August 28, 1914. “The French soldiers who were captured were led away. Those seriously wounded, in the head or lungs, etc., who could not get up, were put out of their misery, according to orders, by another shot.” An extract from the diary of a German soldier, Fahlenstein, 34th Fusiliers II Army. The original is in the hands of the French Government.
At Ethe, finding twenty wounded men stretched out in a shed, unable to move, they burned the shed and roasted them alive.
At Gomery a temporary, first aid hospital was captured. A Boche sergeant and a group of soldiers rushed in, assaulted the doctor in charge and burned the building. The wounded men, some of whom had had amputations that same morning, maddened by the flames, jumped out of the windows into the garden, where they were bayonetted by the waiting fiends. Dr. De Charette, Lieutenant Jeanin and about one hundred and twenty wounded French officers and men were butchered. This hospital was under command of Dr. Sedillat.
“The Russians were treated like beasts, but among those emaciated, ragged creatures, the most miserable of all, the most cruelly used of all are the British. They were always the last and the worst served. If ill, they were always the worst cared for. When they had no more clothing to sell to buy food, they came to the hospital utterly exhausted, stark naked, and died of hunger. It was a sight to pierce the heart.” Report of Dr. Monsaingeon, of the French Medical Service, on conditions at Gustrout in 1914 and 1915. Confirmation furnished the French Foreign Officers and printed in “Treatment of French Prisoners in Germany.”
The following letter, written by Officer Klent, 1st Company, 154th German Infantry Regiment, was published in the “Jauersches Tageblatt,” Harmonville, September 24, 1914: “We reached a little hollow in the ground, where many red breeches, killed and wounded, were lying. We bayonetted some of the wounded and smashed in the skulls of others. Nearby I heard a singular crushing sound. It was caused by the blows one of our 154th men was raining on the bald skull of a Frenchman. Our adversaries had fought bravely, but, whether slightly or severely wounded, our brave Fusiliers spared our country the expense of having to nurse so many enemies.”
FRENCH FURLOUGH
This furlough, in spite of its “sans prolongation,” has been[has been]
CHAPTER XXI
THEIR CRIMES
We must make it absolutely impossible for the wild beast to break out again. Our living ought to know the crimes committed in the name of Kultur, in order to take the necessary precautions against their recurrence. To our martyred dead, we have a sacred duty, that of Remembrance.