Omaha daily bee., 1914-08-12
GREED OF THE GUNS
CLAIMS HOLOCAUST
Eye Witnesses of Assault Upon
Liege Forts Tell of Terrors of
Mass Fighting,
CALLED DEATH IN HAYsTACKs''
Belgian Soldier Thus Describes Way
wounded Germans Were Piled
Tn In Great Heaps of
Dead.

Copyright. 1914, Press Publishing Coz
LONDON, Aug. 11.-(Special Cablegram
to New York World and Omaha Beef
Dispatches and advlces received from
Belgium are unanimous in describing the
repulse of 4he Germans in their attack
upon Liege on Friday as a carnage.
The correspondent of The Times in a
letter mailed from Brussels tells what
he had learned through personal inter-
views with German prisoners and
wounded men men and officers, who of
both Sides have been brought to Brus-
sells.
He says that when the German army
first advanced upon Llege the officers
believed that the sole task before them
wasSthat of pouring in a continuous fire
that would wipe out all Belgian oppose
ton. But with the men in the ranks the
situation was otherwise.
! The German soldiers, he says, were
gloomy and bewildered. They had no
wish to be at the front and scarcely
realized why they were there. They had
already heard terrible tales of mufitudes
of Coesacks who were prepared to enter
upon Germany and deyour IT. and they
were frightened at the prospect of the
great war.
Incredible as II may SEEM writes
the Times correspondent, these
unhappy Germans are marched straight
to death almost. shoulder to shoulder
The Napoleonic tactics OF the sudden ap-
plication of overwhelming masses of men
to achieve desired victory or reach a
certain objective point seem to have in
spired the German generals. Apparently
they hoped to satisfy the greed of the
guns in the forts by holocaust of VIC
Tins"
The result of this policy, he says. was
a terrific slaughter among the closely
knit ranks of the Germans. According to
some accounts, the men were actually
driven forward like sheep by their Of
ficers. Terror fought against discipline
and death.
When the mighty fusilades Of the Bel
CLANS began, avenues were opened up in
the German ranks" writes the CORES
pendent Masses of the dead began to
accumulate in the green stretches that
lay before the fort. Quoting Belgian
wounded soldier. the correspondent says:
ut was death In haystacks."
But still the Germans were pressed
forward by their officers at the swords
point. Detachment after detachment
was hurled against the Notifications only
TO recof broken and shattered from the
fearful fusilades.
1T actually seems" writes the cores
pondent. recounting his conversation with
a Belgian officer. who described this
scene TO him. that both officers and men
had no realization of the fact that once
they had passed within the danger zone
of the heavy seige guns, they had laid
themselves open to the fire OF the ma
chine guns.
I'm a few moments the glacis was
swept clean of living beings and its green
turf was Redeemed with the slaughter OF
piles upon piles of the dead"
/ Belgian lancer who was wounded
said TO the Times correspondent: 1T
was tragic to see how those poor Ger
mans were driven up TO the gums of the
forts In massed formation. They came
/ so reluctantly that It was obvious they
came only under compulsion. They stood
not five PAGES apart and barely fifteen
PAGES between the ranks. thus presenting
a solid front which even a woman who
had never handled a gun, could not have
Missed.
I'VE simply could not fail TO hit them,
and before our infantry charged with
bayonets. the dead lay in the fields In
great heaps. From what / have been
told about Port Arthur. I do not believe
that even the slaughter there was ever
as great as the first attack upon Liege.
when our men charged. many OF the
Germans turned and ran terror-stricken.
! Hundreds of them were struck with
lances and bayonets In the back as they
ran. of my own charge only know
that my lance was broken as stack II
into some German"