Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-08-13
Losses Suffered by Kaiser's
Army in Belgium Are
Placed at $4,000.
FRENCH ARMY IN BELGIUM

Brussels, Aug. 8.-Of1cial announce
ments made at the ministry Of war
say the Germans admit their casual
ties in the attack On Liege numbered
$4,000 A large section Of Liege has
been captured by the Germans, but
the forts are still holding out.
The Germans have asked for an
armistice Of twenty-four hours for the
purpose OF picking up their dead and
wounded Lieut. Gen. Leman, COVER
nor Of Liege, has not replied to the
request.
It was officially stated that the Ger
mans had $4,000 men before Liege on
Wednesday and that in all probability
this number had been augmented
since that time.
Army Of France in Belgium.
The French army advancing to the
relief of Liege is in Belgium.
1t is announced here that the French
army has effected a junction with the
Belgian army at Journal, a point
thIrty-fve miles west of Liege. From
now on it is expected that the Belgian
and French armies will operate to-
gether. England also is now expected
to send an army to Belgium's aid and
the attempted invasion Of the German
forces will be met by a very strong al
lied army.
LIE PeupIe says the bombardment of
Liege had caused six or seven fires in
the city up to Z o'clock last evening.
Martial law has been proclaimed
throughout Belgium.
The heaviest firing occurred yester-
day afternoon. German officers then
came to the city with a white flag and
demanded the surrender of the place.
They received a negative reply and
the bombardment was resumed at
o'clock.
Gunners Stick at Posts.
Meanwhile the desperate conflict
has been waged by day in brilliant
sunshine and at night in clear moon
light except when a sharp thunder
storm seemed temporarily to halt the
attackers. The gunners at the forts,
stripped to the waist refused to leave
their posts and hurriedly ate and
drank their food standing by their
guns.
The higher ground around the city
is shrouded in smoke, which lies high
and still in the MINDLESS air. Corn
in the fields which spread over a wide
area along the frontier is trampled or
burned and the fields are strewn with
Corpses of men and horses.
Civilians Shot Down.
Many villages have been burned or
wrecked. All the civilians in these
towns who we're caught carrying arms
were shot down summarily.
A doctor wearing the emblem of the
Red Cross who was caring for the
dead on the battlefield outside Liege
when threatened by Germans drew his
revolver and was Immediately shot
dead,
a son of the German general Count
Won Ardim, 10 years old, who was
wounded at Liege. died here today.
Another son arrived at his bedside
too late.
The people here are helping to the
utmost, opening their houses as hos
pitfalls. Many of the large stores are
filled with beds and red crosses are
painted on the doors.
Belgian Soldiers Confident.
The Belgian troops appeared to be
in the best of spirits when the train
left Liege. They declared that if
there had not been ten Germans to
one Belgian not one German would
have got through their lines. The Bel.
CLANS are exhausted, however, having
fought for fifty hours without rest.
Some of the wounded Belgians, eye
witnesses of the fighting, say they saw
Germans moved down by hundreds in
front of the trenches and entangle
ments by the gun and rife fire OF the
Belgians, but that they were replaced
BY others who crawled forward like
weaze'e In certain places in the
fighting zone the ground was covered
with dead.
Rout Germans in First Battle.
Brussels, Aug. German troops
were defeated and several Thousand
German soldiers killed in the first i'm
portant engagement of the European
war fought yesterday at Liege, Bel
gium, where the Belgians completed!
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