The German Army in Belgium, the White Book of May 1915

by Germany. Auswärtiges Amt

From the factory above mentioned also the detachment, especially the Machine-Gun Company of Infantry Regiment No. 177, was briskly and continuously fired on. The shooting of the francs-tireurs only died out when the factory was set on fire (Apps. 38, 64, 65).

Whilst these events were taking place in the north of Dinant, in the south, also at Les Rivages and Anseremme, sanguinary fighting with the civil population had taken place. Late in the afternoon, Grenadier Regiment No. 101 with the 3rd Field Pioneer Company reached Les Rivages by the road which ends there, in order to cross the Meuse. The pioneers, with pontoon waggons for bridge-building, had already entered the section of Dinant occupied by the Guards Regiment.

On account of the fire which they received from the houses, and of which they could not get the mastery, despite all attempts in conjunction with the infantry to clear the houses, they had been obliged to withdraw to the heights.

The village of Les Rivages at first appeared as if deserted. On the opposite bank the houses in Neffe, struck by our artillery fire, burst into flames (Apps. 20, 39, 44).

The crossing began at once. First the 2nd, then the 11th Company of Grenadier Regiment No. 101, gained the left bank and advanced to the attack in extended order against the enemy infantry on the western heights of the river-bank. The 11th Company received about five consecutive discharges of small shot from a house in the narrow alley through which they had passed in Neffe. The barred house was broken open, and the francs-tireurs, a man and two women, were shot.

Directly after this the company, led by the company commander, reached the railway embankment. At this spot a waterway led through the embankment; before the culvert lay a civilian with a sort of carbine, shot dead; in the dark culvert people were seen. From the top of the embankment the officer advancing with another company shouted down that he had been shot at from the culvert. The company commander called out loudly, "Sortez, on ne vous fera rien" ("Come out; nothing will be done to you"). No answer came from the culvert, neither did the people leave it who were concealed there. Thereupon a number of volleys were fired into the culvert. The Grenadiers continued their advance over the railway embankment and up the heights. The detachment left behind for clearing and guarding the culvert brought out about thirty-five to forty civilians, men, half-grown lads, women, and children, and with them about eight to ten rifles, not sporting-guns, but apparently military rifles. A portion of the civilians had been killed or wounded by the fire of the Grenadiers (App. 40). In the meantime everything had still remained quiet in Les Rivages. The first person who showed himself was a lame man. He described himself as the Mayor, and protested that the inhabitants of Les Rivages were peaceable in contrast to those of Neffe. He was therefore sent over to Neffe for the purpose of warning the population in that place to keep the peace, as in that case nothing would happen to them. The commanding officer of Grenadier Regiment No. 101 forcibly collected a large number of persons from the nearest houses in order to hold them as hostages against the hostile action of the populace. It was made clear to them that their lives were guarantee for the safety of the troops. The causes for this measure were the notorious hostility of the population of Dinant, and the report just made by an officer that, close by, to the south of Les Rivages, towards Anseremme, shots had been fired from the houses. The men were placed against a garden wall to the left of the place of crossing, the women and children who came with them out of the houses, somewhat farther down the river.

The bridge-building and crossing were in progress. When the bridge had been built out about 40 metres alike from the houses of Les Rivages and from the rocky slopes close to the south of the "Rocher Bayard," francs-tireurs began to direct a hot fire upon the Grenadiers, who were waiting in close order for crossing, and on the working pioneers. The greatest consternation and confusion ensued. In consequence of this the male hostages assembled by the garden wall were shot.

The shooting of the hostages, evidently visible to the unseen francs-tireurs, resulted in the cessation of the firing and a continuation of the bridge-building (Apps. 46, 48).

Partly during the night of August 24th and partly on the next day the troops of the Corps were able to cross the Meuse at Les Rivages and Neffe. On August 25th the rear portions of the Corps also crossed the Meuse.

In no way, however, had the severe measures taken on August 23rd put any final stop to the excesses of the francs-tireurs. On the two following days also, columns passing through and single persons were shot at from the slopes and from the houses, although no longer to the same extent as on August 23rd. This necessarily led again to retaliatory measures, to the shooting of individual inhabitants caught in the act, and to the artillery bombardment of buildings which were occupied by francs-tireurs. The former measures were taken on August 24th in Neffe and St. Médard, and the latter on August 24th and 25th in all parts of the town (Apps. 49, 50). If one reviews the whole of the resistance offered to the German troops by the population of Dinant and its suburbs, the first thing that strikes one is its systematic organisation (Apps. 12, 25, 30).