. Iu addition to their beauty. they have two features that make frienda for them on sight. They lie flat on the floor without fastening and cannot be "kicked up" at the edges. Where can you buy a beauti ful, waterproof, washable, durable rug like Congoleum for the small price we ask ? Come in t od ay GLEN MILLER WILL HAVE ABOUT 4000 Head of Cattle At Fremont, Nebraska For Sale. As Follows: About May 5th. 1000 head three and four year old steers. May 10th. 1000 head of two year old steers. May 20th. 1000 head of yearling steers and 1000 head of two year old steers. If in the market for stock cattle write or wire A. C. SIBBITT, Hyannis, Nebr.