This charge applies
particularly to the A.S.C." A bombing officer: "_Rethel_, September 2nd.
Discipline becoming lax. Brandy. Looting. The blame lies with the
_infantry_." An infantry officer: "Discipline in our company
excellent--a contrast with the rest. The _Pioneers_ are not worth much.
As for the _Artillery_, they are a band of brigands." A final extract
seems to be the only one that gives the truth: "Brin ... _troops of all
arms_ are engaged in looting."
It has been possible sometimes to prove premeditation. On the 17th
August, a German officer was billeted with a Belgian magistrate. Their
talk turned on Dinant. "Dinant," said the officer, "is a condemned
town!" M. X ..., of Dinant, happening to be in another town, made the
acquaintance of a German officer, who said to him on August 20th, "You
come from Dinant? Don't go back. It's a bad place, and will be
destroyed." Troops on their march towards Andenne announced in villages
through which they passed that they were going to burn the town and
massacre the inhabitants. At Louvain, a German officer, treated
generously by a middle-class family, and appreciating their courtesy,
rushed to their house on the 25th at 11 o'clock in the morning,[27] and
earnestly pressed his hosts to leave without delay, refusing to give
them any explanation. The family, puzzled and perturbed by his appeal,
went off and so escaped.
* * * * *
In the eyes of the moralist the worst of all their crimes will perhaps
be this, that the wretches tried to dishonour Belgium, after first
assassinating her.
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