(21)
Sergeant C——, 1st Glosters:—Last Wednesday morning, near La Bassée, I was in the trench, and I saw a wounded man of No. A Co. (who had had to retire from their trenches on our right, having been enfiladed during the night) crawling on all fours to get back. When the Germans saw him they turned a machine gun on him and killed him.
About end of November, near Ypres, a Belgian farmer (a kind of peasant), who spoke a little English (I can speak some French; I have a French conversation book with me), told me that a German officer threatened him with a revolver because he tried to protect his daughter, and the officer forced the girl to sleep with him for four nights.
(22)
Sergeant G——, 2nd Devons:—
(1) At Estaires, about five weeks ago (latter part of November), we were billeted there, and I and another sergeant went into a café. The proprietor, who spoke quite good English, said that his daughter had been outraged by a party of Germans while they were occupying. They forced the daughter out into a linhey (an outhouse) at the back and there outraged her.
(2) At Laventie, about a week later, we halted; and I was speaking to a Frenchwoman who spoke English. She told me that the Germans had looted everything, and showed me a jeweller’s shop which had been stripped of nearly everything. She pointed out two girls (I think about seventeen or eighteen) who, she said, had been outraged.
(23)
Private C——, A.S.C., 7th Div., Supply Column:—At Westoutre, near Poperinghe, we were billeted about two months ago at a priest’s house. He spoke English, and told me that his father was shot by the Germans against the church-yard railings because he refused to give up the stores of which he had charge for the Belgian refugees. He told us that the Germans had practised a lot of outrages on the women.