At 4.30 in the afternoon the regiment received the order from the 32nd Infantry Brigade to move off to Leffe. The regiment halted in the ravine east of Leffe behind the pontoon column of the division. As the firing from the slopes of the ravine down into the valley was continuous, the 9th Company received the order to clear the southern slopes. One man of the regiment was severely wounded by a shot fired from a house by an inhabitant; the house was set on fire; the men, who were inside with weapons in their hands were shot; in other ways, too, the place was cleared of francs-tireurs.
C. App. 34.
Present:
Lieutenant of Reserve Kleberger, as Officer of the Court.
Sergeant Richter, as Military Clerk of the Court.
Orainville, March 17th, 1915.
Summoned as witness, there appeared Major Langheld, who, after being advised as to the significance of the oath, made the following statement:
As to Person: My name is Karl Anton Emil Langheld. I am 43 years old; Protestant; Major, Infantry Regiment No. 143.
As to Case: On the afternoon of August 23rd I marched with my battalion at the head of the regiment from Lisogue to Leffe. The march from the beginning of the Leffe Valley was somewhat interrupted. During the advance the report came from the rear that a man of the 1st Company had been shot at from a house. By command of Captain Wuttig the house was set on fire by soldiers of the 1st Company, and the men who were seized in it, with weapons in their hands, were shot. During the whole of the afternoon one heard continual firing among the houses in Leffe and on the heights encircling the right and left of the Leffe Valley. A company of the Jäger Battalion, No. 11, was engaged in clearing the slopes on which there were armed inhabitants. The 9th Company of my regiment received a similar commission on the southern slope. I myself marched on with the 10th and 11th Companies to the bank of the Meuse in order to cross over there. Here I saw several times that guilty male inhabitants were shot.
On the night of the 24th, from time to time, fugitives turned up at our outposts—principally women and children—amongst them a number of nuns led by a priest. I sheltered them in a farm near which the 11th Company was in bivouac. Our men gave some of their provisions to the people, although they had only a little themselves. I pacified the fugitives myself, and as I was obliged that same night to march farther, I handed over to the priest a note to say that these people had incurred no blame. I was unable to take further trouble about them. However, I asked the Catholic Divisional Chaplain Kaiser, whom I met next morning, to see that the people got away safely.
Read over, approved.
Witness was sworn according to regulations.