There appeared as witness Lieutenant von Lindeiner (otherwise von Wildau), Field Artillery Regiment No. 6, who, after he had been informed of the object of the examination, made the following statement:
As to Person: My Christian names are Hans Erdmann. I am 31 years old; Protestant.
As to Case: About August 20th of this year I was quartered with the Staff of my regiment at Thibesart, and was summoned to act as interpreter in the examination of a woodman called Bienveler, on whom concealed cartridges were discovered, although he had denied his possession of any. The soldiers who had fetched him brought some of the cartridges with them, and I ascertained that a portion of them had been opened and then again closed, a common practice amongst foresters. From one of the cartridges which I opened the small shot had been drawn and pieces of lead, cut up small, loaded in their place. This loading had evidently taken place quite recently, because the rough edges of the bits of lead still looked bright and silvery. As I was informed, several of our patrols were on this and the preceding day fired at from the wood at Thibesart, amongst them that of Captain von Richthosen, Mounted Jäger Regiment No. 11, despite the fact that no enemy soldiers were in the neighbourhood.
In the fight at Rossignole Tintigny on the 22nd August I rode with Colonel von Zglinicki into the village of Tintigny. Near us marched a portion of Grenadier Regiment No. 11, and field-kitchens were standing on the road. From one of the first houses on the left of our line of march a woman, standing in the doorway, called out to me some words like these, "Est-ce que nous sommes sûrs, ici, Monsieur?" As I was just going to answer her, from this very same direction two shots passed just in front of and behind my body. At the same instant I saw on the first storey of this same house two men in civilian clothes who opened on the German troops a vigorous fire and had apparently fired the shots at me. My horse made a spring forward where, on the right, a side street joined the main one. From all the windows of this street I myself, like all the rest of our German soldiers who were blocked at this spot, came under a vigorous fire. None of the enemy troops were to be seen, but, on the other hand, civilians, firing from a number of windows. I am also convinced that I noticed a machine-gun served by civilians at the first-floor window of a house some twenty paces from myself. I observed with my own eyes that a considerable number of our soldiers were wounded by this fire. We were obviously dealing here with a concerted co-operation of the inhabitants, for it was after the two first shots that a simultaneous fusillade broke out throughout the village.
I was then sent back, and on the way came again under fire from the houses of the next village which lay beside the road, running from north to south. This village, Ansart or Marinsart, lay to the north. I got some men of the Light Munitions Column (Field Artillery Regiment No. 42) to break down the fastened doors, and discovered in the house from which the shots had come six or eight civilians, none of whom were soldiers or women.
About an hour afterwards I received orders to lead the 2nd detachment, Field Artillery Regiment No. 6, on the north side of the road leading to east and west, past the same village to a position to the west of the village. I asked for and received an infantry escort of the Rode Company, Grenadier Regiment No. 10. In carrying out our orders we were here exposed to a continuous fire, despite the fact that no French or Belgian soldiers were to be found in the village. In detail I made the following accurate observations:
In several places beds were lying in the gardens, and from behind these beds, which were evidently placed there as a protection, fire was opened upon us.
At another place three persons in women's clothes advanced towards us and then disappeared behind a bush. I had time to call out, "Don't shoot; they are women." At the same instant we were fired at from this bush also.
At the end of the village two or three cows came into a garden towards us, and at once two shots were fired at us from the direction of the cows. We then saw that, sheltering behind a cow, a man had also approached and fired at us. This man was shot dead by one of our infantrymen.
Read over, approved, signed.