Extract from Report of Infantry Regiment No. 178.
August 23rd, 1914.
When the leading company (9th Company) of Infantry Regiment No. 178 had almost reached the Meuse in its march through Leffe it received a brisk fire from the front and on the right and left flanks, chiefly from the houses. The 9th Company thereupon received orders to clear the village. The battalion had a severe struggle and suffered considerable losses, as it was under a violent infantry and machine-gun fire from the opposite bank of the Meuse, and, above all, because the battalion was being fired on by the inhabitants from practically all the houses. Various civilians who had fired at our troops were shot. At 8.30 about twenty inhabitants were still firing at us to the south of the barracks of the 13th Belgian Infantry Regiment. They were fetched out and shot.
C. App. 24.
Present:
President of the Military Court, Schweinitz.
Secretary to the Military Court, Lips.
Quarters of Infantry Regiment No. 178 at Variscourt,
March 3rd, 1915.
In the inquiry concerning the events in Dinant there appeared as witness Lieutenant Koch, who stated:
As to Person: My name is Friedrich Bruno Koch. I am 47 years old; Protestant; Lieutenant-Colonel, Infantry Regiment No. 178.
As to Case: I led the 2nd Battalion, Infantry Regiment No. 178, on August 23, 1914. First of all, in the morning, I had to deal with the franc-tireur firing in the Leffe valley at "La Papeterie." As the battalion was continually being fired on there from the houses, I gave the order, on higher authority, to clear the houses. I was then detailed to take over the leadership in the fighting at Leffe. There I saw very many dead civilians lying all along the road and also especially in an open space in Leffe itself. At nightfall after the occupation of the place I had to secure the section towards the Meuse—it was reported to me that my left-wing post was being attacked by francs-tireurs. I snatched together a number of men, led them personally to the scene of the fighting, and instituted measures for clearing the place. By my orders reinforcements arrived, and I gave over to 1st Lieutenant Wilke the further work of clearing the place. During this work we were continuously and heavily fired on by civilians without any military badge or uniform. Consequently, in this affair also, very many men who were caught with weapons in their hands were shot.
Read over, approved, signed.