Signed: von Loeben, Captain on the General Staff.
C. App. 2.
Extract from the Report of Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108 on the fighting in Dinant during the night of the 21st-22nd August 1914.
When the rear of the 2nd Battalion had reached the first houses in Dinant, a signal shot suddenly rang out. The next moment there was a rattle of musketry on all sides. There was firing from all the houses; from all the slopes, which are honeycombed by cellars and vaults, there came flashes. All the houses were firmly barricaded. An attempt was made to penetrate into the houses. If rifle-butts and hatchets were not adequate, there were pioneers at hand to throw in hand-grenades. Machine-guns had been fixed up in a corner house.
C. App. 3.
Extract from the Report of the 1st Field Company of Pioneer Battalion No. 12 on the reconnaissance in force of August 21st, 1914, carried out with the 2nd Battalion, Rifle (Fusilier) Regiment No. 108.
As soon as the first houses in Dinant were reached, the street-lighting was destroyed; the columns marched closely along by the two rows of houses and arrived as far as the first cross-street. Here the head of the infantry column suddenly received from the corner house on the right a very violent fire, which was immediately returned. Instantly there was firing from all the houses. A violent street-fight then ensued. The pioneers forced the fastened doors open with hatchets and axes, threw hand-grenades into the lower rooms, and set others on fire with the torches which had been in the meantime ignited.
Lieutenant Brink turned into the first side-street on the left. This, however, had been obstructed by trip-wires; from the houses came firing, and stones were thrown.
All at once the company was fired at from the rear, and was obliged to return to the corner of the street. Non-commissioned Officer Grosse, who had been struck by several stones and lay unconscious by the trip-wires, was also brought back.
The 1st Company had fifteen slightly wounded and one severely wounded.