Berlin, November 12th, 1914.
Proceedings held at the barracks of the 3rd Guard Field Artillery Regiment.
There appeared after citation Sergeant of Landwehr II, Georg Ebers, office assistant in the chief office of the Great Berlin Tramways, at this time attached to the 4th Reserve Battery, 3rd Guard Field Artillery Regiment. The witness, being duly sworn on oath, made the following statement:
On August 23rd, 1914, when non-commissioned officer attached to the 5th Battery, 1st Guard Reserve Field Artillery Regiment, I was wounded in the neighbourhood of Namur. On the next day, August 24th, I was brought to the 2nd Field Hospital, XI. Army Corps, which occupied the convent at Champion, near Namur. On the evening of this day, when everything was already quiet, there commenced at 10 o'clock a general fusillade. The window-panes were shot through, and we noticed the flash of the guns from the houses lying opposite. I myself in some ten cases saw civilians firing upon us from windows and skylights in three houses lying opposite to the wings of the convent. When the firing began, the soldiers of the medical corps and the lightly wounded, of whom I was one, assembled round the doctor in the corridor. We next looked for the convent Sisters, who had disappeared, and found them hidden in the cellar. We brought them into our midst and betook ourselves to the main entrance with the intention, of making a sally. Meanwhile a Belgian and a French doctor, both of whom were prisoner-inmates of the hospital, advanced to the door and there addressed the population in the hope of quieting them. The firing thereupon diminished; but as we entered the street in order to search the village with the aid of men belonging to the munitions column encamped in the vicinity, the firing began afresh and continued till about 11 o'clock in the evening. At night, about 10, houses from which shots had come were set on fire. At daybreak we ascertained that the outside walls of the convent showed numerous marks of shot. Further, we found in a house occupied by a priest, lying opposite the chief entrance of the convent, about 40 cases of dynamite and some 30 cases of cartridges. I was present, and saw with my own eyes how our artillerymen ascertained the number and contents of the cases.
Read over, approved, signed.
Signed: Georg Ebers.
Proceedings took place as above.
Signed: Guradze, Lieutenant of Landwehr Artillery II.
and Officer of the Court.
App. 37.
Military Court Examination of Acting-Sergeant-Major Schulze, Corporal Spans, and the Grenadiers Wenzel, Kachel, Pfeiffer, Wittstadt, and Wilhelmy, all of Infantry Regiment No. 93.