The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-09-26
SMELLING OF LIEGE
FROM GERMAN SOURCE
Forts Soon Surrendered and Wren Ger
man Troops Entered The City They
Were Fired On From Houses.

Berlin, Sept. 26.-The following de-
scription of the devastation at Liege and
Namur are translated from accounts in
the Tageblatt.
"We reached Eiege on the evening OF
stormy day. We travelled through
streets where the smoke of burned hauses
was still curling upward streets that
showed no signs of life. Patrols march
ed through the city. The beautiful
shops across from the university were
field of ruins. I was told that two
nights before, on August Il, shots came
from these shops as If by prearrange-
ment. The inhabitants of the houses
were dragged out, the women were torn
| from the men, and whoever had wea-
pom in his hands was shot. In few
minutes the street was sown with
corpses. The houses were set on fire.
eve witnesses described for me the
details of the conquest of Liege. Loucin,
the strongest fort, was bombarded by
the newest Krupp guns, which were
stationed in the market places, in the
middle of the city, Every window pane
in the vicinity was broken by the con-
cussion, and pieces of roof fell from
some of the houses. The fort soon sur
rendered. A division Of Jaeger were first
to enter the fort. The destruction was
terrible. About 400 corpses lay piled
inside the stone walls. The stencil was
unbearable. About 200 wounded were
counted. The only man uninjured was
the commandment A wounded man, who
evidently was about to be operated on,
Law in the lazarett. He had been killed
by she'll Liege had altogether thirteen
forts. Nine were taken by infantry
storm, the Others were reduced by ar
tillery The forts are being repaired
for German use by the inhabitants of
the city, who get sis francs day for
their work.
"A German, who had lain in a Belgian
! fort as prisoner and witnessed the whole
bombardment described the course Of
the battle. The bombaTdment, he said,
began at midnight on August 6. One
shell after another exploded, and Diege
was soon afre in many places. From
every roof and window in the houses
came a rain of bullets. Under this fire
the Germans stormed through the viii
lage of Roneourt and deployed in a
wheat field Two hundred Germans open
ed rapid fire on 1000 Belgians, of whom
500 fell. Nineteen German prisoners were
confined in a cellar when the Germans
heavy artillery began firing. They could
hear the shells coming through the air,
and every time they exploded, gas, pow
der, earth and cement dust flew into the
cellar until the men were nearly suffo-
Gated Finally an explosion blew In the
iron door Of the cellar, and shortly aft
erwards there the Belgians surrendered,
freeing the prisoners.
''On the following morning, | went to
Namur. In Liege certain streets had
been burned out, but in Namur whole
blocks were destroyed The grand pal
ace, with its beautiful Rathaus, had
been blotted out of existence In its
place were heaps of ruins, from which
smoke was still coming. The destruc-
tive effect of grenades could be noted on
many houses. The city was without
bread. German patrols were guarding
the bakeries, which were being stormed
by the people. BY o'clock in the after
noon, even the largest hotels had no
provisions of any kind left Our troops
were fed from the vast quantities of
food stored in the forts In the city
there was a shortage of everything, es-
pecially potatoes and salt.
I'm the afternoon we went on to Gem
bloux The famine was still worse there.
The soldiers declared that they had been
unable to get bread or beer from the
people for fourteen days"