8. Liége Under the Germans: Ruins and Placards
At Tongres,[76] on August 18th, the Germans carried threats into action. The population was driven out bodily from the town, and the town systematically plundered. At least 17 civilians were killed (including a boy of 12), and a number of houses were burnt. “On August 18th,” writes a German in his diary, “we reach Tongres. Here, too, it is a complete picture of destruction—something unique of its kind for our profession.”[77]—“Tongres,” writes another on the 19th, “A quantity of houses plundered by our cavalry.” A captured letter from the hand of a German army-doctor reveals the pretext on which this was done. “The Belgians have only themselves to thank that their country has been devastated in this way. I have seen all the great towns attacked and the villages besieged and set on fire. At Tongres we were attacked by the population in the evening when it was dark. An immense number of shots were exchanged, for we were exposed to fire on four sides. Happily we had only one man hit—he died the following day. We killed two women, and the men were shot the day after.” There is no disproof here of the Belgian affirmation that the shots were fired by the Germans themselves.
This outbreak at Tongres on August 18th was not an isolated occurrence. On the same day the Germans shot down the Burgomaster’s wife and a lawyer at Cannes,[78] and two men and a boy at Lixht,[79] a few miles north-west of the Visé bridge. But Limburg suffered little compared to Brabant, into which the Germans next advanced.
Haelen, where their advance-guard was severely handled by the Belgian Army on August 12th, lies close to the boundary between the two provinces, and they took vengeance on the civil population of Brabant for this military reverse.
“The Germans came to Schaffen,”[80] the curé reports, “at 9.0 o’clock on August 18th. They set fire to 170 houses. A thousand inhabitants are homeless. The communal building and my own residence are among the houses burnt. Twenty-two people at least were killed without motive. Two men (mentioned by name) were buried alive head downwards, in the presence of their wives. The Germans seized me in my garden, and mishandled me in every kind of way.... The blacksmith, who was a prisoner with me, had his arm broken and was then killed.... It went on all day long. Towards evening they made me look at the church, saying it was the last time I should see it. About 6.45 they let me go. I was bleeding and unconscious. An officer made me get up and bade me be off. At several metres distance they fired on me. I fell down and was left for dead. It was my salvation....
“All the houses were drenched, before burning, with naphtha and petrol, which the Germans carry with them....”
On the German side, there is the ordinary excuse. “Fifty civilians,” writes a diarist, “had hidden in the church tower and had fired on our men with a machine-gun.[81] All the civilians were shot.”
The curé mentions that the Germans found the church door locked, broke it in, and then found no one there.
At Molenstede, another village in the Canton of Diest, 32 houses were burnt and 11 civilians killed. In the whole Canton 226 houses were burnt, and 47 people killed in all.