III. FROM LIÉGE TO MALINES.
(i) Through Limburg to Aerschot.
The first German force to push forward from Liége was the column commissioned to mask the Belgian fortress of Antwerp on the extreme right flank of the German advance. From the bridges of the Meuse this column marched north-west across the Province of Limburg. Belgian patrols met the advance-guard already at Lanaeken on August 6th, driving civilians in front of it as a screen.[74] The invaders were obsessed with the terror of franc-tireurs. At Hasselt,[75] on August 17th, they made the Burgomaster post a proclamation advising his fellow-citizens “to abstain from any kind of provocative demonstration and from all acts of hostility, which might bring terrible reprisals upon our town.
“Above all you must abstain from acts of violence against the German troops, and especially from firing on them.
“In case the inhabitants fire upon the soldiers of the German Army, a third of the male population will be shot.”
7. Liége Under German Occupation