The German Army in Belgium, the White Book of May 1915

by Germany. Auswärtiges Amt

Signed: Karge.

The witness thereupon took the oath.

Proceedings closed.

Signed: Hottendorff. Signed: Westphal.

Supplement to A. App. 3.

On August 19th, 1914, towards 8 o'clock in the evening, I stood at an open window in the quarters which had been offered me by the Mayor of Aerschot, whose brother's house it was, situated in a street which led to the market-place. It may have been a few minutes to eight when I heard a shot. A column was just marching down the street towards the market-place. I leant out of the window, under the impression that perhaps one of the soldiers had carelessly fired a shot from his rifle; immediately there was a fusillade. I had just looked in the direction from which the single shot had been fired, and I could ascertain that from the ledge of the roof of a red corner-house, situated opposite my billet, towards the right, the smoke and dust were ascending. My certainty that the first shot had been fired from this spot was strengthened, and I now distinctly saw a second volley being fired from the same place, appearing in thin clouds of smoke. The shots may have been fired from about eight or ten rifles, and from the regularity of the volley I had the impression that we had to do with a well-organised and perhaps military operation. Shortly after the second volley a third was heard, and added to that a brisk and rapid firing took place, which did not proceed only from the house mentioned, but also from the other houses in this street.

Apparently this firing did not only come from the windows, but also from the openings in the roof and prepared loopholes in the attics of the houses; it is because of this that one can explain the small harm done to the men and animals. The street was narrow, and the rifles had to be placed in an unnaturally slanting position, if they were to be aimed at the halting columns in the middle of the street. The drivers and soldiers of the supply column had in the meantime left their waggons and horses and sought shelter from the fire in the doorways of the houses. Some of the waggons had collided with each other, and the restless horses, having lost their drivers, had broken loose.

As shots also came my way, I sought shelter against the partition wall between the windows. After a short time, I thought I heard the firing returned by our soldiers in the market-place. Soon after, signals and calls were heard to "cease fire." The firing did then cease for a time, but was apparently renewed on both sides, though not so violently as before.

I had taken the opportunity to leave my billet during the cessation of the firing, and go to the market-place, to inform a Colonel there of the proceedings I had witnessed. At the same time, I asked permission to set fire to the house from which the signal shot—as I took it to be—had been fired, and from which the volley had also come. In my opinion, the ringleaders were assembled there. The Colonel refused my request. I hereupon returned to my street, but was there detained a moment by a rifleman, who, standing in a doorway, called out, "Just now I plainly saw a shot fired from the house opposite." He then pointed out the house, which I recognised as that of the Mayor.

I now took a few soldiers who were standing near by (of the 140th Infantry Regiment), and proceeded with them to the house from which the first shots had been fired, and in the attic of which I guessed the instigators and leaders still to be. In the meantime the regiment arrived, and—giving my commands to the officer and his men—I ordered the doors and windows on the ground floor, which were firmly locked, to be battered in. The house had a front door and a shop door. I then also forced my way into the house, and with the help of a fairly large quantity of turpentine, which was found in a tin can holding about 20 litres, and which I had partly poured on the first floor, I succeeded, after a short time, in setting the house on fire. Further, I gave orders to the men who had so far taken no part in this affair to occupy the entrances to the houses and arrest all men seeking to escape.