Report of Lieutenant-Colonel and Regimental Commander von Giese (Leib-Kürassier Regiment No. 1).
At Petite-Rosière, the first quarters occupied by the regiment in Belgium, the inhabitants received the troops, and especially the officers, with the utmost cordiality and goodwill, so that not the slightest difficulty was experienced in securing food and forage. At Grande-Rosière, distant about 1½ kil., lay Dragoon Regiment No. 8, and also the staff of the 11th Cavalry Brigade. At this place the inhabitants waited until the officers assembled in the evening for the issue of orders, and then opened fire upon them as they left the house. Very soon after this shooting, shots were fired by the inhabitants of Petite-Rosière at the bivouacs of the squadrons and at the pickets. This firing only ceased completely when every inhabitant had been brought out of the houses and had one and all been locked up. The inhabitants of the village were not irritated in any way whatever, but were treated throughout with kindness.
On August 23rd at Bièvre the 3rd squadron acting as reconnoitring squadron found facilities for watering the horses placed at its disposal in a very obliging manner. Then after a short time the inhabitants fired at the squadron from the houses. In this place at the same time one of the inhabitants shot a trooper of the 8th Kürassiers dead, and severely wounded an infantry soldier.
At the fight of Les Rivages the regiment had to leave behind some of its wounded on a very thickly wooded hillside. When the surgeons and the ambulance men of the regiment approached the wood over open ground, shots were fired at them by the inhabitants in spite of the waving of two large Red Cross flags. On the nearer approach of our men the assailants withdrew; nevertheless, the ambulance men while still in the wood were again fired at, even when engaged in succouring the wounded.
Signed: v. Giese, Lieutenant-Colonel and Regimental Commander.
App. 13.
Report of the Brigade Staff, 64th Infantry Brigade (32nd Division), in quarters at Condé.
October 8th, 1914.
On the 5th August of this year the 64th Infantry Brigade entered Gouvy. The population at first gave us the appearance of being well disposed to the Germans, and was extremely cordial. Pails of water, e.g., were provided for the troops as they marched through, without any previous request for this service. The stationmaster was especially prominent in welcoming the troops; the parish priest, in apparently friendly fashion, took pains to make the officers comfortable. Despite all this, the behaviour of the inhabitants seemed to the brigade to be suspicious, and for this reason the place was searched for weapons. The search of the station buildings also took place in the presence of the stationmaster. To the question whether goods of any kind, weapons, explosives, etc., were to be found in the place, the stationmaster returned a most decided negative. His assertion, nevertheless, turned out to be false. For in a small room, lying hidden away, which, according to the stationmaster's statement, served for the storing of his furniture, we discovered, underneath a good deal of rubbish, boxes which contained about 300 Browning pistols. In addition to this there was concealed in the room a hundred-weight of dynamite. As the stationmaster could give no credible explanation as to the use which was to be made of these weapons and explosives, he was arrested.
Further, on the night of 8th-9th August 1914, the orderly officer of the 64th Infantry Brigade, Lieutenant of Reserve Schmidt, was ordered to ride to Vielsalm and there give the alarm to the Guard-Jäger Battalion and the 11th Jägers. On the way there he was fired at by civilians in the neighbourhood of Bovigny. At this time no enemy troops were to be found in that locality.