Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-11-26
TRAIL Of ATROCITY ON EUROPEAN
BATTLEFIELDS DIFFICULT To TRACE
War Correspondent Hears Plenty Cruel Stories but Gets Little
Proof-Mstake Made of Blaming Country for Acts of
Possibly Criminal Individual = Each Nation Makes
Accusations Against Ener~

out and tongue torn out by the roots.
Can you hear me?" he said to the
observer. Z an going to shoot you!"
The mutilated man barely nodded,
and the other held his revolver to his
friends head and put him out of his
misery.
I staggered away" he said, in tell
ing Of this experience, 'and if l had
found any civilian crossing ny path
I should not have been content to kill,
/ should have tortured him to death. q"
Charges Against the English.
There are comparatively few stories
of atrocities told against the French.
There have been isolated cases of
franc-tireurism and cases OF the
French firing On the Red Cross and
destroying food, even cases of the
French plundering their own villages.
But these stories, were they all true,
would not make in bulk anything ike
the stories told against the English.
Everywhere in the German army there
is a deep respect for the French and
their gallant and civilized Gght. Such
a feeling, however, is not felt for the
English.
The story I heard most often re-
peated about the English was that
they had given the sign of surrender,
and then, when the Germans ad-
vanced, had fired upon them. I have
heard several versions of this story,
generally from intelligent, cool-mind-
ed officers who seemed to know what
they were talking about The last
time I heard the story was in Frank
fOrt-on-the-Main from personal
friend who had just come from gen
signed. The English, he said, had
given the sign of surrender, their Off
GERS standing at the edge of the
trenches, hands raised. The Germans
advanced, and when they came quite
close up they were met by deadly
fire from English troops firing from
between the officers legs.
so now there is no more quarter
being given English soldiers" he
ended.
Some English Ingenuity.
Another story about the English
which has the authority of a German
army officer who witnessed it is the
following:
In a small engagement in France
the Germans we're facing the English
and were suffering from artillery fire
of a rather uncanny nature. In the
first place, the location of the enc
my's artillery was mystery, and no
reason could be found for its deadly
accuracy. Before long the artillery
was disclosed. 1t was in a large
building flying the Red Cross flag and
was firing from the windows of this
hospital" Later it was found that
an English officer was in the town
where the Germans had their head
quarters, and had walled himself in
the cellar. Here he communicated
with the outer world through an air
shaft, where the village priest gave
him observations about the accuracy
of the English artillery, which he then
telephoned to the hospital"
With the army corps where I had
the privilege of mingliGg freely with
soldiers behind the lines l heard in
Vulnerable stories about the English
firing on the Red Cross. It was so
terrific, this inhuman battle, that dur
ing the early days of the trench
fighting, I was told, Germans were
forced to lie in their trenches for As
hours with the dead and their dying
comrades about them. No Red Cross
assistance could be brought because
the enemy ruthlessly shot down any.
one coming with relief
mo More English Prisoners"
These stories we're always concIud.
ed by the statement, always signif-
cantly added, that now no more Eng.
glish are being taken prisoners" ]
tried to find out just what truth there
was in this OF: repeated statement
and. while I found 1t believed every,
where, l could never run across an
officer in whose particular corps OF
regiment this order had been given
1t was always in the next corps" or
the next regiment" Finally an off